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 _Lady Chapel_ is on the west of the choir aisle, and is of Early
English construction. It was added about 1250, when the present piers
and vault were built. The east wall, as we have said, is manifestly
earlier, and is part of one of the earlier Saxon churches. The east
window is restored Decorated. The west arch is round-headed, and shows
that this part of the chapel was the east aisle of the north transept.
There are extensive remains of colouring. Here is the remarkable
"Watching Chamber," supposed by some to be a later shrine of St.
Frideswide, and by Professor Willis and others to be the chamber where
watch was kept for guarding the gold and jewels which adorned the
actual shrine. It has three stages, and is very beautiful
Perpendicular work. In this chapel there are some interesting
monuments--Sir George Nowers (1425) (with good example of armour);
Prior Guymond (?) (1149), or Prior Alexander de Sutton (1316), with
Decorated canopy and effigy; Lady Montacute (1353), the supposed
founder of the Latin Chapel; Robert Burton, author of _Anatomy of
Melancholy_ (1639). Some "Morris" windows have been inserted here
designed by Burne-Jones, very beautiful in themselves, but perhaps
scarcely in keeping with their surroundings. The St. Cecilia window is
extremely fine. The _Latin Chapel_ is mainly Decorated work of the
time of Edward III., the western parts being earlier. The vault has
some richly-foliated bosses, on which appear the waterlily and the
roses, and heads surmounted with crown and mitre. The east window has
strange Venetian tracery, but some excellent modern glass designed by
Burne-Jones and representing incidents in the life of St. Frideswide.
The other windows have some fine old fourteenth-century glass; the
north-east window is modern. The woodwork is very fine; it is later
than the chapel, and was not designed for it. The cardinal's hat,
supported by angels on one of the carved poppy-heads, shows that this
was prepared for Wolsey's choir. Some of the work is much older. In
this chapel the writer used to listen to the lectures of the divinity
professor, and was often distracted from the discourse by the
architectural beauties around him. Beautiful vistas may be obtained
here of "long-drawn aisles and fretted vault," and he became very
conversant with the history of St. Frideswide as depicted in the fine
east window.
The _North Transept_ is similar to the nave in style. The north window
is a modern restoration, and the glass is not very pleasing modern
work. Here is the Perpendicular tomb of a monk, Zouch (1503), and some
good brasses in the aisle. The north aisle has Norman vaulting. The
windows are restored Perpendicular, and the glass is modern. The
window at the west end of the aisle was refashioned by Dean Brian
Duppa in his usual barbarous manner, but it has some good Flemish
glass by Van Ling representing Jonah and the Gourd, with Nineveh in
the background.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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