One of the small glass panels formerly in the clergy vestry, now reset behind the de la Pole tomb in the South Choir Aisle, is a painted rectangular panel, probably of early 16C Dutch or Flemish origin. The story it depicts has been difficult to interpret.
It shows a town with elaborate buildings. In the foreground, a man wearing a hat and boots stands with his back to us and talks to two blond young men. They hold staffs, and the one on the right has angel’s wings. A small dog is yelping in alarm. Meanwhile, in the background, a bearded man, dressed like the one in the foreground, is talking to a group of armed men. The cropping of the left side of the scene makes it difficult to be sure whether the young man on the left also has wings. There is a shape behind his shoulder which may be part of a wing, or else a back-pack or cloak; he has the same hairstyle and headband as his companion, who is definitely an angel.
If both the young men are angels, then the scene depicts the story of the Hospitality of Lot, in Genesis 19: 1-4, when two angels come to visit Lot in Sodom, to rescue him and his family from its impending destruction. He entertains them as his guests, but the other citizens are planning to assault them. This would explain the scene in the background – it is actually the next scene in the story. Here, Lot (seen from the front, wearing the same hat, shoulder-cape and yellow boots) stands in front of his house, trying to defend his guests from the armed locals. He offers to give them his daughters instead, to do whatever they want with them. This is refused, so the angels have to help lead Lot and his family to safety in the morning. They are told not to look back as the city is destroyed, but Lot's wife does so, and is turned into salt.
Alternatively, if the young man on the left is not an angel, the little dog may suggest a scene from The Book of Tobit 6:2. This book is a traditional folk- or fairytale, which the Protestant tradition places in the Apocrypha. Tobit, a blind man, says farewell to his son Tobias as he sets off from Nineveh (in modern Iraq) for Ecbatana (in modern Iran). The archangel Raphael (whom Tobit believes to be human) is his travelling companion. Tobias's little dog also goes with them. On the way, Tobias catches a magic fish. Raphael tells him that its heart and liver can drive out demons, and its gall can cure blindness. Using the fish parts, Tobias wins a bride, Sarah, whose previous seven husbands have been killed by a jealous demon on their wedding night, and also cures his father – a real fairytale ending.
But this would not account for the scene in the background, so the Lot interpretation is probably more likely. The dog may simply be a little character added by the artist, to add some interest to that part of the picture.
According to John Symons, in Hullinia (1872), p. 65, the old pieces of glass had “been re-set in a window in one of the chantry chapels” during a recent restoration (starting in 1868). He does not say where they were taken from. Panels like this were used in domestic settings in 16-17C, as well as in churches. It may have come from the Council Chamber (previously in the South Side chantries), old vicarage or the Grammar School, or from one of the nearby almshouses, which were demolished in 19C. We also cannot be sure how much has been cut off the sides.
