A HISTORY OF NORFOLK naturally into three classes. Of the first little need be said. It consisted in picking out the main features of the woodwork, with colour, leaving the natural oak to form a background, or advancing a step further, by covering the whole roof with a coat of one colour and treating the carved details with others. An example of this latter method may be seen at Knapton, where the whole roof was painted yellow, and the figures of angels and the mould- ings treated in green, red, and white. In the second class a further advance was made, and painted ornament was largely introduced. Of this class the nave roof of Sail offers a fine example. The general ground is white, the main lines a brilliant red, while the soffits of the rafters and the interspaces are richly diapered with the crowned letter M alternating with the sacred monogram I. H.C. in red and black. Angels holding scrolls with passages from the Creed, now almost obliterated, are painted on the cornice. In the third class the rafters have been boarded over and panelled, thus affording a larger space for the painted work. A good and comparatively simple example of such work is to be found in the roof of the chancel of the church now converted to the uses of the Great Hospital in Bishopgate Street at Norwich. The general ground of this roof is a yellow or dull gold colour, the dividing mouldings of the panels and the finely-carved bosses at their intersection being treated in gold and colour, and in each panel is displayed a boldly- designed black eagle. The portion of the building in which this roof occurs is known by the name of the Eagle Ward. Far richer in the character of its ornamentation is the ceiling of a small chapel in the church of East Dereham (PI. viii.), the ground of which is tinted a delicate green. In the centre of each of the panels into which it is divided a green wreath is painted, containing a representation of the Holy Lamb reclining on a book, and issuing from the wreaths is elaborately branching leafage which fills the corners of the panels. The whole composition looks as if it were copied from a page of an illuminated manuscript of late fifteenth-century work. More interesting, and still richer in effect, are those arrangements in which demi-figures of angels are combined with wreaths in the adornment of the panelling. A specimen of this kind may be seen in the roof of the Lady chapel in the church of St. John Maddermarket at Norwich. The general ground was originally white or pale buff, now much darkened by damp and time. The most easterly of the panels each contain an angel rising from clouds and wearing a wonderful turban-like headdress. Each angel holds a scroll on which is inscribed a sentence of the Angelic salutation. The field of the panels on which the angels are painted is powdered with flowers and crowned monograms of the Holy Virgin in black and red. The panels furthest from the east end of the chapel are filled with groups of wreaths containing within them the sacred monogram I. H. C. in red. The effect of the whole, relying as it does on the colours black, red, and grey, is sober and decidedly pleasing.^ It is as difficult to ascertain the date of the roof decoration as it is that of the screen paintings. A conjecture may be ventured as to the period of execution of the two following. The paintings upon the now destroyed screen of the Lady chapel in St, John's Maddermarket, the roof of which has just been described, were certainly given by Ralf Segrym, who was All the painted roofs mentioned in this account are still in existence. 548
