_From a Photograph by Messrs. Poulton._]
[Illustration: THE CLOISTERS, LOOKING NORTH.]
The =Library= occupying the upper story that extends over part of the
eastern arcade is an important collection, its manuscripts alone
filling a hundred and eighty-seven volumes. These (with one
exception, bequeathed by Bishop Denison, a splendidly illuminated
breviary _circa_ A.D. 1460, containing among other specially
interesting matter the order of service for the installation of the
Boy-bishops,) have been in the possession of the dean and chapter at
least four hundred years, and range in date, according to the best
authorities, from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries.
Among the most important is (No. 150) A Psalter, of the Gallican
Version, on vellum, 160 folios, tenth century. The decorations of this
MS. are somewhat rude, the initials and colouring throughout being
chiefly in red. Internal evidence fixes its date about A.D.
969. A Psalter (No. 180) on 173 folios, contains in parallel columns
the Gallican and Hebrew of Jerome's translation, and other matter,
with ornamental initials and devices; a Lectionary on vellum, 190
folios (No. 153) is a finely written manuscript, with elaborate
initials in gold and colours, this is about A.D. 1277. A
fifteenth century "Processional for the Use of Sarum," on vellum, 50
folios (No. 148) contains some entries that throw light on various
local customs, as for example, the distribution of the carpet used in
the enthronement of the bishop, which was laid from _ostio hospicii
agni_ to the altar in the treasury. The unique "Tonale secundum usum
Sarum" bound with an "Ordinale secundum usum Sarum" (No. 175) is of
the fourteenth century, on 214 folios of vellum. In a volume (No. 39)
is a copy of the Gospel of Nicodemus in an English version beginning,
"Whanne Pylatus was reuler and justyse of ye Jewerye, and Rufus and
Leo were consuls." Another book of more than ordinary interest is
Chaucer's translation of Boethius' "De Consolatione Philosophiae," on
vellum in double columns, fifteenth century. A twelfth century MS. of
the "Historia Regum Brittaniae," by Geoffrey de Monmouth (No. 121); and
the "Historia Miscella" of Paul Warnefrid, are among many others that
deserve mention.
Among the printed books of the Library are about a score belonging to
the fifteenth century, and one hundred of the sixteenth. Some of these
are of extreme rarity. In a copy of Sibbes' "Returning Backslider" is
this couplet (attributed to Doddridge) in the handwriting, with
autograph, of Isaac Walton:
"Of this blest man let this just praise be given,
Heaven was in him before he was in heaven."
Bishop Gheaste was a benefactor to the library, and left it a large
legacy, the foundation of the present collection of printed books.
The library is shown to the public on certain days, and the clergy of
the diocese have the privilege of borrowing books therefrom.
According to the "Inventory of the Riches of the Cathedral Church of
Sarum," made by Master Thomas Robertson, treasurer of the same church
in 1536, 28th year of Henry VII., we find images, "of God the Father
with our Saviour young, of silver and gilt with gold, ornate with red
stones weighing 74 ounces." Others of Our Lady, including a "grate and
fair ymage sitting in a chaire ... her child sits in her lap very
costly and fair to look upon." Reliques of the 11,000 virgins, in four
purses; Pyxides of Ivory of Chrystal, and silver gilt, "Cruces" of
Gold and Silver. And a great Cross silver and gilt with images on the
crucifix, Mary and John, and the left part of the cross--weighing 180
ounces. Calices (chalices), Fereta, Candelabra, Philateria,
Tabernucla, Ampulae, Thuribula, Chrismatones, Copes and Chasubles,
Mitres, Basons, Garlands, and hangings, Morses and many other items.
Also the textus, which was given by Hubert de Burgh, here described as
"A text after Matthew having images of St. Joseph, and our Lady and
our Saviour all in a bed of straw, in every corner is the image of an
apostle," and a huge list of items not merely interesting in
themselves, but as evidence of the wealth of the cathedral.
[Illustration: RINGS FOUND IN THE LADY CHAPEL.]
=The Muniment Room=, which is approached from the south choir
transept, is part of a two-storied building, octagonal in plan. The
ground floor, formerly the sacristy, is now used as a vestry for the
canons; the upper one, a dimly-lighted room, with an oak roof
supported by a central column of wood, is the muniment chamber. Traces
of a cross on the central pillar support the theory that the "Altar in
the Treasury," referred to in various early documents, stood here. The
solidity and strength of the building, and the fact that it was
undoubtedly the store house for the vestments and treasures of the
church, leaves little doubt that the supposition is true.
A very fine cope chest, reproduced by Mr. William Burges in his
"Architectural Drawings," 1870, until lately preserved in the vestry,
now in the north choir aisle, has a quaintly-carved capital on one of
its shafts that suggests a very early date for its construction. The
heavy lid was originally lifted by a rope and windlass. Although
possessing no traces of painting or gilding, and but little carving,
it is both curious and interesting as a specimen of woodwork coeval
with the cathedral itself. A somewhat similar one exists in
Westminster Abbey, in both the lifting lids worked on very slight
pivots. At Westminster the chains remain. In 1834 a writer described
the room as "a feast for moths and spiders;" now it is kept in
admirable order. The most important of its extremely valuable
documents have been printed in a volume devoted to Sarum in the
"Master of the Rolls Series," in the late Canon Jones' "Fasti
Ecclesiae: Sarisberiensis." In addition to these historic papers there
is an immense quantity of Chapter Registers and other MSS. of more
local interest. Many of the chests and presses date from early times,
when the three keys needed to open each were severally in the charge
of three of the cathedral dignitaries. The contemporary copy of Magna
Charta, made for William Longespee, first Earl of Salisbury, and
referred to elsewhere, is sometimes exhibited here.
The documents which contain "the statutes and ordinances" by which the
cathedral is governed, extend over six centuries, commencing in 1091
and ending 1697. These were edited by Dr. Edward A. Dayman, and the
late Rev. W.H. Rich Jones, Vicar of Bradford-on-Avon, whose researches
in the past history of not merely the cathedral, but the whole
district, were so extended, that it is impossible to do justice in
every instance to many facts which have been taken from his pages in
the preparation of this handbook. The privately printed volume,
published in 1883, contains the Latin text with English notes of these
various documents. The details of most of these, although of immense
value to antiquarians, are too technical to be available for quotation
here, but the indirect allusions to customs and manners of the past,
makes many a paragraph pleasant reading, although the whole document
may refer to merely the working details of administration. The
statute, dated A.D. 1319, relating to the rights of the boy
bishop, is one of the few that have more than local interest.
[Illustration: HANGING PARAPET ON THE EAST WALL OF THE CLOSE.]
=The Close= is certainly a fit setting for the jewel it surrounds, and
with full remembrance of the superb position of Durham, the
picturesque eminence of Lincoln, the dignity that marks the isolated
hill whereon Ely towers over the fens around it, the harmonious
environment of Wells, and many another site made memorable by its
cathedral, Salisbury is, in its own way, not less beautiful. The quiet
tranquillity of the large lawn, the half-hidden houses that nestle
among its trees, the sense of being completely shut off from the
work-a-day world, impress one as much as the apparent vastness of the
area thus devoted to the cathedral. Leland, in his "Itinerary," was
equally struck with its beauty, although, as the frontispiece shows,
the surroundings were very different before Wyatt's exploits, and
probably in Leland's time preserved still more of their mediaeval
aspect. He says: "The great and large embatelid waulle of the palace
having 3 gates to entre into it thus namyd: the close gate as
principale by north ynto the town, Saint Anne's gate by est, and
Harnham gate by south toward Harham bridge. The close wall was never
ful finished as in one place evidently apperith I redde that in Bishop
Rogers days as I remembere a convention was between him and the Canons
of Saresbyri de Muro clausi."
Whether the builders of our great churches were conscious of the
beauty of their surroundings, or whether no little of that loveliness
is but the slow result of centuries of care and the accident of
natural growth, need not be discussed. That to an American especially
this peculiar beauty tells with great force we can readily believe,
and Mrs. Van Rensselaer, whose paper on Salisbury has been quoted
before in this book, expresses admirably the feeling, which, whether
it be true or only imaginary, is no doubt the impression of such a
place as the Close of Salisbury on many an educated visitor.
"Salisbury," she writes, "is the very type and picture of the Church
of the Prince of Peace. Nowhere else does a work of Christian
architecture so express purity and repose and the beauty of holiness,
while the green pastures that surround it might well be those of which
the Psalmist writes. When the sun shines on the pale grey stones, and
the level grass, and the silent trees, and throws the long shadow of
the spire across them, it is as though a choir of seraphs sang in
benediction of that peace of God which passeth understanding. The men
who built and planted here were sick of the temples of Baalim, tired
of being cribbed and cabined, weary of quarrelsome winds and voices.
They wanted space and sun, and stillness, comfort and rest, and
beauty, and the quiet ownership of their own; and no men ever more
perfectly expressed, for future times to read, the ideal they had in
mind."
The =Bell Tower=, a striking feature of the close as it was before
1789, is shown on page 19, in the facsimile of an engraving originally
published in 1761, and re-engraved in the superb County History in
1804(?). This shows the campanile standing at the north-west corner of
the inclosure.
In style it was about the same period as the chapter house and
cloisters. The plan appears to have been square, although one writer,
frequently quoted, calls it multangular; the stone tower was in two
massive stories with lancet windows in the lower, and windows with
plate tracery above, with a spire apparently of wood crowning the
whole. Leland speaks of it as "a notable and strong square tower for
great belles, and a pyramis on it, in the cemiterie." It was evidently
massive enough to have stood for centuries, and the single pillar of
Purbeck marble, "lying in its natural bed," which was the central
support that carried the bells, the belfry, and the spire, is
specially mentioned by Price as perfectly sound, but he owns that the
leaden spire, and a wooden upper story, were decayed, and puts forward
a design of a sham classic dome which he hopes might be erected in its
place. When the cathedral was visited in 1553 by the Royal Commission
there remained a peal of ten bells, and the re-casting in 1680 of the
seventh and eighth by the Purdues, local founders, is recorded among
the muniments. The sixth is now the clock bell of the cathedral, but
the fate of the others is absolutely unknown.
[Illustration: DEATH AND THE GALLANT.]
Several of Wyatt's iconoclastic blunders have been already mentioned;
we now come to his chief iniquity. The =Hungerford Chapel=, demolished
by Wyatt, stood at the east end of the building on the north side of
the Lady Chapel, with which it was connected by openings cut in the
main wall. This chapel was one of those of which Fuller so quaintly
wrote, "A chantry was what we call in grammar an adjective, unable to
stand of itself, and was therefore united for better support to some
... church." An addition to the building in a much later style, it was
founded by Margaret (daughter and sole heir of William, Lord
Botreaux,) in 1464; she was interred within its walls in 1477. Her
history, too full to note here, is a sad one, the loss of her movable
goods by "fyre" in Amesbury Abbey being but a small incident among her
many troubles. A peculiarly interesting inventory of the ornaments and
furniture that she gave to this chantry has been preserved; it is
printed in Dugdale's "Baronage," vol. ii., p. 207, and also in "The
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine," vol. xi. The chapel, in the
somewhat florid late Perpendicular style, had a large east window of
five lights, and three of triple lights in its north wall. The outside
was adorned with shields and devices of the family, and crested with
battlements. Within it had a richly-groined roof, and underneath a
large arch cut in the north wall of the Lady Chapel, and therefore
opening into the hall of the chantry, stood the monument of Lord
Hungerford, surmounted by an ornamental four-arched canopy. This altar
tomb, now devoid of the gold and colour that once enriched it, is in
the nave. Its armour, "like a lobster," with its peculiar pattern, its
large shoulders and elbow-pieces, and its jewelled girdle, is quoted
by Meyrick as a very fine example of its period. Above were eight
niches of demi-quatrefoiled arches, with a fascia of quatrefoils
surmounted by a cornice of oak leaves. Between the monument and the
doorway was a series of wall-paintings of great interest. One, "Death
and the Gallant," has been engraved, and the dialogue below it
preserved. As the verses are archaic in spelling, it may be best to
follow a more modern version ("Wilts Archaeological Magazine," vol.
ii., p. 95):
"Alas, Death alas! a blissful thing thou were
If thou wouldst spare us in our lustiness,
And come to wretches that be of heavy cheer
When they thee ask to lighten their distress.
But out, alas, thine own self-willedness
Harshly refuses them that weep and wail
To close their eyes that after thee do call.
Graceless Gallant in all thy lust and pride
Remember this, that thou shalt one day die,
Death shall from thy body thy soul divide--
Thou mayst him escape not certainly,
To the dead bodies (here) cast down thine eye;
Behold them well, consider too and see,
For such as they are, such shalt thou too be."
Of this Mr. Francis Douce, in his volume "The Dance of Death," says it
was "undoubtedly a portion of the Macaber Dance, as there was close to
it another compartment belonging to the same subject. This painting
was made about the year 1460, and from the remaining specimen its
destruction is greatly to be regretted, as judging from the dress of
the young gallant the dresses of the time would be correctly
exhibited."
There were other wall paintings, including a large St. Christopher
with the Christ Child on his shoulder, and an Annunciation, said to
have been a fine work. An interesting memorial of the chapel as it
stood in the middle of the seventeenth century, is to be found in an
MS. pocket-book, still preserved in the British Museum (Harl. MS.
939), which belonged to a Captain Symons, of the Royalist Army. When
he visited Salisbury in 1644 he made many notes and sketches of the
armorial bearings in this chantry.
=The Beauchamp Chapel.=--The interior view here reproduced from
"Gough's Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain" although not very
clear is curiously interesting, conveying as it does trustworthy
evidence of the building so wantonly swept away.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE DEMOLISHED BEAUCHAMP CHAPEL.]
Of the Beauchamp Chapel, on the south side of the Lady Chapel, there
appears to be no exterior view extant, but from sketches of its
interior, and descriptions, it must have been a fine specimen of its
period, and worthy of its designer, the builder of St. George's
Chapel, Windsor. It was larger and more elaborate in detail than the
Hungerford chantry, but like it in plan, and similarly lighted by one
large east window, and three in the side wall. The remains of its
founder, Bishop Beauchamp, reposed in a plain tomb in the centre. In
the wall on the north side were exquisite canopies above the tombs of
the father and mother of the bishop. An altar tomb of Sir John Cheyne,
now in the nave, stood formerly at the south-west corner (see page
48). There was a custom that on Christmas Day and all holy days the
wives of the mayor and aldermen and gentry of the city, came to
prayers in the Beauchamp chapel in the evening with flambeaux and
torches, excepting on Innocents' Day, when they went to their own
parish churches. In an interesting Guide to the Cathedral, now in the
British Museum, annotated in the last century by some visitor, we
find an entry concerning this chapel, "The ceiling is of Irish oak,
and never known to have spiders or cobwebs in it."
Much of the carved work in both these chantries was employed elsewhere
in the buildings. The plea put forward for their removal was founded
on a report by Francis Price thirty-six years before, wherein he
considered them unsafe. When the Hungerford Chantry was added one of
the outside buttresses of the Lady Chapel aisle was removed to make
room for it; the opening pierced through the main walls of the
cathedral into both the chapels were also sources of weakness. Wyatt
seized upon these facts, and with the precedent of Price's report,
declared the chapels unsafe, and also, which was no doubt his real
motive for action, that "their lack of uniformity" injured the
appearance of the buildings. Wyatt's ideal virtues were of the lowest
order, to obtain neatness and tidiness he was prepared to sacrifice
any and every thing, and the two chapels were obviously not in the
style of the cathedral, nor, unluckily (for had they been they might
yet be standing), precisely symmetrical in effect, so they were swept
away. These actions at Salisbury, and similar destruction at Lincoln,
Hereford, and elsewhere, have made Wyatt's name odious; but deserving
though he be of all blame, it must not be forgotten that restorers of
to-day, even at Salisbury, have effaced much interesting work of past
time on the same pretext: that it failed to accord with the rest of
the work to which it was obviously a late addition. This plea,
specious and even excellent in theory, has probably done more
irreparable injury to our ancient buildings than even the iconoclasts
of the Reformation. A shattered ruin may convey a clear idea of its
original state, while a smooth, pedantic restoration will obliterate
it entirely.
=The Stained Glass= throughout the whole building survives but in a
few instances, and these, with two exceptions, not in their original
places. Of its wholesale destruction we have sad evidence extant in a
letter, dated 1788, from John Berry, glazier, of Salisbury, to Mr.
Lloyd, of Conduit Street, London. It may be transcribed in full, to
show how reckless the custodians of the fabric were at that
time:--"Sir. This day I have sent you a Box full of old Stained &
Painted glass, as you desired me to due, which I hope will sute your
Purpos, it his the best that I can get at Present. But I expect to
Beate to Peceais a a great deal very sune, as it his of now use to
me, and we do it for the lead. If you want more of the same sorts you
may have what thear is, if it will pay for taking out, as it is a Deal
of Truble to what Beating it to Peceais his; you will send me a line
as soon as Possoble, for we are goain to move our glasing shop to a
Nother plase, and thin we hope to save a great deal more of the like
sort, which I ham your most Omble servant--John Berry."
[Illustration: PORTIONS OF THE OLD STAINED GLASS.]
The fragments that survived were collected some fifty years since, and
placed in the nave windows, and in parts of some of the others. The
most important are in the great west triple lancet, wherein the glass
ranges in date from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. Mr. Winston,
in his Paper read in 1849 before the Archaeological Institute and
printed in the Salisbury volume for that year, considered that the
earliest fragments are from a Stem of Jesse about 1240, and some
medallions about 1270. He describes two of the ovals that are on each
side of the throned bishop, a prominent figure in the lower half of
the central light, one of the Christ enthroned, the other of the
Virgin. The two medallions below them he believes represent "Zacharias
in the Temple," and "The Adoration of the Magi." The later glass now
in the same window may be either Flemish work brought hither from
Dijon, or possibly partly from Rouen, and partly from a church near
Exeter. It has been conjectured that in the south lancet the figures
represent SS. Peter and Francis, in the central one the Crucifixion,
the Coronation of the Virgin, and the Invention of the Cross, and in
the north light the Betrayal of Christ and St. Catherine. In two of
the side windows of the nave are the arms of John Aprice (1555-1558)
and Bishop Jewell (1562).
The stained glass in the north choir aisle includes a window executed
by Messrs. Clayton and Bell, in memory of Archdeacon Huxtable, with
figures of archangels and angels in the upper lights, and the Angel
appearing to Gideon, and the Vision of Isaiah, in the lower panels.
Also a window by Clayton and Bell to the memory of the wife of the
Rev. Chancellor Swayne, having for its subject the reply of our Lord
to his disciples. In the east side of the Morning Chapel is a window
by Messrs. Burleson and Gryles to the memory of Mrs. W.R. Hamilton,
with the Nativity, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and the three
archangels, Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael.
In the south choir aisle are two Clayton and Bell windows, to the
memory of George Morrison, and two others excellently treated, both
designed by Holiday, and executed by Powell. In the one eight panels
represent four holy women of the Old Testament, and the four Maries.
This is to the memory of the late Countess of Radnor. In the other, to
the memory of Jacob, the 4th Earl of Radnor, a similar screen of
decoration embodies figures of eight prophets.
In the south-east transept is a window erected to the officers of the
Wiltshire Regiment who fell in the Sutlej Campaign in 1845-6, and in
the Crimean War of 1854-5; also one of "The Raising of Lazarus." In
the upper windows of this transept is a quantity of old glass of
different dates, which had been stored away for over a century in the
roof of the Lady Chapel, until lately collected and placed where it
now is.
The south choir aisle has a window in memory of the late Duke of
Albany, "Jacob's Dream," and two of the intended six windows of a
hierarchy of angels--the Angeli Ministrantes and the Angeli
Laudantes--designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones, and executed by William
Morris, which are notably among the most superb examples of the art of
glass painting since mediaeval times. Next in order towards the east is
a window of fine design to the memory of the late Duke of Albany.
In the south-west transept there are three Clayton and Bell windows:
in memory of Archdeacon Macdonald, with three subjects from the Life
of Christ; in memory of Bishop Douglas, and in memory of C.G.
Verrinder; also one to the memory of Sir G.A. Arney, with Moses and
the Tables of the Law, and the Sermon on the Mount; and the large
south window, by Bell, to the memory of Dean Hamilton.
Above the altar is a fine light window of last century work,
singularly good of its kind--bad though the kind may be.
In the south aisle of the nave is a window to the memory of Mr. W.M.
Coates, with subjects, the miracles of healing, executed by Messrs.
Clayton and Bell.
In 1890 a fine modern window, from a design by Henry Holiday, was
inserted in the south aisle of the nave. This has for its subject,
"Suffer little children to come unto me." It is to the memory of John
Henry Jacob and his wife.
In 1620 Dr. Simpson mentions "three great windows newly glazed in rich
colours to make the story of St. Paul."