How to Visit the English CathedralsSingleton, Esther
History
How to Visit the English Cathedrals
Singleton, Esther
Cathedrals -- England
“The painting may be thus generally described. The hollow of the
abacus of the capitals was red, the lower member of the same,
green; the whole of the bell red, the leaves alternately green and
yellow, with the stalks, running down, of the same colours, into
the red bell of the capital. The vertical mouldings between the
marble shafts were red and blue alternately; the lower shafts green
and blue, with red in the hollows, and the foliage on these also is
green and yellow. Some of the horizontal mouldings are partly
coloured also. The bosses in the groining are yellow and green, as
in the capitals. All the colouring, which was very rich, was
effected with water colours; in one instance only has any gold been
discerned, and that was upon one of the bosses in the roof.”--(F.
S. W.)
Abbot Morwent pulled down the west end of the Nave in 1421-1437 and
reconstructed it in the Perpendicular style. It is supposed that the
original =west front= was like that of the Abbey at Tewkesbury.
The west window contains nine lights, filled with modern glass.
The =South aisle=, originally Norman, was remodelled about 1318. The
tracery of the windows is unusual. The ball-flower is seen in great
profusion in this part of the Cathedral.
In this aisle there is a monument to Dr. Jenner of vaccination fame, to
whom the five-light west window here is also a memorial.
The tracery of the windows of the clerestory is attributed to Abbot
Morwent.
The =North aisle= retains its original Norman vaulting, and the Norman
piers, which correspond to the piers in the Nave, are divided into
several members. Some of their capitals are richly carved. In each bay
there is some Perpendicular tracing. A stone bench along the wall is
also Perpendicular.
The door into the Cloister at the west end of the aisle is very fine,
and the side niches and canopy work over it deserve study.
The door at the eastern end of the aisle leading to the Cloisters is
also Perpendicular. Both doors have fan-vaulted recesses, like the great
west door of the Nave.
The west end of the aisle is the work of Abbot Morwent (1421-1437).
A heavy stone screen, dating from 1820, closes the east end of the nave.
We pass through a small arch in this screen, and beneath the broad
platform on which the great organ stands.
This was originally built in 1663-1665 by Thomas Harris, and was painted
and gilded in 1666. The oak case is in the Renaissance Style.
Little idea of the beauty of the =Choir= can be obtained from the Nave. We
enter from the north aisle. It is 140 feet long; 33 feet 7 inches broad;
and 86 feet high.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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