ancel: this was so called from
the screen or lattice-work (cancelli) of stone or wood by which it was
separated from the nave, and which succeeded the curtain or veil which
anciently formed this division of the church[173-*].

[Illustration: Stalls and Desk, St. Margaret's Church, Leicester.]

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. In old
conventual churches, now no longer used as such, the stalls have been
often removed from their original position to other parts of the church,
and they appear to have varied in number according to that of the
fraternity.

[Illustration: Misericorde, All Souls' College, Oxford.]

[Illustration: Brass Reading Desk, Merton College Chapel, Oxford.]

In the choirs of cathedral and conventual churches, and in the chancels of
some other churches, a movable desk, at which the epistle and gospel were
read, was placed: this was often called the eagle desk, from its being
frequently sustained on a brazen eagle with expanded wings, elevated on a
stand, emblematic of St. John the evangelist. Eagle desks are generally
found either of the fifteen