How to Visit the English CathedralsSingleton, Esther
History
How to Visit the English Cathedrals
Singleton, Esther
Cathedrals -- England
“It was probably constructed, like the Galilee doorway, as a state
entrance for the bishop. The porch fills the third bay, and
projects as far as the buttresses; its sides recede inwards to the
pair of doors giving access to the Angel Choir. Although the
doorways of our cathedrals, as a rule, cannot in any way be
compared with the magnificent portals to be seen in France, yet
this single example of Lincoln would be quite enough to prove that
English architects were capable of designing a really magnificent
doorway. In the tympanum is the subject of the Last Judgment in
relief. The archivolt is richly decorated with sculpture. In the
inner band is a row of niches with twelve seated figures,
apparently kings and queens: next a double band of delicate
open-work foliage; outside this a row of sixteen slender standing
figures enclosed by interlacing stems, richly decorated with
foliage. The doorway is formed of two cinquefoiled arches,
separated by a central pillar having the canopy and base for a
figure of the Virgin, which has been removed. On either side of the
doorway is a triple canopy for statues, and behind this a row of
slender columns with foliated capitals.”--(A. F. K.)
Next come St. Hugh’s two semicircular chapels, and then St. Hugh’s
transept, slender and filled with so many windows that the wall space is
nearly taken up by them. On top of each of the two turrets, surmounted
by pyramidal roofs, stands an angel. Next comes the =Canon’s Vestry= and
then the western transept with the conspicuous =Bishop’s Eye=. We pause to
admire this beautiful window from the outside and then look above it at
the horizontal band of seven elaborately carved quatrefoils. Above this
again is a Fourteenth Century window with flowing tracery. Around the
gable runs a border of open Gothic tracery. The peak bears a cross.
Next comes the =Nave=, the seven bays of which are separated by
buttresses. Over the roof of the aisle flying buttresses are thrown. A
slender buttress also separates the windows of the aisle. The clerestory
windows are in groups of three. Over the clerestory is a wavy parapet of
the Fourteenth Century, where stand canopied niches for statues.
Grotesque figures project from their bases. Grotesque figures also
project from the crocketed roofs of the pinnacles of the great transept.
The chapel, used as the Consistory Court, follows with two windows
facing south and two east. On the east end of the latter, in front of
the windows, our eyes are arrested by the grotesque =Devil Looking over
Lincoln=. The sculptured figures near by are pilgrims. Next comes =St.
Hugh’s Chapel=, or the Ringers’ Chapel, with one window facing the south.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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