How to Visit the English CathedralsSingleton, Esther
History
How to Visit the English Cathedrals
Singleton, Esther
Cathedrals -- England
“The window contains eight lights. These lights are coupled in
pairs by four arches with a quatrefoil in the head of each, and
again formed in groups of four by an ogee arch above the other
arches. The flowing curves of these ogee arches are most
ingeniously and beautifully worked into the pattern of the upper
part of the window, which contains five main divisions of
stonework, each like the skeleton of a leaf in shape and in the
delicacy of its pattern. Of these five divisions the top one is
made by splitting up the central mullion; two diverge from it at
the top of the lower lights; and two others curve inwards from the
outside arch. The central mullion runs up almost to the top of the
arch. The mullions are alike in moulding and size. Below the window
is the west door, the head of which is filled with ancient stained
glass. There is a gable above it, running up to the bottom of the
window and containing three niches. There are kneeling figures on
each side of the gable, so that the top of it may have held a
figure of Christ. All that portion of the west end not occupied by
the window and the porch is filled with stories of niches and
arcading.”--(A. C.-B.)
The windows of the aisles of the nave are Decorated.
The =Nave= contains eight bays. Each bay consists of two main divisions:
the upper half containing the triforium and clerestory; and the lower
half, the main arches. A slender moulding runs between the two
divisions. The piers consist of a group of separate shafts and the
capitals are very delicate in design. The triforium is little more than
an extension of the clerestory window-lights; but a band of stone
ornamented with quatrefoils separates triforium and clerestory. The
clerestory windows are geometrical Decorated. The design is much
admired.
“It consists of five lights, the two outer of which are grouped in
a single arch, with a quatrefoil piercing in its head. Between
these two arches and on the top of the arch of the central light is
a circle fitting into the arch of the window, and ornamented with
four quatrefoils, four trefoil piercings, and other smaller lights.
There are capitals to the outside shafts of the windows, and to the
main shafts of the two inner mullions. All these mullions are very
delicately moulded.
“The first window from the west end is plain. The glass in the
other windows is rather finer and less fragmentary than in the
north aisle.
“The second window appears to have been largely restored. The
tabernacle work is very crude in colour. It contains figures of St.
Laurence, St. Christopher, another saint, and three coats-of-arms
below. The top lights are fine, and perhaps of Perpendicular date.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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