arrangement of its piers and clustered columns, and the admirable
manner in which it unites the Lady-chapel with the choir should be
here remarked. It is throughout Early Decorated. The foliage of the
capitals and the bosses of the vaulting will repay careful
examination. Many of the vaulting ribs appear to spring from two
grotesque heads--one on either side of the low choir-screen--which
hold them between their teeth. The four supporting pillars and
shafts are placed _within_ the line of the choir-piers, thus
producing the unusual intricacy and variety of the eastward view
from the choir. At Salisbury, and in all other English cathedrals,
the piers of the procession-aisles are placed in a line with those
of the choir.”--(R. J. K.)
Mr. Bond thinks the Wells architect got his idea for the octagonal
Lady-Chapel by tacking on the elongated octagonal of the Lichfield
Chapter-House to the rectangular retro-choir of Salisbury.
“The Lady-chapel is an early work of the Curvilinear period; for it
seems to have been complete in 1324. The windows have beautiful
reticulated tracery of early type. There is lovely carving in the
capitals, bosses, reredos, sedilia and piscina. The Curvilinear
foliated capitals here and in the choir should be compared with the
somewhat earlier capitals of the chapter-house, with the early
Geometrical capitals of the staircase, the Lancet capitals of the
west front and the late Transitional ones of porch, nave and
transepts. The ancient glass here and in the Jesse window of the
choir is superb in colour.
“As every one knows, it is the most beautiful east end we have in
England. It may be worth while to see how this design was arrived
at--a design as exceptional as it is effective. The simplest form
of an east end in English Gothic is seen at York and Lincoln: it
consists merely of a low wall with a big window above it. The next
improvement is to build an aisle or processional path behind the
east end; at the same time piercing the east wall with one, two or
three arches. This was done at Hereford about 1180; and on a
magnificent scale in the Chapels of Nine Altars at Durham and at
Fountains early in the Thirteenth Century. But the French apsidal
cathedrals--of which we have an example in Westminster--have not
only an encircling processional aisle, but also a chevet of chapels
radiating out from it; thus providing ever-changing vistas of
entrancing beauty. The next step in England also was to provide our
rectangular choirs with a chevet as well as with a processional
aisle. An early example of this plan is to be seen at Abbey Dore,
in Herefordshire, about 1190. It occurs early in the Thirteenth
Century on a still grander scale at Salisbury, where one finds not
one but two processional aisles, as well as chapels to the east of
them; and, in addition, a Lady-chapel projecting still farther to
the east, thus producing a design of great complexity and beauty.
Nevertheless, at Salisbury, since the chief supporting piers of the
retro-choir and the chevet are in a line with those of the choir,
there is by no means the same changeful intricacy of vista that
affords one ever fresh delight in an apsidal church. At Wells,
however, the architect attained all the success of the Continental
builder simply because he built his Lady-chapel not rectangular but
octagonal. For to get this octagon, of which only five sides were
supported by walls, he had to plant in the retro-choir two piers to
support the remaining three sides; and these piers are necessarily
out of line with the piers of the choir. He had got the Continental
vista. He saw it; but he saw also that it could be improved upon.
And he did improve it, by putting up an outer ring of four more
piers round the western part of the octagon of the Lady-chapel. It
was an intuition of genius: it makes the vistas into the
retro-choir and the Lady-chapel a veritable glimpse into fairyland;
and provides here alone in England a rival to the glorious eastern
terminations of Amiens and Le Mans. And that is not all. We saw in
the chapter-house the grand effect of the central stalk branching
upward and outward in all directions, like some palm tree
transmuted into stone. This beautiful effect he transfers to the
retro-choir, but multiplied--four palm trees in place of one; for
each of the four external piers of the octagon emulates the
chapter-house’s central stalk.”--(F. B.)
The large windows are filled with fine specimens of Fourteenth Century
glass unfortunately now jumbled together. The =East Window= is composed
of odd pieces put together by Willement. David and other patriarchs
occupy the upper tier, and the Virgin, Eve and the Serpent and Moses and
the Brazen Serpent, the lower tier. The upper lights display angels with
the instruments of the Passion, emblems of the Evangelists and busts of
bishops and patriarchs.
“From the south-west transept we pass into the CLOISTERS, which
occupy an unusual amount of space, but have only three walks
instead of the usual four.
“The difference between a true monastic cloister and this of Wells
should be remarked. The canons of Wells were not monks and did not
require a cloister in the ordinary sense. This is merely an
ornamental walk around the cemetery. It did not lead to either
dormitory, refectory or chapter-house. It served as a passage to
the Bishop’s Palace; and the wall of the east walk is Early English
of the same date as the palace itself. The lavatory in the east
walk should be remarked, as well as the grotesque bosses of the
roof in the portion built by Bishop Beckington. Over the western
cloister is the Chapter Grammar School. The central space is known
as the ‘Palm Churchyard,’ from the yew-tree in its centre, the
branches of which were formerly carried in procession as palms.
From the south-east angle of the cloisters we descend into the open
ground within the gateway adjoining the marketplace, and opposite
the episcopal palace. This is surrounded by a moat, as well as by
strong external walls and bastions, and would have been capable of
sustaining a long siege according to the mediæval system of
warfare. The moat is fed by springs from St. Andrew’s, or the
‘bottomless well’--the original ‘great well’ of King Ina,--which
rise close to the palace and fall into the moat in a cascade at the
north-east corner. Both walls and moat were the work of Bishop
Ralph of Shrewsbury (1329-1365).”--(R. J. K.)
Wells is famous for its ancient houses. The old Palace and the Deanery
are still occupied by the bishop and the dean; the canons and vicars
also live in the individual houses built for these ecclesiastics. Wells
was never a monastery with a common refectory and dormitory: there were
always secular priests here and each man lived in his own house. Of all
the domestic buildings the Bishop’s Palace is the most beautiful. It is
considered the most perfect specimen of an Early English house that
exists.
BATH ABBEY
DEDICATION: ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL. A CHURCH SERVED BY SECULAR
CANONS.
SPECIAL FEATURE: WEST FRONT.
Standing before the =West Front=, we notice, first of all, that upon the
angles of the nave on either side of the great window are two turrets,
on the face of each of which is carved a ladder with angels ascending or
descending. The space above the window is also carved with angels; and,
under a canopy above the group, stands a figure of God the Father. Of
this strange decoration the following story is told:
Oliver King, Bishop of Exeter, was translated to the See of Bath and
Wells in 1495. He went at once to Bath, and found the church in a
dilapidated condition. While there, he had a repetition of Jacob’s
famous dream of a ladder reaching from heaven to earth with angels
ascending and descending. Above them stood the Lord, who said: “Let an
Olive establish the crown and a King restore the church.” Taking the
hint, Bishop Oliver King immediately set to work to rebuild the church
and had his dream recorded upon the west front. He also had an
olive-tree and crown carved on each of the corner buttresses.
Bishop King’s new church was smaller than the old one. It only occupied
the site of the former nave. He died before it was finished. Prior
William Birde continued the work, not forgetting a chantry for himself,
which is regarded as the best thing in the church. Birde died in 1525;
and the work was still unfinished when it was seized by the king’s
commissioners. The roofless and neglected church soon fell into decay;
but in 1572 it was patched up a little in order that services might be
held in it. The east window was glazed and the choir was roofed. The
nave, however, was not roofed until Bishop Montague’s rule (1608-1616).
At the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, many mean houses that had
clustered around Bath Abbey were removed, and buttresses and pinnacles
were added to strengthen the walls. Repeated restorations have made it
exceedingly trim in appearance.
About 775, Offa, the Mercian king, founded here a college of secular
canons, who were expelled by Dunstan in the Tenth Century and superseded
by monks.
One great event in the abbey church was the coronation of King Edgar on
the Feast of Pentecost, 973; and for centuries afterwards it was the
custom to select on Whitsunday a “King of Bath” from among its citizens,
in honour of this circumstance.
John de Villula, a Frenchman from Tours, who was Bishop of Somerset in
the reign of William Rufus, greatly preferred Bath to Wells. He was able
to merge Bath Abbey into the bishopric; and then he began to rebuild the
church dedicated to St. Peter. When it was finished, he transferred the
bishop’s seat from Wells to Bath. This did not satisfy Wells, however,
and when Robert of Lewes became bishop of Bath and Wells, he seems to
have arranged matters by allowing the Bishop of Somerset to have a
throne at St. Andrew’s in Wells and at St. Peter’s in Bath, the bishop
to be chosen by the monks of Bath and the canons of Wells (See page
108).
The church built by John of Tours having suffered from fire, Robert was
compelled to rebuild it; but subsequent bishops neglected Bath; and at
the end of the Fifteenth Century, when Oliver King was removed here from
Exeter, he found the church was in a ruinous condition and began to
rebuild it, as we have seen.
Bath Abbey is a very interesting example of late Perpendicular. It was
nearing completion when it surrendered to Henry VIII. in 1539, and is,
therefore, the last expression of Gothic Art. The most interesting part
of the church is the =West Front=, with its large window flanked by the
turrets with the ladders, already described. Each turret contains a
staircase; rises far above the parapet of the nave; and terminates in an
embattled parapet surmounted by an eight-sided and crocketed pyramid.
“The great west window is one of seven lights, divided horizontally
into four parts. Below it is a battlemented parapet with a niche in
the centre, in which, no doubt, a statue formerly stood, and in
which a new statue has recently been placed. At the base of it are
the arms and supporters of Henry VII. Below it is the west door,
beneath a rectangular label. The spandrels contain emblems of the
Passion. On either side stand statues of St. Peter and St. Paul, to
whom the church was jointly dedicated; these seem to be of
Elizabethan date. The doors themselves were the gift to the church
of the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Henry Montague, brother of the
bishop who completed the church. On them may be seen shields
bearing the arms of the Montagues and of the Bishop of Bath and
Wells.”--(T. P.)
The =Central Tower= is oblong and rises two stages above the roof. It
contains two pairs of windows
[Illustration: BATH ABBEY: WEST FRONT]
[Illustration: BATH ABBEY: CHOIR, WEST]
with rectangular heads and each corner is ornamented by a heavy
octagonal turret also terminating in octagonal pyramids decorated with
crockets. Similar pyramids terminate the turrets that flank the sides of
the east window of the choir.
There is no Lady-Chapel.
Let us survey the exterior:
“The nave consists of five bays. The clerestory windows are
unusually lofty, and are divided by transoms; they are of five
lights. Along the top of the clerestory wall is a battlemented,
pierced parapet; but the pattern of the pierced openings differs
from that of the parapet which runs along the top of the aisle
walls. The aisles have five light windows without transoms; their
heads are four centred arches; between each bay are projecting
buttresses of three stages with gabled offsets, finished with
crocketed pinnacles; against them rest flying-buttresses formed of
a lower semi-arch, with a straight rectilinear truss. From the
points where the arched flying-buttresses abut against the
clerestory walls, vertical, slightly projecting buttresses are
built upwards against the wall and rising above the parapet, are
finished by crocketed pinnacles. The same design is carried right
round the church. The clerestory of the transepts resembles those
of the nave and the choir.”--(T. P.)
Entering, our first and general view is impressive, because of the
fan-vaulting and height of the =Nave=. Owing to the absence of horizontal
lines, the vault seems higher than it really is. There is no triforium.
A string-course runs above the arches of the main arcade beneath the
clerestory windows, which are unusually tall. On account of the enormous
windows and the absence of painted glass, Bath Abbey received the name
of the “Lantern of the West”; but now that the windows of the nave and
choir-aisles have been supplied with painted lights, the name is less
appropriate. The tracery of these windows is, of course, Perpendicular.
The one in the south-transept is a thanksgiving for the recovery of the
Prince of Wales in 1872. The lower lights depict the recovery of
Hezekiah and the royal arms of the Prince and Princess of Wales and also
those of the city of Bath. The upper part represents the Tree of Jesse.
The great east and west windows have seven lights. The west window
contains subjects from Old Testament history, and the east-window,
representations of the life of Christ.
“There is little variety in the arches and shafts throughout the
church. This repetition is a well-known feature in Perpendicular
work. The piers have no general capital. The shaft which carries
the inner order of the arch has a capital, and so, at the same
level, have the vaulting-shafts of the high vault and that of the
aisles. These shafts spring from the bases of the main pillars. The
capitals at this level are plain, and so are the capitals of the
vaulting-shafts of the nave from which the vaulting-ribs spring.
But in the choir the place of these plain bands is taken by carved
angels. Carved angels also form the termination of the
hood-moulding of the lower windows of the south transept, and
probably those of the north transept also, though these windows are
hidden by the wooden pipes of the organ.
“Over the heads of the clerestory windows of the nave are small
shields, and shields may also be seen in the centre of the
fan-tracery in the nave, choir and transept. In the aisles the
fan-tracery is somewhat different, as in the centre of each bay
there is a pendant. The vaulting of the nave and its aisles and
that of the south transept are modern, put up, under the direction
of Sir Gilbert Scott, to match the roof of the choir and its aisles
and north transept respectively. The reredos was designed by the
same architect. The oak screen across the eastern part of the south
choir aisle is due to his son. The font is also modern. In fact,
beyond the walls and the roofing of the eastern part of the church,
there is little old about it. In the clerestory windows are a few
fragments of Seventeenth-Century glass--heraldic shields.”--(T. P.)
Although Bath Abbey is full of monuments (there are over six hundred
memorial tablets besides statues), the only tombs that deserve attention
are those of =Bishop Montague=, in the fourth arch of the nave on the
north side, and =Lady Waller’s Monument= under the southern window of the
transept. The figure of her husband, Sir William Waller, who commanded
the Parliamentary army in the Battle of Landsdown, near Bath, clad in
mail, gazes down upon his dead wife. Two weeping children kneel at her
feet.
Between the choir and the south-aisle =Prior Birde’s Chantry= occupies two
bays. It is a most elaborate piece of carving. The rebus of the founder
(a bird and a W) appears frequently. Fan-tracery decorates the vault.
The very fine organ is placed in the transept. The bells of Bath are
famous.
BRISTOL
DEDICATION: THE HOLY TRINITY. A CHURCH SERVED BY AUGUSTINIAN
CANONS.
SPECIAL FEATURES: EAST WINDOW (TRACERY AND GLASS); CHAPTER-HOUSE;
GREAT GATEWAY.
The =West Front= of Bristol gives us a slight suggestion of a French
cathedral, for here we find a rose window and a large doorway, at the
side of which rise two square towers. The balustrade above the crocketed
gable of the doorway partly hides the rose-window.
The towers were built in 1887 and 1888: the north-west is Bishop
Butler’s Tower and the south-west, the Colston Tower. The Butler tower
is enriched with statues of St. Michael, St. Gabriel and the Angel of
Praise; the Colston, with the Angel of the Gospel, St. Raphael and the
Angel of the Sun. On our right is the Great Gateway.
The exterior of Bristol is not very striking. The buttresses of the
Elder-Lady-Chapel are Decorated and of the same date as the east window
of the same chapel. We should also view the great east window of the
Lady-Chapel from without and the =Central Tower=.
“Early in the Fifteenth Century a central tower was added. Here
again one is struck by the originality of the British people: it is
as beautiful as it is original. The designer had noticed how
beautiful is the effect of a close-packed range of tall clerestory
windows, such as those of Leighton Buzzard Church. So instead of
restricting himself on each side of the tower to one or two
windows, he inserts no less than five. The range of clerestory
windows, which the Fourteenth Century builder refused to the
choir, becomes the special ornament and glory of the tower.”--(F.
B.)
As we enter through the =North Porch=, which occupies the space between
two buttresses and is adorned with statues of the Four Evangelists, we
may remember that when Henry VIII. created the diocese of Bristol there
had been a church and monastery of Augustine canons on this site for
four hundred years. This monastery was founded in 1142 by Robert
Fitzhardinge, Lord of Berkeley Castle. Of his Norman church little
remains but portions of the walls in both transepts, a staircase in the
north-aisle leading to the tower, and some fragments in the choir. The
Norman nave was removed in 1542, because it was thought unsafe. The new
nave and western towers were completed in 1888 by Mr. Street, who copied
from the old, repeating the vaulting and the recesses of the eastern
end.
The ground plan consists of a nave with an aisle on either side; a
central tower and transepts; then the choir with north and south aisles;
and finally, the Lady-Chapel at the end. On the north of the
north-choir-aisle is the first Lady-Chapel--built in the Early English
style, and called Elder-Lady-Chapel to distinguish it from the later
Lady-Chapel at the east end.
At the south-east end of the south-choir-aisle we find the Berkeley
Chapel; and at the end of the south transept, the Newton Chapel. Beyond
it is the Chapter-House with its Vestibule, and on the south and west
the remains of the Cloisters.
Our best position for viewing the =Nave= is from the north or between the
two big towers. It is 120 feet long, 60 feet high and 69 broad
including the aisles. One peculiarity of Bristol is that the aisles are
of the same height as the Nave; and another, that this Cathedral has
neither clerestory, nor triforium. The windows of the Nave are very
large and are strengthened by transoms.
The =West Window= has for its subject the _Adoration of the Lamb_. The
=Choir= consists of four bays. It is in the Decorated style and dates from
1306 to 1332.
“The piers of the choir carry triple shafts which support the
vaulting of the choir, and others for the aisles, which are here of
the same height as the choir. Capitals of great delicacy and
beauty, modelled from real foliage, serve to break the line of the
mouldings and accentuate the springing of the vault. Graceful
though the span of the roof is admitted to be, the lines of the
arcade of the choir are finer, and the effect of the contrast of
their soft mouldings carried up and around without a break is
excellent. The iron screen-work that separates the choir from its
aisles is uninteresting and too small in scale.”--(H. J. L. J. M.)
On either side of the high altar are canopied recesses containing
monuments. The reredos is a memorial to Bishop Ellicott and is rather
too high, therefore interfering with a good view of the splendid east
window in the Lady-Chapel. The mosaic pavement is new, and the stalls
are also modern. Some of the old =Misereres= have been preserved, however,
and consist of grotesques. Some of them illustrate _Reynard the Fox_.
In both aisles of the Choir we are struck by the very peculiar vaulting
designed by Abbot Knowle to strengthen the building and help carry the
lateral thrust occasioned by the heavy central vaulting. These bridges,
or transoms, therefore, do the work of flying-buttresses as faithfully
to-day as when they were erected six hundred years ago.
“The transoms, features which were repeated in the windows of the
aisles of the choir, and in a much heavier form in the windows of
the nave, are additionally strengthened by the graceful arches
below which spring from capitals almost similar to those on the
choir side of the piers. From the centre of each transom rises a
cluster of groining ribs. It has been customary to speak rather
disparagingly of this clever piece of work of Abbot Knowle and to
term it carpentry work in stone. It may be so, but the student of
to-day may thank the Fourteenth Century Abbot for a most
instructive lesson. The transoms have crowned heads at either end
and in the centre, and they, unlike the transoms in the aisles of
the nave, are ornamented with little flowers. Beneath the windows,
which are Decorated in character, is a string-course, with
ball-flower ornament, a feature which is found all round this
eastern part. In the south aisle the vaulting was intended to be
the same as in the north aisle, having been planned by the same
architect, but a difference in the westernmost bay shows it was
superintended by a different mind. In all probability it was
Knowle’s successor, Abbot Snow, who, from 1332-1341, went on with
his predecessor’s work, adding that part called the Newton
Chapel.”--(H. J. L. J. M.)
There is not a great deal of old glass in Bristol, but some of the
=Windows= in this east end are worthy of careful study.
“The east windows of the choir aisles are filled with glass
coloured with enamels in accordance with the practice of the
Seventeenth Century instead of glass coloured in its manufacture.
They date from the reign of Charles II.; and although it is
traditionally said that they were presented by Nell Gwynne, it is
more probable that they were the offerings of Henry Glenham, Dean
of Bristol from 1661 to 1667, and afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph.
The arms of Glemham (Or, a chevron gules between three torteaux)
are repeated three times in the window of the south aisle and once
in that of the north. The subjects (arranged as type and antitype)
in the north aisle are--in the centre, the Resurrection; below
Jonah delivered from the whale. On the right, above, the Ascension;
below, Elijah taken up to heaven. On the left, above, the Agony in
the garden; below, Abraham about to offer up his son.”--(R. J. K.)
In the third bay of the north wall of this north-choir-aisle a doorway
opens into a peculiar passage designed by Abbot Knowle to take the place
of a triforium. The passage leads to a staircase communicating with the
central tower and the belfry.
North of the north-choir-aisle we come to the greatly admired Early
English Chapel, the Elder Lady-Chapel.