York MinsterPurey-Cust, Arthur P. (Arthur Perceval)
History
York Minster
Purey-Cust, Arthur P. (Arthur Perceval)
Cathedrals -- England; York Minster
I have no space to dwell on all the innumerable details of architectural
ornament or quaint mediæval devices which decorate the walls, neither on
the many interesting monuments scattered throughout the aisles, such as
the delicate piscinas, or the Fiddler, a modern reproduction of an old
figure which had crowned the little spiral turret of the south transept,
intended as a portrait of Dr. Camidge, the organist, at the beginning of
this century; or the tomb of good Archbishop Frewen, the first prelate
of the Province after the Restoration.
[Illustration: The Fiddler]
But even a sketch of York Minster would not be complete without some
mention of the glass, for if the beauty in the form of our "flos florum"
is due to its architecture, very much of its beauty in colour depends on
the glowing and mellowed tints with which its windows are filled. But it
is a large subject to enter upon, for as regards quantity there are no
less than one hundred and three windows in the Minster, most of them
entirely, and the remainder partly filled with real old mediæval glass,
excepting the tracery. Some of the windows too are of great size. The
east window, which is entirely filled with old glass, consists of nine
lights, and measures 78 ft. in height, 31 ft. 2 in. in width. The two
choir transept windows, that in the north transept to St. William, and
the south to St. Cuthbert, measure 73 ft. by 16 ft. They have both been
restored, the latter very recently, but by far the greater part of them
is old glass. On each side of the choir the aisles contain nine windows
measuring 14 ft. 9 in. by 12 ft., only the tracery lights of which are
modern; the same number of windows fill the clear-story above, the
greater portions of which are ancient.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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