The Cathedral Church of Oxford: A description of its fabric and a brief history of the Episcopal seeDearmer, Percy
History
The Cathedral Church of Oxford: A description of its fabric and a brief history of the Episcopal see
Dearmer, Percy
Christ Church Cathedral (Oxford, England)
=Monuments of the South Transept and Chapel=.--There are the tombs of
several prominent royalists in the transept as well as in St. Lucy's
little chapel, most of which might well be spared were it not for their
historic interest. That of Viscount Grandison, for instance, consists of
an urn on a pedestal, altogether huge and hideous; yet Grandison was a
brave and doubtless a graceful cavalier, who died in Oxford of wounds
received in the attack on Bristol in 1643. Another ugly, big monument
is that of Sir E. Littleton, keeper of the Great Seal, who took up arms
"for the royal majesty, during the execrable siege of this city." Sir
John Smith is also buried here: he "redeemed the banner royal" at the
battle of Edgehill, was knighted on the field by the King, and died of
his wounds in 1644, at the early age of twenty-eight.
A very odd monument is that to Viscount Brouncker, who died in 1645,
having been chamberlain to the young Charles, then Prince of Wales. A
smartly dressed gentleman and his wife are represented seated in
meditative attitudes, each with an elbow on the table, while between
their two elbows is propped a skull.
In the tracery of St. Lucy's chapel is to be found the finest old glass
in the cathedral. It belongs to the year 1330, or thereabouts, and
enables one to imagine what the church must have looked like when glass
of this magnificent description abounded, and hangings and altar-pieces
and wall-paintings, hardly less rich, filled every conspicuous position.
In the uppermost compartment of the tracery is a figure of our Lord seated
in glory; below there are angels with censers, and next two Augustinian
monks in blue and white robes, kneeling with outstretched arms; then come
coats of arms, and various grotesque beasts, all most richly coloured
in ruby and blue and green and gold. Below, in the principal spaces,
are (1) St. Martin on horseback giving his coat to the beggar; (2) the
martyrdom of St. Thomas à Becket: St. Thomas' head has been knocked
out by some fanatic, and replaced with white glass; the armour and shields
of the knights should be noticed; (3) St. Augustine, who holds a pastoral
staff, is teaching his monks and others. In the next four spaces are:--The
head of a king; St. Cuthbert, carrying the head of St. Oswald, and wearing
a green chasuble; St. Blaise, in a mulberry-coloured chasuble; the head
of a queen. The glass in the three main lights was destroyed, and then
replaced by some of seventeenth century work, but this too is now gone,
all except a portion of the upper part, which shows that the design was
architectural in character, and the colour that of fog-smitten stone-work.
[Illustration: THIRD CAPITAL OF CHOIR.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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