Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Of
THE ROYSTON CAVE
BEING
THE SUBSTANCE OF A REPORT,
SOME TIME SINCE PRESENTED TO
THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF
ANTIQUARIES.
BY THE LATE
JOSEPH BELDAM, ESQ
F.S.A., F.R.G.S.,
MEMBER OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL
INSTITUTE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND
IRELAND.
THIRD EDITION
ROYSTON:
M,DCCC,LXXXIV.
INTRODUCTION.
FIRST APPEARANCE.
The height of the Cave from the floor to the top of the
dome, is about 25.5 feet; the length of the aperture
leading. up to the surface is about 2 feet; making together,
with the thickness of the crownwork at the top of the
dome, about 28 feet. The bottom is not quite circular: the
widest diameter being from east to west.The diameter
from north to south is about 17 feet, and from east to west
about 17 feet 6 inches, the difference being occasioned by
the groove of the eastern shaft, which descends this side,
and has not been accurately worked into the circle.
THE GRAVE.
With this period, also, most nearly agrees the style of its
principal decorations. And the greater part of its
sculptures, so far as we can understand them, appears to
belong to the same age.
Beyond the cross, the figures divide into two lines. In the
upper line, nearest St. Katharine, appears the Holy
Family-Joseph, the Virgin, and the youthful Saviour. The
leading idea of pilgrimage, is here again portrayed; and
this group, most likely, represents the journey from
Jerusalem, after the feast of the Passover.
In the same line with St. Paul, and immediately below the
effigy of St. Laurence, appears the half-length figure of a
royal personage, wearing an antique crown, and with arms
extended, in an attitude of surprise and alarm. On the
breast are cut the ancient initials, 'WR'; and the position,
next to the falling saint, may not have been without its
meaning. This figure seems to form part of an historical
series, commencing on the southern side of the Cave.We
shall postpone our reasons for considering it the portrait of
William the Lion, until we reach it again from the other
side.
X. QUEEN ELEANOR.
They may either represent King Henry II. who took the
vow, though he never went to the crusade; in which case
the lady will be Queen Eleanor; whose disgrace and
imprisonment, however, make this supposition less likely.
Or, far more probably, King Richard L, Coeur de Lion, the
most distinguished crusader of his age, and Queen
Berengaria, whom he married, and caused to be crowned
on his way to the Holy Land. But this lady was never
crowned in England, and after her husband's death, her
rights as queen dowager were for some time denied by
her brother in law, King John; a circumstance which may
own selection of the worthies for whom these portraits
were possibly intended, though it is not denied, that there
may be some later interpolations among them:
7. Waren de Bassingbourne,
8.Reginald de Argentein,
9.Margaret, Countess,
10 Juliana,
11.Ralph de Reed,
12.Robert de Burn,
THE HERMITAGE.
That the Cave was used for religious purposes long after
the time of Richard I. does not admit of reasonable doubt;
but the exact period of its abandonment is not so certain.It
has been supposed by some, that this event occurred in
the reign of Henry IV, when the town was almost
consumed by fire. But the careful filling up of the place
argues a deliberate purpose. There is little question,
indeed, that the Cave was open until the period of the
Reformation, when it passed, with other ecclesiastical
property, info the hands of tile Crown; and on its
subsequent transfer to the Chester family, being no longer
required for superstitious services, and useless for any
other, it underwent the common fate of the Priory and the
Free Chapel of St. Nicholas, and was shortly after closed
and forgotten.
RECAPITULATION.