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
On the _South Side_ we see the remains of the monastic buildings. The
north and east walks of the cloisters alone remain, except a few
traces of the western walk, and the north is a restoration. We will
visit the east walk from the Cathedral. Passing round to the _North
Side_ we notice the _North Porch_ built in 1873. We have often noticed
the figures of the four great doctors of the church--SS. Gregory,
Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine. They appear in the sculptures of many
of our cathedrals. A great storm of indignation arose at Bristol when
it was proposed to place these figures here, and the four Evangelists
were substituted. We can pass over the modern work, which is not
wholly satisfactory, and notice the interesting character of the
eastern portion. The north transept has some remains of Norman work in
the north wall. The north window is modern in memory of Colston, and
replaces an Early English window. The building adjoining is the Elder
Lady Chapel, which is Early English work of the early thirteenth
century. The east window is Decorated and is rather earlier than the
choir built by Abbot Knowle (1306-1332). The battlemented parapet is,
of course, a later addition. The buttresses of the chapel are
Decorated, and there are curious little flying buttresses connecting
the two pinnacles. The Lady Chapel at the east end of the Cathedral is
of the same date as the choir, and has a large, noble and graceful
window. Passing round to the south we see the outside of the Berkeley
Chapel, of Decorated design, and adjoining it the sacristy and
external walls of the Newton Chapel, chapter-house and modern vestry.
Here, too, is the old churchyard. The _Central Tower_ is Perpendicular
and was constructed by Abbot Newland (1481-1515) or his successor,
Abbot Elliot (1515-1526).
THE INTERIOR
Retracing our steps, we enter the Cathedral by the north porch and
view the new _Nave_ from the west end. The slender piers and fine
vaulting are striking, and the work is in many ways very beautiful.
The surface of the walls in the aisles is broken by canopied recesses
for tombs, one only being occupied by a marble figure of Dean Elliot.
The baptistry is in the south-west or Colston Tower, and is decorated
in memory of Bishop Monk. Already there are many memorial windows of
good modern glass.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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