ALTAR SCREEN

A screen behind the altar, bounding the presbytery eastward, and in our larger churches separating it from the parts left free for proce ions between the presbytery and the Lady Chapel, when the latter is at the east end. (See Cathedral .) These screens were of comparatively late invention. They completely interfered with the ancient arrangement of the Apsis . (See Apsis .) The most magnificent specimens of altar screens are at Winchester cathedral, and at St. Alban’s abbey. In college chapels, and churches where an apse would be altogether out of place, and where an east window cannot be inserted, as at New College, and Magdalene, Oxford, they are as appropriate as they are beautiful.— Jebb.