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
The chief window of the north-west transept, generally called the chapel
of the Martyrdom, was presented by Edward IV., and when complete must
have been a fine example of the Perpendicular school. Its seven tall
lancets are broken into four tiers, and surmounted by handsome tracery
lights. Here formerly appeared "The Seven Glorious Appearances of the
Virgin," with à Becket in the centre, but "Blue Dick" Culmer destroyed
them all while engaged in his pleasing task of "rattling down proud
Becket's glassie bones." Notwithstanding the treatment to which this
window was subjected, it still presents a very attractive appearance.
The original fragments have been collected within coloured borders and
throw into bold relief the richly toned kneeling figures of Edward IV.
and his wife, which are placed facing each other. Behind the queen are
stationed her five daughters, divided into one group of three and
another of two, while behind the king are the two little princes, who
were later murdered in the Tower of London. The backgrounds behind the
figures are noteworthy because they are composed of repetitions of the
badge of each individual; behind the king are the white roses and suns
of York; behind the queen, green thistles; feathers behind the Prince of
Wales, &c. Above them is a tier of white-robed angels with red wings,
against backgrounds of blue or green, supporting heraldic shields. Just
below this window and leading off to the east is the Dean's Chapel,
lighted on the east by a very pleasant quarry window, upon each of whose
panes appears in yellow stain the double knot which indicates the donor
to have been Archbishop Bourchier, whom we shall encounter later on at
Knole. A relieving note of colour is lent by the shield of arms at the
bottom of each lancet. Three of the small windows that light the
picturesque little baptistery contain effigies of ecclesiastical
dignitaries and saints within richly toned borders, while in the small
traceries above them are heraldic blazons.
Splendid as this noble cathedral now is, how much more impressive must
it have been when all its windows were filled with mosaic medallions
through which a warmly tinted illumination tempered the minster gloom.
It is difficult to repress the anachronistic wish that the knights who
came here seeking to slay à Becket might instead have wreaked their lust
for blood upon "Blue Dick" Culmer!
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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