pinnacles, its elaborate tracery, and panelled buttresses that divide
it into five bays. Grotesque figures project from all of these gables.
One represents an =Imp on the back of a Witch=. Large windows with rich
tracery fill the wall spaces here.
Next we reach the beautiful =South Doorway= with the =Russell= and =Longland
chantries= (Perpendicular) on either side.
“It was probably constructed, like the Galilee doorway, as a state
entrance for the bishop. The porch fills the third bay, and
projects as far as the buttresses; its sides recede inwards to the
pair of doors giving access to the Angel Choir. Although the
doorways of our cathedrals, as a rule, cannot in any way be
compared with the magnificent portals to be seen in France, yet
this single example of Lincoln would be quite enough to prove that
English architects were capable of designing a really magnificent
doorway. In the tympanum is the subject of the Last Judgment in
relief. The archivolt is richly decorated with sculpture. In the
inner band is a row of niches with twelve seated figures,
apparently kings and queens: next a double band of delicate
open-work foliage; outside this a row of sixteen slender standing
figures enclosed by interlacing stems, richly decorated with
foliage. The doorway is formed of two cinquefoiled arches,
separated by a central pillar having the canopy and base for a
figure of the Virgin, which has been removed. On either side of the
doorway is a triple canopy for statues, and behind this a row of
slender columns with foliated capitals.”--(A. F. K.)
Next come St. Hugh’s two semicircular chapels, and then St. Hugh’s
transept, slender and filled with so many windows that the wall space is
nearly taken up by them. On top of each of the two turrets, surmounted
by pyramidal roofs, stands an angel. Next comes the =Canon’s Vestry= and
then the western transept with the conspicuous =Bishop’s Eye=. We pause to
admire this beautiful window from the outside and then look above it at
the horizontal band of seven elaborately carved quatrefoils. Above this
again is a Fourteenth Century window with flowing tracery. Around the
gable runs a border of open Gothic tracery. The peak bears a cross.
Next comes the =Nave=, the seven bays of which are separated by
buttresses. Over the roof of the aisle flying buttresses are thrown. A
slender buttress also separates the windows of the aisle. The clerestory
windows are in groups of three. Over the clerestory is a wavy parapet of
the Fourteenth Century, where stand canopied niches for statues.
Grotesque figures project from their bases. Grotesque figures also
project from the crocketed roofs of the pinnacles of the great transept.
The chapel, used as the Consistory Court, follows with two windows
facing south and two east. On the east end of the latter, in front of
the windows, our eyes are arrested by the grotesque =Devil Looking over
Lincoln=. The sculptured figures near by are pilgrims. Next comes =St.
Hugh’s Chapel=, or the Ringers’ Chapel, with one window facing the south.
From the road at the north-east corner we get a good general view of the
Cathedral and the Chapter-House. St. Hugh’s transept is hidden, but we
can see the end of the western transept with the =Dean’s Eye=--the large
quatrefoil encircled by sixteen small circles. The lancet window of five
lights in the gable above it is also visible.
The second bay on the north side of the Angel Choir contains the =Fleming
Chantry=, on which the two chapels on the south side were modelled. Then
we come to the north doorway of the =Angel= =Choir=, corresponding to the
more ornate entrance on the south.
We have now completed our survey of the Cathedral and have not yet
noticed the =Central Tower=, considered by many critics the finest tower
in England. It rises to a height of 271 feet. Two lofty windows adorn
each side of the upper story with their crocketed pillars and canopied
heads. Octagonal panelled turrets, surmounted by pinnacles, ornament the
four corners. Grosseteste’s lattice-work pattern covers the lower part
within and without. The tower in its present state dates from 1775, when
James Essex built the parapet and advised battlements and pinnacles
instead of a spire. The tall spire of timber, coated with lead, that
completed the tower of 1311, was blown down in 1547, carrying the
parapet with it; and again in 1715 three of the pinnacles were blown
down and replaced in 1728. In 1883 the western side was damaged by a
storm, but was repaired. Here “Great Tom of Lincoln,” the fourth largest
bell in England (5 tons, 8 cwt.), seven feet in diameter, hangs. Too
large to ring, the hours are struck on it with a hammer.
The original =Great Tom= hung in the north-west tower.
“It is not known how it was acquired; some say it was a gift,
others say it was stolen from the Abbey of Beauchief, Derbyshire,
or from Peterborough. The origin of its name, too, has been a
subject of dispute. Stukeley considered it possible that it had
been consecrated to St. Thomas of Canterbury. Others think it took
its name from that of the old bell of Christ Church, Oxford, which
bore the curious inscription, _In Thomae laude, resono Bim Bom sine
fraude_. It should be remembered that Oxford was in the diocese of
Lincoln in olden days, and that several Bishops of Lincoln were
chancellors of Oxford. Wherever the first ‘Great Tom’ came from,
it was recast in the minster yard by two bell founders from
Nottingham and Leicester early in the Seventeenth Century, when the
weight was increased from 8,743 pounds to 9,894½ pounds. ‘The
bell was cast and hung upp and upon Sonday the xxvij of this month
[January, 1611] ronge owte and all safe and well.’ It was tolled
until 1802, when it was found that this process shook the tower too
much. The following extract from the _Stamford Mercury_ of the 6th
August, 1802, is given by North in his ‘Church Bells of
Lincolnshire’:--‘Great Tom o’ Lincoln is to be rung no more! The
full swing of four tons and a half is found to injure the tower
where he hangs. He has therefore been chained and riveted down; so
that instead of the full mouthful he has been used to send forth,
he is enjoined in future merely to wag his tongue.’ Towards the end
of the year 1827 experienced ears detected that something was
wrong, and by Christmas it became plainly evident that the bell was
cracked. It was finally decided to have it recast in a larger size.
For this purpose it was broken to pieces with its own clapper, and
sent to London. To provide the extra metal, the six Lady Bells were
unfortunately sacrificed. The cathedral thus lost the distinction
of being the only one in the kingdom possessed of two rings of
bells. ‘Great Tom’ was recast by Thomas Mears at the Whitechapel
Bell foundry on the 15th November, 1834. It was taken by road to
Lincoln, drawn by eight horses, and raised to its new position in
the central tower. Two new quarter bells, cast at the same time,
were also hung in this tower. The number of quarter bells was
increased in 1880 to four.”--(A. F. K.)
The six “Lady Bells,” referred to above, hung in this central tower (see
page 294). When they were removed in 1834 it was seen that four were
dated 1593; one, 1633; and one, 1737.
In the Thirteenth Century the =Minster Yard=, as many still call the
Cathedral Close, was enclosed by a wall. Several massive gates formed
the entrances. Of these the =Exchequer=, a large archway, with a postern
on each side and an upper story, remains at the western end. =Pottergate
Arch=, at the top of the new road, shows us what an early Fourteenth
Century single gate was like. Near it the =Grecian Stairs= lead up to the
Close.
SOUTHWELL
DEDICATION: ST. MARY.
CHIEF FEATURE: CHAPTER-HOUSE.
For many centuries the Church of St. Mary, Southwell, was under the
dominion of York. The clergy had many privileges, held property, lived
in their own houses, like country gentlemen, and hunted in the forests
which Robin Hood and his merry men had made romantic; for Southwell is
not far from legendary Sherwood.
The church became a Cathedral in 1884. It dates in the main from the
Twelfth Century, though a few fragments are older. It is supposed that
the first Saxon church was destroyed by the Danes; the next is said to
have been built by King Edgar in 960; and in the time of Henry I. was
rebuilt in the Norman style. Walter de Grey, Archbishop of York (see
page 264), rebuilt the nave of Southwell, and was assisted by John
Romeyn, subdean (see page 264).
“In the Curvilinear Period (1315-1360) was erected quite the
loveliest choir-screen in England; next comes that of Lincoln,
evidently by the same hand. Eastern and western sides are entirely
different in design; on the western side the artist parts
reluctantly with the beautiful geometrical design of the Thirteenth
Century; on the eastern side he accepts unreservedly the reign of
the ogee arch. Magnificent sedilia and stone stalls of similar
character were erected, which only survive in part. Very beautiful,
too, is the cusping of the reticulated windows inserted in the
north transept chapel. The upper parts of the Chapter-House and the
north transept chapel also were remodelled in the Curvilinear
Period. For two hundred years and more, the highest and best of
Mediæval art found cultivated and wealthy patrons in the canons of
Southwell. Norman, Lancet, Geometrical, Curvilinear work are all
seen here at their best. Few of our cathedrals, from the point of
view either of architectural design or sculptural detail, can be
mentioned in the same breath with Southwell. It is one of the
greatest delights of Southwell that this lovely minster is little
known and almost unvisited: one feels as if one were ‘the first
that ever burst into the silent sea’!”--(F. B.)
The general appearance of the Cathedral is Norman.
“The WEST FRONT has been altered in character from its original
Norman work. We see a huge Perpendicular window with an embattled
parapet over it, an alteration made in the Fifteenth Century. The
windows in the lower stages of the towers are modern imitations of
Norman work. The towers have seven stages and the sixth is enriched
with fine arcading composed of intersecting arches. The present
spires are modern imitations of the originals destroyed by fire in
1711. These were immediately restored but removed in 1802, and have
now again been replaced. The old Norman doorway is remarkably fine.
It has five orders, the zigzag and the filleted edge roll being the
chief mouldings.
“Passing to the south side we see the walls of the nave pierced by
apparent Norman windows, but these are modern imitations. The most
western window in the north side is the only original Norman
window; the rest are copied from it, and were erected in 1847. Four
Perpendicular windows were inserted in the Fifteenth Century. There
is a row of small square windows above which light the triforium,
and the clerestory has a curious series of circular windows which
are unique in this country. The roof is high-pitched, having been
erected in modern times by the architect Christian, and the
parapets are Perpendicular in style. The south doorway should be
noticed, of Norman workmanship with zigzag string-course over
it.”--(P. H. D.)
The Choir is Early English and much resembles that of Lincoln. The
dog-tooth is very evident. The windows are lancet. The two
flying-buttresses on the south were added in the Decorated period.
The Chapter-House is on the north, and its similarity to that of York
will strike every one who has seen the _flos florum_ of the great
Minster of the north. It is supposed the same architect (probably John
Romeyn) designed both. This is octagonal. The windows are of three
lights, with trefoil and circular ones in the heads. The roof is modern.
The North porch is much admired. The inner doorway has a zigzag and
beak-head moulding. In the parvise above (very unusual in a porch of
this date), the wife of William Clay, a hunted Royalist, was hidden
during the Civil War. Here her child was born.
We enter by the west door and gain a view of the =Nave=.
“Looking down the nave (1110-1150) we are impressed by the massive
appearance of the interior. The piers are rather short, only 19
feet high, six on each side, with square bases and round capitals.
The triforium is large, and above is the clerestory with its unique
plain circular windows. The Norman mouldings, zigzag, billet,
hatchet, etc., are easily recognized. The present roof was erected
in 1881. The Font, erected in 1661, is a poor substitute for the
one destroyed by the soldiers of Cromwell. The Pulpit is modern.
The second pillar from the east on the south side is called Pike’s
Pillar, and retains faint traces of a mural painting of the
Annunciation; the nave aisles have some good vaulting. A plain
stone bench runs along the walls. This was common in old churches
and was the origin of the saying ‘Let the weakest go to the wall,’
where they could sit and rest, as the days of pews were not yet.
The only original Norman window which remains is at the west end of
the north aisle.”--(P. H. D.)
The =Transepts= are Norman. At the east end of each the original plan
included an apsidal chapel. The south transept still retains the arch
with its zigzag and cable mouldings that connected it with the transept.
The chapel at the east end of the north transept has also gone, but here
we find on its site a Late Early English construction, with still later
windows (Decorated). In the upper floor the Library is situated.
The =Tower= is Norman, built in 1150. A cable moulding runs around the
four large arches. It contains a peal of bells.
“A stone screen of rich Decorated work separates the transept from
the choir, over which is now the organ (a modern instrument). The
screen is richly ornamented, and a noble specimen of the work of
the period. There are three arches opening to the space beneath the
tower, separated by slight piers of clustered shafts, the capitals
carved with foliage of a Late Decorated character. The walls of the
screen support the old rood-loft, access to which is gained by two
staircases.
“Entering the Choir we see on each side of the doorway three
prebendal stalls with _misereres_, on which are carved some
foliage. The Bishop’s Stall was once occupied by Cardinal Wolsey.
The choir was built by Archbishop Grey in Early English style
(1230-1250). There are six arches, with piers of eight clustered
shafts. The dogtooth moulding is conspicuous in the arches and on
the vaulting of the roof. It will be noticed that the triforium and
clerestory are blended together. The east window consists of two
rows of lancets, the lower ones containing old glass brought from
Paris in 1815, where it was formerly in the Chapel of the Knights
Templar. The Baptism of Our Lord; Raising of Lazarus (Francis I. is
to be seen in a crimson cap); Christ entering Jerusalem (Luther is
near Our Lord, Louis XI. and the Duke of Orleans); the Mocking of
Our Lord (the figure of Dante appears).
“The Sedilia were erected in 1350 and are good Decorated
[Illustration: SOUTHWELL: CHAPTER-HOUSE AND DOOR]
[Illustration: PETERBOROUGH: WEST FRONT]
work. They have the unusual number of five seats on the same level.
The arches are ogee-shaped and are richly carved. The sculptured
figures are remarkable, and represent the Creation and the
Redemption. Beginning at the east we see the Father holding the
world (two groups uncertain), Joseph’s Dream, the Nativity and
Flight into Egypt.
“The Lectern belonged to the monks of Newstead Abbey, who threw it
into the lake to hide it from the commissioners of Henry VIII. Its
date is about 1500.”--(P. H. D.)
Entering a beautiful doorway in the north-choir-aisle we pass through a
vestibule into the =Chapter-House=.
“The transition between the Early English work of the choir and the
Decorated style of the Chapter-House is very gradual. The doorway,
with its two arches and shafts of Purbeck marble, is remarkably
fine. There is a small cloister court, with a stone-covered well.
In the vestibule we see the walls covered with beautiful arcading
of lancet arches of an Early English character. The capitals are
beautifully carved with foliage. There is a curious boss of
sculpture representing a secular priest shaking the regular monk by
the hair, which figuratively depicts the supremacy of the former in
the church of Southwell.
“The Chapter-House (1285-1300) is described by Ruskin as ‘the gem
of English architecture,’ and all architects agree in singing the
praises of this noble building. It much resembles that of York, but
is smaller and perhaps more beautiful. It is octagonal, has no
central pillar, and is remarkable for its fine sculpture. The
historian of Southwell says: ‘The foliage everywhere is most
beautiful: the oak, the vine, the maple, the white-thorn, the rose,
with a vast variety of other plants, are sculptured with exquisite
freedom and delicacy; and no two capitals, or bosses or spandrels
are found alike. Everywhere we meet, in ever-changing and
ever-charming variety, with some fresh object of interest and
admiration. Figures are introduced amid the foliage, heads with
branches issuing out of their mouths, birds and lizard-like
monsters. In the capitals a man reclines beneath a tree, puffing
lustily at a horn, or a goat is gnawing the leaves, or a bird
pecking the berries, or a pair of pigs are grunting up the acorns,
or a brace of hounds just grabbing a hare. All this is the work of
no mere chiseller of stone, but of a consummate artist; than whom
it may be doubted whether any sculptor of any age or country ever
produced anything more life-like and exquisitely graceful.’ The
entrance doorway is remarkably fine and is worthy of close study.
The main arch is divided into two by a slender shaft, and over them
is a quatrefoiled circle of beautiful design. The leaf ornament is
largely used, both in the smaller arches and in the main arch.
Filleted rounds and hollows are the other mouldings used.”--(P. H.
D.)
PETERBOROUGH
DEDICATION: ST. PETER. CHURCH OF A BENEDICTINE MONASTERY.
SPECIAL FEATURES: THE WEST FRONT; THE NEW BUILDING.
The great fenland monastery of St. Peter, the holy house of
Medeshampstead, attracting houses around it, grew into a borough, and
finally into a city--Peterborough. The village was first called
Medeshampstead--homestead in the meadows. For centuries the settlement
had no interests outside the monastery. In the Seventh Century Penda,
King of Mercia, and his family were converted to Christianity, and it
was his son Penda who founded the monastery here in 654. The first
monastery was destroyed by the Danes in 870. It lay in ruins for a
hundred years. With the religious revival under Duncan and King Edgar,
the holy house of Medeshampstead was rebuilt by Bishop Ethelwold, of
Winchester, and henceforth known as the Burgh.
The foundations of the old Saxon church still remain under the east wall
of the south transept. It is related that when King Edgar visited the
monastery and saw some old deeds he wept for joy on reading the
privileges of the place and granted a new charter renewing and
confirming these. The church seems to have been, even in those days,
dedicated to St. Peter. The Abbey flourished for a time; then it was
plundered by Hereward, the Saxon leader, and suffered also from fire
while the monks were carousing. In the time of Henry I. a great fire
destroyed the whole building. The picturesque imagination of the period
attributed it to a servant, who, trying unsuccessfully to light a fire
in the bakehouse, lost his temper and called upon Satan for aid, crying
“_Veni, Diabole, et insuffla ignem._”
John de Sais, who was then Abbot (1114-1125), began the building of a
new minster, the one that we now see. As usual the work was begun at the
east end. The choir was finished with an apse. A small apse also
terminated each choir-aisle. The whole church was in progress of
building for eighty years. This was all Norman work of course.
The western transept, dating from the close of the Twelfth and beginning
of the Thirteenth Century, shows a change.
“The Norman style was giving place to the lighter and more elegant
architecture of the Early English period, the round arch was
beginning to be superseded by the pointed arch, and the massive
ornamentation which marks the earlier style was displaced by the
conventional foliage that soon came to be very generally employed.
Most wisely, however, the Peterborough builders made their work at
the west end of the nave intentionally uniform with what was
already built. Very numerous indications of this can be seen by
careful observers. The bases of the western pillars, the change in
the depth of the mouldings, characteristic changes in the capitals
in the triforium range, and especially the grand arches below the
transept towers, which are pointed but enriched with ornamentation
of pronounced Norman character, all point to the later date of this
western transept.
“At the west wall of the church all trace of Norman work
disappears. The arcade near the ground, the large round arch above
the door, the great west window and its adjacent arches (not, of
course, including the late tracery), are all of distinct Early
English character. The whole of this wall may be held to be an
integral part of the west front, and not of the transept which it
bounds.
“When we come to the most distinctive feature of the cathedral, the
glorious west front, we find we have no help whatever from the
chronicles. Nowhere is there the smallest reference to its
building. Other works raised by the Abbots of the period are named,
but the noble western portico is never once mentioned.”--(W. D. S.)
According to Matthew Paris the church was dedicated in 1238 by the
Bishop of Lincoln, Robert Grosseteste.
In the Thirteenth Century many changes were made. The bell-tower was
built, and bells from London, called _Les Londreis_, were hung in it.
The Lady-Chapel (now destroyed) was built in 1272 at the east of the
north transept (as at Ely).
In the Fourteenth Century the great round east and west arches of the
central tower were changed into pointed ones, perhaps because the tower
at Ely had fallen in 1321 and the monks wanted to strengthen theirs.
Then they began to change all the triforium windows in the nave and
choir from Norman to Decorated. Next, the central porch was added to the
west front. During the Perpendicular period all the Norman windows that
had not been altered were now filled with Perpendicular tracery; the
great west window was also brought up to date, the battlements were
added to the corner turrets, and the New Building tacked on to the East
End of the choir.
A popular story related that Henry VIII. spared the church because his
queen, Katherine of Aragon, was buried there. At any rate, he made
Peterborough a cathedral in 1541, when he suppressed the monasteries.
The great historical event in connection with Peterborough was the
burial of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587.
Cromwell’s soldiers made sad havoc. Dean Patrick informs us that
“The next day after their arrival, early in the morning they break
open the church doors, pull down the organs of which there were two
pair.
“Then the soldiers enter the quire, and their first business was to
tear in pieces all the common prayer-books that could be found.
Next they break down all the seats, stalls and wainscot that was
behind them, being adorned with several historical passages out of
the Old Testament.
“Now behind the communion-table there stood a curious piece of
stone-work, admired much by strangers and travellers: a stately
skreen it was, well wrought, painted and gilt, which rose up as
high almost as the roof of the church, in a row of three lofty
spires, with other lesser spires growing out of them. This now had
no imagery work upon it, or anything else that might justly give
offence, and yet because it bore the name of the high altar, was
pulled down with ropes, lay’d low and level with the ground.