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 _Elder Lady Chapel_ is Early English and therefore earlier than
the choir, and was probably built by Abbot John (1196-1215); it is
therefore, as the architectural details testify, very early work. The
east window is Decorated. There are some curious grotesques in the
spandrels of the arcade--a hunter-goat blowing a horn and carrying a
hare on his back, a ram and an ape playing musical instruments, St.
Michael with the dragon, and a fox carrying off a goose. The foliage
is what is known as stiff leaved, and opposed to the more natural
foliage of the Decorated period. The roof is Early Decorated. The
eastern _Lady Chapel_, formerly the chancel of the choir, was built by
Abbot Knowle and is Decorated like the rest of the eastern part of the
Cathedral. It has a magnificent east window with beautiful tracery.
This is a Jesse window, showing the descent of our Lord from Jesse,
the father of David, and the glass is in the upper parts of the same
date as the stone-work. Above we see the arms of many distinguished
families--the Berkeleys, Mowbrays, Beauchamps and others. The glass in
the other windows is also of the same period and is of much interest.
The parapet under the windows is modern. The reredos is ancient, of
the same date as the chapel, and designed by Knowle, but it has been
much altered in Perpendicular times. The _Sedilia_ have been much
restored. A characteristic feature of this Cathedral is the
star-shaped recesses designed by Knowle, which are very beautiful. In
one of these is Abbot Newbury's tomb with ball-flower ornament; in
another Abbot Hunt (1473). Here, too, is Abbot Newland's tomb, and a
modern brass to the memory of Bishop Butler, and at the back of the
reredos a brass to Bishop Ellicott.
The _South Choir Aisle_ resembles the north. It has a very similar
east window, and the same curious vaulting. Two very interesting
chapels adjoin this aisle. The _Berkeley Chapel_ is entered by a
richly-ornamented doorway which leads into the old sacristy, with its
chests for relics and plate, and a hearth for baking sacramental
bread. Abbot Knowle was a student of nature and loved to reproduce in
stone the fruits and flowers which he saw growing around him. In the
ornaments of the doorway we see the ammonite and medlar. The chapel
had two altars, as we see the remains of two piscinæ, beneath the two
east windows, separated by a screen. There is an altar tomb of Thomas,
Lord Berkeley (1321). The lower part of the tomb is Early English. The
other chapel is the _Newton Chapel_, which is Late Decorated and
almost Perpendicular in some of its details. The ball-flower has
ceased to be used as an ornament. There are many memorials of the
Newton family here, and one to Bishop Gray (1834). Returning to the
south choir aisle we notice another of the curious recesses adorned
with oak leaves, acorns and mistletoe. There are some more Berkeley
tombs which furnish interesting studies of the armour of the period.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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