English Cathedrals Illustrated: Second and Revised EditionBond, Francis
History
English Cathedrals Illustrated: Second and Revised Edition
Bond, Francis
Cathedrals -- England; Cathedrals -- Wales
make the termination of the Lady chapel, invisible from many points of
view, seem infinitely distant. Of these mysterious distances, shadowy
recesses and changing vistas, there is nothing in Lincoln and York; the
whole eastern limb is seen at a single glance, and, unfortunately, is
foreshortened by the eye. Wells and Salisbury internally look longer
than they are, Lincoln and York much shorter. In mediæval days, however,
the ritualistic divisions of the church were marked off by a series of
screens, each adding apparent length to the interior. So many of these
screens, however, have been swept away by Wyatt, Scott and the like,
or replaced by paltry open-work, as at Lichfield and Durham, that many
of the cathedrals of this type are now mere open barns; all sense of
mystery, all sense of magnitude gone. Externally, York and Lincoln and
Beverley have the best of it. The sweep of a sky-line, five hundred feet
in length, at a height so vast, is sublimely impressive. The cost of an
exterior kept at an unbroken height for such a distance is very great,
but it is worth the cost.
[Illustration: TRANSEPT]
Cathedrals of the latter type, such as Ely, York, and Southwell, are
quite presentable with a central tower of moderate height, provided that
it is reinforced by more important towers to the west. An exterior of
the former type, that of Wells and Salisbury, demands a very important
central tower. Accordingly, every cathedral of this type has a big
central tower—viz., St. Alban’s, Hereford, Wells; or a spire as well as a
tower—viz., Chichester. (Winchester alone is an exception, an exception
which proves how very much a central tower is needed in such elevations.)
In such exteriors, looked at from the east, hills rise beyond hills, alps
beyond alps, and the eye instinctively looks up to see the highest ranges
aspire into the pyramidal outline of a Matterhorn. And this is what is
given us at Salisbury.
[Illustration: CHOIR.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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