ST PETER AND ST PAUL. The most interesting part of the church is the chancel. It is higher than the nave, and has a proud seven-light E window and high three-light side windows with reticulated tracery such as also appears prominently in the E window. The priest’s doorway is well moulded, and the SEDILIA and PISCINA have an even row of ogee arches. Now this chancel was built by William of Longthorne, whose brass - now only the indent - is in the middle of the floor, and he was rector from 1345 till 1352. The lettering on the tomb-slab incidentally is still Lombardic. So here is a dated piece of the mature Dec. The W tower cannot have been started much later. The W doorway is also still Dec. To it belong the two fragmentary windows to S and N cancelled when the mason of the Perp church decided upon aisles to embrace the tower. The head corbels of these new S and N arches look C13, but they must be re-used. The church is of rubble and brown cobbles. The ashlar spire with low broaches is Perp. Two tiers of lucarnes in alternating directions. Perp aisles and clerestory, Perp arcades of three wide bays, the piers with four polygonal projections and four diagonal hollows. Tower arch and chancel arch more or less match, though the bases of the chancel arch are E.E. As early. as this is the S porch entrance, re-set no doubt. This has dogtooth and an almond-shaped recess above. - PULPIT. With linenfold panels of the early C16. - PLATE. Silver-gilt Cup of 1619-20. - MONUMENTS. For William of Longthorne see above. - Lancelot Brown d. 1783, i.e. Capability Brown, the celebrated garden designer. He was Lord of the Manor. The monument is a flat tomb-chest on steps with a back plate with modest Gothic detail. The inscription reads:
Ye Sons of Elegance, who truly taste
The Simple charms that genuine Art supplies,
Come from the sylvan Scenes His Genius grac’d,
And offer here your tributory Sigh’s.
But know that more than Genius slumbers here;
Virtues were his which Arts best powers transcend.
Come, ye Superior train, who these revere
And weep the Christian, Husband, Father, Friend.
- Mrs Brown, by Coade, 1793, i.e. made of Coade stone, and apparently designed by Bacon. Mourning woman by an urn on a pedestal. The pretty corbel is of Coade stone too.
FENSTANTON. It is on the Roman Road from Cambridge to Godmanchester, with the Fens about. Its houses have become good friends of time, and there is a quaint old lock-up of the 18th century which has now become a friendly place with a white bell turret, a clock, and a seat for weary travellers. The noble church tower with its spire has been a landmark 600 years, and in the churchyard is a fragment of a cross which has kept it company all the time. The view of the south wall is delightful, with the 15th century clerestory windows, the 16th century aisle windows, and the noble tower and spire soaring over all.
The tower has a lofty 15th century arch leading to the nave, but its side arches are 200 years older. There is a spacious porch as old as the tower, and a medieval nave roof with carvings and 18 old stone faces on the corbels. The lectern has old oak panels with good tracery. The pulpit in which Thomas Bourdillon preached for 52 years last century is 400 years old. In the Tudor roof of the north aisle are eight feathered angels holding crowns, lutes, and shields, with eight smaller figures.
But the glory of the village is the 14th century chancel, a spacious and lovely place, with a tremendous east window famous for its seven lancets and its graceful tracery. On one of the buttresses is an old mass dial. Here lies the man who built the chancel, William Longthome, rector a year or two before Crecy; there is a slab with his figure carved on it.
Long after his day another lover of beauty died in this village. He was Lancelot Brown, - always known as Capability Brown. His 17th century manor house is still here, said to have been given to him by the Earl of Northampton in gratitude for the wonderful gardens he laid out at Castle Ashby. His only monument here is a tablet, but it has eight lines that are a worthy tribute:
Ye sons of elegance who truly taste
The sample charms that genuine art supplies,
Come from the Sylvan scenes his genius graced
And ofler here your tributary sighs.
But know that more than genius slumbers here;
Virtues were his which art’s best powers transcend.
Come, ye superior train who these revere,
And weep the Christian husband, father, friend
.
In this country of great and beautiful gardens Capability Brown must be long remembered. Born at Kirkdale, Northumberland, in 1715, he started work as a gardener there in Lorraine Park. Ambition drove him south, where he found a footing in the kitchen garden of Lord Cobham at Stow. Here his talent flowered, and the man with the hoe was found to be a man with the eye of an artist. He had the faculty of seeing how an English landscape should be draped and dressed. He struck remorselessly at the prim geometrical scheme of gardening then in vogue, and made his trees and shrubs and plants fit in with and enhance the natural charm of a situation.
“The capability of the site” was his constantly recurring phrase as new undertakings were presented to him, and so Capability Brown he became in all men’s mouths. It was soon possible for him to set up independently as a landscape gardener, and he was in general request among the owners of parks and fine gardens.
Kew, Newnham Courtenay, and Blenheim were among the triumphs of his genius. Like Paxton, he was an architect too. He knew how to design a supremely comfortable and attractive -home, and from the time he was 36, when he began his second venture by building the church and dwelling for Lord Coventry at Croome, he was as active with schemes for architecture as in harmonising artificial cultivation with the natural configuration of landscapes. He made great gardens, let us say, as an artist makes pictures.
He was rewarded with a considerable fortune, was High Sheriff of Huntingdonshire, and died here in 1783.
The tower has a lofty 15th century arch leading to the nave, but its side arches are 200 years older. There is a spacious porch as old as the tower, and a medieval nave roof with carvings and 18 old stone faces on the corbels. The lectern has old oak panels with good tracery. The pulpit in which Thomas Bourdillon preached for 52 years last century is 400 years old. In the Tudor roof of the north aisle are eight feathered angels holding crowns, lutes, and shields, with eight smaller figures.
But the glory of the village is the 14th century chancel, a spacious and lovely place, with a tremendous east window famous for its seven lancets and its graceful tracery. On one of the buttresses is an old mass dial. Here lies the man who built the chancel, William Longthome, rector a year or two before Crecy; there is a slab with his figure carved on it.
Long after his day another lover of beauty died in this village. He was Lancelot Brown, - always known as Capability Brown. His 17th century manor house is still here, said to have been given to him by the Earl of Northampton in gratitude for the wonderful gardens he laid out at Castle Ashby. His only monument here is a tablet, but it has eight lines that are a worthy tribute:
Ye sons of elegance who truly taste
The sample charms that genuine art supplies,
Come from the Sylvan scenes his genius graced
And ofler here your tributary sighs.
But know that more than genius slumbers here;
Virtues were his which art’s best powers transcend.
Come, ye superior train who these revere,
And weep the Christian husband, father, friend
.
In this country of great and beautiful gardens Capability Brown must be long remembered. Born at Kirkdale, Northumberland, in 1715, he started work as a gardener there in Lorraine Park. Ambition drove him south, where he found a footing in the kitchen garden of Lord Cobham at Stow. Here his talent flowered, and the man with the hoe was found to be a man with the eye of an artist. He had the faculty of seeing how an English landscape should be draped and dressed. He struck remorselessly at the prim geometrical scheme of gardening then in vogue, and made his trees and shrubs and plants fit in with and enhance the natural charm of a situation.
“The capability of the site” was his constantly recurring phrase as new undertakings were presented to him, and so Capability Brown he became in all men’s mouths. It was soon possible for him to set up independently as a landscape gardener, and he was in general request among the owners of parks and fine gardens.
Kew, Newnham Courtenay, and Blenheim were among the triumphs of his genius. Like Paxton, he was an architect too. He knew how to design a supremely comfortable and attractive -home, and from the time he was 36, when he began his second venture by building the church and dwelling for Lord Coventry at Croome, he was as active with schemes for architecture as in harmonising artificial cultivation with the natural configuration of landscapes. He made great gardens, let us say, as an artist makes pictures.
He was rewarded with a considerable fortune, was High Sheriff of Huntingdonshire, and died here in 1783.
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