]
We often perceive in the choirs of conventual churches, as in our
cathedrals, on either side of the entrance, facing the east, and also on
the north and south sides, a range of wooden stalls divided into single
seats, peculiarly constructed, the _formulae_ or forms of which were
movable, and carved on the _subselliae_ or under-sides with grotesque,
satirical, and often irreverend devices: these were appropriated to the
monks or canons of the monastery or college to which the church was
attached. The form of each stall, when turned up so as to exhibit the
carved work on the under-part, furnished a small kind of seat or ledge,
constructed for the purpose of inclining against rather than sitting on;
and this was called the _misericorde_ or _miserere_. The _formulae_ or
forms when down, and the misericordes when the forms were turned up, were
used as the season required for penitential inclinations[174-*]. In front
of these stalls was a desk, ornamented on the exterior with panelled
tracery; and over the stalls, especially of those of cathedral churches,
canopies of tabernacle work richly carved were sometimes disposed. In
Winchester Cathedral we have perhaps the most early, chaste, and beautiful
example of the canons' stalls, with canopies over, that are to be met
with, although a greater excess of minute carved ornament may be found in
the canopies which overhang the stalls in other cathedrals.
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