=The Vestibule=.[27]--Passing through the beautiful doorway in the
north aisle of the choir we enter the long passage, fifty-four feet
by ten, leading to the chapter-house. This passage, although built in
Decorated times, presents certain features in common with the Early
English of the choir; and represents a transitional stage between the
two styles. This is particularly marked in the southern part adjoining
the choir. The roof clearly points out where the two parts join. At
the choir end opposite the court, this is of wood and modern, but
facing the chapter-house at the far end, it is a plain quadripartite
vaulting, and low as this first part is, it would seem to have been
raised; for the wall above the double arcading looking into the
court, with its uninteresting square-headed windows, is evidently an
after-addition. The point of junction of the two pieces of work on the
west side is the second buttress of the north transept chapel, and on
the east side the middle of one of the arches a little nearer the door.
By some the earlier part is called the cloister, and the northern
and after-part the vestibule; but as they both form part of the same
passage, it is simpler to give one name to the whole. The unfoliated
arcading overlooking the court is double, forming an inner and outer
with a distance between of rather less than a foot. The arches are
lancet-shaped, and joined by transoms or cross lintels at the capitals,
both transoms and capitals being ornamented with natural foliage. The
hood-moulding above is continuous, and at each base we come across the
first of the carved figures.
[Illustration: _A. J. Loughton, Photo._
ARCADING OF THE VESTIBULE.]
The archway nearest to the choir has been converted into a door leading
into the court; and the shaft to the left is partly cut away. On the
under side of the doorway arch, between the inner and outer arches, is
diaper work, but with the remainder this is quite plain. Unfortunately,
to keep out the cold and wet, the lower part of the space between the
double arches has been built up with stone; and in consequence the
effect of the double pillars and arches is in a great measure lost. It
is also to be regretted that, owing to the dampness of the hemmed-in
and almost sunless courtyard, the outer arcading, which faces due east,
has suffered from the action of the climate, and been repaired. The
upper part of the spaces has been filled with glass on the outside. The
usual cloister bench supports the interior arcading, and the mouldings
of the bases are hollow of the Early English style. On the opposite
or west side, adjoining the north transept chapel, the blank arcading
is single, and broken by the buttresses of the chapel, and the arches
trefoiled. Coming to the northern part opposite to the entrance of the
chapter-house the arcading is still lancet-shaped: the window arches
of three lancets moulded with a filleted kidney-shaped round, less
elaborate altogether than in the chapter-house. The small doorway on
the right opens on a circular staircase leading to a small room above
the vestibule. Anywhere else the end of this passage would attract the
notice its intrinsic merits call for. The graceful lines and curves of
the roof vaulting; the two windows, each with its tracery of trefoiled
circles with pierced cuspings above the three lights; the arcading
with the simple cusped trefoiling of the arches; the foliage and the
figure carving: all this forms a combination which for tasteful variety
leaves little to be desired. As it is, it is passed over for the
chapter-house doorway.
At the point of junction on the east side is a curious figure of a man
astride some nameless animal. The mouldings of a half-arch, constructed
or altered in order to join the new work to the older, terminate partly
on the man, partly on the beast. The string course from the choir
terminates in a bunch of foliage and fruit, which the beast appears to
be gnawing, and that from the far end on the man’s head. The shafts
of the arch between the wooden roof and quadripartite vaulting both
terminate in the mouth of a head which forms the lower part of the
capital.
In this cloister-vestibule the idea of the architect would seem to have
been to form a gradual connection between the pure Early English of the
choir and the pure Geometrical and Decorated of the chapter-house. Not
only does his work partake of both styles; but that nearer to the choir
has more of the Early English, and that nearer to the chapter-house
more of the Decorated. It is best to look at the two parts as the
work of one man, the second erected slightly after the completion of
the first, and both as forming one conception with the chapter-house
itself. “In some cases,” wrote Mr Louis Petit, “the architect’s
intention seems to have been to make the transition as gradual, in
others as startling as possible.” Here from the commencement of the
cloister part of the vestibule, with its lancet arches of one style
finished off with the carving of another, the idea was to prepare us by
degrees for the more elaborate and artistic workmanship of a date and
style later than that of the chapter-house.
=The Chapter-House=.--“In design and execution alike, in its general
proportions and in its minutest details, it is impossible to conceive
anything more beautiful. It is the most perfect work of the most
perfect style of Gothic architecture.”--A. F. LEACH.
“What either Cologne Cathedral or Ratisbon or Weisen Kirche are to
Germany, Amiens Cathedral or the Sainte Chapelle are to France, the
Scalegere in Verona to Italy, are the choir of Westminster and the
chapter-house at Southwell to England.”--G. E. STREET, R.A.
[Illustration: _A. J. Loughton, Photo._
DOORWAY TO CHAPTER-HOUSE.]
=The Doorway=.--The archway is of five orders, and is divided by
a clustered shaft in the centre into two smaller arches with a
quatrefoiled circle above. There are no doors. The outside member
of the main arch, which carries the hood, stands apart against the
wall; the others are against the main jamb, of which the mouldings
are visible underneath. The four outer shafts of Purbeck marble are
detached, a somewhat unusual arrangement in Decorated work, though
usual in Early English. The innermost shafts are not detached, and have
neither base nor capital; and from them spring both the corresponding
order of the arch as well as the outer limb of the two subordinate
archways. Above the plinth the bases of the detached shafts are
octagonal, with round mouldings. On the north side, between the two
outer shafts, a band of foliage is worked upon the edge of the wall.
An additional is made by two small arches on the face of the wall
resting on the outside capitals. All the capitals are foliaged. Of
the five orders, the outer or hood has foliage upon a deep hollow;
the third or central, two strings of leaves worked upon hollows which
are separated by a round; the second and fourth are moulded with
rounds and hollows, and so is the fifth or innermost, with which is
combined the two subordinate arches and the tracery above. In the third
order more especially, so painstaking and elaborate is the tool work
that it is difficult to see how the artist could make the mouldings
underneath the foliage. But for the evidence of the stone itself, the
presumption would be that the foliage was worked on separate material
and afterwards placed in position. The slender clustered shaft in
the centre of the doorway has base and capitals similar; and the two
subordinate arches have filleted round mouldings with foliage. They are
trefoiled, and the circle above quatrefoiled; and in arches and circle
the cusping is moulded with the fillet and pierced.
Such is a plain account of the main features; but it is impossible
to give any accurate idea of the impression it makes. The mingled
grandeur and delicacy of the workmanship is enhanced by the background
of the chapter-house, and by the particular effect caused by the light
streaming down from the windows within. “One of the most beautiful
specimens,” wrote Mr Louis Petit, “within the range of Gothic art.”
“Faerial” is the particular word suggested looking through the
archway; but “faerial” does not adequately represent the scale of
workmanship. Amongst the numerous artists and architects the minster
has attracted is Mr Ruskin; and Mr Ruskin alone could have worthily
depicted the effect produced.
=The Interior=.--It has been said that there is a difference of opinion
as to whether York or Southwell is the older; but, according to
Professor Willis, York must be the copy of Southwell. The two certainly
have a great deal in common; for not only are both octagonal and placed
in the same position, but both lack the central pillar, which in all
the remaining chapter-houses in the country supports the vaulting of
the roof. While York is by far the larger, there is universal agreement
that Southwell excels it, as all others, in beauty.
[Illustration: _S. B. Bolas & Co., Photo._
CHAPTER-HOUSE--CANOPIES OF STALLS.]
The diameter is somewhat less than 30 feet, and each side of the
octagon is about 12 feet. The side due west is occupied by the archway,
and that immediately to the south of it by a wall, behind which is the
circular newel staircase. This--the south-west wall--as well as the
west, has a blank arch, resembling but not quite so lofty as the window
arches, and the space above is ornamented with the universal foliage.
The remaining six sides are pierced with the broad Decorated windows;
and of these, that in the south wall overlooks the courtyard. Round all
the seven sides not occupied by the doorway runs a low stone bench, and
above the bench the stalls, five for each side: each series separated
by a vaulting shaft reaching down to the bench and engaged. The shafts
of the stalls are circular and detached, their bases variously moulded
and their capitals of foliage. The arches are simple trefoils--not
merely trefoiled underneath, as in the vestibule--and moulded with
filleted rounds and hollows. Above there are acute-shaped canopies with
corbels carved with both foliage and figures, the sides relieved by
crockets which bear no resemblance to crooks, and finials which pass
through the string course and terminate below the windows. The woodwork
and nomenclature of the stalls are a recent addition, added for the use
of the modern canons.
[Illustration: _S. B. Bolas & Co., Photo._
DETAILS OF DOORWAY, CHAPTER-HOUSE.]
The spandrels between the canopies are similarly ornamented, making
the whole wall space below the windows a mass of sculpture in endless
variety. The window arches are of two orders only, one less than
the exterior, and the capitals are of foliage instead of the plain
mouldings of the exterior. The lower parts of the engaged vaulting
shafts from the bench to the corbels of the canopies are combined with
the stall shafts in either side. Rising through the string course they
then pass upwards in the angles of the wall between the window shafts,
and the group of three shafts terminate together in united capitals
of foliage at the spring of the arch. From the capital a groin rib
reaches to the boss of foliage in the centre of the roof; two wall ribs
form an arch over each window, and from the apex of the windows project
horizontal ribs to the large central boss. The moulding of the ribs is
the deep hollow; and at every point of intersection occasion is taken
to introduce a subordinate boss.
[Illustration: _S. B. Bolas & Co., Photo._
CHAPTER-HOUSE--CAPITAL.]
The glass has suffered by time and neglect, and probably from wanton
damage; before this the interior must have presented an appearance
even more striking. A few scattered fragments, however, still remain,
some of it collected from other windows. In the border of one of the
northern lights are depicted the yellow castles of Castile. They
are the arms of Eleanor of Castile, the first wife of Edward I. and
mother of the unhappy Edward II. As she died in 1290, and as her arms
would not have been inserted any length of time after her death, we
have an interesting corroboration of the date of the building. In the
same border is a white lion rampant on a red field: according to Mr
Winston, of the same date; but according to Mr Planché, the arms of
John Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham, and somewhat later. In one of the
trefoiled tracery lights of the south window is a small medallion of
white glass, on which is a knight, with spear under arm, tilting. He
wears a long surcoat with hauberk and chausses of mail, and helmet
with crest resembling a bird’s wing. There are also imitations of the
crockets and finials of the stalls, and of the brass represented in the
carving of one of the capitals.
[Illustration: _S. B. Bolas & Co., Photo._
CHAPTER-HOUSE--CAPITAL.]
It is interesting to observe how this earlier Decorated workmanship
availed itself of some of the Early English ideas, and how readily the
two combined. The deeply-cut hollow moulding, for instance, is adhered
to in the arches and groin ribs; and in spite of the great variety
of more elaborate carving, room is still found for the conventional
triple-lobed leaf in a few of the capitals. In this respect Southwell
conforms with the general rule, as the rounds and hollows continued to
prevail until long after the chapter-house was completed. On the other
hand, the scroll or roll moulding--a round with one half smaller than
the other, and with a sharp edge--extensively used in the arches, is
characteristic of the Decorated, and must have been used at Southwell
almost as soon as anywhere.
[Illustration: _S. B. Bolas & Co., Photo._
CHAPTER-HOUSE--CAPITAL.]
Other chapter-houses may have proportions and symmetry of a like
elegance; none have the wealth and luxuriance of carving to be found
here. The artist’s tool is used everywhere possible, right up to the
roof; and the quantity is too great to admit of the accepted tradition
that all is the work of one and the same hand. There is, it is true,
every mark of one general conception; but more than one sculptor must
have been employed, each a man of such taste and skill that, had he
lived in our day, he would have earned both name and competence. As
it is, we know not to whom we are indebted. Discarding all accepted
conventionalities, the foliage is natural to a degree, largely undercut
and standing boldly forward. Bryony and ivy; the vine leaf, the fig
leaf, and the hop; the white thorn and the rose, the oak and the
maple are among the plants faithfully portrayed, and this part has
been compared to the delicate lace pattern of Chinese work. There are
also human heads, as above the stall now marked “Alto Pecco,” with
two stems issuing from the mouth, and others from the head-dress, or
the bare-headed one to the left of the doorway, both with a life-like
expression. Again, there are animals, birds of various kinds, lizards,
boars, and the rest. “No two capitals or bosses or spandrels can be
found alike, no wearisome repetition of beautiful parts tires the eye,
but everywhere we meet, in ever-changing and ever-charming variety,
with some fresh object of interest and admiration.... A man reclines
beneath a tree, puffing lustily away at a horn, or a goat is gnawing
the leaves, or a bird pecking the berries, or a pair of pigs are
grubbing up the acorns, or a brace of hounds just grabbing a hare....
Of very much of it, it is not too much to say, that it is the work of
no mere chiseller of stone, but of a consummate artist; than whom it
may well be doubted whether any sculptor, of any age or country, ever
produced anything more life-like and exquisitely graceful.”
[Illustration: _A. J. Loughton, Photo._
CARVING ABOVE STALL, NOW CALLED “ALTO PECCO”]
Unhappily there is a certain amount of injury for which, without
authority, the Roundheads have been blamed. They may have broken
the stained glass; but there is no authenticated instance of their
interference with work of this kind. Images of saints, inscriptions
implying the doctrine of purgatory or prayers for the dead, are the
kinds of carving that excited their abhorrence. Here the sculpture
is so secular that Bishop Christopher Wordsworth said of it upon
the spot: “Perhaps even the beautiful sculptured foliage in some of
the ornamental work of this fair chapter-house might be referred to
as showing that reverence for holy things and holy places was not a
characteristic of some who had chief authority.” As indeed there was
not; for while a regular and a secular priest are both represented,
they are engaged, not at prayer, but as tussling with one another, the
secular of course having the best of it. The dilapidations have been
caused by broken windows and a neglected roof, and by the allowing of
unskilful hands to take casts.[28]
[Illustration: _S. B. Bolas & Co., Photo._
ROOD SCREEN FROM THE NAVE.]
=The Rood Screen=.--This, the latest piece of the work, dating some
forty years after the chapter-house, is under the eastern arch of the
central tower, and on the western side presents a picturesque insertion
of Decorated architecture in the midst of Norman surroundings. Marks
in the stonework show that it replaced an earlier one, coeval with the
choir. The great cross or holy rood itself must have been a striking
feature, looking from the west door or the chancel: the organ merely
blocks up the way. It was probably removed in the reign of Edward VI.,
and the like fate awaited the statues which adorned the western face.
The screen opens into the nave with three canopied arches. The base
mouldings overlap the plinth, and the pillars are of four graceful
clustered shafts. The inner arches are cinque-foil, with pierced cusps,
and those above ornamented with crockets. The foliage of the capitals
clings closely, more so than in the chapter-house, and shows the
advance in the style.
[Illustration: UNDER THE SCREEN, LOOKING SOUTH.]
The parapet also is typical of the style: the leading line of the
stonework is pierced so as to form a continuous undulation; and the
openings are foliated. The flat stone roof is supported by flying
ribs, and in the spandrels between these and the corresponding ribs of
the roof above are trefoiled circles, and the points of intersection
are worked with bosses. On either side is a staircase leading to the
organ gallery above. The side walls are richly ornamented with flowing
tracery. On the eastern face besides the ogee shape of the arches,
the main feature of interest is the profuse introduction of carved
heads, at the outer angles of the cusps, in the spandrels, and on
the capitals. Some are angels, others ecclesiastics, and others like
those in the chapter-house, have a life-like expression. Above the
central arch is a figure of the Virgin and Child. Edward Cludd, when
the minster was threatened, used his influence with the Protector in
time to save the screen, which, possessing so many religious emblems,
would otherwise have been speedily demolished. The ball flower is used
above the canopies of the stalls. There are three stalls on either
side, and the back of the first to the south, in olden times the
archbishop’s throne, is decorated with diaper work, each square with
a different flower pattern. The seats are fixed with hinges, and make
regular misereres, so that when turned up the prebendaries would be
able to rest against them while standing or kneeling. The wood carving
is chiefly of foliage.
The rood screen, with its profuse elaboration of ornament forming
an integral part of the structure, and with its characteristic base
mouldings, capitals, and parapet, is as fine a specimen of the full
maturity of the Decorated style, as is the chapter-house of the earlier
or Geometrical stage.
[Illustration: _A. J. Loughton, Photo._
CHOIR, LOOKING WEST, AND SHOWING ROOD SCREEN.]