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
No. 6. The Last Supper, the Entry into Jerusalem, the Betrayal of Christ
in the Garden of Gethsemane.
No. 7. The Day of Judgment, the Day of Pentecost, St. Thomas is reproved
for his doubt.
No. 8. Pilate delivering Christ to be crucified, Christ bearing his Cross,
the Descent from the Cross, the Resurrection.
On the south side of the Lady Chapel, between the buttresses, are three
erections, which were no doubt built at the same time as the Lady Chapel
itself. They have been known as "the Mortuary Chapels," and also as
"the Vestries." They were probably built for the former purpose.
They have recently been restored as a memorial to Bishop Selwyn, who died
in 1878. All three chapels have groined roofs, with ribs and bosses, and
in the floor some of the old encaustic tiles still remain. The central
chapel is the largest, and is lighted by two small windows. It is only
entered from the eastern chapel by means of a doorway cut right through
the buttress. In this central chapel lies the effigy, in Derbyshire
alabaster, of Bishop Selwyn. During his life he had expressed a wish to
be buried here, but this was found to be illegal, and he was buried in
the close just outside. The effigy is by Mr Nicholls, and the decorations
of the walls of the chapel are by Messrs Clayton & Bell. These show the
arms of the bishopric of New Zealand, to which the bishop was originally
consecrated, and the arms of the dioceses formed out of it, and there
are more than usually hideous frescoes showing the labours of the bishop
among the Maories and among the pitmen of the English diocese. Here he
is not likely to be forgotten; and at Cambridge there is a college known
as Selwyn College, founded with a similar idea to that which at Oxford
caused Keble College to be erected to the memory of another great modern
churchman: there also his memory will remain.
The western chapel has, at its north-western corner, a stair-way leading
to three cryptal chambers whose flooring is the solid rock.
=The Sacristy.=--The building on the south side of the choir, which is
generally known as the "sacristy," is a very interesting part of the
cathedral. Professor Willis decided that it was erected at the same time
as the original Early English choir, and no doubt it belongs to the same
period. A careful inspection, however, especially of the entrance from
the "minstrel gallery" to the chapel of St. Chad's Head, which now forms
the top storey, shows unmistakable signs that, like the entrance to the
vestibule in the corresponding bay of the north choir aisle, this doorway
was once a window, similar, no doubt, to those two still remaining--one
in each aisle--which look into the aisles of the transepts. This being so,
it is obvious that the "sacristy," or, at any rate, the upper storey, was
an afterthought, and that it is later, though perhaps only a little, than
the choir, its date corresponding perhaps with that of the south transept.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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