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
Norman, the work of William of Sens and William the Englishman. Here
we have Norman round-headed windows with arcades, also a circular
window, and on the west a Norman turret capped with a short spire.
Proceeding eastwards we see Anselm's Tower, and on the extreme east
the corona, the work of English William. On the west Henry IV.'s
Chantry, St. Andrew's Chapel, corresponding to that of St. Anselm,
the treasury, and the range of monastic buildings, consisting of
library, chapter-house and cloisters, which we will examine later. A
wall surrounded the precincts, the principal gate being that called
_Christ Church_ Gate, erected by Goldstone in Perpendicular style in
1517.
THE INTERIOR
We enter the _Nave_ by the south porch. Lanfranc's nave was entirely
removed in 1380 on account of its ruinous state, and the present nave
erected by Prior Chillenden, who was employed and supported by
Archbishops Sudbury, Courtenay and Arundel. As we have said, it
resembled Winchester, built at the same time, but it is lighter in
character, as here the piers were built anew, and not cased with
Perpendicular work as at Winchester. The height of the floor of the
choir necessitated a lofty flight of steps leading to it from the
nave; and this is a peculiar feature of this Cathedral and of much
beauty. The nave is very lofty, being 80 feet high. The great west
window contains the fragments of old glass which have been brought
together here. The rest of the stained glass is modern and hideous. In
the north aisle are monuments of Adrian Saravia, the friend of Hooker
(1612), Orlando Gibbons, organist to Charles I., Sir John Boys (1614),
founder of a hospital, Archbishop Sumner (1862), who crowned Queen
Victoria, and memorials of military men who died for their country. In
the south aisle are monuments of Dr. Broughton, Bishop of Sydney, and
Dean Lyall (1858).
The central tower is supported by original Norman piers, cased with
Perpendicular work at the time when the nave was built. The vault and
all the upper part of the tower above the roof were erected by Prior
Goldstone (1495-1517), and also the arches, which act as buttresses
and bear the Prior's rebus, three golden bars. The screen is
fifteenth-century work and is remarkable for its beauty; formerly the
figures of our Lord and the Twelve Apostles occupied the upper niches,
but these fell victims to Puritan iconoclasm. The devastators spared,
however, the figures of the kings in the lower tier.
The _North-West Transept_, or Chapel of the _Martyrdom of Becket_,
claims our close attention, as the event which occurred here filled
Christendom with amaze.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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