In the aisle, however, of the north transept, where the altars of St.
Benedict and St. Gregory and that of St. Nicholas and St. Giles once
stood, there are some portions of the pictures which adorned the wall
behind them, including, in connection with St. Gregory’s altar, the
upper part of a figure vested with the pallium. There are also some
scanty remnants of colour left behind the altars of Our Lady of Houghall
and Our Lady of Bolton in the aisle of the south transept. The site of
the Neville Chantry in the south aisle of the nave still contains
sufficient remains of the delicate and tasteful pattern to enable one
to judge what the design has been, and slight traces of colour are to be
found upon the arches of the arcade behind the altars in the Chapel of
the Nine Altars. It is probable, indeed, that the walls behind all the
altars in the church have been more or less decorated with painting,
though certainly it had not been used generally on the church itself.
The point of junction between the Norman choir and the
thirteenth-century work which connects it with the eastern transept may
be placed at the fourth pier from the eastern tower arch on each side.
The arch of the triforium next these piers comes close up to them,
whereas in the corresponding piers to the west there is a space between
the arch and the pier. The same feature is to be seen in the triforium
arch, which is next to the piers of the tower arch, which have five
shafts, the others having only three. It is very probable that the piers
at the entrance of the apse supported a larger transverse arch than the
others, corresponding in this to the great tower arch, and that the
supporting piers had, like those at the entrance of the choir, five
shafts. These piers, the body of which forms a part of Carileph’s Norman
work, untouched where they face into the aisles, have been encased on
the choir face with very rich and tasteful decoration of about the
middle of the thirteenth century. Above, upon each side of the choir, is
a figure of an angel under a canopy, that on the south side holding a
crown in the left hand, the other having lost the uplifted hand and what
it once held. They are the only two left out of a numerous host of
statues once decorating the church, and their beauty makes the
destruction which has befallen the others the more to be regretted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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