Archaeological Journal/Volume 2/Notices of New Publications: Annales Furnesienses
In calling the attention of the public to this splendid and important contribution to the topographical history of England, we perform a duty too long delayed, and which even now must be unsatisfactorily fulfilled, owing to the numerous claims on our notice, and the limited space at our disposal.
The History and Antiquities of the district of Furness were first investigated by West, who published his imperfect and in many instances erroneous work about the middle of the last century. He was followed by Dr. Whitaker, who touched upon the subject in his History of Richmondshire, and at a still later period Mr. Baines hurried over the same ground in his History of Lancashire. The present volume supersedes, in every respect, the several essays of these writers.
It was no easy task to undertake the history of a district so remote and so little remarked, and the difficulties attending a protracted enquiry into its ancient condition were increased by the fact, that from the twelfth to the sixteenth century it was for the most part dependent on the powerful religious house to which it gave a name, and thus all the materials for its illustration were to be sought among the muniments of the abbey, which were dispersed and partly destroyed at the Dissolution.
In the present volume, therefore, the author has confined himself to a narrative of the foundation, advancement, and decline of the abbey of St. Mary; though we believe a general history of Furness may be expected from his pen at no distant period; in the meanwhile, the work before us is no mean substitute for it, for, as we have intimated, the history of the church is, in a great degree, that of the surrounding country.
Mr. Beck divides his work into four chapters. The first being introductory; the second relates the history of the Cistertian order; the third contains the history of the abbey; and the fourth is descriptive of the ruins. There is also an appendix of original and valuable documents. It will be seen that the third and fourth divisions are the most interesting.
In narrating the history of the abbey the author has adopted a method which was first observed by White Kennett in his Parochial Antiquities; viz. the incorporation of documentary evidence with the narrative, and a strict chronological arrangement of the whole: but it seems to us that the immediate type of Mr. Beck's plan may have been Morton's Monastic Annals of Teviotdale, since he groups his narrative and documentary evidence under the successive abbots, so far as their names and serial order could be ascertained. This arrangement is at once more convenient and easier than Kennett's, for in numerous instances an undated document may be referred with probability or certainty to the time of a particular abbot, when it is absolutely impossible to assign it to a particular year.
On this plan then the writer has brought together every known document of the least importance, relating to the history of the abbey, and the connexion between them is maintained by a narrative always lively, and not unfrequently aspiring to a quaint eloquence. Of the correctness of the documents we cannot speak too highly. Indeed it may be truly said that this is one of the ablest, and also one of the most magnificent, volumes ever dedicated to the history of a single ecclesiastical foundation at the cost of one individual. We trust the expense has not been incurred in vain, at a time when the spirit of preservation is actively exerted to shield the venerable relics of the past from dilapidation and decay.
Seal of William le Fleming.
It is not our purpose to dwell on the architectural portion of the work further than to commend the style in which the engravings and details are executed.
As might have been expected, the volume contains a mine of information respecting the ancient families of the district, the Flemings, Harringtons, and others; and we may call the attention of the herald to the curious seal of William le Fleming, in the time of Henry II., on which a winged dragon foreshadows the serpent which the family eventually adopted for their crest.
Seal of Edith de Merton, 13th cent. |
Seal of William Graindorge, 13th cent. |
The conventual seal of Furness is known only by an impression of it attached to the deed of surrender in the Augmentation Office; which was badly engraved by West. The matrix was destroyed by the commissioners at the Dissolution. We are indebted to the politeness of the author for an opportunity of presenting the accompanying accurate engravings of it, and of the abbot's Secretum, to the readers of the Archæological Journal. (See frontispiece.)