How to Visit the English CathedralsSingleton, Esther
History
How to Visit the English Cathedrals
Singleton, Esther
Cathedrals -- England
“The visitor should especially remark the Norman towers, the
cresting of the roof, the flying-buttresses and the north porch.
The Norman towers, in connection with the long unbroken roof,
should perhaps be regarded as constituting the specialty of Exeter.
At all events, the peculiarity of their present position is so
great and so striking as at once to attract attention; and the
question of their place in the original Norman church is one of
very considerable interest. Each tower consists of six stages, the
two lowest of which are plain: the other four have blind arcades
and circular window openings, the details and arrangements of which
vary in the two towers. At the angles are square buttresses, which
rise above the uppermost story. The south tower is Norman
throughout; that on the north was altered by Bishop Courtenay for
the reception of the great bell from Llandaff, and its final stage
is Perpendicular. The _fleur-de-lis_ cresting of the roof is of
lead (with which the whole of the roof is covered), and its form is
very graceful and effective. The flying-buttresses derive a very
grand effect from the fact that the aisle-roofs slope outwards, and
not, as usual, inwards. Resulting also from this peculiarity are,
the great height of the aisles on the exterior, and an unusual
development of the clerestory, without any intervening space
between it and the aisle-roofs; and within the nave, the absence of
the triforium; the place of which is, however, indicated by the
blind arcade above the piers. The north porch with its triple
canopy is part of Grandisson’s work, and very beautiful.”--(R. J.
K.)
Many people are at first disappointed with their first view of the =West
Front= and more particularly of the =Screen= with its noble array of
statues. The impression that it produces has been well described by W.
D. Howells, who writes on his visit to Exeter:
“To the first glance it is all a soft gray blur of age-worn
carving, in which no point or angle seems to have failed of the
touch which has blent all archaic sanctities and royalties of the
glorious screen in a dim sumptuous harmony of figures and faces.”
Now let us examine it more in detail.
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