How to Visit the English CathedralsSingleton, Esther
History
How to Visit the English Cathedrals
Singleton, Esther
Cathedrals -- England
Returning to the =North-west Transept=, we visit the scene of the
Martyrdom which took place near St. Benedict’s apsidal chapel (now
occupied by the Dean’s Chapel) Dec. 29, 1170, during vespers. The west
door from the cloisters by which Becket entered and the pavement by the
wall, where he fell, remain. He was mounting the stairs to the north
aisle (now removed) when the knights attacked him.
We have already noticed the great =Window= here, which was the gift, in
1465, of Edward IV. and his Queen, whose
“figures still remain in it, together with those of his daughters
and of the two Princes murdered in the Tower. The ‘remarkably soft
and silvery appearance’ of this window has been noticed by Mr.
Winston. In its original state the Virgin was pictured in it ‘in
seven several glorious appearances’ and in the centre was Becket
himself at full length, robed and mitred. This part was demolished
in 1642 by Richard Culmer, called Blue Dick, the great iconoclast
of Canterbury, who ‘rattled down proud Becket’s glassie bones’ with
a pike, and who, when thus engaged, narrowly escaped martyrdom
himself at the hands of a malignant fellow-townsman.”--(R. J. K.)
In this transept stands the monument of =Archbishop Peckham= (1279-1292)
with his effigy in Irish oak. This is the earliest complete monument in
the Cathedral.
We now pass into the =Dean’s Chapel=, occupying the site of St. Benedict’s
Chapel. It was formerly the Lady-Chapel, built by Prior Goldstone in
1460 and dedicated to the Virgin. The beautiful fan-vault is similar to
that in Henry VII.’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey and to the roof of the
staircase leading to the dining-hall of Christ Church College, Oxford.
The Dean’s Chapel received its present name from the number of tombs and
monuments to deans here, one of the most curious of which is that of
=Dean Boys=, who died in 1625. He is represented as he was found dead in
his Library, and the arrangement of the books with the edges turned
outward from the shelves strikes every one as singular.
=Archbishop Warham=, the last Archbishop before the Reformation, also lies
here, his heavy tomb in great contrast to that of Archbishop Peckham,
already mentioned, near it,--good examples of the styles between 1292
and 1533.
The =East Window= is also notable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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