Highways and Byways in Cambridge and ElyConybeare, John William Edward
History
Highways and Byways in Cambridge and Ely
Conybeare, John William Edward
Cambridgeshire (England) -- Description and travel; Isle of Ely (England) -- Description and travel
We, too, can admire the ingenuity with which the woodwork forming the
Lantern is fitted together so as to be self-supporting; and our
attention should be called to the vast size of the eight upright beams
of oak above us, fore-shortened, as we see them from the floor, so
that we hardly realise that the length of each is sixty-eight feet. We
can well believe the chronicler who tells us that Alan "procured them
with much trouble, searching far and wide, and with the greatest
difficulty finding them at last, paying a great price for them, and
transporting them by land and water to Ely." During the nineteenth
century, when this woodwork had to be restored, and to some extent
replaced, the difficulty met with in procuring and conveying the
timber required was almost enough to daunt those responsible for the
work.
On the central boss of the groining we see a half-length figure of
Christ in Glory, carved in oak, the right hand raised to bless,
considerably above life size. In the sacrist's accounts for the
building of the Lantern, under the date of 1340, occurs this item:
"Paid to John of Burwell, for carving the figure upon the principal
Key Vault, two shillings and his keep at the Prior's table." A good
two-shillings' worth, even if we multiply the sum by thirty to make it
equivalent to the present value of coin.
The modern glass of the windows above these arches commemorates those
whose names are connected with Ely; eight personages in each window.
The south-east window gives us in its upper lights, St. Etheldreda as
Queen, with her father and her two husbands; below she appears again
as Abbess, with Bishop Wilfrid and the two sisters who followed her as
Abbesses, Sexburga and Ermenilda. In the north-east window is
represented her niece Werburga, who also became Abbess, and St.
Withburga; and, on a line with these ladies, St. Edmund and Archbishop
Dunstan; in the lower four lights stand Bishop Ethelwold, Earl
Brithnoth, Abbot Brithnoth, and King Edgar the Peaceful, the refounder
of the Abbey after the Danish desolation. The north-west window
depicts in the upper tier four kings of England, William the
Conqueror, Henry the First, Henry the Third, and Edward the Second. In
the row beneath stand Abbot Simeon, Hervey, the first Bishop of Ely,
Bishop Northwold, and Alan of Walsingham. In the four upper lights of
the south-west window are portrayed Queen Victoria in her Coronation
robes, Prince Albert arrayed as Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, Edward
the Third and Queen Philippa; below come Bishop Turton and Dean
Peacock, who both contributed to the cost of this glass, and in a line
with them are Bishop Hotham and Prior Crauden.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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