The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1907-04-09
ORIGIN or GARGoYLES.
Stone Effioy Early Used as Roof Spout
on Cathedral of Rouen.

Stone Effiay Early Used as Roof Spout
on Cathedral of Rouen.
One Of the earliest ofsthe more elab-
crate attempts to transform roof spouts
seems to have been at the Cathedral Of
Rouen, where the figure of a great
dragon was adopted for one Of them.
though whether 1t was intended as an
object Of terror to the hobgoblin fra
ternity Of the seventh century or
symbol of the church's triumph over a
public foe can only be conjectured
This fearsome wild fowl terrorized
both banks of the Seine and terribly
ravaged the city Of Rouen until he was
CALAMITY slain by st. Rominus, bishop
Of the cathedral there Probably in
sheer Jubilation of spirits and in COM
pliment to the valorous bishop the car
cass of the mischievous beast was en-
bodied in stone and set up aloft as a
warning to all depredators and any
evil spirits by which they might be
actuated, says the London Globe The
name given to this unlucky animal is
said to have been gargoille, and hence
the name given to his effigy, according
to some authorities
Others, however, derive the appella-
ton from ''gargoille," the weasand of
the throat, or from ''gargale," disease
to which swine are liable and which
causes gurgling sound in the throat,
like that which water makes in pass
ing through a pipe. We are all at lib
erty to choose a derivation since no
body can speak with authority
II gargouille really was the name
given to some more or less fabulous
beast whose carcass was initiated by
some fanciful sculptor in the making
Of an ornamental spout, then the prob
ability is that we have here the origin
not only of "gargoyle," but Of the
French word for the weasand, as well
as Of the English words 'guggle" and
"gargle."
One ugly creature having been
adopted for stone efigy on so famous
a church as that at Rouen in the sew
enth century may easily be conceived
to have set the fashion for other
churches, and the superfiuous hideous-
ness of so many of these objects GER
tainly supports the notion that in part
their sculptors were actuated by the
Idea of frightening the uncanny folk
from the sacred edifices and the wor-
shippers.
The dragon is the commencement of
all forms for the gargoyle, and toward
the end of the thirteenth century,
WI fha oR
creature had become an old tradition
of church architecture, the form of the
monster was transformed into a thing
of some approach to grace and ele-
gance. In the meantime, however, al
most every bird or quadruped of evil
repute and of a figure that could by
any malevolent ingenuity be distorted
into something frightful has been call
ed in for the spiritual defense of the
church, and when animal shapes alone
had been made to undergo every con-
tortion that could be conceived they
were combined with human figures
and faces, development which in.
evitably led to the later adoption OF
all sorts of imps and demons.
Thus ON many of the finest churches
In Christendom we find not only al
most every kind of bird and beast, real
and legendary, but everything uncanny
and diaboIical in human form. 1t
must be allowed that it showed excep-
tional originality and an uncommon
power of good nature in the nineteenth
century sculptor who, in the course Of
the restoration Of Chester cathedral
about the time of the disestablishment
of the Irish church, capped this long
series of ecclesiastical embellishments
with "a caricature .lheadpiece OF Mr.