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 beauty of the interior is the delightful east window, whose
stout central mullion, two-thirds of the way up, divides and inclines
outward to right and left until it touches the frame. A charmingly
soft colour scheme is here used, quite in the best manner of the
Perpendicular epoch. It is difficult to puzzle out the original order of
the figures and canopies, for the window was greatly damaged during the
prevalence of the playful custom, many years ago, of permitting the
village urchins to throw stones at it! Although the design has been
injured, nothing could spoil the colour effect. Viewed from a proper
distance the whole presents an appearance of tender grey, mellowed by
soft blue, with here and there a note of red. The tracery lights escaped
practically unscathed, and each contains a complete figure and canopy.
This great central embrasure is flanked on both the north and the south
by three large clerestory lights, the glazing of the southerly ones
being much less complete than that of their neighbours across the
chancel, where the figure and canopy work is excellent, and the
combination of tints remarkably good. The side columns of the shrines
are broader than is customary, while at the top are an unusual number of
pinnacles, as many as fifteen being noted in one case. These little
spires are shown to advantage against backgrounds of soft blue and pink.
At the top of the north-west window is the martyrdom of St. Woerstan, in
the background of which appear the Malvern Hills. The next most
important glass occupies the large embrasure at the end of the north
transept, which, however, is somewhat reduced from its original
proportions by having the lower panels in some of the side lancets
walled up. The glass here is not so disarranged as in the east window,
and we are able to decipher portraits of Henry VII., his queen, and
members of his family. Something out of the ordinary is the large blue
corona spread over the central part, serving to tie three of the lancets
into one picture. Interesting details occur in the "Adoration of the
Magi" (third from the right in lower row). In the west wall at the
north-west corner of this transept are single figures in canopy, two
rows of three each, one above the other. The great west window is filled
with fragments brought from the nave clerestory, and is mostly figures
and canopies. Taken as a whole, the glass in this church provides a
delightful experience. It is very typical of the lighter tones that came
in with the Perpendicular style, but its greatest service is in teaching
the lesson that, no matter how much a window's design may have suffered,
it will carry its message of beauty, if only the original colour scheme
be sound.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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