How to Visit the English CathedralsSingleton, Esther
History
How to Visit the English Cathedrals
Singleton, Esther
Cathedrals -- England
Turning round the corner, we come to the =South porch=, two bays and two
stories (modern) and elaborately carved. Next comes the Jesus Chapel;
then the octagonal Chapter-House; then the Fraser memorial chapel; and
then we turn the corner and come to the Lady-Chapel, unusually small and
projecting only about eighteen feet. The windows are Eighteenth Century,
though the tracery is Decorated in general character.
Passing the window of the north-choir-aisle and the eastern end of the
Derby Chapel, we again turn the corner. The first projection is the Ely
Chapel and the next and smaller one is an engine room used for working
the organ. The small door next opens into the ante-chapel of the Derby
Chapel. Finally we reach the north porch.
“It is a dimly lighted building; this is due chiefly to two causes:
first to the fact that it is enormously wide, and the aisle windows
are therefore far from the central nave, and secondly to the fact
that almost all the windows both of aisles and clerestory are
filled with painted glass, in many cases of a deep colour, and
rendered still more impervious to light by the incrustation of
carbon deposited on their outside by the perpetual smoke of the
city. So dark is the church that in the winter months it has
generally to be lit with gas all the day long, and even in the
summer, in comparatively bright weather, some gas burners will
generally be found alight. The mist also of the exterior atmosphere
finds its way into the building, and hangs beneath the roof,
lending an air of mystery to the whole place, and giving rise to
most beautiful effects when the sunlight streams through the
clerestory windows. The tone also of the nave arcading and
clerestory rebuilt in recent years, of warm, rose-coloured
sandstone, is very lovely.”--(T. P.)
The =Nave= is wider than it is long. With its double aisles it measures
114 feet; its length is only 85 feet. The choir is about the same
proportion. The Lady-Chapel, at the extreme east, is very small. The
sides of the nave and choir are still further extended by chapels,
partitioned off by screens. On the south side of the nave we have first
=St. George’s Chapel= (founded in 1508) and =St. Nicholas’s Chapel= (founded
in 1186, before the present church was built); and on the north side the
space once occupied by the =Holy Trinity Chapel= (1498) and =St. James’s
Chapel= (1507).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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