Reformation, when much of the painted glass is said to have been
removed by Bishop Jewell. Although desolate and abandoned, it
escaped material profanation during the Civil War, and workmen were
even employed to keep it in repair. On the Restoration, a report of
the general condition of the cathedral was supplied by Sir
Christopher Wren, and certain additions for the strengthening of
the spire were made at his recommendation. The great work of
destruction was reserved for a later period and more competent
hands. Under Bishop Barrington (1782-1791) the architect Wyatt was,
unhappily, let loose upon Salisbury; and his untiring use of axe
and hammer will stand a very fair comparison with the labours of an
iconoclast emperor, or with the burning zeal of an early Mohammedan
caliph. He swept away screens, chapels and porches; desecrated and
destroyed the tombs of warriors and prelates; obliterated ancient
paintings; flung stained glass by cartloads into the city ditch;
and levelled with the ground the Campanile--of the same date as the
Cathedral itself--which stood on the north side of the churchyard.
His operations at the time were pronounced ‘tasteful, effective and
judicious.’ The best point of view is from the north-east, which
Rickman has pronounced ‘the best general view of a cathedral to be
had in England, displaying the various portions of this interesting
building to the greatest advantage.’ The Cathedral is built (and
roofed) throughout with freestone obtained from the Chilmark
quarries, situated about twelve miles from Salisbury towards
Hendon, and still worked. The stone belongs to the Portland beds of
the oölite. The pillars and pilasters of the interior are of
Purbeck marble. The local rhyme in which the cathedral is
celebrated may here be quoted; it is attributed by Godwin, who
gives a Latin version of it, to a certain Daniel Rogers:
“‘As many days as in one year there be,
So many windows in this church you see.
As many marble pillars here appear
As there are hours through the fleeting year.
As many gates as moons one here does view,
Strange tale to tell, yet not more strange than true.’
The great point to which the attention of the stranger is at once
drawn is, of course, the grand peculiarity of Salisbury, the
‘silent finger’ of its _spire_. This is the loftiest in England,
rising 400 feet above the pavement (Chichester said, but very
doubtfully, to have been built in imitation of it, is 271 feet in
height; Norwich 313 feet) and its summit is 30 feet above the top
of St. Paul’s.”--(R. J. K.)
Dean Stanley said that Westminster is all-glorious within and Salisbury,
all-glorious without.
“Much has been written on the beauty of the Cathedral church of
Salisbury, the chastity of its style and the purity of its detail.
The east end may be said to display the utmost refinement of the
Early English era. Every subordinate feature is so perfectly
disposed, so admirably carried out and adapted to its purpose, so
necessary to the full effect of the whole, so simple and yet so
rich, that nothing, even by the most critical, can be found wanting
there or considered _de trop_. The northern side is scarcely less
perfect; the simple lancet openings of its eastern transept, the
more fully developed quatrefoils of the central gable and the still
more advanced northern porch beyond these, all mark the progress of
construction. At the intersection rises the still later tower and
spire, the final limb of the whole, on an embattled lower stage of
earlier date. It is rich to the utmost limit. Every ballflower,
every projecting shaft and moulding sparkles for itself and casts
its own diminutive shadow upon its fellow, entirely relieving the
wall-surface of that flatness which is and must be the fault in
every view purporting to suggest its elegance. The church stands
alone; like a model of itself; in its entirety perhaps the most
stately of which we can boast.”--(A. A.)
In the close, which is about half a square mile, there are three gates:
the South, or =Harnham=; the East, or =St. Anne’s=; and the North, or =Close
Gate=, built about 1327.
“The first thing to be noticed in Salisbury is the ample breadth of
the space in which its cathedral stands, the beauty of which space
is enhanced by rows and avenues of magnificent trees; so that it is
difficult to conceive a more appropriate enclosure in which to find
‘the most chaste of English’ churches. Salisbury covers no less
than eight acres of ground.
“Entering from the High Street, the visitor finds himself almost in
another township. A street lined with houses conducts to the
Cathedral lawn, where from the north-eastern extremity the full
proportions of the church may be comprehended. The whole north side
of the close is thus open. On the east we find another gateway and
the entrance to the Palace; on the other side the Choristers’
Green, in itself another little close. The west is occupied by a
group of interesting and extremely handsome houses of various
dates. Here are the Deanery, standing in its own grounds opposite
the Cathedral façade; the King’s House, a long, many-gabled mansion
of the early Fifteenth Century, with mullioned windows and a
vaulted porch, the occasional resting-place of the English monarchs
on their passage through Salisbury; and the Wardrobe, distinguished
by its heavy roof, its projecting double gables, and the immense
square windows, back and front, through which the evening sun
penetrates with a curious half-ghostly gleam. These form the most
effective line of buildings of the enclosure, which at this least
trim but not the less picturesque side, terminates at the Harnham
Gate.”--(A. A.)
Raising our eyes to the =Tower= and =Spire=, we note:
“The Early English portion, however, terminates with the first
story, about eight feet above the roof; the two additional stories
and the spire above them date from the reign of Edward III. The
walls of the upper stories of the tower are covered with a blind
arcade, richly canopied, and pierced for light with double windows
on all four sides. Above each story is a parapet with
lozenge-shaped traceries, which are repeated in the three bands
encircling the spire. At each angle of the tower is an octagonal
stair-turret, crowned with a small crocketed spire. The great
spire, itself octagonal, rises from between four small
richly-decorated pinnacles. Its walls are two feet in thickness
from the bottom to a height of twenty feet; from thence to the
summit their thickness is only nine inches. The spire is filled
with a remarkable frame of timber-work, which served as a scaffold
during its erection. While making some repairs in 1762, the workmen
found a cavity on the south side of the capstone in which was a
leaden box, enclosing a second of wood which contained a piece of
much decayed silk or fine linen, no doubt a relic (possibly of the
Virgin, to whom the cathedral is dedicated) placed there in order
to avert lightning and tempest.”--(R. J. K.)
Entering by the west door we look down the =Nave=.
“The interior is indeed very fine. It could hardly help being fine;
a nave so spacious and so proportioned could under no circumstances
be a failure. It is immensely high and as long in proportion. The
proportion of height to span (2½ to 1) is better than in most
English churches. The harmony of the design--practically the same
from east to west and from north to south--is unique in England,
and is most impressive. The charming way, too, in which the
architect has contrived that we should have a vista of another
miniature church in the Lady-Chapel--a cathedral within a
cathedral--is worthy of all commendation. But, as in Lincoln nave,
to the eye every support is alarmingly insufficient for the work it
has to do; the piers are too tall and slender, the walls too thin
and pierced with too many openings. The triforium is a most
unfortunate design: in harmony neither with the arcade below, nor
with the clerestory above; its outer arches ugly in themselves and
discordant with every other arch in the church; nor could it be
expected that its dark marble shafts would tell against a dark
background--black on black. Add to this the dreadfully new look of
everything--partly due to the very perfection of the masonry,
partly because Scott has been here--and the overpowering glare: one
almost feels as if one were in the Crystal Palace.”--(F. B.)
The most interesting tomb in the nave is that of =William Longespée=, the
first Earl of Salisbury, son of Henry II. and Fair Rosamond, who died at
his castle of Old Sarum in 1226.
“The effigy is entirely in chain-mail, covering the mouth as well
as the chin in an unusual manner. Over the mail is the short
cyclas, or surcoat. On the earl’s shield are the six golden
lioncels also borne by his grandfather Geoffrey, Count of Anjou.
Longespée acquired the earldom of Salisbury through marriage with
its heiress, the Countess Ela. He took an active part in public
affairs throughout the reign of John; joined the Earl of Chester in
an expedition to the Holy Land, and was present at the battle of
Damietta in 1221, where the Christians were defeated. He fought
much in Flanders and in France; was present on the King’s side at
Runnymede; and was one of the witnesses to the Great Charter.”--(R.
J. K.)
The curious monument of the =Boy Bishop= was removed to its present
position about 1680, when it was found buried under the seating of the
choir. It is Early English and represents an effigy of the boy in
bishop’s robes and mitre, holding a crozier in his left hand. The
boy-bishop was elected by the choir-boys in many of the English
cathedrals on St. Nicholas’s Day (Dec. 6) and he held office until Holy
Innocents’ Day (Dec. 28), during which time he was practically bishop.
Law provided that if a boy-bishop died during his term of power, he was
to be buried in his vestments and with all the pomp of an episcopal
funeral; and, therefore, we must conclude that this boy died during his
short rule.
From the nave we enter the =North Transept=,
“passing under the wide Perpendicular arch, which (as at Canterbury
and Wells) was inserted early in the Fifteenth Century by way of
counter-thrust against the weight of the central tower, under which
the central piers had already given away to some extent, as will be
at once perceived. It is owing to this settlement of the piers that
the spire is out of the perpendicular. The triforium and clerestory
of the nave are carried round the transept; the triforium on the
north side, being replaced by two-light window of very elegant
character. The clerestory window above, with its slender pilasters,
and graceful flow of lines, deserves especial notice. Each transept
has an eastern aisle divided by clustered piers into three bays.
The screens which formerly enclosed the chapel in each of these
bays were swept away by Wyatt. A staircase in the angle of the
transept leads upward to the tower, which may be ascended by
staircases in each of its flanking turrets. The top of the tower is
called the Eight Doors, from the double doors on each side, through
which the visitor will obtain magnificent views over the town and
surrounding country. The first story of the tower is of Early
English date, and originally formed a lantern, open to the nave. It
is surrounded by an arcade of slender pilasters. The ascent of the
spire--which is a formidable undertaking--is made internally by a
series of slender ladders as far as a little door about forty feet
below the vane, and from that point the adventurous climber has to
scale the outside by means of hooks attached to the walls. The
interior is filled with a timber frame consisting of a central
piece with arms and braces.”--(R. J. K.)
The =South Transept= is a counterpart of the north transept. The windows
at the south end are filled with stained-glass. The glass in the upper
lights is Early English.
The lierne vault above the central tower arches is Perpendicular. From
here we enter the =Choir=, passing under a screen of wrought metal
(modern). In the second arcade on each side of the =choir= is placed the
new and divided organ built by Willis.
“The Choir and Presbytery are very similar to the nave in the main
features of their design. The piers show a different plan, which
provides for eight shafts of Purbeck marble to each. The inner
mouldings of the arches exhibit the dog-tooth ornamentation of
their period. The triforium and clerestory differ slightly from the
corresponding parts of the nave. In each of the last two bays of
the presbytery the triforium has five small cinquefoil arches. At
the east wall of the choir above the reredos is an arcade of five
simply-pointed arches, below a triplet window in the gable, which
is filled with stained glass, given by the Earl of Radnor in 1781,
and representing _The Brazen Serpent_, after a design by Mortimer.
“The choir still bears traces of Wyatt’s destruction. He removed
the original reredos behind the high altar and the screen before
the Lady-Chapel, so that both, with the low eastern aisle, were
thrown into the choir. He shifted the high altar from the choir to
the extreme east end of the Lady-Chapel, sacrificing several
chantries and tombs to do so. Views of the cathedral after his
reign of terror fail to show any gain to compensate for so much
loss; the extreme length is not apparently an advantage, while the
bare look of the interior seems decidedly intensified by the
increased vista that he was so delighted to obtain, and for which,
with a light heart, he effaced the silent records of dead
centuries. The decorations of the roof of the choir and presbytery
are reproductions of the original series of paintings, dating, it
is thought, from the Thirteenth Century. The subjects are the
prophets and saints, Christ and the four Evangelists and the twelve
months.”--(G. W.)
On the north side of the choir is =Bishop Audley’s Chantry=, built by the
bishop in 1520, four years before his death. It is late Perpendicular
and resembles the chantry of Bishop Fox at Winchester. The fan-tracery
of the roof was originally coloured. In the corresponding bay on the
south side is the chantry founded by =Walter, Lord Hungerford=, in 1429.
It was removed from the nave in 1778.
The =Choir-Stalls= are composed of pieces of various dates with some
additions by Sir Christopher Wren and canopies by Wyatt. The =Reredos= is
modern, the gift of Earl Beauchamp in memory of his ancestor, whose
chantry Wyatt destroyed. It was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott.
Many of the Earls of Pembroke and their wives are buried near the choir.
In the =South-choir-aisle= an interesting monument to =Bishop Davenport=,
probably one of the translators of the Bible, is of white marble with
black Corinthian pillars. Near it is the tomb of =Sir Richard Mompesson=
and his wife. He is in armour and Katherine in a black robe with gold
flowers. The black Corinthian columns with vine leaves and grapes in
green and gold twisted around them are striking. Near the south
transept, still in the choir-aisle, is the altar-tomb of =Bishop Mitford=
(1407), with carved shields. On the cornice with the lilies, birds are
holding in their beaks scrolls with the words _Honor Deo et gloria_.
In the floor of the north-east-choir-aisle is the =brass= to =Bishop
Wyvill=, generally regarded as one of the most wonderful existing
examples. Bishop Wyvill (1329-1375) recovered for this See the castle of
Sherborne and the chase of Bere. The brass, therefore, represents the
contested castle with keep and portcullis. At the door of the first ward
the bishop appears, bestowing his benediction on his champion, who
stands at the gate of the outer ward with battle-axe and shield. The
rabbits and hares before the castle refer to the chase of Bere, within
Windsor Forest.
=Bishop Giles de Bridport= (died 1262) lies opposite William of York’s
tomb, between the choir-aisle and the eastern-aisle of the transept. His
monument is one of the most important and interesting in the Cathedral.
“All the details of this remarkable monument deserve the most
careful examination. The effigy, at the head of which are small
figures of censing angels, lies beneath a canopy, supported north
and south by two open arches with quatrefoils in the heads. Each
arch is subdivided by a central pilaster, and springs from
clustered shafts, detached. A triangular hood-moulding, with
crockets and finials of leafage, projects above each arch; and
between and beyond the arches pilasters rise to the top of the
canopy, supporting finials of very excellent design. The whole
character of the tomb is most graceful, but an especial interest is
given to it by the reliefs with which the spandrels of the arches
are filled, and by the small sculptured figures on various parts of
the monument. The subjects, beginning on the south side, have been
thus interpreted. The first, a female figure with an infant and
attendants, represents the birth of the future bishop: in the three
next spandrels are his confirmation; either his own education or
his instruction of others; and, possibly, his first preferment. The
shield hung from a tree in this compartment, bears Az., a cross,
or, between 4 bezants, no doubt his own arms. On the north side of
the monument are the bishop doing homage for his see--a procession
with a cross-bearer, perhaps referring to the dedication of
Salisbury Cathedral--the bishop’s death and the presentation of his
soul for judgment. Little or nothing is known of the life of Bishop
Bridport.”--(R. J. K.)
At the end of the north aisle of the Lady-Chapel and at the end of the
south aisle, directly opposite, are two monuments that will interest the
visitor. The first is a medley of obelisks, globes, spheres and the Four
Cardinal Virtues and effigies of =Sir Thomas Gorges= and his widow,
maid-of-honour to Queen Elizabeth. The second is a gorgeous tribute to
=Edward, Earl of Hertford=, son of the Protector Somerset and of his wife,
Catherine, Lady Jane Grey’s sister. The effigies are praying; the Earl
is in armour. The whole piece is gilded and coloured.
Very little ancient glass remains in Salisbury.
“The fragments that survived were collected some fifty years since,
and placed in the nave windows, and in parts of some of the others.
The most important are in the great west triple lancet, wherein the
glass ranges in date from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century. Mr.
Winston, in his Paper read in 1849 before the Archæological
Institute and printed in the Salisbury volume for that year,
considered that the earliest fragments are from a Stem of Jesse
about 1240 and some medallions about 1270. He describes two of the
ovals that are on each side of the throned bishop, a prominent
figure in the lower half of the central light, one of the Christ
enthroned, the other of the Virgin. The two medallions below them
he believes represent Zacharias in the Temple and the Adoration of
the Magi. The later glass now in the same window may be either
Flemish work brought hither from Dijon, or possibly partly from
Rouen, and partly from a church near Exeter. It has been
conjectured that in the south lancet the figures represent SS.
Peter and Francis, in the central one the Crucifixion, the
Coronation of the Virgin and the Invention of the Cross, and in the
north light the Betrayal of Christ and St. Catherine. In two of
the side windows of the nave are the arms of John Aprice
(1555-1558) and Bishop Jewell (1562).”--(G. W.)
In the south-choir-aisle is =Jacob’s Dream= in memory of the Duke of
Albany and there are also two of the proposed six angel-windows--=Angeli
Ministrantes= and the =Angeli Laudantes=--designed by Sir Edward
Burne-Jones and made by William Morris. These are considered among the
best examples of glass-painting since the Middle Ages.
The =Chapter-House= is a very fine type of an English chapter-house of the
Thirteenth Century, when geometrical tracery was in vogue. It probably
dates from the reign of Edward the First.
“The architecture is somewhat later in style than that of the
cloisters, and if it be not, as its admirers claim, the most
beautiful in England, it has few rivals. Like Westminster, Wells
and other English examples, except York and Southwell, it has a
central pillar, from which the groining of the roof springs
gracefully in harmonious lines. A raised bench of stone runs round
the interior. At its back forty-nine niches of a canopied arcade
borne on slight Purbeck marble shafts marked out as many seats.
They are apportioned as follows: those at each side of the entrance
to the Chancellor and Treasurer respectively, the rest to the
Bishop, Dean, Archdeacons and other members of the chapter.
“The plan of the building is octagonal, about fifty-eight feet in
diameter and fifty-two feet in height. Each side has a large
fan-light window with traceried head. Below these windows and above
the canopies of the seats is a very remarkable series of
bas-reliefs. The bosses of the roof are somewhat elaborately
carved: one north of the west doorway has groups of figures on it,
apparently intended to represent armourers, musicians, and
apothecaries, possibly commemorating guilds who were benefactors to
the building; the others have foliage chiefly with grotesque
monsters. On the base of the central
[Illustration: SALISBURY: NAVE, EAST]
[Illustration: EXETER: SOUTH-WEST]
pillar is a series of carvings taken probably from one of the many
books of fables so popular in the Middle Ages. These were
reproduced from the originals, which are preserved in the
cloisters.”--(G. W.)
The vaulted roof is re-painted in accordance with the original.
The =Cloisters= are on the south-west side of the Cathedral, their western
wall being on a line with the west front. These fine covered walks, the
largest in England (181 feet long), surround a great sward (140 feet
square), where a group of dark cedars contrasts beautifully with the
grey walls. The style is late Thirteenth Century. The windows formed of
double arches with quatrefoils united at the main head with a large
six-foiled circle are much admired.
EXETER
DEDICATION: ST. PETER. A CHURCH SERVED BY SECULAR CANONS.
SPECIAL FEATURES: SCREEN ON WEST FRONT; MISERERES; BISHOP’S THRONE;
MINSTRELS’ GALLERY; LADY-CHAPEL; EAST WINDOW.
“As the last cathedral church we visited, namely Salisbury, may be
taken as the most complete example of Early English work, so Exeter
in its present state is the best specimen of the Decorated style
that is to be met with in England. For though, unlike Salisbury, it
was not built afresh from the ground, yet under Bishops Quivil,
Bitton, Stapledon and Grandisson, between the years 1280 and 1369,
the fabric was so entirely remodelled that it may be regarded as
practically a new building; and since the work of remodelling began
about the time that the Early English style was passing into the
Decorated, and was completed before the time when the Perpendicular
had superseded the Decorated, it naturally is characterised by the
features of that style which flourished during the first half of
the Fourteenth Century. Much indeed of the work found at Exeter is
the very finest that the Fourteenth Century produced.”--(T. P.)
As early as the reign of Athelstan a Benedictine monastery, dedicated to
St. Peter, existed at Crediton and was much injured by the Northmen in
the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries. When the Sees for Devon and Cornwall
were removed from Crediton to Exeter in 1050, the old church of St.
Peter was chosen for the new Cathedral. Of the Saxon church, however,
nothing remains. William Warelwast (1107-1136), the third bishop after
the Conquest, began the new church about 1112, in the “marvellous and
sumptuous” architecture of the Normans. During its erection it suffered
from fire when Stephen besieged Exeter in 1136. Of this building the two
transept towers remain. Bishop Peter Quivil built the greater part of
the present Cathedral before 1291; Bishop Stapledon, who was murdered by
the Londoners at the “great cross in Chepe” in 1326, the eastern part of
the Choir, the sedilia and the choir-screen; Bishop Grandisson finished
the Nave about 1350 and the west front, in all probability, a little
later; and Bishop Brantingham, the Cloisters. The Lady-Chapel was built
during the episcopates of Bronescomb and Quivil, and the chapels of St.
Mary Magdalene and of St. Gabriel the Archangel, north and south of the
Lady-Chapel, are the work of Bishop Bronescomb.
Many of the ancient decorations and arrangements were either removed, or
defaced, by Queen Elizabeth’s “visitors,” who, in 1559, were appointed
to compel the general observance of the Protestant formularies. During
the Commonwealth the Cathedral was divided into two portions by a brick
wall so that an Independent preacher named Stuckeley, one of Cromwell’s
chaplains, could preach in “West Peter’s,” and a Presbyterian, named
Ford, in the Choir, or “East Peter’s,” as the Puritans now named these
portions of the Cathedral.
The finest view is perhaps from Waddlesdown, about four miles from
Exeter. Taking a view of the exterior,