The Collegiate Church of Ottery St. Mary. By J. N.
Dalton. (Cam- bridge University Press. 25s. net.)—The stately church of Ottery St. Mary was built in 1337-42 by Bishop Grandisson of Exeter, who did so much for the CathedraL The Bishop founded at the same time a College of Canons, for which he drew up an elaborate set of statutes.
The College was abolished in 1545, but the church remains. Canon Dalton has written a very full amount of it and of the fragments of tho College, such as an exquisite chimneypieco in the vicarage kitchen. But the main portion of his book is devoted to the statutes, which ho prints in full with an exhaustive commentary abounding in curious detail as to the life of a mediaeval foundation. Thus the prohibition of gaming and hunting, but not of chess, backgammon or " tables " and • merits," occasions an interesting excursus on those games. The Canons were ordered to stand erect in their stalls during service and were not to loll on the miserieords. A copy of the statutes was given by Grandisson to Bishop Edyndone of Winchester, who drew up a very similar code for St. George's, Windsor. Grandisson's sister was the Countess of Salis- bury whose dropped garter is said to have given rise to the famous Order founded by Edward III., with St. George's as its chapel. This scholarly and well-illustrated monograph has, it will bo seen, much more than a local interest.
Previous page
