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
square chapel, constructed not long after the transept was built, is
not known. Its name, the =Dean's Chapel=, appears to be given without
reason. The oak door by which we enter from the transept has some
fine hinges and bands of wrought ironwork, dating from the thirteenth
century. The chamber was originally in two compartments, one above the
other. The upper one was reached by a newel staircase to the north; this
is now blocked up. The dividing floor has been removed, but the line may
be traced on the walls, and the curious triangular-headed recesses above
look like the cupboards of a dispensary. It has been suggested that the
upper chamber served this purpose. There appears to be nothing which
would give a clue as to the use to which the lower chamber was put. It
is lit by two rough square-headed windows, cut in the double arcade of
the western wall. The south window has still the original oak shutters,
with wrought-iron hinges and bands. The tie-beams of the east and south
arches of the compartment still remain, and are now built up in the
walls. The more northern of the semi-circular chapels is the one that
was lengthened in the early part of the thirteenth century; the present
eastern wall is entirely the work of James Essex, who, it will be
remembered, reconstructed the chapel in 1772. It would be difficult to
trace the history of this chapel. Whether it was dedicated to St. John
the Baptist, and was consequently the original burial-place of St. Hugh,
or whether it was (as Dugdale called it) the chapel of the Virgin Mary,
is a question still undecided.[9] Like its neighbour, it is divided off
from the transept by an oak screen carved with Gothic tracery (partly in
openwork), and the linen pattern, constructed probably about the end of
the fifteenth century. In the north wall there was originally a doorway,
now walled up, leading into the Common Room. Fragments of the monument
of Bishop Grosseteste, which stood in the south arm of the transept,
are now stored away in this chapel. Each chapel has arcading round its
walls, and is lit by two windows. On the wall which separates the "Dean's
Chapel" from the transept are painted full-length figures of Robert Bloet
and the three bishops who came after him--Alexander the Magnificent,
Robert de Chesney, and Walter de Coutances. They are said to have been
buried near here; if so, their tombs must have been removed from some
other spot, as the transept was not built until a later period. They
are marked in the plan of the year 1672 in Dugdale's "_Monasticon
Anglicanum_." The bishops are represented beneath Gothic arches, and
have their names inscribed above them. They were painted in the year
1728, by a Venetian artist named Vincenzo Damini, aided by his pupil,
Giles Hussey (b. 1710: d. 1788). Two years later Hussey accompanied his
master to Italy; Damini decamped at Bologna with all Hussey's property,
and the latter was obliged to obtain relief from Signor Chislonzoni,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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