Acoustic Pottery.

COMMUNICATED BY

THE REV. G. W. W. MINN S.

THE principles of acoustics, as applied to churches and public buildings, are now but little understood; their fitness or unfitness for the conveyance of sound is accidental, rather than the result of any system employed by our architects in their construction. It is well known that the Greeks and Romans employed means for repercussion, and increasing the volume of sound in their theatres; and Vitruvius describes vessels of bronze, (x) in some cases of clay, which were placed under the seats and in cells constructed for this purpose, of which practice traces have been found in the ancient theatres of Italy, and various parts of the Greek provinces.2

1

This statement of Vitruvius received but little credence, and his theory was regarded as puerile, until the discovery of a series of acoustic vases was made in the church of St. Blaise, at Arles, in the year 1842; when the question was revived by M. Huard, Director of the Museum at Arles, in a communication to the Bulletin Archéologique, and the

3

1 Vitruvius, lib. v. c. 5. Smith's Dictionary of Roman Antiquities. Art. "Theatrum."

2 Gentleman's Magazine, vol. ccxv. p. 750 (1863).

3 Bulletin Archéologique, vol. ii. p. 440.

existence of a like practice in medieval times was fully established. Since that time similar discoveries have been made in various parts of Great Britain. In Ireland, at the church of St. Mary, Youghal, co. Cork, a series of orifices, five in number, were observed at the western ends of the north and south walls of the choir, giving vent to an equal number of earthen jars lying on their sides, and placed immediately behind them. At Fountain's Abbey, in 1854, earthen jars were found embedded in the base of the choir screen, and the attention of our Society was called to the subject by similar discoveries in the churches of St. Peter Mancroft and St. Peter per Mountergate, Norwich, of which record is made in our proceedings.5

cense.

Theories, most opposite and vague, have been suggested to account for the existence of these remains, and, upon the discovery at Fountain's Abbey, the subject was opened in the pages of Notes and Queries by a correspondent, who conjectures their purpose to have been to burn inThose at St. Peter Mancroft, having been found under the stalls of the choir, were intended, according to another correspondent, to receive the ashes of the hearts of canons attached to the church. Purposes of a secular character were also suggested, viz., that such jars were filled with some generous beverage, with which success was drunk to the commencing building; that they were intended for the feathered tribe; in fact, for dove-cotes or columbaries; and, more curious still, that they formed part of a warming apparatus. As pots, or pipes of earth, were, and are even now, in Italy frequently employed, where strength and lightness are required, or placed beneath the pavement for ventilation, and in damp situations to obviate the humidity of the soil, these purposes were also suggested; but the

4 Transactions of Kilkenny Archæological Society, vol. iii. p. 303.

5 Norfolk Archæology, vols. iv. 352; vi. 382.

6 Notes and Queries, vol. x. p. 386, seq. Nov. 11, 1854.

position and arrangement of the jars oppose such explanations. The other reasons advanced are so absurd that they cannot for one moment occupy serious attention. Another theory remained, and, as it now appears, the true one; that such jars were inserted for acoustic purposes. This, however, received but little credence, from the doubtful effect of such an arrangement, and the absence of any historical testimony to such a practice in the middle ages. Thanks to the intelligence of our French brethren, and especially to M. Didron, the editor of Annales Archéologiques, this testimony is now no longer wanting.

The question first received the attention of French archaologians, upon the discovery at Arles, and was a second time brought under their notice in 1861 by a Swedish architect, M. Mandelgren, and two Russian architects, MM. Stassoff and Gornostaeff, who made inquiry of the Parisian savants, whether "cornets," or pots of baked earth, were found in the interior walls, or in vaults of French churches, as was frequently the case in the churches of Sweden and Denmark. M. Didron replied in the Journal which he directs, citing the discovery in the church of St. Blaise, at Arles, as a French instance of the practice, and brought forward a passage from a manuscript of the fifteenth century, which has thrown so much light on this subject, that whatever doubt may have justly been entertained as to the effect, there can now no longer be any as to the purpose of such jars, when found incorporated into the fabric of ecclesiastical edifices.

This passage, of so much value, occurs in a Chronicle of the Celestins of Metz, and is quoted by M. Bouteillier in his notice of that order, and their establishment in the ancient Austrasia or Rhenish France. Under the date 1432, the chronicler writes as follows: "In the month of August in

7 Annales Archéologiques, vol. xxii. p. 294--97.

this year, on the vigil of the Assumption, after brother Odo le Roy, the prior, had returned from the before-mentioned general chapter, it was ordered that pots should be put into the choir of the church of this place, he stating that he had seen such in a church elsewhere; thinking that they made the singing better, and resound more, they were put up there in one day by taking as many workmen as were necessary. ."8 The chronicler goes on, and pleasantly ridicules Prior Odo le Roy, who caused these appliances to be placed in the walls of his church for the feast of the Assumption, expressing his disbelief that they sang any the better for what was done. A later hand has written on the margin. of the manuscript, "ecce risu digna," and thereby shows his scepticism and ridicule also.

The learned Abbé Cochet, in a communication to the Academy of Rouen, has given the result of his observations on the subject of acoustic pottery, and reports several occasions upon which he has met with vases of this character. At Montivilliers, jars with a simple neck moulding and a conical base were found at the four angles of the vault of the choir which was under the tower of the abbey church. Again at Fry, canton Argueil, four jars of ordinary domestic shape were found, having handles, and resembling those at

8"En cest année dessus dit au mois daoust, le vigile de 1 assumption de Nostre Dame, aprèz ceu que frère Ode le Roy, priour de seans, fuit retournez du chapitre gral de dessus dit, il fit et ordonnoit de mettre les pots au cuer de leglise de seans, portant qu'il avait vu altepart en aucune église et pensant qu'il y fesoit milleur chanter et que il ly resonneroit plusfort. Et y furent mis tuis en ung jour on pont tant douvriers quil suffisoit. Mais ie ne seay si on chante miez que on ne faisoit. Et cest une chose à croire que lez murs en furet grandement crolley, et deshochiet et becop de gens qui viennent seans sont bien merveillez que y soie fait. Et dixent aucune foix qui valeoit mieux qui furet aprésen dehors, portant que bon pensoyt il seroit là mis pour en prendre et jouyr à plaisir aux foulx."-Notice sur le Couvent de Célestins de Metz, par M. Ed. Bouteiller. Metz, 1862.

9 "Précis Analytique des Travaux de l'Académie Impériale de Rouen."1863-64. Rouen, Boissel.

St. Peter per Mountergate, Norwich. The third and most interesting example, cited by the Abbé, is from St. Laurent en Caux, where the workmen engaged in pulling down the old church discovered a large earthen vessel placed in one of the angles of the choir and entirely enveloped in mortar. Its form is a cone closed at each end, having no opening, but a neck issuing from the shoulders

and appearing on the face of the wall. The exterior is furrowed with horizontal lines of thirteenth-century character: from its form it appears well adapted for acoustic purposes and entirely unsuited for any other. With these examples, he furnishes an additional and singular historical proof of their purpose from a diatribe of the seventeenth century, entitled "L'Apocalypse de Meliton," written against the religious orders, and attributed to the Abbé Saint Leger. "Of fifty choristers, that

the public maintain in such a house," says the writer, "there are sometimes not more than six present at the office; the choirs are so fitted with jars in the vaults and in the walls that six voices make as much noise as forty elsewhere."1

In our own county, and within the province of our Society, notwithstanding the number of church restorations, there have been brought under our notice but two discoveries of acoustic pottery. In both cases the pots or jars were found, not as in France in the upper walls, but beneath the floor of the choir, where they were placed to give sonority to

"De cinquante choristers que le public entretient dedans telle maison, quelquefois ils ne seront pas six à l'office; les choeurs sont accomodez avec des pots dans la voûte, et dans les murailles, de sorte que six voix y feront autant de bruit que quarante ailleurs."-L'Apocalypse de Meliton, p. 34, edit. 1665. [VOL. VII.]

H