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
wooden ceiling with its quaintly carved bosses, and also in the fine
wooden gallery at the south end, against which are arranged many suits
of armour. Our visit will not be complete without a peep into the
spacious kitchen below, and also into a small muniment-room above, which
is proved by a carefully preserved letter, bearing Queen Elizabeth's
signature, to have once served as a prison for Mary Queen of Scots.
YORK
An account of the Early English glass at York will be found at p. 57,
and of that of the Decorated period at p. 76.
The huge choir of the cathedral abounds in splendid specimens of the
glazier's art during the Perpendicular period. Here is collected all
that the minster possesses of that epoch except a few fragments in the
east and west aisles of the great south transept. So attractive is the
manner in which the illumination of the choir is effected, as to inspire
many poetic descriptions of its windows. One author says that they
"remind one of particles of sunlight on running water"; another speaks
of "the glittering screens of colour and soaring shafts of stone." With
this latter author we are disposed to take issue upon his use of the
word "glittering" in describing glass of this period, for that
description more properly belongs to the earlier brightly hued mosaic
medallions. In fact, so soft and delicate are the colour and design upon
Perpendicular glass that one is apt to neglect the picture which it
bears. Indeed, one might say that the service performed at that time by
the picture was but to lend coherence to the window, or, perhaps better,
to prevent the colours from being unmeaningly kaleidoscopic when viewed
from near at hand. Winston says that the earliest windows in the choir
date from the close of the fourteenth century, and are the third from
the east in the south aisle, the third and fourth from the east in the
north clerestory, and the fourth from the east in the south clerestory.
Note the early Tree of Jesse of this period in the third embrasure from
the west in the south choir aisle. The other windows of these aisles
east of the small easterly transepts, as well as the lancets on the east
side of the great westerly transepts, are from the time of Henry IV.,
while all the others date from Henry V. and VI., chiefly from the
latter. These small easterly transepts rejoice in the possession of two
large windows, one at the north and the other at the south end, the
former dedicated to St. William and the latter to St. Cuthbert. In the
latter, which is seventy-three feet by sixteen feet, appear members of
the House of Lancaster. Beginning at the eastern end of the north aisle,
we shall find that the first window possesses a few fragments, but that
the next three are among the finest here, their combination of greys,
browns and blues being noticeably good. The next three are paler in tone
and not satisfactory. The Crucifixion at the end of this aisle in the
east wall is excellent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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