By William White, F.S.A.

These windows were called by Parker and other writers of the Gothic Revival, “Lychnoscopes;” and then by the ecclesiologists, “Low-side Windows.” But the name given by the late G.E. Street has now become so generally accepted that it seems necessary to look a little further into the evidence of the fitness or unfitness of this designation for them.

Behind some stalls in the Royal Chapel were discovered some remains of a mural painting, apparently to represent the communicating of a leper through some such window, and he at once concluded that it was for this very purpose so many of them were introduced into the chancels of our mediÆval churches. There seemed, however, nothing to indicate that it was at one of these special windows at all that this function was performed. And the very fact of the representation itself would seem to indicate rather an exceptional instance, or special circumstance, such as the communicating of some knight or [p 184] person of note who might, for instance, have brought leprosy in his own person from the Holy Land, from whence probably in the first instance it came; and who would not be admitted within the church. But the records of the existence of lepers would seem to show their numbers to have been very limited, and confined to few localities. And in any case this would be no sufficient cause for the introduction of these windows as of universal occurrence throughout the land, for these windows are found almost everywhere, and in very many instances on both sides of the chancel. Moreover, in many cases the act of administration through these windows would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, on account of the position, or the arrangement, of the window itself.

To my mind a very much more practical and reasonable supposition would be that they were introduced, and used, for burial purposes. At a period when the body would not be brought into the church, except in the case of some ecclesiastic or other notable person, the priest would here be able, from his stall, to see the funeral cortÉge come into the churchyard, and then say the first part of the office through this window; which was always shuttered and without [p 185] glass. In some cases there is a book-ledge corbelled out on the east jamb of the window inside, which has puzzled antiquaries, but which has not otherwise received a satisfactory explanation. In immediate proximity to the window, at the end of the stalls (and sometimes in the earlier churches through them), was the priest’s door, out of which he would then proceed to the grave to commit the body to the earth. The grave itself needs not necessarily be within sight of the window. But in a number of instances the churchyard cross was so; and this may have served as the recognised place for the mourners, with the body, to assemble.

In the case of Foxton, Leicestershire, the “Lych Window,” as I would call it, is on the north side. Here the burials are chiefly on the north side; a steep slope down towards the church on the south side rendering it very difficult and unsuitable for them. At Addisham, Kent, the priest’s door is, contrary to the usual custom, on the north side, where is also a principal portion of the churchyard, and, so far as my own observations go, the position of the window would greatly depend upon the arrangement of the churchyard, whether north or south.