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First Edition, December, 1896.
Second Edition, revised, and with Eighteen additional Illustrations,
1898.
[Illustration: SALISBURY CATHEDRAL FROM THE BISHOP'S PALACE.
_From a Photograph by Catherine Weed Ward._]
THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF SALISBURY
A Description of Its Fabric
and a Brief History of the
See of Sarum
by
GLEESON WHITE
With Fifty Illustrations
[Illustration]
London George Bell & Sons 1898
Chiswick Press:--Charles Whittingham and Co.
Tooks Court, Chancery Lane, London.
GENERAL PREFACE.
This series of monographs has been planned to supply visitors to the
great English Cathedrals with accurate and well illustrated guide
books at a popular price. The aim of each writer has been to produce a
work compiled with sufficient knowledge and scholarship to be of value
to the student of archaeology and history, and yet not too technical in
language for the use of an ordinary visitor or tourist.
To specify all the authorities which have been made use of in each
case would be difficult and tedious in this place. But amongst the
general sources of information which have been almost invariably found
useful are:--firstly, the great county histories, the value of which,
especially in questions of genealogy and local records, is generally
recognized; secondly, the numerous papers by experts which appear from
time to time in the transactions of the antiquarian and archaeological
societies; thirdly, the important documents made accessible in the
series issued by the Master of the Rolls; fourthly, the well-known
works of Britton and Willis on the English Cathedrals; and, lastly,
the very excellent series of Handbooks to the Cathedrals, originated
by the late Mr. John Murray, to which the reader may in most cases be
referred for fuller detail, especially in reference to the histories
of the respective sees.
GLEESON WHITE.
EDWARD F. STRANGE.
_Editors of the Series._
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
The authorities consulted in the preparation of this book are too
numerous to quote in detail. But the admirable works by the late Rev.
W.H. Jones have been proved so full of useful information that the
service they rendered must be duly acknowledged, although in almost
every instance further reference was made to the building itself--or
to officially authenticated documents. Nor must the help of one of the
cathedral cicerones be overlooked, in spite of his desire to remain
anonymous; for his knowledge of the building served to correct several
mistakes in the first edition. One moot point concerning the bishop
commemorated by an effigy in the North Choir Aisle is left an open
question. Local authorities insist that it should be attributed to
Bishop Poore, antiquarians of distinction affirm that it represents
Bishop Bingham.
The illustrations, with the exception of a few details from Britton
and Carter, are from photographs most courteously placed at my
disposal by Mrs. H. Snowden Ward, or from the series published by
Messrs. S.B. Bolas and Co., Carl Norman and Co. (now The Photochrom
Company, Ltd.), Poulton and Sons (of Lee) and Witcomb and Son, of
Salisbury, in each case duly acknowledged below the engraving.
G.W.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
History of the Cathedral 1
Description of the Exterior 16
Tower and Spire 18
West Front 25
North Porch 32
Nave and Choir 32
Description of the Interior--Plan 37
Nave 39
Transepts 42
Monuments in the Nave 43
Monuments of the Boy Bishop 49
Choir Screen 52
Organ 52
Choir and Presbytery 52
Roof Paintings 53
Choir 54
Choir Stalls 57
Reredos 57
High Altar 58
East Transept 61
Eastern Aisle 63
Lady Chapel 63
Monuments in Choir, etc. 65
Chapter House 71
The Cathedral Precincts 80
Cloisters 80
Library 82
Muniment Room 84
The Close 86
Bell Tower 87
Hungerford Chapel 88
Beauchamp Chapel 89
The Stained Glass 91
History of the See 95
The Diocese of Sarum 99
List of the Bishops 99
The Close and Churches 115
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Salisbury Cathedral, from the Bishop's Palace _Frontispiece_
Arms of the Cathedral _Title_
Salisbury Cathedral, the West Front _Face_ 1
Salisbury, from Walpole's "British Traveller" 1
The Cathedral from the South 3
The Cathedral and Bell Tower, from an old print 19
Portals of the West Front 27
Details of Main West Portal _Face_ 30
One Bay of the Nave, Exterior 33
The Choir Screen 36
The Nave--looking West 38
The Nave--South Side 40
North Aisle 41
Nave Transept 42
Effigy of a Bishop 44
The Choir--looking West 55
The Reredos and High Altar 58
The Choir--looking East 59
Portion of the old Organ Screen 62
Piscina in South Choir Aisle 63
Altar and Triptych Reredos in Lady Chapel _Face_ 64
South Choir Aisle, showing Lady Chapel 68
South Choir Aisle, showing Hungerford Chapel _Face_ 68
Chantry of Bishop Bridport 69
The Chapter House--Interior _Face_ 70
The Chapter House--Exterior, and Bosses 72
The Chapter House--Details of Sculpture 73
The Chapter House--Details of Sculpture 77
The Chapter House--Painted Decoration 79
Tomb of Sir John Montacute 79
The Cloisters 81
The Cloisters looking North 82
Rings found in the Lady Chapel 84
Hanging Parapet in the Close 86
Old Wall Painting, "Death and the Gallant" 88
Interior of the demolished Beauchamp Chapel 90
Fragments of old Stained Glass 92
Tomb of William Longespee, 1st Earl of Salisbury 94
Tomb of the Boy Bishop 98
Monument attributed to Bishop Poore 103
North Choir Aisle with Bingham Monument 104
Brass of Bishop Wyville 114
The High Street Gate, North and South Fronts _Face_ 116
The Church House 117
The Poultry Cross 118
Old Plan of Salisbury 119
Plan of the Cathedral 121
[Illustration: SALISBURY. THE WEST FRONT.
_From a Photograph by Carl Norman and Co._]
[Illustration: Salisbury Cathedral.][1]
HISTORY OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF S. MARY.
There is probably no cathedral church in Europe, certainly no other
English one, that has such a clear record of its history as Salisbury.
Whereas in almost every other instance we have only vague legendary
accounts of the original foundation of the building, in this case
there is a trustworthy chronicle of its first inception and each
successive stage of its progress extant.
Owing to reasons noted in another chapter, the former cathedral at Old
Sarum was condemned to be abandoned, and a new site chosen for its
successor; Bishop Richard Poore, through whose efforts the change of
locality was effected, is said to have hesitated long before he could
find one suitable. Wilton, then a place of some importance, attracted
him first. There is a more or less accurate MS. extant which professes
to give an account of his tentative attempts to induce the Abbess of
Wilton to permit him to build his church in a meadow of her domain. An
old sewing-woman (_quaedam vetula filatrix_) is said to have
attributed his frequent visits to quite another motive; she inferred
that the Bishop had a papal dispensation to marry, and was a suitor
for the hand of the Abbess. The negotiations failed: "Hath not the
Bishop land of his own that he must needs spoil the Abbess? Verily he
hath many more sites on which he may build his church than this at
Wilton," was the reply of the Abbess to his demand. During his period
of indecision the Virgin appeared to him in a vision, and commanded
him to build his new church in a place called Myr-field, or, as some
accounts have it, Maer-field. He searched vainly for a piece of ground
by that name, that he might obey the supernatural edict, until by
chance he overheard a labourer (or a soldier, the legends vary,)
talking of the Maer-field, and then having, as he thought, identified
the place, which appears to have been within his own demesne, he
commenced to plan the present building. Another tradition ignores the
dream, and says the site of the cathedral was determined by an arrow
shot from the ramparts of Old Sarum.
Misled by the similarity of sound, the name Maer-field has been,
naturally enough, interpreted to mean Mary-field. The apparently
obvious form "Miry-field,"--as, according to Leland, it appears on an
old inscription,--in spite of the marshy nature of the site, is
probably a mere coincidence. Nor is Thomas Fuller's "Merry-field, for
the pleasant situation thereof," better worth attention. The generally
accepted theory at present is that _maer_, the Anglo-Saxon word for a
boundary, supplies the clue. A hamlet, Marton, near Bedwin, another of
the same name now corrupted to Martin, near Damerham, might each be
truly described as boundary-towns. In Wiltshire to-day 'mere-stone' is
the local idiom for a boundary-stone. Mere is alike the name of a
hundred and of a parish in Wilts, both near its borders. The site of
the present cathedral is at the junction of three ancient
hundreds--Underditch, Alderbury, and Cawdon--the south-east wall of
the close being the boundary line which divides the cathedral
precincts from Cawdon.
Not only from the fact that the site was given by the bishop may we
infer that the Poores were a wealthy family; but his brother Herbert,
who was his immediate predecessor in the see, is described in the
Osmund Register, as _dives et assiduus_ (rich and painstaking), and
Richard Poore before his enthronement was a benefactor to the
monastery of Tarrant, in Dorsetshire, his native village. Later we
find he gave a large estate at Laverstock to his new cathedral. Hence
the old theory that his name was derived from Poor or Pauper, as it
appears in several old chronicles, is untenable. Possibly like the
Irish Poer or Power, it may be traced to the word _puer_, used in a
restricted sense to denote the sons of royal or noble families not yet
in possession of their heritage. A Prince of Wales in past times has
been known as Puer Anglicanus, the Spanish "Infanta," the prefix
"Childe," have all been cited in support of this theory. It is said
indeed that the Childes trace their descent from the Le Poers, and
Childe-Okeford and Poorstock, two villages in Dorset are quoted in
evidence[2].
[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL FROM THE SOUTH.
_From a Photograph by Messrs. Poulton._]
Whatever the origin of his name there is little doubt that the Bishop
was wealthy, and absolute certainty that he was a powerful and capable
ruler--the whole story of his successful efforts to carry out his
scheme proves this much, were other testimony wanting. Even his choice
of a site is justified by results, although earlier accounts
unanimously agree in saying it was little better than a swamp. That
such descriptions of the place were true is evident enough; the
subsidence of the tower piers show that their foundation was insecure,
and the curious feature of a continuous base to the piers of the nave
prove also that provision was taken from the first to overcome this
obstacle. We have frequent records of floods to the extent at times of
causing the daily service to be suspended owing to the water actually
being within the building itself; as late as 1763 there is an account
of a specially high one thus interrupting the daily ritual. The whole
valley of the Salisbury Avon to its sea-mouth at Christchurch, about
twenty-nine miles distant is still under water for months at a time
during a wet winter.
Of course the abundance of water has evoked the usual comparison with
Venice. Thomas Fuller, who for the sake of his usual sagacity may be
forgiven an allusion so unfounded, says: "This mindeth me of an
epitaph made on Mr. Francis Hill, a native of Salisbury, who died
secretary to the English liege at Venice--'Born in the English Venice,
thou did'st die, dear Friend, in the Italian Salisbury.'"
One of the reasons most frequently alleged for the abandonment of Old
Sarum was its lack of water; but if it was deemed unadvisable to
acknowledge the political and administrative reasons which really
decided the change, it is just possible that the superfluity of water
was found useful as a plausible explanation of the removal on hygienic
grounds; or it may even be that the whole story of the scarcity of
water at Old Sarum was a later invention to excuse its unwelcome
abundance in the new locality. Bishop Douglas is credited with the
saying, "Salisbury is the sink of Wiltshire plain, the close is the
sink of Salisbury, and the bishop's palace the sink of the close."
Certainly the site lacks the natural dignity of position such an
edifice demands, and which Lincoln, Durham, Ely, and many another
English cathedral, show was frequently deemed essential. Thomas
Fuller, who occupied a stall at Salisbury, has written, "The most
curious and cavilling eye can desire nothing in this edifice except an
ascent, seeing such as address themselves hither can hardly say with
David, 'I will go up to the house of the Lord.'"
The temporary chapel of wood, commenced on the Monday after Easter in
1219, must have been a modest structure, since on the next Trinity
Sunday the Bishop celebrated mass, and the same day consecrated a
cemetery there.
In the MS. by William de Wanda, precentor and afterwards dean of
Sarum, preserved in the Cathedral Library, we have a record of the
very first ceremonies connected with the Cathedral, which being
probably trustworthy in the main is so curiously interesting in
itself, that it deserves quoting freely, from the version given by
Francis Price, clerk of the works to the Cathedral, and author of a
very interesting monograph upon it, published in the latter part of
the last century. We find that in the year A.D. 1220, on the
day of St. Vitalis the Martyr, being the fourth of the calends of May
(which was the twenty-eighth of April), the foundations were laid by
Bishop Richard Poore. "On the day appointed for the purpose the bishop
came with great devotion, few earls or barons of the county, but a
great multitude of the common people coming in from all parts; and
when divine service had been performed, and the Holy Spirit invoked,
the said bishop, putting off his shoes, went in procession with the
clergy of the church to the place of foundation singing the litany;
then the litany being ended and a sermon first made to the people,
the bishop laid the first stone for our Lord the Pope Honorius, and
the second for the Lord Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury and
Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, at that time with our Lord the King
in the Marches of Wales; then he added to the new fabric a third stone
for himself; William Longespee, Earl of Sarum, who was then present,
laid the fourth stone, and Elaide[3] Vitri, Countess of Sarum, the
wife of the said earl, a woman truly pious and worthy because she was
filled with the fear of the Lord, laid the fifth. After her certain
noblemen, each of them added a stone; then the dean, the chantor, the
chancellor, the archdeacons and canons of the church of Sarum who were
present did the same, amidst the acclamations of multitudes of the
people weeping for joy and contributing thereto their alms with a
ready mind according to the ability which God had given them. But in
process of time the nobility being returned from Wales, several of
them came thither, and laid a stone, binding themselves to some
special contribution for the whole seven years following."
Another account, differing from the more generally accepted version
just quoted, says that: Pendulph, the Pope's legate, in 1216 laid the
first five stones; the first for the Pope, the second for the King,
the third for the Earl of Salisbury, the fourth for the countess, and
the fifth for the bishop. This statement is wrong in date, for Bishop
Poore was not translated to the see of Sarum until the year 1217. In
the charter of Henry I. the first stone is mentioned as having been
laid by the king, _i.e._, in his name.
"On the 15th of August, 1220, at a general chapter when the bishop was
present, it was provided that if any canon of the church failed paying
what he had promised to the fabric for seven years, that next after
fifteen days from the term elapsed, some one should be sent on the
part of the bishop and chapter to raise what was due from the corn
found on the prebend, and so long as he should remain there for that
purpose he should be maintained with all necessaries by the goods of
the said prebend. But if the prebend or any person failing in the
payment of what was promised be in any other bishopric than Sarum,
such canon should be denounced to that bishop by the letter of the
bishop and chapter for his contumacy, either to be suspended from
entering the church, or from celebration of divine service, or
excommunicated according as the chapter shall judge it."
In the year 1225, Richard Poore, Bishop of Sarum, "finding the fabric
of the new church was by God's alliance so far advanced that divine
service might be conveniently performed therein, he rejoiced
exceedingly, since he bestowed great pains and contributed greatly
towards it. Thereupon he commanded William the Dean to cite all the
canons to be present on the day of S. Michael following, at the joyful
solemnity of their mother church, that is to say, at the first
celebration of divine service therein. According on the vigil of S.
Michael, which happened on a Sunday, the bishop came in the morning
and consecrated three altars, the first in the east part, in honour of
the holy and undivided Trinity and All Saints, on which henceforth the
mass of the Blessed Virgin was appointed to be said every day. And the
said bishop offered that day for the service of the said altar and for
daily service of the Blessed Virgin, two silver basons and two silver
candlesticks which were bequeathed by the will of the noble lady
Gundria de Warren to the church of Sarum. Moreover the bishop gave out
of his property to the clerks that were to officiate at the said mass
thirty marks of silver a year until he settled so much in certain
rents, and likewise ten marks every year to maintain lamps round the
said altar. Then he dedicated another altar in the north part of the
church in honour of St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, and the
rest of the apostles; he also dedicated another altar in the south
part thereof to St. Stephen and the rest of the martyrs. At this
dedication were present: Henry, Bishop of Dublin, Stephen, Lord
Archbishop of Canterbury."
We read further in the same chronicle that the bishops and their
retinues were entertained for a week by Bishop Poore at his sole
charge.
The next day, the feast of SS. Michael and All Angels, the Archbishop
of Canterbury preached to a large company including many English and
foreign prelates, Otto, the Pope's nuncio, and others. On the Thursday
following, "Our Lord the King and Hubert de Burgh the justice came to
the church and the King there heard the mass of the glorious Virgin
and offered ten marks of silver and one piece of silk, and he granted
to the same place that every year there should be a fair." The same
day the justice made a vow that he would give a gold text set in the
precious stones and the relics of divers saints in honour of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, and the service of the new church; afterwards the
King went down with many of his nobles to the Bishop's palace and were
entertained. On the Friday following Hubert de Burgh offered his
"texte after John, gilt with gold and having precious stones and
relics of divers saints."
"On the Nativity of our Lord following, the King and his justice
Hubert de Burgh came to Sarum on the day of the Holy Innocents, and
there the King offered one gold ring with a precious stone called a
ruby, one piece of silk, and one gold cup of the weight of ten marks;
and when the mass was celebrated the King told the dean that he would
have that stone which he had offered and the gold of the ring applied
to adorn the text which the justice had before given; and then the
justice caused the text which he had given to be brought and offered
with great devotion on the altar."
On the 10th of January, 1226, William Longespee, Earl of Salisbury,
returned from Gascoigne, where he had resided twelve months with
Richard, the King's brother, for the defence of Bordeaux (after three
months on the channel between the Isle of Rhe and the coast of
Cornwall, owing to the tempestuous weather, that so long delayed his
landing), "and the said Earl came that day after nine o'clock to
Sarum, where he was received with great joy, with a procession for the
new fabric." The scandalous account of his death (as given by Stow),
which occurred at the castle of Old Sarum, on the 7th of March in the
same year, and the part played in the transaction by Hubert de Burgh
cannot be told here, beyond the fact that the justice was strongly
suspected of poisoning him. On the 8th of March, at the same hour of
the day on which he had been received with great joy, he was brought
to New Sarum with many tears and lamentations, and honourably buried
in the new church of the Blessed Virgin. Matthew Paris gravely records
that at his funeral, despite gusts of wind and rain, the candles
furnished a continual light the whole of the way. Of all secular
figures connected with this cathedral his is perhaps the most
prominent, nor is his fame merely local. He was active in public
affairs during the reign of King John, and one of the noticeable
heroes in an expedition to the Holy Land in 1220, when, at the battle
of Damietta, Matthew Paris tells us, he resisted the shock of the
infidels like a wall. He fought both in Flanders and in France, was at
his King's side at Runnymede, and a witness to Magna Charta--a copy of
which famous charter, made probably for his special use, is still
preserved in the cathedral library.
In 1226, on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, which was then the 18th day
of the calends of July, the bodies of the three bishops, Jocelin,
Roger, and Osmund (the latter not yet canonized), were brought from
Old Sarum. Whether their tombs were also brought, is not said, nor is
any mention made of Herman, who by popular report is credited with a
monument in the cathedral.
A Charter of Henry III., dated 30th of January, 1227, gives certain
powers to make new roads and bridges, to inclose the city of New
Saresbury, to institute a fair from the Vigil of the Assumption of the
Blessed Mary to the octave of the same feast, etc., etc. This
development of the city, more especially by its roads and bridges, is
held to have been fatal to the prosperity of Wilton, which from that
time ceased to progress, and was over-shadowed by the now rapidly
increasing New Sarum.
Bishop Poore was ably supported in his great undertaking by a group of
notable men, among whom were: William de Wanda, the Dean, who threw
his whole soul into the work, and traversed the diocese of London to
collect alms in its behalf, besides leaving us most elaborate accounts
of the various ceremonies; and the Precentor, Roger de Sarum, a man of
some weight, who soon after became Bishop of Bath and Wells; Henry de
Bishopston, a learned man and a scholar, should also be remembered,
and, if Leland could be credited, we should need to add another member
to this group, and find in Robert Hilcot, of Sarum, the author of the
"Philobiblon" so generally attributed to Richard de Bury.
After Bishop Poore was translated to Durham, his three successors,
Bishops Robert Bingham (1229-1246), William of York (1247-1256), and
Giles of Bridport (1257-1262), continued the works of the new building
with great energy. In 1258 it was consecrated--some accounts say by
Bishop Giles of Bridport, "who covered the roof throughout with lead,"
but more probably by Boniface of Savoy, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Henry III. and his queen were present at the consecration; and as
indulgences of a year and forty days were offered to all who should be
present during the octave of the dedication, vast crowds visited it.
It was not entirely completed according to a note in a Book of
Statutes, until 1266, and it has been said that with all our modern
appliances we could hardly shorten the forty-six years it occupied.
The cost of the whole building, according to ancient authority, was
about 40,000 marks, equal to L26,666 13s. 4d., of the money of that
day, and probably equivalent roughly to half a million in our own
time. Among many benefactors, one, Lady Alicia Bruere, who according
to Leland contributed the marble and stone for twelve years, deserves
to be mentioned. The cloisters and chapter house were not commenced
until the episcopate of Bishop Walter de la Wyle (1263-1271) and
possibly not completed until some ten years later. From the will of
Robert de Careville, the treasurer in 1267, we find that there were
seven altars in the church at this date; he bequeathed seven pounds to
provide fourteen silver phials (each bearing a representation of three
keys) in order that each altar might have two. The erection of the
spire, evidently not included in the original plan, is often
erroneously assigned to Wyville (1336-1375), who certainly completed
the wall of the close, and enlarged the cloisters. The King granted
him a charter for this purpose, and also gave him the stones of the
old Cathedral, many of which, with the Norman work upon them, may be
seen plainly at the present time. (See p. 22.)
It is interesting to note that not only is Salisbury the most complete
example of its period in this country, but is also the first important
building carried out entirely in the style we now know as early
English. Henry III. is believed to have been so enthusiastic in his
admiration of Bishop Poore's new Cathedral that he set about the
rebuilding of Westminster Abbey, which was commenced in 1245 and
completed in 1269, as far as the east end of the choir. The early
English work at Salisbury has a certain poverty of detail when
compared with Westminster, and the "Angel Choir" of Lincoln
undoubtedly surpasses both; yet the effect of Salisbury has a
character of its own and a purity in its ornament that is in itself a
distinction. The Cathedral of Amiens, of exactly the same date, covers
71,000 square feet, Salisbury but 55,000; the vault of Amiens is 152
feet high, Salisbury only 85; but, as Fergusson observes in his
"Handbook of Architecture," the fair mode of comparison is to ask
whether the Cathedral of Amiens is finer than Salisbury would be if
the latter were at least twice as large as it is.
There has long been a tradition that Elias de Dereham was the
architect of this stately pile, and the information gathered together
by the Rev. J.A. Bennet, in a paper read before the British
Archaeological Association at Salisbury on August 5th, 1887, certainly
does much to strengthen the belief. From this account, and other
sources, we find that Elias de Derham is first mentioned in the Rot.
Chartarum, Ap. 6 (6 John, 1208)? where he is described as one of the
King's clerks and Rector of Meauton. In 1206 he appears to have been a
royal official. In 1209 he is reported to have been the architect for
the repairs of King John's palace at Westminster. In 1212 he attached
himself to the opposite party, but was taken again into the King's
favour in the following year. We have specially interesting notice of
his work in 1220, when he was engaged upon the shrine of St. Thomas at
Canterbury. Matthew Paris, in his account of the translation of St.
Thomas, distinctly states that the shrine was the work of that
incomparable officer, Walter de Colchester, Sacrist of St. Albans,
assisted by Elias de Dereham, Canon of Salisbury. Leland mentions, in
an extract from an old "Martyrologie" of Salisbury, that he was
rector--or director--of the new church for twenty-five years from the
beginning, whether he means architect or clerk of the works is not so
clear. His name, as one of the Canons of the Cathedral, occurs eleven
times in the "Osmund Register" at Salisbury. There are also references
to him in the "Book of Evidences" (Liber Evidentiarum) among the
bishop's muniments, as the builder of the original Aula
Plumbea--Leden-hall--a famous old house in the close. The document is
entitled "_Scriptura de domibus de Leden-hall per Eliam de Dereham
sumptuose constructis_," "a deed concerning the house called
Leden-hall, built at great expense by Elias de Dereham." This
residence house remained six centuries after in the gift of the Bishop
of Sarum.
During the year in which he accompanied Bishop Poore in his
translation to Durham, and from 1230 to 1238, he was employed upon
some architectural work connected with Durham Cathedral, which, when
Bishop Poore accepted it was a stately Norman fane with an apsidal
choir; he removed this east end, and remodelled it in the early
English manner. The chapel of the Nine Altars, as this portion is
called, is remarkably similar in its details to much of the work at
Salisbury. It is curious that two southern churches so near as
Salisbury and Christchurch Priory should be found influencing or
influenced by the great northern cathedral, but the likeness between
Flambard's Norman work at Christchurch and the same bishop's work at
Durham is as strongly marked as the Early English of Bishop Poore at
both the churches in which he was enthroned. That Elias de Dereham is
responsible for much of the work of both cathedrals is also a fair
assumption. Curiously enough his name, hitherto hastily assumed to be
equivalent to Elias of Durham, has probably no connection with that
city; whether, however, his patronym should be traced to the Norfolk
Dereham, or the Gloucester Dyrham, it is impossible to say with any
certainty. On somewhat insufficient grounds it has been hazarded that
his portrait may be found in a figure on the east side of the
staircase buttress of what was formerly the great entrance to Wells
Cathedral.
Owing to the fact that the original design of the building was fully
carried out, with the addition of a tower and spire, its architectural
history ceases just where most others begin their chequered career. At
the time of the Reformation it suffered but little, except in the
wholesale destruction of its stained glass. Dr. Pope, in his "Life of
Bishop Ward," says that even during the Civil War, when it was
abandoned, workmen were engaged to keep it in repair, who when
questioned as to the authority by which they worked, said, "Those who
employ'd us will pay us; trouble not your selves to inquire who they
are. Whoever they are, they do not desire to have their names known."
We find as evidence of the secret influence exerted in its behalf that
when one of Waller's officers sent up to the Parliament certain plate
and a pulpit cloth from Salisbury Cathedral, he was ordered to restore
them, as it was considered that he had overstepped his commission; all
that was retained being certain copes, hangings, and a picture of the
Virgin.
At the Restoration, Bishop Ward, after a great thunderstorm in 1668,
when fears were entertained for the safety of the spire, called in Sir
Christopher Wren, who, after examining the tower, expressed his belief
"that a spire was not contemplated by its builders;" that "out of fear
to overburden the four piers of the tower, its inside was carried for
40 feet above the nave with a slender hollow work of pillars and
arches, nor hath it any buttresses; the spire itself is but 9 inches
thick, though the height be above 150 feet." This work of pillars and
arches led him to conclude that the architect laid his first floor of
timber 40 feet higher than the vault beneath.
Dr. Walter Pope, in his "Life of Bishop Seth Ward," 1697, describes
the restorations accomplished by this excellent prelate: "There being,
therefore, not much to be done as to reparation, he employ'd himself
in the Decoration of the Cathedral: First, at his proper charges
Paving the Cloyster. I mean that side of it which leads out of his
garden into the church. At his exhortation, and more than
proportinable (_sic_) expence the Pavement of the Church was mended
where it was faulty, and the whole Quire laid with white and black
squares of marble. The Bishops, Deans, and all the Prebendaries Stalls
made New & Magnificent, and the whole church was kept so clean, that
anyone who had occasion for Dust to throw on the Superscription of a
Letter, he would have a hard task to find it there.... His next care
was to repair, I might almost say rebuild his Palace, which was much
ruined, the Hall being pulled down, & the Greater part of the House
converted to an Inn ... what remained of the Palace was divided into
small Tenements and let out to poor Handicraft-men. This dilapidation
was the work of one Van Ling, a Dutchman, by trade a Taylor, who
bought it of Parliament when Bishop's lands were exposed to sale."
In the minutes of the chapter for August 26th, 1789, we find
instruction given to Wyatt "to make new Canopies to the Stalls, to
build a new Pulpit and Bishop's Throne, to put new Iron Rails to the
Communion, with coping thereon, and set new blue stone steps to
receive the same, to put two Wainscot Screens across the Aisles, to
lay blue stone paving in the Lady Chapel, in squares to be cut out of
the old gravestones, and enrich the side walls according to the
drawings, to clean and colour the church from the East end of the
Transept, and make the Screen to the Western Side of the organ." They
also ordered "the beam in the choir to be removed, the North and South
Porches to be taken down, the south door near the Verger's house
stopped up, and another opened near the Chapter Vestry, to open out
the Chapel in the great North and South Transepts, and to convert the
north-east transept into a morning chapel, to remove certain monuments
in consequence of alterations in St. Mary's Chapel, & to take down the
Beauchamp & Hungerford Chapels, on the plea that they were in a state
as to greatly exceed any ordinary or possible means of repair." These
formal instructions were not merely obeyed but exceeded, and the
demolitions of that time confront the student of the building in all
his researches. Of late years many minor alterations have been carried
out, with a view to restore monuments to their original site, and, as
far as possible, to obliterate Wyatt's damage; but the two superb
chantries, the bell tower, the painted glass, and many other important
features are hopelessly effaced, and the cathedral, spared by its
avowed foes, has met with its greatest disaster from the hands of
former guardians.
For the last thirty years the work of restoration has been gradually
carried on until its recent completion. An arrangement was made in
1862 by which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners permitted the Dean and
Chapter to spend L10,000 on the building, as part of a payment in lieu
of transfer of their property. Sir G. Gilbert Scott had control of the
restoration. Owing to the necessary work proving far more costly than
the sum allowed was able to effect, a public meeting was held,
subscriptions were started, and ultimately sufficient money raised to
repair thoroughly the exterior of the building. The tower and spire
were strengthened by an ingenious system of iron ties planned by Mr.
Shields, the well-known engineer. The west front was restored, and
more than sixty statues placed in its vacant niches. In the interior
the Lady Chapel was restored, and its floor laid with encaustic tiles
from the designs of ancient examples in various parts of the
cathedral. The walls were cleaned, and the paintings of the roof
reproduced by Messrs. Clayton and Bell. The choir was restored in
memory of Bishop Hamilton, and the old choir stalls cleared. The
organ-screen built by Wyatt out of fragments of the Hungerford and
Beauchamp chapels was removed. Throughout the building the Purbeck
marble shafts have been most carefully preserved and repolished.
Besides this much decorative work of various sorts, including some
excellent examples of modern stained glass and metal work, has been
added from time to time. At present the interior has less obvious
evidence of age than any other English building of its date, but for
this the modern restorer is not entirely responsible, as Wyatt
rendered much alteration needful, and the design of the work has, as
we have remarked elsewhere, a curiously modern quality in its finish
and symmetry which is apt to mislead a casual observer.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The headpiece is from an engraving in Walpoole's "British
Traveller."
[2] A paper on this subject was printed in the Wiltshire Archaeological
Mag., No. lvi.
[3] So misspelt in the text quoted.
THE CATHEDRAL--EXTERIOR.
Salisbury stands alone among English cathedrals for unity of design.
To own its possession of this quality, which is undoubtedly both the
earliest and the most mature impression the cathedral imparts, is by
no means equivalent to unqualified praise. There are buildings of
equal and less importance, whence illustrations might be taken for a
complete history of every period of Gothic architecture; here the
examples would be limited not only to one style, but if we except the
upper stories of the tower and its spire, the cloisters, and a few
minor additions, to a very restricted use of Early English, as it was
practised from A.D. 1220 to 1258.
Another uncommon feature not so apparent at first sight, but yet
almost, if not quite as rare, is that the present building was erected
on a virgin site. It is hard to find a mediaeval church of any
importance in England that is not only upon the self-same site, but
more often in part upon the actual foundation of an earlier edifice.
Consistency is the especial character of Salisbury, and now, owing to
Wyatt's iconoclastic destruction of the two later chapels at its east
end, we have in Salisbury "the most typical English cathedral," which
is also our most complete example of Early English.
That this artistic unity is as interesting as a design subsequently
modified by other influences, may be an open question. There are those
who think Salisbury "faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly
null," yet they would hardly dare to continue the quotation and say it
was "dead perfection, no more." Even at a time when mediaeval art was
not generally appreciated in England, this cathedral won admiration
from chance visitors such as Evelyn, who saw it in July, 1654, and
pronounced it "the completest Gothic work in Europe." Pepys, who also
left his impressions of it, says: "The minster most admirable, as big
I think and handsomer than Westminster, and a most large close about
it and offices for the officers thereof, and a fine palace for the
bishop." In later times Motley, the historian, thought it "too neat."
Henry James calls it "a blonde beauty among churches," and even hints
that it is a little banal. Another American critic, Mrs. Van
Rensselaer, in a sympathetic study of the cathedral which appeared in
"The Century Magazine," says: "If we think it feeble, it will be
because we cannot see strength where it has been brought to perfect
poise and ease. If our verdict is 'banal,' it will be because we
cannot tell the commonplace from the simply and exactly right, or we
do not know how rare the latter is--because we long for eccentricity
as a proof of personality, and need what the French call _emphase_ to
impress us; there is no over-emphasis about Salisbury, neither in its
effect as a whole, nor in any of its parts, neither in its design, nor
in its treatment. But just in this fact lies its greatest merit, and
just by reason of this fact, joined to its mighty size and its
exceptional unity, it is intensely individual, personal, distinct from
all other churches in the world."
Dean Stanley, in comparing it with Westminster Abbey, hardly
overpraised it in saying: "Salisbury is all-glorious without,
Westminster is all-glorious within." Canon Venables considers it "as
an architectural composition, more especially as seen from the
outside, the most perfectly designed building in the world." Elsewhere
he speaks of it as "presenting none of those architectural problems so
baffling and perplexing at Canterbury, Lichfield, or Lincoln." Its
appearance from a distance has been the theme of poets, and a
favourite subject for artists. Constable especially delighted to paint
it. Among several of his different versions of the theme, the view
from the meadows (with the rainbow), made popular by Lucas' mezzotint,
is perhaps the best known.
Studying the building more closely one feels it is not accident that
gives to it its peculiar charm, but pre-arranged design; the idea of
one conception carried to its logical completion. This striking unity
(despite the afterthought of the spire) certainly helps to impart an
air of modernity to the building, that is lacking in far less ancient
work, for oddly enough it is often the decaying features of the
latest decorated style that impress the vulgar by their apparent age.
The extreme care in the masonry has imparted a machine-like finish. As
Professor Willis wrote: "The regularity of the size of the stones is
astonishing. As soon as they had finished one part, they copied it
exactly in the next, even though the additional expense was
considerable. The masonry runs in even bands, and you may follow it
from the south transept, eastward, round to the north transept, after
which they have not taken such great pains in their regularity. It is
almost impossible to distinguish where they could have left off, for
it is hardly to be supposed they could have gone on with all at the
same time."
If at first sight this regular and symmetrical detail offers a
suspicion of mere mechanism, yet it is no less evident that after
longer study the charms of this exquisite structure tell with a
lasting power. Too subtle to extort admiration at first, it bewitches
a student of architecture who notes the scholarly reticence of its
detail, the masterly way in which, as a rule, the construction is
legitimately ornamented and the decoration made an integral part of
the whole design.
=The Tower=, with its famous spire, needs no apologist to justify its
claim to be considered the most beautiful, not merely in England, but
in Europe. From the time Leland naively wrote, "the tower of stone and
the high pyramis of stone on it is a noble and memorable 'peace' of
work," every critic of the cathedral praises the tower unreservedly,
although Defoe was anxious to improve it, for he said: "The beauty of
it is hurt by a thing easily to be remedied, which is this. The glass
in the several windows being very old, has contracted such a rust,
that it is scarcely to be distinguished from the stone walls;
consequently, it appears as if there were no lights at all in the
tower, but only recesses in the stone, whereas could the windows be
glazed with squares and kept clean, which might be done, they would be
plainly visible at a distance, and not only so, but from the adjacent
hills you would see the light quite through the tower, which would
have a very fine effect." It is curious to remember that perfectly as
it accords with the rest of the pile, so that it seems the very
central motive of the whole scheme, yet it is really an addition. Like
the touch of genius which by one word changes a good poem to a
flawless lyric, so the creator of this crown to an already beautiful
building by his final touch seems to have imparted additional beauty
to that which already existed. The first idea was doubtless to add a
lantern after the style of Ely, or at most a wooden spire. That the
lower part of the tower is part of the original design, and intended
to be open to the church, is proved by the presence of a series of
detached Purbeck marble columns in the style of the rest of the
internal masonry, which, hidden by the groining, or half-concealed by
later masonry, were obviously meant to be part of the decoration of
the interior, but again, the original plan of the tower made no
provision for the huge weight of a stone spire. Indeed, it is quite
doubtful if in its first state it was able to support itself, for
curiously designed abutments are built in the triforium and clerestory
of the nave, choir, or transepts on each of its four sides. The
stonework of these is Early English, which if slightly later than the
first story of the tower, is yet considerably earlier than its two
upper stories. Notwithstanding the faulty construction that needed
additional work so soon after it was erected, about fifty years later
a daring architect super-imposed two stories, and added the lofty
spire, which still stands, despite an early settlement which deflected
it 23 inches out of the perpendicular. But its stability can hardly be
reckoned a tribute to the judgment of the architect, for many times
since complex arrangements of iron bands and ties have been added to
ward off such a disaster as that which lost Chichester its spire in
1861, and has caused many others to be rebuilt from the very
foundations. By a report of Sir Christopher Wren made in the time of
Bishop Seth Ward, two hundred years ago, it is evident that in his
time the deflection was not increasing, nor do quite recent
observations show any reason for serious anxiety. This haunting fear,
however, has led to curiously precise experiments for ascertaining the
state of the spire. Francis Price, at the end of the last century,
describes many of these, especially one carried out in the presence of
the bishop, on July 18th, 1717; he also illustrates an elaborate
system of additional bands and ties in his time. During the
restorations that were begun in 1863, a further arrangement of iron
bands, planned by Mr. Shields, the engineer, was introduced into the
lantern story of the tower.
[Illustration: SALISBURY CATHEDRAL AND BELL TOWER.
_From an Old Engraving._]
Parker, in his "Glossary," believes the date of the spire to be about
1300; other authorities fix it thirty years later. Certain deeds in
the "Book of Evidences" preserved among the Cathedral muniments show
that in 1326 Edward III. granted a license for surrounding the close
with a wall, and in 1331 authorized the bishop and canons to use the
stones of the church of Old Sarum for that purpose. But against the
theory that the material thus obtained was used in the tower also,
there is the patent fact that while on many stones in the wall there
are traces of Norman mouldings and other evidence of former use,
neither in the tower nor spire do the stones betray any such origin.
Modern antiquaries are wellnigh agreed upon the earlier dates; for in
the Capitular Register, begun in 1329, there is no mention of the
spire, which could hardly have escaped record had so important a work
been then in progress. In support of this theory it is urged that from
1258 to 1297 the deans were men who took great interest in the fabric
and are entered in its calendar of benefactors. Three of these became
successively Bishops of Salisbury. But the deans who were appointed
after 1297 were chiefly foreigners, several being cardinals and
relatives of the Pope, whose duties elsewhere would have left them
little but a purely temporal interest in the building. One of them,
Peter of Savoy, was in conflict with his bishop, and evaded an
episcopal admonition ordering him to residence.
Bishop Godwin, in his "Catalogue of Bishops," notes that in 1258 the
cathedral was rehallowed by Boniface, Archbishop of Canterbury, and
this fact is the basis of most of the argument for the earlier date of
the spire, the completion of which, according to some, could alone
have justified the ceremony.