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most worn stones have been replaced by new ones carved in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.”--(G. H. P.)
This doorway resembles those on the Continent and shows the influence of
the East. Freeman 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 Mayor and Corporation of Rochester still have the right of entry in
their robes by this door, through which we now pass. Immediately we
descend four steps into the =Nave=:
“The nave, 150 feet long to the cross of the lantern, is Norman, as
far as the last two bays eastward. If, as is most probable, it is a
part of Gundulf’s work, it was, no doubt, a copy of the Norman nave
at Canterbury; and we are thus enabled to judge fairly what the
appearance of the metropolitan cathedral was in this part of it.
Its architecture is plainer than that of the contemporary examples
in France, though owing to its having been always destined for a
wooden roof, the piers and the design generally are lighter than
where preparation was made for a stone vault. The triforium is
richly ornamented; and the arches open to the space above the
side-aisles as well as to the nave, a peculiarity which both
Rochester and Canterbury may have received from the church of St.
Stephen’s at Caen, where the same arrangement may still be seen.
Lanfranc, the builder of the Norman church at Canterbury, had been
Abbot of St. Stephen’s. The clerestory windows above, like those of
the aisles, are Perpendicular; and the roof seems to have been
raised at the time of their insertion. This is of timber and quite
plain.
“In passing beyond the Norman portion of the nave to the Early
English, of which nearly all the rest of the Cathedral consists,
the strong influence of Canterbury is at once apparent. The double
transepts, the numberless shafts of Petworth marble, and perhaps
the flights of stairs ascending from either side of the crypt,
recall immediately the works of the two Williams in the
metropolitan church, which always maintained the closest connection
with Rochester, her earliest daughter.”--(R. J. K.)
At the end of the northern aisle we note the early Fourteenth Century
doorway for the use of the parishioners of St. Nicholas’s altar. The
lower end of the southern aisle terminates in a blind arcade of three
arches. Each aisle end has also a round-headed Norman window. The great
=West Window= is divided into eight lights separated into
[Illustration: ROCHESTER: NAVE, EAST]
[Illustration: ROCHESTER: CHOIR, WEST]
two rows by a horizontal mullion. The glass commemorates the officers
and men of the Royal Engineers who fell in the South African and Afghan
campaigns. The subjects are Biblical scenes and heroes.
In the south-west corner of the Nave, a charming little Norman doorway
opens into the tower. A fine embattled moulding runs round the arch.
The crossing is noticeable for the finely clustered shafts of the
tower-piers.
The =North Transept= (Early English) dates from about 1235. The =South
Transept= (Early Decorated) is later. The north transept is the richer of
the two. The corbels of monastic heads of great excellence deserve
notice.
In the east wall, opposite the entrance to the Perpendicular
Lady-Chapel, two bays were included under one arch to form a recess for
the altar of the Virgin Mary, about 1320.
The south transept underwent some alteration when the Lady-Chapel was
built. On the wall under the central window a monument to Richard Watts
was erected in 1736. Watts, a member of Queen Elizabeth’s second
Parliament, entertained her at “Satis House” in 1573. He also left
provisions in his will for the poor and founded in 1579 the “House of
the Six Poor Travellers,” where nightly six poor wayfarers are provided
with supper, bed and breakfast and presented with fourpence when they
leave.
Near the Watts monument a brass tablet to Charles Dickens, who made the
House of the Six Poor Travellers famous, connects “his memory with the
scenes in which his earliest and latest years were passed and with the
associations of Rochester Cathedral and its neighbourhood, which
extended over all his life.”
The =Choir=, reached by a flight of ten steps, is higher than the nave. It
is entered through iron gates in the central doorway of the screen,
which represent St. Andrew, King Ethelbert, St. Justus, St. Paulinus,
Bishop Gundulf, William de Hoo, Bishop Walter de Merton and Cardinal
John Fisher, designed by Mr. John Pearson.
The organ is on the screen beneath the choir-arch. The Choir, remodelled
in 1825-1830,
“is entered by a flight of steps rendered necessary, as at
Canterbury, by the height of the crypt below. It was completed
sufficiently for use in 1127. It is thoroughly developed Early
English, although much has evidently been borrowed, even in detail,
from the Canterbury transition work. It is narrow and somewhat
heavy; defects not lightened by the woodwork of the stalls, which
is indifferent, or by the use of colour,--a single line of which,
however, is carried along the ribs of the vaulting with very good
effect.
“The brackets of Early English foliage, from which the blind
wall-arches spring, should be noticed. Two large ones especially,
at the angles of the eastern transept, are excellent specimens of
this period, before the naturalism of the Decorated had begun to
develop itself. A fragment of mural painting, apparently of the
same date as the choir itself, remains on the wall, close above the
pulpit. The painting, when entire, is said to have represented a
subject not uncommon in early churches--the Wheel of Fortune with
various figures--king, priest, husbandman and others--climbing
it.”--(R. J. K.)
This painting (5 feet 10 inches high and 2 feet 2 inches wide) dates
from the Thirteenth Century. Fortune dressed as a queen, and in yellow,
moves the wheel with her right hand.
Passing into the =North-choir-transept=, still Early English and a part
of William de Hoo’s work, the first point of interest is =St. William’s
Tomb=, at the north-east corner, of Purbeck marble, with a floriated
cross.
Towards the centre of the transept is a flat stone marked with six
crosses, upon which =St. William’s Shrine= is said to have rested. The
steps which descend into the north aisle of the Choir are, as at
Canterbury, deeply worn by the constant ascent of pilgrims.
West of the Saint’s tomb lies =Walter de Merton=, founder of Merton
College, Oxford, and Bishop of Rochester from 1274 to 1277. His tomb is
a very beautiful example of Early Decorated.
The present arrangement of the east end is the work of Sir G. Scott. The
=Choir-stalls= were designed by Sir G. Scott, who incorporated as much of
the old work as possible.
Just behind the =Altar=, above which is a picture of _The Angels appearing
to the Shepherds_, by Benjamin West (placed there in 1788), is a fine
=Piscina=. Opposite three stone =Sedilia= (late Perpendicular) deserve
notice.
In the railed-off transept aisle, known as =St. John the Baptist’s
Chapel=, or =Warner Chapel=, because of the monuments to members of the
Warner family (“Palladian” in style, 1666-1698), there is an old
weather-worn =statue= which tradition says is a portrait of =Gundulf=.
In the eastern aisle of the north-east transept is the =Tomb of Bishop
John De Sheppy= (1353-1360). It is
“probably the most perfect specimen of ancient colour-work now
existing in England. It had been bricked up within the arch where
it still remains, and was discovered during the repairs in 1825.
The colours and monuments deserve the most careful attention, as
well for their own beauty as for their great value as authorities.
In the maniple held over the left arm, some of the crystals with
which it was studded still remain. Remark the couchant dogs at the
feet. About their necks are scarlet collars, hung with bells. An
inscription with the Bishop’s name surrounds the effigy.”--(R. J.
K.)
The short =sacrarium=, or chancel, east of the transepts, probably formed
part of William de Hoo’s work. The beautiful =windows= at the east end are
Decorated. In the south side of the sacrarium, next the altar, a tomb of
plain marble is thought to be that of =Gundulf=.
In the east wall of the south-choir-transept we come to one of the
finest pieces of English Decorated in existence,--the =Chapter-House
Doorway=. It dates from the middle of the Fourteenth Century.
“The full-length figures, one on each side of the door, symbolising
the Church and the Synagogue, were both headless when Mr.
Cottingham restored the doorway, between 1825 and 1830. Much fault
has been found with him for turning the first, which is thought to
have been like the other, a female figure, into a mitred, bearded
bishop holding a cross in his right hand and the model of a church
in his left. The blindfolded ‘Synagogue,’ by her broken staff and
the tables of the law held reversed in her right hand, typifies the
overthrow of the Mosaic dispensation. Above are figures, two on
each side, seated at book-desks under canopies. These are supposed
to be the four great Doctors of the Church: Saints Augustine,
Gregory, Jerome and Ambrose. Quite at the head of the arch, under a
lofty pyramidal canopy, we see a tiny nude figure which represents,
probably, a pure soul just released from Purgatory. If this is so,
it would account for the flames from which the angels, on each
side, bearing scrolls, seem to be rising. It has been suggested
likewise that the distorted heads, which alternate with squares of
foliage in the wider inside moulding of the doorway, typify the
sufferings of the soul in its passage. The outside moulding is also
interesting, being a wide hollow in the bottom of which circular
holes are cut at intervals. Through these can be seen the broad
stem from which spring the leaves that ornament the intervening
spaces. The arch-head is ogee-shaped outside, with large external
and smaller, but not less rich, internal crockets. The square back
to it, and the spaces beneath the corbels, on which the Church and
Synagogue figures stand, are filled with noteworthy diapers. The
first is divided diagonally into sunken squares, each containing a
flower; and the others have lion masks in quatrefoils, with
five-petalled roses in the alternate spaces.”--(G. H. P.)
A steep flight of stairs leads from this Transept to =St. Edmund’s
Chapel=, south of the Choir. From this we enter the =Crypt=,
“which extends under the whole of the choir and is one of the best
specimens of its class to be found in England. The west and east
parts are evidently of a much earlier date than the central, which
is Early English, and of the same period as the choir above. In
building this, the ancient crypt was probably broken through, and
in part reconstructed. The earlier portions are distinguished by
very massive piers and circular arches. Between the piers are small
pillars, with plain broad capitals. It is not impossible that this
part of the crypt may date from before the Conquest. At all events,
it is the earliest portion of the existing cathedral, and cannot be
later than the work of Bishop Gundulf.”--(R. J. K.)
WINCHESTER
DEDICATION: THE HOLY AND INDIVISIBLE TRINITY. FORMERLY THE CHURCH
OF A BENEDICTINE MONASTERY.
SPECIAL FEATURES: NORMAN NAVE; TOWER; WEST WINDOW; CHOIR-STALLS;
FONT; REREDOS.
Winchester is the largest cathedral in England and affords good examples
of every style from pure Norman to early Renaissance. It is the fifth
cathedral that has occupied this site, for tradition says that a British
church was founded here by Lucius, King of the Britons.
This first church was destroyed in 266 and the clergy martyred during
the persecutions of the Christians by Diocletian. The second church,
erected under Constantine, was in 515 transformed by Cerdic, founder of
the Kingdom of Wessex, into a Temple of Dagon, in which he was crowned
in 519 and buried in 534. Cerdic’s great grandson, Kynegils, converted
by St. Birinus, the first of Saxon bishops, began the third church which
his son, Kenwalk, completed in 648. Kenwalk’s buildings were, in their
turn, enlarged and repaired by Swithun, a prior of the Benedictine
monastery established here. Swithun, who became Bishop of Winchester and
tutor to King Alfred and Ethelwold, was, according to the chroniclers,
“a diligent builder of churches in places where there were none before,
and a repairer of those that had been destroyed or ruined.” When he died
in 862, he was buried, according to his own desire, in the churchyard of
Winchester, where “passersby might tread on his grave, and where the
rain from the eaves might fall on it.”
When this third church was destroyed by the Danes in 867, portions were
restored by Alfred the Great, St. Ethelwold and St. Alphege. St.
Ethelwold removed the body of St. Swithun to the golden shrine within
the cathedral, now dedicated to St. Swithun, St. Peter and St. Paul; but
the Translation being delayed by rain, gave the saint reputation as a
weather prophet. Hence the weather on the anniversary (July 15) is
foretold by the old rhyme:
“St. Swithun’s Day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days it will remain;
St. Swithun’s Day, if thou be fair,
Forty days ’twill rain na mair.”
One of the features of St. Ethelwold’s cathedral was a magnificent “pair
of organs,” of tremendous size and power, with twelve bellows above and
fourteen below and seventy strong men as blowers to fill the four
hundred pipes. Below, at two keyboards, sat two brethren in “unity of
spirit.”
Ethelwold was buried in the southern crypt.
This Saxon church was succeeded by the present cathedral, begun in 1079,
by Walkelyn, the first Norman bishop.
Walkelyn was of noble birth and related to William Rufus, who granted
him license to search for stone in the Isle of Wight and as much wood
from the forest of Hanepinges (on the Alresford road) as his carpenters
could take in four days and nights. The wily Bishop collected a large
force of men and within the assigned time cut down the whole forest. The
King was furious. The new Cathedral was finished in 1093, having been
rebuilt by Walkelyn, from the west front to the great tower, including
the transepts. He also removed, and with great pomp, St. Swithun’s
shrine from the old altar to the new one. Walkelyn died in 1098 and was
buried in the nave.
Bishop Lucy, Bishop William of Edington and William of Wykeham are the
next three great architects of Winchester.
“It was Bishop Edington who commenced the alteration of Winchester
Cathedral into the Perpendicular style; he died in 1366, and the
work was continued by William of Wykeham, who mentions in his will
that Edington had finished the west end, with two windows on the
north side and one on the south: the change in the character of the
work is very distinctly marked. Bishop Edington’s work at
Winchester was executed at a later period than that at Edington,
and, as might be expected, the new idea is more fully developed;
but on a comparison between the west window of Winchester and the
east window of Edington, it will at once be seen that the principle
of construction is the same; there is a central division carried up
to the head of the window, and sub-arches springing from each side:
it may be observed that whenever this arrangement of the sub-arches
occurs in Decorated work, it is a sign that the work is late in the
style. Before the death of Bishop Edington the great principles of
the Perpendicular Style were fully established. These chiefly
consist of the Perpendicular lines through the head of the window,
and in covering the surface of the wall with panelling of the same
kind. These features are as distinctly marked at Winchester as in
any subsequent building, or as they well could be.”--(J. H. P.)
In the eastern part of the Crypt there is ancient masonry undoubtedly
belonging to the time of St. Ethelwold; then we find above it the
massive Norman work of Bishop Walkelyn; then, to the east, the graceful
Early English of Bishop Lucy; along the nave, the Perpendicular columns
of Bishop Edington and William of Wykeham, on which rests the exquisite
groined roof. Above this roof the great rough-hewn beams cut from the
King’s forest by Walkelyn more than eight hundred years ago can still be
seen and in a perfect state of soundness.
“In this great church many stirring scenes of English history have
been enacted. The early kings made Winchester their home and the
Cathedral their chapel. Here it was that Egbert, after being
crowned _in regem totius Britanniæ_, with assent of all parties,
issued an edict in 828, ordering that the island should thereafter
be always styled England and its people Englishmen. Here King
Alfred was crowned and lived and died. Here, in 1035, Cnut’s body
lay in state before the high altar, over which was hung henceforth
for many a year, a most precious relic, the great Norseman’s crown.
Here William the Conqueror often came, and wore his crown at the
Easter Gemôt; here, too, clustered many of the national legends:
St. Swithun here did his mighty works, and here were the forty
dismal days of rain; hard by is the scene of the great fight
between Colbrand the Dane and Guy of Warwick; in the nave of the
church Queen Emma trod triumphant on the red-hot plough-shares as
on a bed of roses; hither came Earl Godwin’s body after his
marvellous and terrible death, one of the well-known group of
malignant Norman tales. It was in Winchester Cathedral that Henry
Beauclerk took to wife his queen, Matilda, to the great joy of all
English-speaking folk. Here Stephen of Blois was crowned King; and
here, on the other hand, the Empress Maud was welcomed by city and
people with high rejoicings; here, too, was drawn up and issued the
final compact, in 1153, which closed the civil war of that weary
reign and secured the crown to the young Prince Henry. He in his
turn often sojourned in Winchester, and befriended in his strong
way the growing city. The Cathedral witnessed another compact in
the dark days of King John: the King was here reconciled to the
English Church in the person of Stephen Langton; Henry III. and
his Queen Eleanor, were here in 1242; and on May-day of that year
‘came the Queen into the Chapter-house to receive society.’ In 1275
Edward I., with his Queen, was welcomed with great honour by the
prior and brethren of St. Swithun, and attended service in the
church. The christening of Arthur, Prince of Wales, elder brother
of Henry VIII., was here; and here Henry VIII. met his astute
rival, the Emperor Charles V. It was in Winchester Cathedral that
the marriage of Philip and Mary took place, and the chair in which
she sat is still to be seen in the church. The Stuart Kings loved
the place. Here in the great rebellion was enacted that strange
scene when, after the capture of the city, the mob rushed into the
Cathedral, wild for booty and mischief, and finding in the chests
nothing but bones, amused themselves by throwing them at the
stained windows of the choir. It was at this time that Colonel
Nathaniel Fiennes, a Parliamentary officer and an old Wykehamist,
stood with drawn sword at the door of Wykeham’s chantry to protect
it from violence. Since the days of the Merry Monarch, who was
often at Winchester, and loved it so well that he built his palace
here, no striking historical events have been enacted within its
walls. The church by degrees recovered from the ruin of the
Commonwealth time, and has had a quiet, happy life from that time
onward, a tranquil grey building sleeping amidst its trees, in the
heart of the most charming of all south English cities.”--(G. W.
K.)
The best view of Winchester Cathedral is from the top of St. Catherine’s
hill, where the great mass rises solemnly over the distant city. Its
enormous length is broken by the bold transepts, which extend three bays
beyond the aisles. People are, as a rule, disappointed with their first
view of the exterior, because of its lack of decoration and the lowness
of the heavy Norman tower in the centre. The bright-green turf of the
Precincts and the trees, however, make with the grey walls an impressive
picture. A short avenue of trees leads through the Close to the western
door.
The =West Front= was originally the work of Edington (1345-1366). It is
118 feet in breadth and composed of a panelled gable of Perpendicular
style with hexagonal turrets. Immediately under the window in a gallery
over the entrance, the bishop used to give his benediction to the
people. The figure of William of Wykeham stands in the gable, replacing
an ancient bishop removed in 1860. No one seems to know whether it
represented William of Wykeham, Bishop Edington, or St. Swithun. Very
probably it was the latter, as its companions on the gable were St.
Peter and St. Paul, the three patron saints of the Saxon Cathedral.
The great =West Window= is divided by cross mullions into three
perpendicular and six horizontal compartments. It is said to be filled
with glass, collected from different parts of the building, after the
general smashing by the Parliamentary soldiers in 1646. Winston says
these pieces are very early Perpendicular glass, and may have been
placed together in the window, as we now see them, in Bishop Edington’s
time.
“Before entering, the visitor should remark the grand view of the
interior obtained through the open central door. The length of
Winchester (520 feet from this entrance to the extreme eastern
buttresses) exceeds that of any other cathedral on this side of the
Alps, with the exception of Ely (560 feet) and of Canterbury, which
is about five feet longer than Winchester. A certain coldness,
arising from want of colour, is perhaps felt at first; but the eye
soon learns to dwell contentedly on the magnificent forest of
piers, and on all the graceful details above and around them. The
string-course of corbel-heads and the light balustrade of the
triforium in the nave should here be noticed as remarkably aiding
the general effect.”--(R. J. K.)
The ground-plan shows a nave of eleven bays, a transept of three, a
choir of five, a presbytery of three and a Lady-Chapel at the east end
of three. All are furnished with side aisles.
Winchester is the longest cathedral in England, and the =Nave= is one of
the longest in the world. Fergusson says it is “perhaps the most
beautiful nave in England or elsewhere.” The view is overwhelmingly
grand and noble and the groining of the roof is striking in the extreme.