THE EXTERIOR, MONASTIC BUILDINGS, ENCLOSURE, AND GATES.
Rochester lies within a bend of the Medway and is bounded by that river
on the north and west. It is girt round by chalk hills, which, on the
two sides mentioned, look down on it from across the stream. Its houses
have now begun to climb the hills in greater numbers, but the space that
used to be enclosed by the old city walls lies very low, the only piece
of rising ground within their line being the mound on which the castle
stands. The cathedral church is one of the smallest in England, and
occupies a lowly position immediately beneath this mound and the mighty
keep that crowns it. It can claim attention therefore neither by
magnitude and grandeur nor by prominence of position. Its tower is,
however, next to the castle keep, the most conspicuous object in the
town, and this fact makes our regret the greater, that it is not more
worthy of its position.
The cathedral, though unable to bear comparison in the matter of size
with most others, and though by no means an imposing building, is a very
interesting structure and well worthy of all the study and care bestowed
upon it. It bears in itself many marks of its eventful history, and the
work of finding these and solving their significance is a most
attractive one. Many of its features, too, are important
architecturally. The crypt, the Norman work in the nave, the great west
doorway, and that leading to the chapter-room, all rank among the best
examples of their respective kinds in England.
An excellent bird's-eye view of the cathedral can be obtained from the
castle, either from the keep itself, or from a convenient opening in the
outer wall. On the church's own level good views can be obtained of
almost all the principal parts, though in some directions buildings
interfere. The famous west front can be well studied from the road
before it; and from a favourable position on the other side of the old
cemetery, a good north-west prospect can be obtained. Passengers along
the High Street are now, by the substitution of an iron railing for a
former wall, enabled to gaze on the north side of the choir and the
ruins of Gundulf's tower, across a stretch of turf that generally bears
visible testimony to Dean Hole's love of flowers. A general view of the
whole south side, together with the few remains of the monastic
buildings, can be obtained from the road through the precinct; and, of
the exterior of the building, the east end alone cannot be well seen
except from private ground. There are other, more distant, views, which
are both interesting and picturesque.
#The Central Tower# is the first feature to claim our attention now
that we are come to the description of the exterior and its parts. The
earliest tower over the crossing was raised, in 1343, by Bishop Hamo de
Hythe, who crowned it with a spire of wood, covered with lead, and
placed in it four bells, named Dunstan, Paulinus, Ythamar, and Lanfranc.
This spire and the masonry of the tower caused great anxiety at the end
of the seventeenth century, but with some not very considerable repairs
then, and some slight ones later, lasted until 1749. Its height was 156
feet, but the authorities for its form do not at all agree. It is given
a very uncommon shape in the north prospect by Daniel King, reproduced
on p. 14. This seems to be followed by many engravings which, however,
bring no additional testimony, for they do not correct great faults in
other parts of it, such as the insertion of a bay too many in the nave,
and the ignoring of a story in the transept ends. The north-west view
from Harris's "History of Kent" (1719) makes the spire octagonal, and it
appears of this form in many small sketches. Other engravings, as
another view in Harris's own book, show it square, but without the
peculiar treatment of the middle of each side, and with something
simpler and plainer than the pairs of dormer windows in the plate by
King. Some reasons may, however, be given for thinking the latter's
version of the spire correct, though his engraving is elsewhere so
inaccurate. Such are: (1) its abundant detail, perhaps too abundant, as
others do not support his dormer windows, for instance; (2) the fact
that Browne Willis, in his "Mitred Abbies," refers to this "draught"
(when used to illustrate Dugdale's "Monasticon"), in preference to
attempting a description himself; and (3) that the tiny view shown on
the portrait engraving of Dr. Thorpe that forms the frontispiece to his
"Registrum Roffense," agrees with it well when we take into
consideration the smallness of its scale. The tower was square, without
either battlements or corner pinnacles, and the spire rose directly from
it. On the west side, it will be noticed, the blind arcading under a
string course at the height of the ridges of the transept roofs,
terminated downwards on the lines of a pointed gable, and we may hence
conclude that the nave used to have a high-pitched roof before its
present flat one.
The spire raised in 1749 was octagonal, and rose directly from the
tower. It had neither parapet nor corner pinnacles to hide the
transition from the square to the octagon, nor splaying to make this
change less abrupt. Its form is shown in the 1816 view (p. 31), and Mr.
Sloane's model of its woodwork is still to be seen in the crypt, in a
very damaged state. A curious instance of the inaccuracy of some old
engravings occurs in two plates by Metcalf, and by Ryland after B.
Ralphe, which reproduce the same view of this cathedral, and are,
apparently, only variations of the same plate. They represent the tower
itself as octagonal, make it of excessive breadth, and give it three
windows in each face.
The new spire was demolished, after an existence of a little less than
eighty years, by Mr. Cottingham, who took down at the same time most of
the old tower, and raised the present rather plain one, which bears no
spire. Our illustrations render any description of the form of this
tower unnecessary. It did not meet with approval, even before it was
made more insignificant in appearance by Sir Gilbert Scott's heightening
of the transept roofs. An apologist for Mr. Cottingham says that he was
not altogether responsible for its faults, since he was compelled to
modify his design, through a strong conviction among the townspeople,
especially among the local builders, that he was overloading the
supporting piers. He obtained expert opinion that they were capable of
bearing twice the weight, but at last yielded, though he complained that
by his so doing his work was spoiled.
[Illustration: NORTH-EAST VIEW, WITH RUINS OF GUNDULF'S TOWER
(FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MESSRS. CARL NORMAN AND CO.).]
#The Bells# are hung in this tower. They are six in number, and their
sizes range from 34 to 52 inches. Mr. Stahlschmidt, from whose "Church
Bells of Kent" the following particulars are derived, regrets that he
could find nothing of the bell-history of the cathedral between 1343,
the date of Bishop Hamo's four, whose names have just been given, and
1635, the year in which the present third bell was, according to its
inscription, made by John Wilner. In 1683 Christopher Hodson, a London
founder, re-cast the fifth and tenor bells for L120. The contract, which
describes him as of St. Mary Cray, where he had probably a branch
establishment, still exists, and he seems to have done the work near by,
perhaps even within the precincts. The treble was re-cast by John Wood,
of Chancery Lane, in 1695, at a cost of L9, and the contract for this
work also is still preserved. In 1711 Richard Phelps, a well-known
founder, supplied an estimate for the re-casting of a cracked bell (the
fourth) weighing 15 cwt. He did not, apparently, obtain the commission,
for this particular bell is recorded to have been re-cast during the
next year by James Bagley, of Cripplegate, London, on behalf of his
father Matthew, who was then near the end of his career. After finishing
this work James, on his own and his father's behalf, warranted the bell
sound, and, further, that the second, which he agreed to turn, "the
striking sides being much worn," should be "as good as a new bell and
retain the same note." This, the second, bell is the only one that bears
no inscription; the fifth has, besides its inscription, the royal arms
on its waist. The treble was again re-cast by Pack and Chapman, of
London, in 1770, and in 1834 the tenor was re-made by Thomas Mears.
After all these re-castings, it would be interesting to know how much
old metal, from Bishop Hamo's or even older bells, the present peal
still contains. Mention will be made of some very early bells when
Gundulf's tower is described.
#The West Front# has recently been very carefully restored. Its great
central window, and the flat gable above, belong to the Perpendicular
period, but all the rest is either original Norman work, or as accurate
a reproduction of this as possible.
In design the facade surpasses those of many cathedrals. The aisle ends,
for instance, are not here, as in some cases, carried as screens to a
greater height than is structurally necessary. This is more correct and,
at the same time, allows the flanking towers to be more imposing and
effective.
The nave end, the main central portion of the front, contains the great
west door, to be described later, and over it the great window, inserted
during the second half of the fifteenth century. The dripstone of the
window terminates in two carved heads. On each side of the doorway is a
round-headed recess, and on the level of the door-arch, and interrupted
by it, runs a row of blind arcading, the shafts of which rise from
plinths, that project in carved heads from an elaborate string course.
The first complete bays of this arcade, on the north and south sides of
the door, contain niches, within which statues of two bishops, Gundulf
and John of Canterbury, were placed, in 1894, by the Freemasons of Kent.
These statues are not at all worthy of praise. The space between the
heads of the arcade and the decorated string course, crossing at the
level of the window sill, is filled with a diaper pattern. There are
three more blind arcades above, all interrupted by the window, before we
come to those that run round the gable turrets. The lowest has a band of
chevron moulding crossing the tops of its shafts, while carvings fill
the lunettes in its heads. Next come two rows of a double interlacing
fret, and then another string course, from which the second row of
arcading springs. This has semicircular heads, with zigzag ornament, and
a double series of intersecting arches above, like an arcade on Anselm's
Tower at Canterbury. The topmost arcade of the three rises over another
string course and is round-headed like the rest. Its arches do not,
however, like theirs, run on continuously but form two groups of two on
each side. The crenellated gable parapet rises from a string course with
five sculptured masks, and has plain shields on its battlements. Of the
gable turrets the northern has, in the last restoration, been made to
match the southern. Both are now octagonal, and have two arcaded
stories. Their tops are pyramidal, and ribs run down the edges from the
curious conical cap, which crowns the apex of each.
The aisle ends stand back somewhat. Each has a lofty, ornamented arch,
rising to the height of the sill of the central window, and containing,
recessed within its upper part, a semicircular headed window. We see,
higher up on each side, a single narrow light, and higher still an
arcaded lean-to. At the end of the north aisle is a pointed doorway,
inserted for the use of St. Nicholas' parishioners in 1327.
We will now conclude our account of the front in its present form, with
a description of its flanking towers. The northern is square for its
whole height, and has four rows, one above the other, of blind arcading.
The southern, with the same number of arcades, is also square in its
lower portion, but, for the two upper rows becomes octagonal, and
finally terminates in an octagonal pyramid. The spire of its fellow on
the north can scarcely be called octagonal; it is square, with the
angles only slightly cut down, and with slight splaying at its base. On
the summits of both are curious conical caps (like those described as
surmounting the gable turrets), from which ribs run down the angles. The
arcades are continued round the outer sides of the lower parts of the
towers, and right round when the roofs of the aisles are passed. The
heads of all the arches are as usual semicircular, and the second arcade
from the top is filled with a diaper of semicircles arranged in a
curious scale-like pattern.
Generally, as we have said, except for the great Perpendicular window
and the gable above it, the front shows the design of the later Norman
builders. The window that they constructed in it was possibly
wheel-shaped, but we have no representation of the cathedral previous to
its supplanting. The parts of the front that show their old form now
have not, however, all continuously retained it. At the time of the
erection of the Perpendicular clerestory to the nave, the northern gable
turret was rebuilt in the curiously plain, octagonal, flat-topped form,
which the oldest engravings of the front illustrate. It has only quite
recently been altered again to the earlier shape of its fellow on the
south; and is the only feature in which there is any conspicuous
difference between the front as now seen and as shown in our early
eighteenth century view. An earlier, seventeenth-century view exists, in
which, if it were not so inaccurate, the front would have the same
appearance. In this, however, as in his north prospect, Daniel King
shows his great liability to err. We can point to the insertion of one
tier of arcading too many in the central portion of the front, and to
the omission of the windows at the ends of the aisles, as well as of the
small door.
Our next view of the front dates from 1816, and shows the form in which
it was left by the great changes of 1763 and the succeeding years, when
the northern flanking tower, having been found to be in a dangerous
state, was quite taken down. Its rebuilding (up to only half its former
height) and that of the upper part of the adjoining north aisle end, was
completed before 1772 at any rate, and was professedly as accurate a
reproduction as possible of the older work. It was finished off with
battlements. A comparison makes manifest other changes besides that in
the height. The first arcade was at a lower level; in the aisle end the
narrow light disappeared; and the old lean-to was replaced by a blind
arcade of three arches, the central higher than the others. A little
later the south-western tower was correspondingly lowered, but no
further changes were made in it, and soon afterwards a precinct gateway
that used to stand against it was cleared away.
[Illustration: CAPS OF WEST DOOR, NORTH SIDE
(FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY H. DAN).]
The front then remained untouched until 1888, when underpinning was
undertaken preparatory to a thorough restoration. After much of the
older work had been carefully repaired--in some places renewed stone by
stone--an attempt was made to undo all the work of the eighteenth
century architects. All that they had erected was taken down and
rebuilt, and all that they had demolished, as accurately as possible
replaced. The work was carried out under the direction of Mr. J. L.
Pearson, and for the skill and care shown in it, he has deserved, and
receives, much praise. It is regretted however by many that he did not
preserve the north gable turret as he found it, since it was so curious
a specimen of fifteenth century restoration. One may hope too that smoke
and weather will soon tone down the new masonry so that it may be in
less glaring contrast with the old.
[Illustration: CAPS OF WEST DOOR, SOUTH SIDE
(FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY H. DAN).]
#The great West Doorway#, like the rest of the original work remaining
in the front, dates from later Norman times,--the first half of the twelfth
century. It is formed by five receding arches, and every stone of each
of these is carved with varying ornamental designs. Between the second
and third of them runs a line of cable moulding, an ornament which
occurs also inside the door. Each arch has its own shaft, and the groups
of five on each side are elaborately banded. The shafts have richly
sculptured capitals, and in those on the south side, as well as in the
tympanum, the signs of the Evangelists appear. The shafts second from
the door on either side are carved with statues, two of the oldest in
England. These are much mutilated, but they were thought worthy of great
praise by Flaxman. That on the spectator's left is said to represent
King Henry I., and the other his wife, the "good Queen Maud." This
attribution is probably correct, as these sovereigns were both great
benefactors to the cathedral, and were living when the front was being
built. The figure of the queen has suffered the more; it is recorded to
have been especially ill-used by the Parliamentarians in the days of the
great Civil War. The tympanum contains a figure of Our Lord, seated in
Glory, within an aureole supported by two angels. His right hand is
raised in benediction, and his left hand holds a book. Outside the
aureole are the symbols of the four Evangelists: the Angel of St.
Matthew and the Eagle of St. John one on each side above the Winged Lion
of St. Mark and the Ox of St. Luke similarly placed below. A straight
band of masonry crosses beneath the lunette, and has carved on it twelve
figures, now much mutilated, but supposed to have represented the twelve
Apostles. All the sculptured work of the portal has suffered greatly
from age and exposure and from the hand of man. In the recent
restoration the coping has been renewed, the shafts have been given
separate bases once more, and many of the most worn stones have been
replaced by new ones carved in facsimile. Mr. Clifford's beautiful
drawing of the doorway (facing p. 3) is especially valuable as he was
able to take exact measurements of all its parts while the repairers'
scaffolding was still standing. The doors that he pictures have since
been replaced by a more elaborate pair with richly scrolled hinges and
strengthening bands of iron.
This entrance is one of the best known features of the cathedral, so
it will be interesting to quote the words of a few great authorities
concerning it. Fergusson, speaking of the cathedral in his "Illustrated
Handbook of Architecture," says: "Its western doorway, which remains
intact, is a fair specimen of the rich mode of decoration so prevalent
in that age. It must be considered rather as a continental than as an
English example. Had it been executed by native artists we should not
entirely miss the billet moulding which was so favourite a mode of
decoration with all the nations of the north." Kugler, the great art
historian, also thinks it continental in style, and compares it with the
architecture of the south-west of France. We even find it spoken of, on
account of the richness of its ornamentation, as Saracenic in character.
The late Prof. Freeman, in his "History of Architecture," is liberal
with his praise, and probably all Roffensians, at any rate, will agree
with him, when, in speaking of Norman doors with tympana, he says: "the
superb western portal at Rochester Cathedral is by far the finest
example of this kind, if not the finest of all Norman doorways."
The doorway is structurally interesting, as we have therein exemplified
a curious mode of forming a straight head over an aperture. The arches
of course bear all the weight of the super-structure, but the straight
band of masonry on which the figures of the Apostles are carved has to
support both itself and the stonework of the tympanum. The method by
which it is enabled to do this is as follows: the stones, the joints
being vertical, are locked into one another by semicircular ridges
fitting into corresponding indentations. Mr. Smirke, writing on aperture
heads in "Archaeologia," vol. xxvii., said that he thought these
excrescences, or in masons' language, "joggles," insufficient for
security, and suggested that perhaps inside, out of sight, the joints
radiate like those of a skeme arch. He also commented on the
irregularity of the stones used here and throughout the whole front.
Another fact worthy of remark is that the semicircular arches of the
doorway are struck from slightly different centres.
The Mayor and Corporation of Rochester still have the right of entry in
their robes and with their insignia of office by the great west door. We
find the privilege of having their insignia borne in the cathedral on
record as early as 1448 in indentures between Bishop Lowe on the one
part, and the bailiff and townspeople of Rochester on the other. The
titles "mayor" and "citizens" were only granted later by Edward IV., in
a charter dated December 14th, 1461. In the indentures it was agreed,
among other matters, that the bailiff and his successors might cause to
be carried, before him and them by their sergeants, their mace or
maces--and the sword likewise if the king should ever give them one--not
only to and in the parish church, but also in the cathedral and
cemetery, especially on festival days, and processions, and solemn
sermons, and at the reception and installation of bishops, and at all
other fit times. On the other side they were to make no execution or
arrest within the precinct of the monastery and the palace of the
bishop, except the same should be specially required of the bishop or
prior whenever the same was made. Similar rights were granted to the
dignitaries of other cities about this time. For instance, in 1447 they
were conceded at Exeter, and at Worcester in 1462. A sword did not
become a part of the Rochester insignia until quite recently, after the
castle had been acquired as the property of the city. One, given by
Alderman J. R. Foord in 1871, is now worn by the mayor as its constable.
Besides the sword the insignia include a great mace, two sergeant's
maces, a silver oar (in token of admiralty jurisdiction over the
Medway), two constable's, and eight borsholder's staves, besides the
mayor's chain and badge.
Pepys, speaking of the visit to the cathedral of himself and some
friends in 1661, tells, in his diary, that they went "then away thence,
observing the great doors of the church, as they say, covered with the
skins of Danes." He is so accurate an observer that this must be taken
as conclusive evidence that there was such a tradition in his time, and
some ground for it, though no other record of anything of the kind is to
be found. However, even if it were likely, which many people will deny,
that the skins of Danes were ever nailed to church doors at Rochester,
it certainly is not that they would have been transferred by Normans
from the Saxon cathedral to their new one, or that, if so transferred,
they would have survived the fires and other dangers through which this
afterwards passed. There are traditions of the existence of human skin
on doors at Worcester Cathedral, where it is said to have belonged to a
robber who stole the sanctus bell from the high altar, and at Hadstock
and Copford, East Anglian churches. In these latter cases the Danes are
again mentioned. In 1848 all these doors had been removed from their
original positions (the old north doors of Worcester being still
preserved in the crypt) but Mr. Way succeeded in obtaining fragments of
the parchment-like substance from each for microscopic examination. They
were declared to be, in each case, human in their origin, and to have
belonged probably to fair-haired persons. These cases show flaying not
to have been unknown in England, even, to judge by the Worcester case,
after the Norman Conquest, and confirm the passages in records that seem
to refer to its existence.
#The Nave# has nothing else remarkable in its exterior. The perpendicular
windows in the north aisle wall, part of which was rebuilt in 1670, are
two-lighted, with irregular quatrefoils in their heads. Those of the
southern aisle, which was re-cased in 1664, are single-light, and only
three in number,--in the second, third, and fourth bays from the west.
The insertion of Perpendicular windows in the aisles took place about
the middle of the fifteenth century. The plainness of the south side,
where the Lady Chapel does not hide it, is perhaps explained by the fact
that it used to be hidden by the Cathedral Almonry. The westernmost bay
of each aisle is plain, and the next on the north side contains the now
walled-up Perpendicular doorway, inserted, when their new church was
built, for the entry, in their solemn processions, of the parishioners
of St. Nicholas, who passed out again by the west door. It is contained
within a rectangular framework, and has quatrefoils in the spandrels.
In the corner between the south aisle and the transept is the
Perpendicular #Lady Chapel#, three bays long from east to west, and two in
width towards the south. Its windows are three-lighted. They terminate
in the obtuse arches of their time and have their heads filled with
tracery. At about half its height each is divided by a transom or
horizontal mullion, beneath which the lights have cusped heads. The
chapel was originally vaulted, so is well buttressed, which the aisle
walls are not. The north aisle wall has its bays marked by flat
pilaster-like buttresses, and the southern has still less support, for
the similar buttresses rise only to the original level of the ground,
which is now cut away for a few feet along the side of the church.
#The North Transept# is in the Early English style. Flat buttresses with
offsets halve the sides and flank the end. The high gable, with three
circular windows and flanking pinnacles, is the work of Sir G. Scott,
who rebuilt it, in place of the low, commonplace one that had replaced
it about seventy years before. He also raised the roof to its original
pitch. The occurrence of blind arches between the windows here is to be
noticed, making continuous arcades of which the heads are carried by
single shafts. The windows in the northern bay of the west wall were all
inserted by Scott, who found only dilapidated blind arcades there, and
the doorway in its present form is also by him, he having found the old
entry very ruinous. The east side used to be almost entirely hidden by
Gundulf's tower, and is still slightly concealed. It has therefore no
windows except in the clerestory, and some bays even of this have none.
#The South Transept# is of rather later date than its fellow, and belongs
to the Early Decorated period. Its very interesting gable was lowered,
with the roof, at the same time as that of the north transept, but has
fortunately, like it, been replaced by Sir G. Scott. The chief authority
for the restoration seems to have been an engraving in the 1788 edition
of the "Custumale Roffense." The gable stands back a little and has its
base hidden by a parapet rising above a decorated string course. Beneath
a sculptured bust, near the apex, is a chequer-work cross, and lower
still a band of chequer-work bearing three shields of arms, the dark
squares in each case being formed by flints. The central shield contains
the arms of the see, that on the left three crowns, and that on the
right a cross with martlets. The transept is well buttressed, and the
gable is flanked by pinnacles, beneath which curious gargoyles project.
The five graduated windows of the upper range have double shafts on each
side, and the connected dripstone over the lower range ends in carved
heads. The clerestory of the west wall looking out over the aisle and
Lady Chapel roofs is similar to that on the east side and the quatrefoil
heads of the two-light windows help to mark the entry into the Decorated
period. The little room in the angle between the transept and the choir
aisle is used as a vestry and will have to be mentioned again.
#The North Side of the Choir# can, as has been said, be well seen from the
High Street. To one or two points in it attention may well be drawn. In
the window heads, the dog-tooth moulding, the characteristic ornament of
the Early English style, constantly occurs, and the openings often have
side shafts. In the lower tier of the presbytery windows Decorated
tracery has been inserted; elsewhere we have Early English work, or,
frequently, a modern copy of it. The lowest row of windows lights the
crypt. The gable at the end of the north choir transept, that above the
east wall of its aisle and that at the east end of the church, are all
by Sir G. Scott; they still require roofs of corresponding pitch, a need
both great and conspicuous. The gables replaced by these present ones
were flat and late in period. The east end and the transept end are both
flanked by towers, with double gables crowned by curious little
pinnacles, copied by Scott from one still remaining. The east gable has
three graduated windows, that to the transept aisle a quatrefoil within
a dog-toothed circle. The present form of the east end is altogether due
to Sir G. Scott; and to it and its history we shall devote more
attention in describing the interior of the church. This part of the
fabric is well buttressed.
Of #Gundulf's Tower#, on the north side of the choir, between the main and
choir transepts, only ruins now remain, but these are older than any
other part of the church's buildings still in existence above ground.
The tower was certainly Gundulf's work and built before his church. The
construction of the latter rendered useless two out of the four long
narrow windows that had been inserted in the tower, one in each side, on
the ground floor, and they were therefore blocked up. The tower, though
rather dilapidated, was still almost complete at nearly the end of the
last century. A view in Grose's "Antiquities," vol. iii., shows it as it
was in 1781. At that time it still rose as high as the parts of the
church beside it, and traces are to be seen in the print of the flying
bridge that formerly connected it with the Early English turret at the
north-west corner of the choir transept. There is now, however, only a
mere shell of the lower part left. The walls were 6 feet thick,
inclosing a space 24 feet square. In the "History and Antiquities of
Rochester" (1772), we are told that there were at that time traces of
one floor at a height of 20 feet, and of another 25 feet above that. The
walls then rose 20 feet more, giving a total height of 65 feet. During
the Early English period the north-east angle, which stands quite clear
of the church, was strengthened by massive buttresses, and a story,
apparently of wood, was added on projecting arches resembling
machicolations. This wooden story probably formed the bell chamber; the
machicolation-like supports still existed in 1781.
There has been much discussion as to the original purpose of the tower.
Some leading antiquaries of the eighteenth, and of the early part of
this century, thought that the bridge entrance at the top was at first
the only one and that the structure with its massive walls formed the
cathedral treasury. It must be remembered, however, that the early
English turret to which the bridge was thrown was not in existence until
much later. The lower part still remaining is so dilapidated, with all
its ashlar facing gone, that it seems impossible to fix the position of
the original entrance. At the present day there are two entrances, one
through a large opening in the north wall, the other through a doorway
in the south-west corner formed by knocking out the back of an old
recess.
It seems very likely that the tower was primarily intended to be a
defensive work. Whatever its original purpose, however, it is certain
that it was used for bells at a very early date. In or before 1154, for
he died in that year, Prior Reginald "made two bells and placed them in
the greater tower. One which was broken was applied to the making of
another bell." In support of the view that the tower was a defensive
work the suggestion has been made that the metal thus re-used may have
belonged to the original alarm bell. Two other bells came to the
cathedral in the twelfth century, and were probably placed here at once
as they are mentioned in the "Custumale Roffense," written about 1300,
as then hanging in the "greater tower," a name by which this is
distinguished from the long destroyed south one. Gundulf's Tower is
certainly, therefore, an early example of a detached campanile, and, if
built as such, was probably the first in this country.
As has been before mentioned, its reduction to a mere ruin is of quite
recent date. The author of the 1772 edition of the "History and
Antiquities of Rochester," thinking it a bell tower, wrote in that
work: "May the present reverend and learned gentlemen (the Dean and
Chapter), and their successors, experience the necessity of finishing
this venerable tower and applying it to the uses for which, it has been
conjectured, it was originally intended." In the second edition, of
1817, stands: "So far, we regret to say, is this ardent wish from having
been realized, that a part of this ancient tower has lately been taken
down to supply materials for the repairs of the church." Denunciations
follow of the action of the dean and chapter in thus demolishing one of
the most curious and interesting pieces of architecture remaining in
England.
The space between the tower and the church seems to have been floored
and occupied by the wax-chandler's chamber and the sacristan's rooms.
The remains of an oven and chimney, conjectured to have been used for
the baking of altar-breads, have also been described.
#The South Side of the Choir# presents no very remarkable features. A
brief history of the efforts to save it during the latter part of last
century, and in 1825 and the following years, has been given in our
opening chapter. The wall of the choir aisle is supported by a flying
buttress as well as by the small room in the corner between it and the
south main transept. In the wall are three lancet windows, the
easternmost with dog-tooth ornament, and a fine doorway, which used to
open into the western range of the cloisters. The ends of the outer
mouldings of the doorway arch, which also have the dog-tooth, bend round
and upwards in an unusual way that is worthy of notice. All that can be
seen of the transept end is by Cottingham. He gave it a new ashlar
facing, which, as the wall was considerably out of the perpendicular,
constituted an invisible buttress. His destruction of the old brick
buttresses was a great improvement. The same architect found no gable,
and built the present rather flat one containing a circle ornamented
with zigzag mouldings. In the south wall of the transept aisle is a
Decorated window with beautiful tracery. This window was of course an
insertion. Remains of recesses on each side of it, like those still in
the transept end, made this evident until 1825, when they were hidden
beneath the smooth modern surface. The southern wall of the presbytery
is almost entirely concealed by the eighteenth century chapter room,
with its plain, square-headed, sashed windows. The clerestory, however,
which is like that on the north side, appears over the red-tiled roof of
that modern structure. In the basement on this side some windows have
quite recently been inserted, to light the new vestries in the crypt,
and a door opens into the cellar beneath the chapter room.
#The Monastic Buildings and Cloisters# originally stood in the usual
position on the south side of the nave, and were apparently of wood, but
these first structures having soon perished, their successors were
erected in an uncommon position, said to be unique in this country, on
the same side of the choir. At Lincoln, also, the cloister is indeed
beside the the choir, but to the north of it. The earliest monastic
buildings at Rochester were of Gundulf's time; the next, in the new
situation, were the work of Ernulf, who built the chapter house,
dormitory, and refectory. Of these fine specimens of later Norman
architecture, ruins still exist. The chapter house and dormitory formed
the east side of the cloisters. Of the western wall of the chapter house
three arches remain, with a recess, having zigzag mouldings continued
down to its base, and not merely round the head, on each side of the
central arch, between it and the others. The chapter house was an oblong
room, as some remains of it within the deanery prove, and must have been
fine and of ample size. It was raised above the ground level, and the
space beneath, into which the three lower archways (now walled up)
opened, was looked upon as an honourable place of burial; it was entered
by the middle arch, the side shafts of which have fine and elaborate
capitals, while the arch itself is richly sculptured and has elaborate
zigzag and other mouldings. The panels round it are said to contain
representations of the twelve signs of the zodiac, but all the carved
work here (general in Caen stone) is so worn and decayed that it is
impossible, in most cases, to feel sure of what was intended. The
damaged state of all the carved work is possibly to some extent a result
of the great fires of the twelfth century. Ernulf's diaper occurs in the
spandrels on either side of this central arch; and each of the outer
arches has zigzag and billet mouldings and, within them, a row of a
diaper pattern. Passing on to the south the next arch also has zigzag
and circular mouldings, while its lunette is occupied by a relief, now
so worn that the subject is scarcely discernible. It represents
Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac. The father holds his son with his
outstretched left hand, and is about to slay him, when God's hand
appears in the clouds above. Behind Isaac is seen the ram that was
afterwards to be offered in his stead, and in the opposite corner,
behind Abraham, there seem to be traces of two small figures, probably
the two servants who had been left at a distance to await the
patriarch's return. This interpretation is confirmed by three words of
an inscription, which still remain round the inner part of the arch
(_Aries per cornua_). Beneath the lunette runs a fine band of foliated
ornament, including birds. The capitals are rich, and an angel and a
bird appear in those on the south side. Continuing southwards the still
remaining lower portion of the dormitory west wall has a blind arcade
with double intersecting heads, semicircular like all the other arches
here, but interrupted once or twice by an uncut arch.
[Illustration: NEW CHAPTER ROOM AND RUINS OF THE OLD
(FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY J. L. ALLEN).]
On the south side of the cloisters was the refectory; the lower part of
its massive north wall still remains, and in it a fine doorway, with a
groined lavatory and towel recess, the work of Prior Helias about 1215.
The great thickness of the wall is, as will be explained shortly,
probably due to the fact that it was originally a part of the old
fortifications of the city on this side. The cellarer's and other
storerooms were, apparently, on the west side, and there seems to have
been a smaller guesten-hall to the south-east. Some corbels that helped
to support the cloister roofs are still to be seen, projecting from the
south wall of the church, and from Ernulf's buildings. The doorway
opening from the church into the western range has been already
described. Of this range itself nothing remains, but at its southern end
there is yet to be seen, half buried, a late Perpendicular porch. This
stands beside the road between the north main transept and the Prior's
Gate, and opens towards the episcopal precinct.
[Illustration: RUINS OF CLOISTERS, EAST RANGE
(FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY H. DAN).]
Of the old #Episcopal Palace#, famous for having been the home, during his
later years, of Cardinal Fisher, a considerable part still exists to the
south-west of the cathedral, between it and Boley Hill. The palace was
perhaps originally erected by Gundulf himself. It is said to have been
rebuilt, after a fire, by Bishop Gilbert de Glanvill (1185-1215), though
he may have found it sufficient to repair the shell then left, using
Caen stone for the purpose. Another definite notice of the palace is
found when we see Bishop Lowe, in 1459, dating an instrument from his
"new palace at Rochester." Here, again, it is probably a re-modelling
and not a complete reconstruction that is referred to, but the
re-modelling was certainly thorough, for many fifteenth century features
are to be seen in the part that is left.
The main framework of the whole rectangular structure probably dates
from Gundulf's or, at the latest, from Bishop Ralph's time; the simple
plan and the walls, 3 feet in thickness, being such as might be expected
in early Norman work. The building, which has a total length of 70
feet, is of stone, with a tiled roof, and now forms dwelling-houses. It
has a massive buttress in the centre of the southern face, and the
outlines of old windows can be traced in various parts. The western
gable end, which can be seen from Boley Hill, is also interesting and
worthy of attention. The cellars and vaulted passages extend even beyond
the building to the eastward, and are very massive in their
construction. Fragments of wrought masonry that probably once belonged
to the chapel have been dug up; they were mostly portions of capitals,
with beautiful foliated ornaments, or of column shafts.
Cardinal Fisher was the last Bishop of Rochester to reside here. He
received a visit from Erasmus in 1516, and this great scholar gave a
very bad account of the residence and its situation. Fisher himself
complained of its dilapidated state and of the rats that infested it.
Cardinal Wolsey stayed at the house with the bishop on the 4th of July,
1527, and wrote to the king on the next day: "I was right loveingly and
kindely by him entertained." After his cook's attempt, in 1531, to
poison him and his family at his London house, on Lambeth Marsh, Fisher
stayed continuously at Rochester, until, in 1534, he was peremptorily
summoned to the capital--never to return. The palace was continued to
the bishops by the charter constituting the new establishment, but they
neither inhabited it nor, in fact, lived much at Rochester at all. On
the spot where its old prison used to stand within the palace precincts,
the diocesan Register Office was erected in 1760.
The building at present known as the palace, in St. Margaret's Street,
has often been thought to be the old mansion with all these historical
associations; it did not, however, become the property of the bishops
until after 1674. In that year it was bequeathed by Francis Head, Esq.,
to his wife, with the arrangement that, after her death, "in case the
Church of England does continue so governed by Bishops of the true
Protestant faith," it should be settled on the Lord Bishop of Rochester
and his successors for the maintenance of hospitality near the cathedral
church, and as an invitation to him to preach once a year each at the
churches of St. Margaret and St. Nicholas in his cathedral city. This
building has been little used by the bishops, and has generally been
leased by them, like other residences of theirs, of which mention will
be made in the chapter on the see and its history. The small episcopal
revenue has usually only allowed of the maintenance of a single palace,
though more may have been desired and even necessary.
[Illustration: ARCHWAY IN THE ROMAN WALL (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY H. DAN).]
#The Enclosure and Gates# of the cathedral and priory have an interesting
history. The church was so close to the south wall of the city, which
bounded its domains on that side, that we find the line of the
fortifications moved time after time to allow of the growth of its
dependencies. Three acres of land, as appears from a deed of quit-claim
executed by Gundulf, had been acquired by the monks, about 1090, on the
south side of the town, and fenced round by a wall, which was probably
of slight construction, as no traces of it have been found. The first
extension of the city walls, which at the Conquest still followed the
old Roman lines, was made, also in Early Norman times, near the south
gate, so as to enclose the episcopal precinct, within which the palace
was then built. A little later Ernulf had to make more changes to obtain
room for his new monastic buildings. For this purpose he too overstepped
the old wall and used it apparently to form the northern side of his
southern range which lay just beyond. This would explain the massiveness
of the north wall of the refectory, which is 7 or 8 feet thick, while
the other walls are only 2 1/2 or 3 feet. In this old wall is the fine
transitional doorway here pictured, with round arches, but with the
well-known dog-tooth moulding. Its inner trefoil arch is of a form very
uncommon in this country, but more usual on the Continent. Having gone
beyond the old wall, Ernulf had to raise a new one; this ran from the
south-east corner of the city to the corresponding corner of the
bishop's precinct. He probably then erected a predecessor to the present
Prior's Gate, for we find a gate of this name mentioned on the site,
before the one now to be seen was erected.
[Illustration: THE PRIOR'S GATE IN 1825
(DRAWN BY H. P. CLIFFORD FROM A LITHOGRAPH BY W. DADSON).]
Ernulf's wall continued to be the boundary of the city until 1344, when
there was again an extension to the south. To this time our present
Prior's Gate probably belongs. The new wall, of which the demolition
must have been complete in 1725, when Minor Canon Row was built on its
line, was about 5 1/2 feet thick, about 16 feet high, and crenellated.
Its foundations have to a great extent been traced. Later--it is not
certain at exactly what date--still more of the monastic property was
enclosed by yet another wall, of which the course is to some extent
known.
In 1344 we find measures taken for the first time to isolate the priory
from the city. The erection of screens and doors guarding the approaches
to the monastic part of the cathedral has been recorded, and we now read
of the raising of a strong wall to the north of the church along the
side of the High Street. This was possibly due to ill-feeling between
the monks and the parishioners of St. Nicholas, possibly to dread of the
bands of travellers, soldiers, and pilgrims passing through the town on
their way to Canterbury or the Continent. It is to be observed, however,
that other ecclesiastical precincts were similarly protected about this
time. The close at Lincoln was walled round in Edward II.'s reign, as
evil-doers resorted thither and made attendances at night services
dangerous, and to the same period is assigned a like protection of the
close at Salisbury. Edward I.'s patents authorizing these walls of 1344
are both printed in the "Registrum Roffense."
#Gates to the Enclosure.# The Prior's Gate, to the south of the main
transept, has already been mentioned as dating from the middle of the
fourteenth century. Our illustration shows it as it appeared in 1825;
when it formed a portion of the Grammar School, of which more is to be
seen in the building to the right. The upper story was afterwards used
as the school-room of the chorister boys, but a new building has
recently been erected for them. Entrance to the cemetery and to the west
door of the cathedral was formerly, and can still be, obtained through
the rather later College Gate, which stands beside the High Street,
opposite the end of Pump Lane. This has also been known as Chertsey's or
Cemetery Gate, and has been identified as the Jasper's Gateway of Edwin
Drood. Earlier than either of the two just mentioned was St. William's
Gate, which stood on the site of the Post Office, to the north of the
main transept, to which it led from the High Street. It has now quite
gone. Its constant use rendered a fourth, the Deanery Gate, necessary to
keep private the priory grounds. This gate still existing, was formerly
called Sextry or Sacristy Gate, and dates from Edward III.'s reign,
being probably later than Prior's Gate though earlier than College
Gate. Yet another gate was built at the southern end of the west front,
because College Gate was always open to the parishioners of St.
Nicholas. This porter's gate was in existence during the last century,
but now both it and the cathedral almonry that used to stand near by
have disappeared. The only other gate within the precincts, that at the
south-west angle of the cloisters, has been already mentioned. College
Gate and Deanery Gate now have upper stories of wood, which form parts
of dwelling-houses.
[Illustration: EASTGATE HOUSE, ROCHESTER
(FROM A DRAWING BY R. J. BEALE).]