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
It has been much restored at various times, but
the extreme beauty of the work has in no way been impaired. The white
hart, chained and collared, the badge of Richard II., is painted on
the pillars. The Chantry of Abbot Parker, or Malverne (1515-1539), has
a much mutilated effigy of this, the last Abbot of Gloucester. Vine
leaves and grapes adorn the screen, and the base has some heraldic
devices and the emblems of the Passion. On the south side is a
projecting bracket which Leland tells us marks the grave of Abbot
Serlo, the founder of the Norman Church. The bracket is Perpendicular,
the effigy Early English, both much mutilated. The figure has a model
of a church in his hand, and therefore denotes that the abbot was a
founder, but the Early English character of the effigy points to it
representing a later abbot than Serlo, and possibly Abbot Foliot
(1243).
The _North Choir Aisle_, or ambulatory, is original Norman, the
windows being filled with Perpendicular tracery. At the north-east
corner is Abbot Boteler's Chantry (1433-1450). The old tiles are
interesting, amongst which we see some representing the arms of the
Boteler or Butler family (three cups). The decoration of the chapel is
all Perpendicular work, screens, windows and reredos. This last is
very fine, and has some well-carved figures of the Apostles. Here is
the effigy of Robert, Duke of Normandy, eldest son of William I.,
whose wild youth was atoned for by his prowess in the Crusades. He,
however, had to endure twenty years' imprisonment, inflicted by his
father. The effigy was probably made not long after his death. The
chest on which it rests is fifteenth-century work. The effigy was
hacked to pieces by Cromwell's soldiers, but the fragments were put
together by Sir Humphrey Tracy, and replaced in the Cathedral.
[Illustration THE LADY CHAPEL]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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