Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Carlisle: A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Episcopal SeeEley, C. King
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Carlisle: A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Episcopal See
Eley, C. King
Carlisle Cathedral (Carlisle, England)
In each bay of the #Triforium# there are three arches with curvilinear
tracery. The principal mullions have octagonal bases. On account of
their reduced width, the extreme eastern and western bays have only two
arches.
The courses of stone above the base of the triforium are not by any
means so smooth and well-proportioned as those beneath. The workmen do
not seem to have been actuated by the spirit of those builders "in the
elder days of Art" who
"... wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part,
For the gods see everywhere."
[Illustration: THE CHOIR, LOOKING EAST, IN 1840. From Billings.]
The #Clerestory# consists of two planes. Each compartment on the face
of the choir wall has three high-pitched arches, the middle one being
higher than those at the side, and more than twice as wide in the
opening. The eastern bay has only the central arch, while the western
bay is blank.
The base is decorated with a low parapet pierced with quatrefoils, four
in the centre, and two in each side opening. On the south, however, the
quatrefoil decoration is slightly different. There are only three
quatrefoils in the centre and two smaller ones on each side. This
parapet is in great part a restoration, the original having been almost
entirely removed, in the vain hope of admitting more light to the lower
part of the choir.
In the other plane the windows are in triplets, three lights in the
central and single lights on either side, decorated with flamboyant
tracery.
The eastern bay has no side lights.
Although the windows seem to be all different, there are but six
varieties, distributed as follows:
On the north side beginning at the east the design of the first window
is not repeated. That of the next window occurs in the second window on
the south side. The third and fifth are alike. The sixth and the last
are like the fourth. The design of the seventh window does not occur
again.
On the south side one new pattern appears in three windows--the first,
fourth, and sixth from the east. The second is like the window opposite,
and the third, fifth, and seventh are like the third on the north side.
Of all the windows the second from the east is the most beautiful.
Before 1764 they were filled with stained glass of which some remains
are still to be seen. The trefoil heads above the mullions have a brown
border with the insertion in some cases of a yellow diamond ornament,
and in others of a crown.
The #Roof#--This unique specimen of a waggon-headed ceiling,
semi-circular in all its parts, is of oak. Bishop Welton began its
construction about 1350. A plaster ceiling, put up in the year 1764, hid
this fine timber roof until its removal in 1856. It was then found that
enough remained of the original to allow a faithful restoration to be
made. But the scheme of colouring--red and green upon white--was not
copied. In its stead Owen Jones suggested another--a background of blue
plentifully ornamented with golden stars.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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