How to Visit the English CathedralsSingleton, Esther
History
How to Visit the English Cathedrals
Singleton, Esther
Cathedrals -- England
“The Choir and Presbytery are very similar to the nave in the main
features of their design. The piers show a different plan, which
provides for eight shafts of Purbeck marble to each. The inner
mouldings of the arches exhibit the dog-tooth ornamentation of
their period. The triforium and clerestory differ slightly from the
corresponding parts of the nave. In each of the last two bays of
the presbytery the triforium has five small cinquefoil arches. At
the east wall of the choir above the reredos is an arcade of five
simply-pointed arches, below a triplet window in the gable, which
is filled with stained glass, given by the Earl of Radnor in 1781,
and representing _The Brazen Serpent_, after a design by Mortimer.
“The choir still bears traces of Wyatt’s destruction. He removed
the original reredos behind the high altar and the screen before
the Lady-Chapel, so that both, with the low eastern aisle, were
thrown into the choir. He shifted the high altar from the choir to
the extreme east end of the Lady-Chapel, sacrificing several
chantries and tombs to do so. Views of the cathedral after his
reign of terror fail to show any gain to compensate for so much
loss; the extreme length is not apparently an advantage, while the
bare look of the interior seems decidedly intensified by the
increased vista that he was so delighted to obtain, and for which,
with a light heart, he effaced the silent records of dead
centuries. The decorations of the roof of the choir and presbytery
are reproductions of the original series of paintings, dating, it
is thought, from the Thirteenth Century. The subjects are the
prophets and saints, Christ and the four Evangelists and the twelve
months.”--(G. W.)
On the north side of the choir is =Bishop Audley’s Chantry=, built by the
bishop in 1520, four years before his death. It is late Perpendicular
and resembles the chantry of Bishop Fox at Winchester. The fan-tracery
of the roof was originally coloured. In the corresponding bay on the
south side is the chantry founded by =Walter, Lord Hungerford=, in 1429.
It was removed from the nave in 1778.
The =Choir-Stalls= are composed of pieces of various dates with some
additions by Sir Christopher Wren and canopies by Wyatt. The =Reredos= is
modern, the gift of Earl Beauchamp in memory of his ancestor, whose
chantry Wyatt destroyed. It was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott.
Many of the Earls of Pembroke and their wives are buried near the choir.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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