The Cathedrals of Great Britain: Their History and ArchitectureDitchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
History
The Cathedrals of Great Britain: Their History and Architecture
Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
Cathedrals -- Great Britain; Church architecture -- Great Britain
The _Nave_ is Early English, but Perpendicular tracery has been
inserted in the windows, and the walls of both the aisles and
clerestory have been crowned with a parapet of Decorated work. The
_North Transept_ is rather earlier than the nave, and retains much of
the Transitional character. It has two aisles, and is not so richly
ornamented as the nave. The windows are pointed and have Perpendicular
tracery. Passing on we come to the _Chain Gate_, a very beautiful
structure erected by Bishop Beckington (1443-1465) in Perpendicular
style. Figures of St. Andrew and other saints appear in the niches.
The gallery over the Chain Gate connects the Cathedral with the
Vicar's College. After passing under the gate we see the beautiful
_Chapter-House_, which is octagonal, we are surprised to find the
chapter-house in this position and far removed from the cloisters, but
this is accounted for by the fact that secular canons served this
Cathedral, and not monks; hence the cloisters were an ornamental
appendant rather than the centre of the monastic life. The
chapter-house was finished in 1319 in Decorated style under the
guidance of Dean John de Godilee, who employed one William Joy as the
master-mason. There are some curious gargoyles here. The _Choir_ and
_Lady Chapel_ form a beautiful composition. The western portion of the
choir was until recently attributed to Jocelyn.
[Illustration Wells Cathedral]
It is now generally believed to have been the work of Bishop Reginald,
Jocelyn's predecessor. The eastern portion is the work of Bishop Ralph
(1329-1363), the Lady Chapel was finished in 1326. All this is
therefore Decorated, and windows of the same style have been inserted
in the earlier western portion. There were two Lady Chapels adjoining
the cloisters, but these were ruthlessly destroyed by Bishop Barlow in
1552. The _Cloister_ does not possess the usual features of a monastic
church. It is unusually large, and there are only three walks, the
north being absent. The wall of the east walk is Early English, built
by Jocelyn, but the rest was rebuilt by Bishop Bubwith; the west and
south walks by Bishop Beckington and finished soon after his death.
The style is Perpendicular. The grotesque bosses are interesting. An
Early English doorway leads to the palace. Over the west walk is the
singing-school, and over the east the library. Beckington's rebus (a
_beacon_ and a _tun_) occurs in the bosses. The garth is known as
"Palm Churchyard" from the yew tree in the centre. Branches of yews
were carried in processions on Palm Sunday, and this probably accounts
for the prevalence of yew trees in churchyards. The cloisters have
been made the receptacle of many monuments removed from the Cathedral.
The _Library_ over the east walk, built by Bubwith, has about 3000
volumes, and contains the books belonging to Bishop Ken. An Aldine
edition of Aristotle has the autograph and notes of Erasmus, and there
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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