Stained Glass Tours in EnglandSherrill, Charles Hitchcock
History
Stained Glass Tours in England
Sherrill, Charles Hitchcock
Cathedrals -- England; England -- Description and travel; Glass painting and staining -- England
On descending into the town, many interesting sights meet one's view in
the quaint winding streets and narrow lanes. The name of one of these,
Watling Street, recalls the fact that through this city ran that great
Roman road. Another element of the picturesque is added by the
meandering through the town of the river Stour, over whose narrow stream
project many of the houses. Finally we arrive at a large gatehouse,
whose modest portal affords access to the sacred precincts, and
introduces us to a series of most delightful pictures, for there are few
cathedrals in the world placed in so charming a setting. An old legend
gravely narrates that when the walls of the sanctuary were heightened
about the middle of the tenth century, the building was, perforce,
roofless for three years, and that during that period no rain fell
within this favoured enclosure! We need not stop to consider the
different features of the architecture which have delighted so many eyes
and are so well known from photographs and other reproductions. We must,
however, note in passing that during à Becket's exile he chanced to be
in Sens at the very time that the great French architect, William of
Sens, was finishing the first attempt in pointed Gothic. This probably
explains why, when the choir of Canterbury Cathedral was destroyed by
fire, the monks in 1174 summoned William to rebuild it. During the work
he fell from the scaffold and received injuries from which he died. The
selection of that foreign architect assists in explaining why the mosaic
glass at Canterbury so closely resembles the late twelfth century
windows at Sens, and permits us to conjecture that with the French
architect there came over French glaziers. The French Gothic which was
here introduced by William of Sens was, to a certain extent, copied
elsewhere. Traces of it at York Cathedral are doubtless due to the fact
that the Archbishop of York who caused its introduction had been
Archdeacon at Canterbury during the time that William of Sens was
working there. We will enter the church and press on to the northern
transept, where took place that tragic episode resulting from the
constant strife between Henry II. and the proud churchman à Becket. In
the dimness of this old-world corner one can almost live over again the
scene at twilight, December 29, 1170, when the four knights, taunted
into exasperation by à Becket's hot words, cut down the defenceless
priest, thinking thus to serve their royal master. Not only did this
base act bring upon Henry the open shame of being forced to do most
abject penance before the shrine of his sainted victim, but it also
produced many extraordinary results of widely differing nature during
the centuries to follow. Just after the assassination the monks, upon
removing the garments of their murdered chief, found, to their great
surprise, that beneath the rich raiment of him whom they had always
mistrusted as a brilliant courtier, was worn the haircloth shirt of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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