Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ely: A History and Description of the Building with a Short Account of the Monastery and of the SeeSweeting, W. D. (Walter Debenham)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ely: A History and Description of the Building with a Short Account of the Monastery and of the See
Sweeting, W. D. (Walter Debenham)
Ely Cathedral
#The Galilee Porch# is of excellent Early English work, with details
of great beauty. Certainly nowhere in England, possibly nowhere in the
world, is there to be seen so fine a porch. "Perhaps the most gorgeous
porch of this style in existence is the Galilee at the west end of Ely
Cathedral: this magnificent specimen of the Early English style must be
seen to be duly appreciated; it combines the most elegant general forms
with the richest detail; a very happy effect is produced by the double
arcade on each side, one in front of the other with detached shafts, not
opposite but alternate."[8] Each side, externally, is covered with
lancet arcading in four tiers. In the upper tier the lancets are
trefoiled, with dogtooth in the moulding; in the next lower tier the
lancets are cinquefoiled, with two sets of dogtooth. The lancets in the
west face are all cinquefoiled, and the three lower tiers here have
trefoils in the spandrels. Nearly all are highly enriched with
dogtooth; while the mouldings of the west door have conventional foliage
as well. The lancets here are deeper than on the sides of the porch, and
were probably designed to hold figures. Of the three large lancets in
the west window the central one is slightly more lofty than the others.
[Illustration: DOORWAY OF THE GALILEE.]
The interior of the porch is even more beautiful; the profusion of
ornamentation on the inner doorway and the exceeding gracefulness of the
double arcades in the sides are quite unsurpassed. Both doorways are
divided by a shaft, and both have open tracery of exceptional beauty
above.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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