Bell's Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury: with some Account of the Priory Church of Deerhurst GloucestershireMassé, H. J. L. J. (Henri Jean Louis Joseph)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury: with some Account of the Priory Church of Deerhurst Gloucestershire
At the east end of the ambulatory is the arch by which entrance was
formerly given to the destroyed Lady Chapel. It is now walled up, and
in such a way that it is difficult to picture the appearance of the
original work. However, from the battlements of the adjoining
south-east chapel it is possible to see the remnants of the vaulting
of the entrance to the Lady Chapel.
In the modern cast wall is a window of three lights (by Hardman) in
memory of Rev. C.W. Grove, who presented most of the modern glass in
the church. The subject is the Pharisee and the Publican. It is not
known whether the Pharisee is intended to be a portrait of any one,
but the Publican's face is said to be an excellent portrait of Mr.
Grove, and the portrait of the lady in the top light (she lacks a
halo) is deemed to be an equally good picture of Mrs. Grove.
=St. Faith's Chapel.=--The site of this chapel is not known for
certain, though it is supposed to have been one of the two south-east
chapels.
The first and easternmost chapel is the largest of the series of
chapels built round the ambulatory. It is pentagonal in form and is 28
feet by 24 feet, opening to the aisle with a richly moulded arch. The
vaulting, as in all these chapels, is excellent work, but the student
of such things will notice that the masons' work on the chapels on the
south side is in even courses, and that the stones are better dressed
than in the chapels on the north side of the choir. At the
intersections of the vaulting there are some good bosses, chiefly
foliage with some heads. In this chapel there are three stone coffins.
The central window (by Kempe) is to the memory of Benjamin Thomas
Moore, for thirty-eight years churchwarden, who died in 1896. Though
detail of a most elaborate kind fills the window, yet in appearance it
is rather thin, a quality which the clear, strong light that shines
upon it as a rule somewhat accentuates. In the central light is St.
Faith, to whom this chapel is often ascribed, with St. Agnes on the
left and St. Cecilia on the right. There are two other windows, one of
four lights and the other of three.
By standing at the entrance to this chapel the visitor will obtain a
very fine and interesting set of _coups d'œil_ of the different
parts of the building. Towards the north there is the view of the work
at the back of the altar, and St. Edmund's and St. Margaret's chapels
in the background. To the north-west are the tombs at the back of the
altar and sedilia; to the west is a good view of the south ambulatory
and the south aisle of the nave.
The next chapel, _i.e._, the middle one of the three on this side, has
no known dedication.[18] It is also pentagonal--somewhat irregular, it
is true, but its length and breadth are the same--20 feet. There are
two windows of three lights.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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