The Chapter House is a beautiful octagonal building, each side measuring
fifty feet. Its finely groined roof is held up by a central clustered
column of Purbeck marble. Beneath it there is a crypt displaying a very
good example of plain groining.
The foundation of the present Cathedral was laid by Wiffeline, the
second bishop of the diocese, and completed by Bishop Joscelyne in 1239.
This cruciform structure was dedicated to St. Andrew. On the south the
cloisters form three sides of a quadrangle. The prevailing style of the
architecture of this church is the Early English, with the introduction
of the Decorated and subsequent periods.
The west front is divided into compartments by buttresses, and is richly
embellished with canopied niches, containing statues of kings, popes,
cardinals, bishops, and abbots. Even the mullions of the west window and
the lower stages of the western towers are similarly treated. These
towers, like the central tower, are crowned with parapets elegantly
pierced. The nave and transepts display the grand simplicity and
elegance of the Early English style. The former is separated from the
aisles by a series of clustered columns and finely pointed arches, above
which are placed a triforium of lancet-shaped arches, and a range of
clerestory windows with elegant tracery in the Later English style
inserted.
The choir belongs to the Decorated style.
The Cathedral contains several chapels. In one there is the ancient
clock from Glastonbury. It has an astronomical dial, and figures of
knights in armour are set in motion by machinery. An ancient font in the
south transept is of the same date as this portion of the Cathedral.
Of monuments there is the elaborate effigy of Bishop Beckington; and in
the choir the grave-stone of Bishop Joscelyne is the sole relic of what
was once an imposing marble monument bearing a brass effigy. In the
centre of the nave King Ina was buried.
The hall, by Villula, was demolished in the reign of Edward VI. for the
sake of its materials. Its remains even now clearly indicate its
original splendour. In length it was one hundred and twenty feet.
On the dissolution of the monasteries Henry VIII. remodelled the then
existing establishment and refounded it. This monarch's name reminds us
that Cardinal Wolsey and Archbishop Laud were prelates of this see. The
eminent historian, Polydore Vergil, was archdeacon in the sixteenth
century, and in the year 1634 was born in this city pious Dr. George
Bull, Bishop of St. David's.
The history of the See is the history of the city.