Notes on the Medieval Chantry College at Cobham

NOTES ON THE MEDIEVAL CHANTRY COLLEGE AT COBHAM By P. J. TESTER, F.S.A. IT is commonly recognized that the almshouses which he on the south side of Cobham church occupy the site of the coUege founded in the fourteenth century by Sir John de Cobham for a community of chantry priests, and that certam ruins near by are remains of the medieval estabhshment. Although a fairly extensive hterature has grown up on the history of the coUege,1 Uttle has been done to show how far the almshouses coincide with the earher priests' dweUings or explain their relationship to the adjoining ruins. Our member, Colonel E. T. L. Baker, O.B.E., Clerk to the Presidents of the New CoUege, indicated to the present writer several years ago that an enquiry to settle these problems, involving a certain amount of necessary excavation, would be welcomed. Accordingly, in the spring and summer of 1962, exactly six centuries from the foundation of the Old CoUege, a number of holes were dug at points where a previous scrutiny of the standing remains had suggested that buried footings might be encountered. In this work of excavation I was ably assisted by two of our members, Mr. A. C. Harrison and Mr. H. A. James. The results have been gratifying and the evidence obtained has helped to resolve former uncertainties and correct misconceptions. Much is stUl open to speculation and must in the nature of things remain so, as the area avaUable for excavation on a site hke this, permanently occupied by aged pensioners who are understandably concerned for the amenity of their home, has been hmited by considerations which need not be further described. In particular, the tranquilhty of the turfed quadrangle has been respected as much as possible and only the smaUest amount of excavation has been attempted in this area. HISTORY OE THE COLLEGE Before going further it is necessary to summarize briefly the Icnown history of the site. FuUer accounts of the church and coUege have appeared elsewhere and it is not intended to repeat here more than is strictly relevant to the present enquiry. 1 Arch. Cant., xi, xxvii, and xliii. .Also, Victoria County History (Kent), Vol. 2, 231. 109 NOTES ON THE MEDIEVAL CHANTRY COLLEGE AT COBHAM The chantry founded in 1362 comprised a master and four chaplains whose duty it was to maintain the services of the church and pray for the founder and his family. Documentary records of the coUege buUding are not known, except for a licence of 1370 giving permission for it to stand on part of the churchyard south of the church.2 The number of priests was eventuaUy increased to eleven, and the college was finally dissolved in the reign of Henry VIII. Thereafter the buildings feU into dilapidation untU 1596-7 when Sir WUham Brooke left instructions in his wih for them to be 're-edified' into twenty smaU dweUings for the relief of the poor. Thus the 'New CoUege' of Cobham came into existence, and it continues its charitable function at the present time. The Elizabethan buhders were apparently at pains to make their work match the older features which they retained as part of the New CoUege, even, it seems, to the extent of copying simple medieval doorways. They used flint and ragstone on the same lines as their fourteenthcentury predecessors and it is hkely that they obtained much of it from demohshed parts of the Old CoUege. This accounts for the present harmonious appearance of the whole structure, and has also tended to obscure the fact that it is the result of two distinct phases of construction separated by over two centuries. REMAINS OF THE OLD COLLEGE The Quadrangle. The south side of the quadrangle is formed by a range of buUdings containing the medieval hall with its open timber roof, traceried windows and other features which put its age beyond reasonable doubt. This, with its extension at each end, forms the most obvious survival of the medieval coUege and was incorporated into the New CoUege with slight adaption. .Along the north waU of this range there is a marked set-off, 9 ft. above the ground, suggesting that the roof of a lean-to structure once flanked this side. To test this, three cuttings were made in the lawn and revealed, just under the turf, a footing of flint and ragstone, 1 ft. 3 in. thick, runnmg paraUel to the haU and apparently forming one side of a pentice, or covered walk, 8 ft. 8 in. wide internaUy. Some pieces of glazed floor-tUes were found stUl in position close against the inside of the pentice waU.3 An examination of the north side of the haU range shows other significant features. At either end there are signs of disturbance or renewal of the rubble-work, suggesting that originaUy the east and 2 Arch. Cant., xxvii, 99. 8 Each tile was originally Ify in. square and 1 in. thick, with slightly bevelled edges. They are not decorated with patterns and are of two types, one being brown with a smudge of yellow slip, and the other dark green. Both types are glazed on the upper face, and it is likely that the light and dark tiles were laid ohequer-wise in the pentice floor. 110 COBHAM COLLEGE MEDIEVAL REMAINS IN RELATION TO CHURCH & ALMSHOUSES medieval window fireplace BUTTERY blocked KITCHEN blocked door PASSAGE fireplace corbel H A L L bracket site of hearth SOUTH COURT ruined wall blocked door WALLS W/////////A II.':>.V.'::A'",J::;-J FOOTINGS j LATER WORK PRE-REFORMATION \ \ \ X SCALE OF FEET P.J Tester 1962. EIG. 1. NOTES ON THE MEDIEVAL CHANTRY COLLEGE AT COBHAM west ranges, represented by the present almshouses, were about 6 ft. wider than now, and the north side of the haU range was once covered to this extent at each end by the abutment of the adjoining buUdings. A weathered string-course runs below the ciU of an unaltered two-hght Perpendicular window and terminates a httle over 6 ft. from the almshouses on the east side. Close examination shows that it bears slight indications of having once returned along the face of a waU running paraUel to the almshouses and about 6 ft. in front of them. This was corifirmed by a smaU excavation which revealed, 1 ft. 6 in. below the turf, a substantial flint footing exactly in the estimated position. Only its west face could be uncovered as the other side lay under a flagged pathway in constant use by the almshouse inmates. On the west side of the quadrangle a further cutting brought to hght a simUar footing, 3 ft. thick, extending from 10 in. to 2 ft. 10 in. below the surface, and in the same relative position to the almshouses as that on the east, together with a projection representing the remams of a buttress. At the junction of the footing with the pentice there was an irregular projection marking the site of another buttress set in the angle of the two waUs. One is thus led to the conclusion that Brooke's re-edifying of the Old College involved talcing down the inner waUs of the east and west ranges and setting them back about 6 ft. on each side of the enclosure. Whether there was a north range in medieval times is uncertain, but I am inclined to beheve that there was not, and that the quadrangle was closed on that side simply by the waU now forming the northern Umit of the New CoUege.4 A difficulty arises in regard to the siting of the north door of the haU, which remains in its original condition. From normal medieval practice one would expect the haU entrance to be directly accessible from the quadrangle and not to he within the area covered by the adjoining east range. A reasonable solution is that a cross passage, forming a functional continuation of the pentice, was carried through the east range to give access to the haU door, an arrangement possibly reflected in the way part of the almshouse frontage was set back at ground level in the Elizabethan rebuUding for the same purpose. Processional Way and Adjoining Buildings. According to the terms of the licence of 1370, the parishioners were to have a right of way through the college buildings so that their liturgical processions might pass uninterrupted round the south side of the church.5 Previous writers on Cobham CoUege have recognized correctly that the aUey running east-west between the south waU of the church and the north side of the ooUege represents this processional way. Several other features * 4 The possibility that a pentice flanked this wall is discussed below. 5 Arch. Cant., xxvii, 09. I l l NOTES ON THE MEDIEVAL CHANTRY COLLEGE AT COBHAM in the area are important for an understanding of the medieval layout. Attached to the south waU of the church, towards its west end, are two ruined waUs that are clearly former extensions of the west range of the Old CoUege. The processional way passed through two arched openings placed opposite each other in the ground floor while the upper storey continued up to the church where it is observable that the stringcourse of the parapet stops on either side of the hne of this junction.6 The outer (western) opening is evidenced by its rebated jamb stiU remaming at the extreme north-west corner of the New CoUege, and our digging revealed the rusted remams of an iron hinge-pin in situ, indicating that the arch was closed by doors. A few yards eastward, immediately beside the entrance leading to the quadrangle, can be clearly discerned in the flint rubble of the coUege waU the junction of the spandrel of the destroyed arch which pierced the inner waU represented by the other ruined fragment. The processional way passed through the eastern range in simUar manner, the outer (eastern) arch with its hinge-pins for double doors still remaining intact,7 while the springer of the inner arch survives in the north waU of the coUege. Most of the area between this point and the chancel is now occupied by modern burials but we were able to do enough digging to trace the south-west corner of a building that stood in this position.8 It was seemingly flanked on its west side by a passage entered at its south end through a doorway, the step and one rebated jamb (with hinge-pin) of which we uncovered. So far as could be judged, this passage aligned with the blocked south door in the chancel and was the route by which the church was entered from the eastern range of the coUege. At a point marked on the accompanying plan there remains a corbel on the coUege waU which could have supported the roof of the passage if it was continued across the line of the processional way. Further eastward in this waU there are signs of a blocked opening, the upper part of which has recently been re-opened to form a window. Our digging showed that its jambs go down weU below present ground level, and the inference is that there was once a doorway here. Some of the chancel windows must have been partly masked by the adjoining building, as one of the corbels relating to its roof can be seen on the outside of the chancel waU between the thirteenth-century lancets. The building was presumably entered by a door in its west waU opening into the passage. 6 The window which now occurs in the south aisle between the two ruined walls was inserted during the restoration just over a century ago. 7 Illustrated in Arch. Cant., xliii, and Plate IA herewith. 8 Permission for this digging was kindly given by the Vicar of Cobham, the Rev. A. Clarke, M.A. 112 NOTES ON THE MEDIEVAL CHANTRY COLLEGE AT COBHAM Communication Between Church and College. There are two blocked doorways in the south side of the church once communicating with the coUege. If we assume that the present north-west entrance to the coUege marks an opening of pre-Reformation origin, despite its later alteration,9 it would have been possible to pass from the west range into the church by way of the door in the south aisle. To the east, the blocked opening previously mentioned would have led from the eastern range into the covered portion of the processional way and thence along the passage and up steps (necessitated by change in level) to the south door of the chancel. It is interestmg to observe that communication between church and coUege could be obtained by both these routes without the necessity of passing from under cover in bad weather. A cobbled surface was found to exist below the turf at several points between the church and coUege, and it is probable that the whole of the open area was once paved in this manner. There is no evidence that the central part of the processional way, between the two ranges, was ever covered, and a medieval scratch-dial occurring on the face of the buttress at the south-east corner of the aisle is fairly conclusive indication to the contrary. The South Court. South of the haU and paraUel to it, there exist considerable remains of a ruined buUding. To the west there is a waU ahgning with the west side of the coUege, and excavation showed that a similar waU existed to the east, thus forming an outer courtyard. The ruined building possessed two wide fireplaces facing each other,10 the one to the west being poorly preserved, though a cutting through its hearth showed indications of burning and wood ash. A doorway existed between this fireplace and the south waU, and the buUding was divided into two apartments, the eastern being almost certainly a kitchen. Both rooms had doorways in the north waU. The round-headed opening in the south side of the kitchen is of late-sixteenth-century origin and has extensive brickwork in its splayed jambs and rere-arch.11 Over it is the inscription recording the completion of the New CoUege in 1598, to which date the inscription and the arch below it presumably belong. Probably this building was repaired to serve some purpose in the New CoUege, as it is difficult to believe that Brooke's executors erected the inscription over a newly constructed arch leading into a derelict structure when it could have been more appropriately fixed to some part of the actual almshouses. Just under the turf which now covers the kitchen floor there is a brick pavement most likely dating from this Elizabethan restoration. By Thorpe's time (c. 1777) the place was 0 This is suggested by the way in which a short length of the almshouse wall is set back slightly as though to align with one side of an already existing opening. 10 The eastern fireplace is shown in Arch. Cant., xxvii, facing p. 64. 11 This is also shown in the photograph referred to in the last note. 113 8 NOTES ON THE MEDIEVAL CHANTRY COLLEGE AT COBHAM certainly in ruins and he concluded that it had formed part of the Old CoUege.12 On the north side there was an adjoining structure, its northern footing having been traced in a sewer trench dug a few years ago, and the line of the waU as shown on the plan is based on information supphed by those who saw the trench opened. We found the apparent junction of its return waU with the main buUding, and in its south-east corner a circular foundation probably related to a newel stair which seems to have been of timber as no trace of stone steps is observable in the standing portion of the feature at the north-east angle of the kitchen.13 Further excavation in this area was prevented by the presence of the road now covering much of the south court. Cuttings were made to reveal the junction of the footings of the east and west waUs of the court with the south waU of the existing coUege, and it was found in both cases that the flint rubble of the former did not bond into the ashlar facing of the haU range, suggesting that the south court was a secondary feature of the medieval layout. Supporting buttresses along the south side of the enclosure were necessitated by the slope of the ground which drops away sharply along this hne. A stone-lined drain was found piercing the waU just beyond the west end of the buUding and seems to have discharged on to this slope (Plate IIB). USE OF THE MEDIEVAL BUILDINGS In trying to reconstruct how the medieval buUdings were used and occupied, it is essential to appreciate that a late-medieval community of chantry priests did not live according to a formal monastic rule, and the various parts of their estabhshment would not conform in detail to the layout of houses of the regular orders. An instance of this at Cobham is the fact that the 'low' or service end of the haU, with its opposite doorways, is to the east, whereas the equivalent feature of a monastic refectory was most frequently to the west, adjoining the ceUarer's range on that side of the cloister. Chantry coUeges show no uniformity of planning but certain characteristics are sufficiently consistent to act as a guide in interpreting the Cobham remains. It was usual for the master to have separate lodgings from those of the chaplains, and there was generaUy a communal haU with its buttery and kitchen, the last often forming a detached structure in medieval houses both ecclesiastical and secular. The master's lodgings at Cobham might have been in the part adjoining the west end of the haU, where 12 John Thorpe, in J. Nichols' Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, quoted in Arch. Cant., xxvii, 73. 13 The possibility that this circular feature was an oven has been considered, but there was no lining of brick, tiles or clay, and no ash or marks of burning. 114 NOTES ON THE MEDIEVAL CHANTRY COLLEGE AT COBHAM they would have occupied a position analogous to the parlour and solar in a secular house. In this case one would expect to find traces of a door leading to these apartments from behind the dais at the high end of the haU, but there is no sign of this. I would suggest that more probably the master hved in part of the east range of the quadrangle, and that the door in the north end of this buUding with the covered way leading to the chancel were for his use. In the east waU of this range there is an unrestored, partly-blocked Perpendicular window of three hghts with cusped heads, and holes for the attachment of an external griUe (Plate IB). This window, the position of which is indicated in the plan, must have some special significance as aU the other windows in the coUege, except three in the haU, are simple rectangular loops where they have not undergone enlargement in post-Reformation times. It might have formed the east window of a chapel, but the former existence of the griUe suggests otherwise, as this form of protection was usuaUy provided where the window was originaUy unglazed. Assuming, however, that the master's haU or parlour was located in this part of the range, the reason for the large window becomes apparent, as suited to the dignity of such an apartment. From this we may infer that the chaplains occupied the west range, having their own entrance to the church and a pentice to enable them to reach the haU door under cover. Most likely they had separate rooms on the ground floor and sleeping quarters above, the former being connected by a passage on the side next the quadrangle. This passage would have been contained within the width of the range and did not form a lean-to pentice, as indicated by the projecting buttress found in our excavation. Some supporting evidence for there having been such a communicating passage is in the siting of the door at the north end. The use of the buUding attached to the south side of the chancel is uncertain. I t may have been the chapter house referred to in a document of 1389, sealed by the master and feUows of Cobham CoUege in domo nostra capitulari dicti collegii.u -Alternatively its position is suitable for a sacristy such as would be needed to accommodate the large quantity of vestments and other church goods Usted in an inventory of 1479.16 As in some other early coUeges, there was no accentuated entrance. The great gateways one associates with the entrance to coUege quadrangles are mainly fifteenth-century or later. At Cambridge, Corpus Christi and Peterhouse were both 'originaUy approached through gateways below the gaUeries connecting coUege and adjacent church and these seemingly important, if not the main entrances, are entirely » Reg. Roff., 234-9. 15 Reproduced in Arch. Cant., xliii, 147-66. 115 NOTES ON THE MEDIEVA^L CHANTRY COLLEGE AT COBHAM simple'.16 At Cobham it would appear that the main entrances were the gateways at each end of the processional way, and that there was no direct opening into the quadrangle which could only be entered from the buUdings forming its south, east and west sides. The south court may have had a separate entrance, and this could only have been on the east as the present gaps in the other sides are merely breaks in the ruined waUs and are not indicative of original openings. On the west waU the rectangular projection bears a superficial resemblance to a garderobe. In the hope of estabhshing this we made a deep cutting against its face in search of an opening hke that at Old Soar, Plaxtol. No trace of this was found, however, and the identification of the feature as a garderobe is therefore only tentative.17 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES Despite opinion to the contrary, there is evidence that the medieval haU may once have possessed the customary open hearth, before the insertion of the hooded fireplace in the north waU. Beneath the wooden floor is a ceUar where stands a large masonry pier which could have supported a hearth in the apartment above, and its siting towards the high end of the haU would be appropriate for this purpose.18 The fireplace previously mentioned19 has the saltire and scaUop sheU of the See of Rochester carved on a shield in one spandrel, suggesting that it was put in while the coUege was stUl an ecclesiastical institution, and it is significant that the chimney avoids any marked external projection which would have encroached on the medieval pentice. In the south waU opposite there is a bracket in the form of a bearded head supporting an embattled shelf. Into its upper surface is bedded an iron socket for holding a candle or taper, and there are holes where two other sockets were once located. In some chantry coUeges the monastic custom was observed of reading during meals20 and it is possible that this Ughtbracket was related to a pulpit or lectern which stood below. The door at the east end is in the position customarily occupied by an opening communicating with the buttery in medieval establishments of this type. In the south waU of the haU range, just inside the south-west entrance to the quadrangle, there remams part of the stone frame of a 16 Royal Commission on Historical Monuments. City of Cambridge, I (1959), lxxvii. 17 We observed that the ashlar facing, which covers the outside of the college, went down at this point 7 ft. to the footings. This indicates that it is not a facing applied to the walls at a later date, as might be thought possible. 18 Cf. the position of the hearth in the Joyden's Wood hall. Arch. Cant., lxxii, 20-21. 10 Figured in Arch. Cant., xviii, 447. 50 This custom was observed at Wye (Kent), Cotterstook and Eotheringhay (Northants). See G. H. Cook, English Collegiate Churches of the Middle Ages (1969), 4, 117 and 143. 116 NOTES ON THE MEDIEVAL CHANTRY COLLEGE AT COBHAM doorway which must have been set in a cross waU running north-south paraUel to the almshouses but shghtly in front of them. Near this point the irregular junction of the medieval and Ehzabethan work is very obvious. Consideration has been given to the possibUity that the quadrangle originaUy had covered walks on aU four sides, hke a cloister, although it is impossible to draw any certain conclusion from the avaUable evidence. At Aylesford Priory the cloister aUeys on two sides are incorporated in the lower storeys of the south and west ranges whUe the other sides had pentices in the more usual way.21 Something simUar may have existed at Cobham, where the medieval east and west ranges might have contained narrow cloister aUeys in their ground storeys, with a pentice on the north (in place of the present almshouses) matching that on the south.22 Aymer VaUance considered that the two-centred arches of the almshouse doorways are indicative of their medieval age,23 but in the hght of present evidence one can only assume that they are late sixteenth-century copies of doorways in the older buUdings. In any case, the waUs in which they stand are later than the accepted earhest parts of the college as they are not bonded into them at their points of junction. At the south-east corner of the quadrangle the depressed arch carrying the upper part of the almshouse waU over the short passage to the haU door is made to spring on one side from the apex of the medieval opening in an awkward manner indicating that the arch itself is not part of the original fourteenth-century construction. Three simUar arches give access to passages in the other corners of the quadrangle. The passage to the north-east is now enclosed to form part, of the almshouses and although DoUman showed a blocked doorway at its north end in his plan of 186124 he was apparently misled by traces of the abutment of the destroyed arch across the processional way. I am confident that there was never an opening here and the passage was simply intended to give access from the quadrangle to the doors of the almshouses flanking it. Some remarks by Thorpe in the eighteenth century may have contributed to DoUman's error, for he wrote: 'Between the north side of the CoUege and the south side of the Church remams part of the north cloister, and the doorway from it into the Church is stiU visible by the fair mouldings, though it is now stopped up.'25 The 'north 31 Arch. Cant., lxiii, 50. 22 It is perhaps more than coincidence that such a reconstruction results in the enolosed area being almost exactly square. 23 Arch. Cant., xliii, 147. 24 E. T. Dollman and J. R. Jobbins, Examples of Ancient Domestic Architecture, I (1861). The plan is reproduced in W. H. Godfrey's The English Almshouse (1955), 51. 26 Quoted in Arch. Cant., xxvii, 73. 117 NOTES ON THE MEDIEVAL CHANTRY COLLEGE AT COBHAM cloister' is obviously the processional way and in my opinion the door with 'fair mouldings' is that in the south waU of the chancel, with decorative treatment on its inner side to fit the description. The passage traced by our excavation may have been represented by standing remains in Thorpe's time and have been included in his reference to the 'north cloister'. It is thus possible to interpret his description without placing the door in the actual waU of the coUege as DoUman has done. Another controversial feature is the 'night stair' in the south-east corner of the chancel, reached—so it has been claimed—by an overhead bridge from the sleeping apartments of the chaplains.26 An examination of the stair convinces me that it never communicated with the coUege. It is entered from the chancel at floor level and comes out on the north face of the south waU 6 | ft. above, and WaUer's theory that it was designed to give access to the top of a reredos is almost certainly correct.27 Aymer VaUance's objection that such a screen would block the east window does not apply as the citt of the latter is 9 | ft. above the floor. Therefore, if we assume that a gaUery ran behind the upper part of the reredos, level with the opening of the stair (6A| ft. from the floor), and add a further 3 ft. for a parapet along the front, the whole feature would not rise high enough to mask any part of the window behind the altar. The further assertion that the location of the stair would necessitate an unhkely arrangement for the reredos, close against the east wall, takes no account of the fact that the upper opening from the stair is situated so as to leave at least 6 ft. between the back of the reredos and the end of the chancel. Doors through the reredos on both sides of the altar would have given access to the space behind it and also the foot of the stair by which the sacristan ascended to attend to the hghts mounted on the parapet or suspended above.28 At Arundel the high altar of the coUegiate church stands against a stone screen some distance from the east waU, the space behind serving as a sacristy. Judging from the sculptured fragments found in 1860, the Cobham reredos was an elaborate affair29 with detaUs simUar to the sedUia and piscina stUl remaining and with which it probably formed a continuous structure. In the course of our digging outside the chancel we found several pieces of carved stone with gUding and pamted decoration, and these may have come from the destroyed reredos. In the same situation 28 Arch. Cant., xliii, 136. 27 Arch. Cant., xi, 51. His suggestion, however, that mortices in the roof-beam above are related to this gallery is unacceptable. 28 Francis Bond observes in The Chancel of English Churches (1916) that almost invariably detached reredoses (i.e. those standing forward of the east wall) have two side doors, either to allow the altar to be censed all round, as required by the Sarum use, or to give access to a chamber behind the altar where the elements were prepared during Mass. 29 These fragments are now kept in the vestry. Their discovery in the blocked stair is described by Waller in Arch. Cant., xi. 118 NOTES ON THE MEDIEVAL CHANTRY COLLEGE AT COBHAM were some scattered floor-tUes with stamped designs identical with the medieval examples remaining on the chancel floor. These and the carved fragments are beheved to have been thrown out of the chancel when the south door was not blocked as at present. Chantry coUeges frequently engaged in educational work,30 and that this was the case at Cobham can be inferred from documentary evidence. When in 1388-9 it was proposed to increase the number of chaplains, it was also ordained that there should be two aquabajuli, or holy water servers, who in addition to their normal duties 'should learn in the schools with the other scholars' as far as they were able.31 In 1383 Robert atte Pette, a mason of Luddesdown, acknowledged receipt of forty-two shillings and sixpence for work done in le colegue et sholehous de Cobham.32 The schoolhouse of the coUege stUl remams as a detached buUding at the north-east side of the churchyard, now known as the Stone House. Medieval detaUs are in evidence although it has suffered much alteration and is now occupied as several separate dweUings. An original moulded doorway remams on its west side and the windows above are rectangular loops hke those in the oldest parts of the coUege. Identification of this buUding as the schoolhouse comes from a terrier of 1572, reproduced in Arch. Cant., xxvii, where reference is made to 'the late CoUedge of Cobham wythe the Stone howse sometyme a Scole howse'. A suggestion has been made that Henry Yevele, the famous master mason and director of the king's works, had a hand in designing Cobham CoUege.33 This seems very reasonable in view of the fact that he was employed by Sir John de Cobham in work on Cooling Castle, Rochester Bridge, and St. Dunstan's in the East, London. They were also associated in constructing the defences of Canterbury. Among the characteristics of work done under Yevele's direction is the use of bold ashlar facing (e.g. the West Gate of Canterbury and the Abbot's HaU at Westminster) and the simple treatment of waU surfaces; indeed it has been claimed that of aU English architects 'Yevele perhaps loved plain waUing the most'.34 The outer waUs of Cobham CoUege and the contemporary tower of the church show these characteristics to a marked degree and it is obvious that ashlar was used here for the sake of external 30 The master of grammar at Wye was required to teach both rich and poor gratis. At Tong (Shropshire) it was the duty of one of the chaplains to teach reading, music and grammar to the clerks of the college and the children of Tong and neighbouring places. See G. H. Cook, op. cit. 4 and 136. 31 Thorpe, Reg. Roff., 237: Item statuimus quod ipsi ad{d)iseant in scolis cum aliis scolaribus prout possunt. 32 Harleian Charters 48/E/46, and Arch. Cant., xlvi, 52. 33 0. Hussey, Country Life 4th and 11th February, 1944. 34 J. H. Harvey, Henry Yevele (1944), 54. This work also gives details of Yevele's undertakings at Cooling, Rochester, London, Westminster, Canterbury and iVrundel referred to above. 119 NOTES ON THE MEDIEVAL CHANTRY COLLEGE AT COBHAM appearance, as less conspicuous parts of the buUdings, such as the north side of the haU and the waU bordering the processional Avay, were rendered more economicaUy in flint rubble.85 According to one authority36 the haU windows at Cobham College show a simple pattern of Perpendicular tracery (Plate IIA) which occurs in a more mature form in Yevele's work at Canterbury, whUe the plain treatment of the church tower can be matched by his Clock Tower at Westminster as shown in an engraving by HoUar. At Arundel the coUegiate church is beheved to show Yevele's influence, and detaUs of the pulpit are almost identical with the Cobham sedilia described by V. J. B. Torr in Arch. Cant., xlin. The canopies of the sedUia are certainly simUar to those on the tomb of Edward III in Westminster Abbey, known to have been designed by Yevele in 1377. Regarding the two coUeges, J. H. Harvey has stated: '.Arundel and Cobham are unquestionably works of the school of Yevele, even if carried out whoUy or in part by others.' 30 It is interesting to note that when the aisles of the ohurch were extended westward to flank .the tower, the work was carried out in ashlar to match the adjoining tower and college, but the blocks used are of smaller size than in the earlier work. 80 J. H. Harvey, op. cit., 58-9. 120 PLATE I - / . I A. .Arched opening at east end of processional way, viewed from N.E. SaoSDBWHM B. East side of the college showing late-medieval window with holes for attachment grille. Thirteenth-century chancel in background. {face p . 120 PLATE II A. South side of hall with restored Perpendicular windows. B. Drain discovered in south court.