Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Lincoln: A History and Description of its Fabric and a List of the BishopsKendrick, A. F. (Albert Frank)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Lincoln: A History and Description of its Fabric and a List of the Bishops
Kendrick, A. F. (Albert Frank)
Lincoln Cathedral
The subjects can
be best seen from the neighbouring triforium or from the passage which
runs just beneath the window; it will be noticed that the glass in some
of the compartments is much mutilated, as might naturally be expected,
considering its antiquity. From below, the subjects are confused and
not easy to distinguish, but the rich and harmonious blending of the
colours can be seen to the fullest advantage, and the general effect
is much finer. Rickman believes the form of the tracery to be quite
unique in England, but states that there is a window exactly similar
at Laon. Beneath the window is an arcade of seven lancet arches; the
wall behind five of them is pierced with windows, which are filled
with old glass, chiefly medallions and fragments. Below are two larger
lancet windows, one on each side of the dean's doorway. That to the west
represents angels seated amid foliage and playing musical instruments;
the three lowest figures are quite distinct, but the two above are
confused. These fragments have been removed from some other part of the
minster, probably from the west window of the nave; they date from the end
of the fourteenth century. The more easterly window is filled with old
geometrical patterns and fragments. The doorway leads to the deanery,
and has a porch outside. Over the door, inside, is a modern clock,
with a carved wood canopy which, according to the tablet below, had been
originally placed over an earlier clock in the minster. Thomas of Louth,
Treasurer of Lincoln, gave a clock to the church in 1324, considered to
be the one formerly at the south end of this same transept. The canopy
was for some years in the church at Messingham, and was removed thence
to its present position, on the north side.
The "bishop's eye" on the south side is filled with delicate and beautiful
flowing tracery, which has been compared to the fibres of a leaf. Rickman
considers it to be the richest remaining example of its period. It is
enclosed within a kind of arch formed by two rows of openwork quatrefoils;
an open framework of a similar nature is often to be seen round circular
windows in French cathedrals. The glass consists of fragments from other
windows, chiefly of the Early English period. Although the pieces are
placed quite at random, forming no subject whatever, yet the effect of
the colouring is good, especially when seen from the opposite end of the
transept. Of all the modern windows in the minster, with their elaborate
subjects, it may safely be said that not one can be compared in effect
with this mass of glowing colour. The glass in the four lancet windows
below also dates from the Early English period. It chiefly consists of
medallions containing various subjects, collected from other windows. The
rest of the stained glass in the transept is modern. Towards the north,
the ribs and bosses of the vaulting were decorated some years ago with
colours and gold, in imitation of the original colouring.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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