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 _Choir Screen_ has been restored in memory of Dean Scott, who,
with Dean Liddell of Christ Church, Oxford, compiled the well-known
Greek Lexicon. The doorway is ancient Decorated work; the figures are
(beginning on the north side) St. Andrew, Ethelbert, St. Justus, St.
Paulinus, Gundulf, William de Hoo, Walter de Merton, Bishop Fisher,
all of whom were connected with the See of Rochester. As at
Canterbury, we ascend several steps to gain the choir, rendered
necessary by the height of the crypt below. All the work before us in
the choir is Early English, but fashioned on the old Norman walls. It
was finished sufficiently for use in 1227, in the year of the
accession of Henry de Sandford to the bishopric, and is the work of
William de Hoo. The choir aisles are separated from the choir by stone
walls. Shafts of Purbeck marble support the vault. Some of the
brackets of Early English foliage which support the shafts are
beautifully carved. Some of the windows in the presbytery and south
choir transept are later insertions, and are Decorated. Sir G. Scott
wrought drastic changes here, and substituted two tiers of lancets
instead of a large east window, brought the altar away from the
extreme east end and designed a new reredos. He made new stalls, using
much of the old woodwork. Some fine old fourteenth-century painting he
discovered behind the old stalls, which he carefully reproduced, and
designed a new throne, pulpit and reredos. Amidst so much that is new
and beautiful in its way, it is pleasant to discover some ancient
work. The sedilia are Perpendicular, and an Early English piscina and
aumbry are observable behind the altar. There is a curious and
interesting mural painting on the north wall representing the _Wheel
of Fortune_, which is probably a thirteenth-century production.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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