Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Lichfield: A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Espicopal SeeClifton, A. B.
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Lichfield: A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Espicopal See
Clifton, A. B.
Lichfield Cathedral
=The Great West Window.=--The tracery of this window has already been
discussed in the description of the exterior. The present glass was
placed there in 1869, to the memory of Canon Hutchinson, who, perhaps,
of all was most eager for the restoration of the cathedral, and to whose
untiring energy, it is said, is due the wholesale renovation of the
interior by Sir Gilbert Scott. This window was the result of a public
subscription, and is the work of Messrs Clayton & Bell. The six large
figures represent St. Michael, St. Joseph, St. Mary, and the Three Magi,
while underneath are small pictures of the Annunciation, the Angel warning
Joseph, the Nativity, the Journey of the Magi, the Magi inquire of Herod,
and the Flight into Egypt. As to the previous glass in this window, there
seems to be no record of that which must have decorated it before the
Civil Wars. In Shaw's "History of Staffordshire," there are long lists
of the glass to be found in the cathedral; but it is difficult to decide
which window is being described. After the Restoration, we have in a
Bodleian MS. the following record:--"Oct. 6, 1671. Arms in the Great West
Window, Arms of King Charles the Second, Crest and Supporters; Arms of
James Duke of York, his brother, Crest and Supporters. And beneath them,
_Serenissimus princeps Jacobus dux Ebor hanc fenestram. F.F._" Britton
says it was afterwards filled with painted glass, the work of Brookes,
by the legacy of Dr Addenbroke, who died dean of this cathedral in 1776.
Over the great west door in the inside of the cathedral was
formerly inscribed:--
_Oswyus est Lichfield fundator, sed reparator_
_Offa fuit; regum fama perennis erit:_
_Rex Stephanus, rex Heniricus primusque Richardus,_
_Rex et Johannis, plurima dona dabant._
_Pene haec millenos ecclesia floruit annos,_
_Duret ad extremum nobilis usque diem,_
_Daque deus longum, ut floreat hae sacra aedes_
_Et celebret nomen plebs ibi sancta tuum._
_Fundata est ecclesia Merciencis_
_Quae nunc Lichfieldia dicitur_
_Facta Cathedralis_
_Anno Domini_
_DCLVII_
Dugdale, in his "Visitation of Staffordshire," gives us this inscription.
It has long since disappeared. Pennant mentions a curious or, as he calls
it, "droll" epitaph on the floor near the west door, but there is no sign
of it now:--"_William Roberts of Overbury, some time malster in this town
(tells you) for the love I bore to choir service, I chose to be buried
in this place._ He died Decr. 16th, 1768."
From a MS. quoted by Shaw we learn that before the Great War "on a fair
marble gravestone, placed on the right-hand at the entrance into the
choir, is this inscription on a brass plate:--
"_Here lyeth George Bullen lat dean of this church who made his own
epitaph--viz._,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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