George Edmund Street: Unpublished Notes and Reprinted PapersStreet, George Edmund
History
George Edmund Street: Unpublished Notes and Reprinted Papers
Street, George Edmund
Architecture, Gothic; Church architecture -- Europe; Europe -- Description and travel; Street, George Edmund, 1824-1881
I will now proceed to give a detailed description of the interior.
The nave is entered by the west door, under the tower. The piers of
the tower arches were re-cased in the fourteenth century, and the
capitals, carved with poor stiff foliage at the same time, afford a
marked contrast to the workmanship and design of the earlier capitals.
The three arches under the north, south, and east walls of the tower
are unaltered, of the same character as the arches in the nave, and
evidently earlier than the piers which support them. The nave and
aisles consist, in addition to the engaged western steeple, of three
bays. The most remarkable feature in the design of this interior is the
way in which the whole of the work gradually increases in richness of
detail and in beauty from west to east. This will be seen immediately
on an examination of the building itself. It is a very charming
feature, and though one might have supposed that it would not be so
very uncommon, suggested as it seems to be naturally by the respect
which in almost all ages has been paid to the altar end of the church,
I believe I may affirm that Stone church is unique in the studied way
in which it has been done. At the risk of being very tedious, I give a
detailed description of the interior, which will explain the variation
of the design to which I have referred:
_Western Bay_ (_north side_).--The window is of two lancets, with
quatrefoil above: the inside arch chamfered, with a simple label
returned, without any carving at bottom. The jambs are simply splayed:
arches between nave and aisles moulded.
_Middle Bay._--Windows of same shape, but the inside arch and the
quatrefoil are richly moulded, and the internal jambs are finished with
a moulding and stone shaft, with moulded base and carved capital. The
label is enriched with dogteeth (it is the only label in the church
in which they occur), and is terminated with heads of a queen on the
right, and a king on the left, the latter much defaced.
The arches between the nave and aisles are moulded, but more richly
than those in the western bay.
_Eastern Bay._--Tracery of windows as before; the quatrefoil is not
moulded. Jambs have two shafts (one stone and one marble) on each side,
and a detached marble shaft in the centre. From these a richly-moulded
rear-arch springs, with tracery of two lights corresponding with that
of the windows. The whole composition of this window is of extreme
beauty.
The arches between aisles and nave in this bay are richly moulded, and
the centre of the soffit is enriched with a large dogtooth, making it
much more ornate in character than the other arches.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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