The grotesque in church art . ith his hand, and the fight recommences, endingin the total overthrow of Isengrin. The King orders thefray to be stayed and the Wolfs life spared. The Wolf iscarried off. All fly to congratulate the victor, All gazed in his face with fawning eyes,And loaded him with flatteries. The King makes him the Lord Chancellor and takeshim to his close tale winds up : To wisdom now let each one turn,Avoid the base and virtue learn ;This is the end of Reynards story,May God assist us to His glory. THE FOX IN CHURCH ART. 195 The above is the gist of the matter deali
The grotesque in church art . ith his hand, and the fight recommences, endingin the total overthrow of Isengrin. The King orders thefray to be stayed and the Wolfs life spared. The Wolf iscarried off. All fly to congratulate the victor, All gazed in his face with fawning eyes,And loaded him with flatteries. The King makes him the Lord Chancellor and takeshim to his close tale winds up : To wisdom now let each one turn,Avoid the base and virtue learn ;This is the end of Reynards story,May God assist us to His glory. THE FOX IN CHURCH ART. 195 The above is the gist of the matter dealing with theFox in letters ; from these lively images we will turn to themore wooden achievements of the carvers. The generalfact that the Fox is a marauder specially fond of the flesh ofthat bird of long descent, the goose, but also partial to that ofother birds, is frequently illustrated by church carvings. Inthe churches at the following places he is carved as havingseized his prey :— Beverley (Minster), Boston, Fairford,. THE FOX RETURNING FROM HUNTING, MANCHESTER. Faversham, Gloucester, Hereford, Norwich, Oxford (Mag-dalen), Peterborough, Ripon, Wellingborough, Winchester,and Windsor (St. Georges Chapel). At the last-namedhe is also shewn as preying upon a hen. At Beverley (Minster)Ely, Manchester, and Thanet (St. Marys Minster) the pictureof the abduction of the goose is heightened in interest by hispursuit by a woman armed with a distaff. Doubtless there 196 THE GROTESQUE IN CHURCH ART. are others ; the object throughout is to give examples, not anexhaustive list. A somewhat unusual subject is one in ManchesterCathedral, in which the Fox is returning from hunting. Acarving where the Fox is used to point a moral is another, inSt. Georges Chapel, Windsor, in which three monks, con-veyed in a wheel-barrow into Hells Mouth, are accompaniedby a Fox with a goose in his mouth. Probably the ideahere broadly expressed is intended to be quietly suggested bysome of the above. Next
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