^r^. .y - t /^d V'. \^iM'^::'^< %'* «»3r .^ ^ iversity of Califo™ Southftrn R/a«.,'^-_i ■f "^^ff^^ «; -C: W^l ^N> i i0l^- ft/^L Cmi y IflC M Iti T01..11L0 1 1 'k ]LiIBC®iLH €ATMiE'0)ll8.Aa^ soirrn i.x-iranck III WINKLES'S \x> nx^i \ ARCHITECTURAL AND PICTURESQUE ILLUSTRATIONS CATHEDRAL CHURCHES enalantj anti fSKales; THE DRAWINGS MADE FROM SKETCHES TAKEN EXPRESSLY FOR THIS WORK, By ROBERT GARLAND, Architect. HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT. VOLUME II. ?Lontron : EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE; AND CHARLES TILT, FLEET STREET. 1838. Coe, Printer, Old Change, St. Paul's, London. INDEX TO THE ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE ENGLISH CATHEDRALS. VOLUME II, South Entrance to Lincoln Cathedral Frontispiece. itincoJn (ITatfjcUral. View of the West Front Page 1 South West Angle 8 View of South Transept and Central Tower 9 South-East View 12 View in the Nave 16 Choir, looking West 17 The Chancel 18 Bishop Longland's Monument . . 20 Ground Plan 20 (ftf^iti^t^tet ©atj^ftrval. West Front T\ith the Bell Tower 28 South Transept 30 South-East View 31 Nave, looking East 32 View in the Presbytery 35 Northern Aisle 36 Ground Plan 38 m^ (Eatf^tXivah South-East View from Barway Bank 41 West Front 47 The East End 51 North-West View . . 52 The Galilee Porch . . 53 The Nave 54 The Octagon 57 The Choir 59 The Lady Chapel . . 61 Ground Plan 61 INDEX. iJetrrlioroiiglb iJTatl^ftJral Page West Front 72 North-East View 74 View of the Porch, West End 75 View across the North Transept 77 The Nave 77 The Lady Chapel .. 82 Ground Plan 82 iilorUJic!) OirattjflitaK View from the East Hill 85 West Front 86 South-East View 88 View across the Nave 91 East End of the Choir 93 Ground Plan 94 Entrance to the Cloisters 94 as^ctn oratl^rtJral. South-West View . . 97 West Front 101 Nortli-East A^iew 104 The Southern Tower 105 View from the Bishop's Garden 106 The Nave, looking West .. 107 The Bishop's Throne 109 Bishop Stafford's Monument 111 The Chapter Room 113 Ground Plan 113 33ri0tol isratijeHrah North-East View 125 The North Aisle 126 Ante-Choir J26 Chapter-House 127 Ground Plan 128 (DTfoiU oratteUraL North-West View . . 136 North Aisle of Choir 137 The Choir 137 Ground Plan . . . . ' . . 137 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME. For the difference observable in the historical and descriptive accounts of the Cathedrals in the first and second volume of this vs^ork, the reader may perhaps desire some explanation. They are the production of two different editors. The editor of the first vo- lume having declined at the close of it to proceed, another was sought, and obtained, who consented to undertake the task, without any remuneration, except the task itself, which has been the means of his passing a solitary hour or two of many evenings in the most agreeable manner. The editor of the present volume however was not constrained to pursue the same course as his predecessor, either in respect of the information or in its arrangement, and it is in these particulars that the difference will be found chiefly to reside. If the information contained in the present volume be not so full in some particulars as in the former, it is extended over a wider field, com- prising topics not touched upon by the first editor, and which will be highly interesting to some, and more especially to the clerical reader. The arrangement is the same in every case, and has been laid down with a view to give the clearest idea possible of the subject in hand. In the historical and descriptive account of the Cathedrals in the present volume, the arrangement adopted is simply this : it sets out with the origin of the see, then proceeds to give some account of the Cathedrals which have preceded the present, and which are delineated in this work : then the times when, and the beneftictors by whom the present and all former Cathedrals were erected : the appearance of each one of the present Cathedrals at a distance, their situations ; a particular description and critical examination of every portion of these edifices, first externally, beginning with the west front, and next internally, noticing every peculiarity, every beauty, and every defect in the architecture, the most calamitous accidents which have rendered any very important restorations vi PREFACE. necessary ; and concludes this part of the subject with a description of the most remarkable monuments both ancient and modern. To this information is added an account of the present establish- ments in each Cathedral, the value of the bishoprics in the king's books, the present actual value as returned by the present prelates to the Church Commissioners, the former and present extent of the dioceses as settled by the lute Act, and concludes with brief biographical sketches of the most eminent prelates who have filled the several sees from their first erection to the present times. If the qualification of the editor of this volume for the work he has thus gratuitously undertaken be inquired into, his answer is first, the study of the subjects contained in it, from his youth ; secondly, an attentive examination of every Cathedral in the king- dom, most of which he has visited many times ; and lastly, his resid- ing close to the first private library in England, if not in the world, to which he has free access at all times, and from which he has obtained that assistance in the fulfilment of his self-imposed task, without which, (notwithstanding his previous study and knowledge of the subject), he would not have dared to undertake it. In the third and last volume of this work notice will be taken of the two new sees of Ripen and Manchester, and their Cathedral Churches ; the former see already erected and filled, the latter although determined on, the design is not to be put into execution until a vacancy shall occur in either of the sees of St. Asaph or Bangor. On the erection of the see of Ripon, that of Bristol was consolidated with Gloucester, and on the erection of Manchester into a bishop's see, that of Bangor will be consolidated with St. Asaph : so that the number of prelates and dioceses will be the same as before. From this arrangement the only good that will result is, that some bishops will be a little relieved, but episcopacy receives no strength, and therefore the Church will be but little if at all benefited. No one can justly accuse the present prelates of negligence or want of zeal, they do as much as in them lies, but they have the disheartening consciousness continually before them, that the work is more than they can do. What can a bishop know of his clergy by seeing them once in three years, and then only for a few hours while he delivers his charge to them in the church, and dines with them afterwards at an inn ! or what can he know of their PREFACE. Vll flocks, or what connexion with, or what interest in their bishop can they feel, whom if they see at all, it is but once in their whole lives, for a few minutes at their confirmation ? Then again, for the pur- pose of confirming, the bishops can only go to a few of the largest towns in their diocese, and the inhabitants of the villages around are obliged to meet him from a distance of eight, ten, or even twelve miles, which to the poor is often so very inconvenient that their confirmation is in consequence altogether neglected. But the col- lecting a great number of young persons together of both sexes in a large town is of itself very objectionable. The noise, the bustle, the gaiety, and above all, the dinner which is given after confirma- tion to the poorer sort at a pubhc house, tend greatly to do away with the solemnity of the occasion, and to dissipate all the serious impressions which the rite of confirmation itself, aided by the previ- ous preparation for it by the parochial clergy, may have produced. Often it happens that a bishop from age or infirmity is unable to visit his diocese at all ; it is true in such a case some one of his brethren will be found to do this service for him, but the substituted bishop comes with no knowledge of the diocese, and must deprive his own the while both of his presence and his services. All these incon- veniences, not to say evils, can only be remedied by the appointment of more bishops. Why should not every bishop have a coadjutor, or at least such of them as are either by reason of their age or their infirmities incapacitated from doing their duty ? under these circum- stances visitations and confirmations might be held more frequently, and not only in the larger towns, but in most of the villages also, and then no candidates for confirmation would be drawn more than two or three miles from home, and after the ceremony might imme- diately return to their families. But how, it may be asked, are these coadjutant bishops to be maintained? the answer is, let the richer prebendal stalls, as many as may be necessary for the purpose, be given up to this object ; for as it is not supposed that these addi- tional bishops would have seats in parliament, their incomes need not be so large as the incomes of their brethren, who have, and who, it is hoped, will continue to possess that privilege so necessary to the well being, if not to the existence of the present establishment in church and state. For the removal of all existing abuses how- ever in every department both of church and state, and for the Vlil PREFACE. remedy of the most glaring defects much has been done of late years, much is still doing, but much also remains to be done. It is with the greatest gratitude, to the Author of all good, and with the greatest joy on England's account, that every lover of his country must observe the vast exertions which are now every where made to provide religious instruction and pastoral care for our enormously increased population. With regard to the episcopal revenues, too much cannot be said in praise of the more equal distribution of them among the prelates which is now in progress. This arrangement will in time supersede the necessity of bishops holding any other preferments in com- mendam, a measure fraught with many evil consequences: and will also make translations much less frequent, which are now acknow- ledged on all hands to be attended with as many and even greater evils than commendams. At the Reformation all these defects were seen and lamented, but the reformers of the sixteenth century very properly applied themselves to the uprooting of the worst and most dangerous abuses : and were contented for that time if they could by any justifiable means, correct the errors that had crept into the faith of the church, errors which like cankers were eating into the very vitals of Cliristianity : but it is left to the reformers of the nineteenth century to set the rest in order, and so complete the work of their predecessors, of blessed memory, whose cruel suffer- ings and death for the truth's sake, have proved to the whole Christian world beyond dispute, that one error at least had crept into the church, and that a truly anti-christian one, the error of Persecution. That Jews and Heathens should both persecute Christians, as we know they did in the early ages of the church, cannot be justly a matter of surprise; but that Christians should rise up against Christians, that the professed disciples of the same meek and merciful master, that believers in the same Lord and Sa- viour should actually " bite and devour one another," is indeed a strange, a grievous, and an awful error. I>r«*m bT R-Garlfciic JL'SHCOlLr! CAirmiE^SmAIL \V V. S T F n I) X T LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. The first authentic account of any building for Christian worship at Lincoln is given by Bede, who says that Paulinus, a missionary from Rome and companion of Augustin, having converted the governor Bletta, orBlecca, built here, in the year 628, a church of stone, of admirable workmanship, the walls of which remained firm in his days, above a century afterwards, although the roof had been destroyed. It is not pretended, however, that this building enjoyed the dignity and honour of being a Cathedral Church, or that Paulinus was bishop of Lincoln. His preaching was successful, but we do not find that on his departure from Lincoln he left any one there in the quahty of bishop. Of his building we hear no more till the year 1088, when Remigius removed the episcopal seat from Dorchester to Lincoln, and so became the first bishop of it. It is well known that Remigius appropriated the parish church of St. Mary Magdalene, at Lincoln, to his Cathedral, but we are no where told what use he made of it, or that the church of Paulinus was dedicated to that saint: and yet some have not only assumed this, but also that the building of Paulinus, was when Remigius arrived at Lincoln in 1088, near three hundred and sixty years after Bede's time, still so perfect and so beautiful that he only added to it, and that when Hugh de Burgundy was elected bishop, in the year 1 186, and rebuilt the Cathedral on a more extended scale, after it had been injured by an earthquake, that he found some part of the west front still sufiiciently sound and retained it, the very part which Remigius had retained of the original church of Paulinus, which, say they, now forms a part of the west front of the present Cathedral. But where is the satisfactory proof of all this ? We can indeed readily excuse a Lincoln antiquary for coming to such a conclusion from such data — a conclusion so flattering to his feelings, and so much to the honour of his native city; but the impartial historian, swayed by no personal interest, and biassed by no early associations and local attachments, can see nothing in it but improbable conjecture and the amiable weakness of those who form it. The building which Paulinus erected in the seventh century, and VOL II. B 2 LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. wliich was a ruin in the eighth, might very well be the wonder of both, without being that of the eleventh also, if indeed it w ere then in existence at all. The probability therefore seems to be, that, granting the Church of Paulinus to have been dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene (of which however there is not the least proof ), Remigius made use of it for his Cathedral, in respect of its site, and such of the materials as were found to be in sufficiently good condition to be worked up again in the new building.' About the beginning of the eleventh century the art of building revived, and before the close of it many churches, considerable for their dimensions and architecture, were raised in Germany, France, and England. Accordingly we read that the Cathedral of Remigius was no mean edifice. The plan of it, according to Leland and others, was that of a double cross, or a nave and choir with two transepts, one in the usual place, and another of less dimensions, but parallel to it, and to the eastward of it, which is the plan of the present Cathedral. At the west end were two towers, and a central one at the interscetion of the greater transept with the nave and choir. From the west front, which had three circular arched doors, to the greater transept, were eight circular arches, supported by cylindrical columns of vast thickness, and sur- mounted by a corresponding tier of circular-headed windows ; about the middle of the wall above the arches was a passage leading to the windows all round the church, and a communication between the central and western towers. On the eastern side of the greater transept were six arches, within each of which was a chapel dedicated to some saint. From the greater to the east side of the less transept were five arches, east of these was only one arch on each side, after which the north and south aisles formed a semi-circular junction, at the eastend of the Cathedral, behind the great altar. Of this building there can be no doubt that some portions yet remain, and form a part of the present Cathedral, viz., the middle part of the west front as high as the row of intersecting circular arches with their columns, and the western towers as far as the bottom of the great windows in the upper story of them ; and this is all. Lincolnshire was part of the kingdom of Mercia, and in the time of Paulinus subject to a Pagan monarch, but afterwards came within ' Slukeley says, and with more reason, that in the present church of St. Paul, at Lincoln, some remains of the original church of Patilinus may yet be seen. LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. 3 the jurisdiction of the bishops of Mercia. No episcopal seat, how- ever, was established in the county of Lincoln till 678, when the province of Lindsey, being wrested from Mercia by Egfrid, king of Northumberland, was by him made a separate diocese, and the seat of the bishop fixed at Sidnacester, a place known now only by name, and respecting the site of which antiquaries are much divided in opinion.' Dorchester, eight miles from Oxford, was the see of a bishop before Sidnacester. Birinus, a missionary sent by Pope Honorius, to convert the West Saxons, succeeded so well as to induce King Kinigils to appoint him bishop of the province, and he fixed upon Dorchester for the episcopal seat, and became the first bishop of it in the year 636. One year after Sidnacester, Leicester also was erected into a bishop's see. Eadhed is recorded as having been the first bishop of the former, and Totta of the latter see. Nine bishops in succession sat at Sidnacester ; after which it was united to Dorchester, under Leovinus, the tenth bishop of it. Eight bishops of Leicester are enumerated by early writers ; after which that see was also united to Dorchester, which continued to be the episcopal seat of this extensive diocese, till it was transferred to Lincoln by Remigius, in the year 1088, who was therefore the last bishop of Dorchester and the first of Lincoln. Remigius was a monk of Fescamp, in Normandy, and is supposed to have been a native of Italy. He followed the fortunes of William, duke of Normandy, to England, who rewarded him for his faithful services with the bishopric of Dorchester, having first deposed Alexander, the bishop at that time, who strenuously opposed the innovations of the Norman conqueror. Remigius was a man of great natural talent, energy, and resolution, as his successful contest with the archbishop of York, who endeavoured to prevent the episcopal seat being fixed at Lincoln, by claiming Lindsey as a part of his diocese, will sufficiently prove. Immediately on his succession to the see of Dorchester, Remigius began to rebuild his Cathedral Church in that place, but considering it improper that the see of so extensive and important a diocese should remain in an obscure town on the borders of it, and authorized by a decree passed in the synod of London, in 1075, for the removal of 2 The greater number of anliquaries bclie\e Stow, a village a few miles from Lincoln, to be the site of the ancient Sidnacester. b2 LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. sees from small villages and defenceless towns to places of importance and strength, he determined to transfer his see to the city of Lincoln, at that time a very flourishing place, and where the castle, then erecting, promised that protection to devotees which the unsettled state of the times rendered necessary. It may be well to observe in this place, that hitherto the erection, suppression, or translation of sees, were all acts entirely independent of any foreign power, of any mandate from the bishop of Rome, or any spiritual supremacy what- ever; they were effected either by permision or order of the lawful sovereign, or by decrees of synods, consisting of the ecclesiastics of the nation, lawfully assembled to direct the affairs of the national church and to promote the interests of the Christian religion. To return to the subject, land was purchased on the summit of Lincoln hill, for the site of the Cathedral, but the precise time when the foundations of it were laid is uncertain, probably soon after the synod of 1075 ; but it is well known that it was nearly finished in the year 1 092, when Remigius, feeling himself near his end, invited all the prelates of the realm to assist at its consecration and solemn dedication to the ever blessed Virgin, which was to take place on the 9th of May. Robert, bishop of Hereford, was the only one who refused the in\'itation, and excused himself by saying, he foresaw the Cathedral could not be dedicated in the life-time of Remigius. In those days astrology was much studied, and its predictions relied on as prophetic truths, and in this instance there happened a remark- able coincidence between the prediction and the fact, for Remigius died on the 8th of ^lay, 1092, the day before that which was fixed for the ceremony. Robert Bloet, the second bishop of Lincoln, and immediate suc- cessor of Remigius, completed and dedicated the Cathedral in the same year; but in the year 1124 it was greatly injured by an accidental fire. Alexander, the third bishop, repaired it. He possessed, in common with his uncle Roger, bishop of Salisbury, and his brother Nigellus, bishop of Ely, a remarkable love and taste for architecture. He is said to have vaulted the Cathedral with stone, and to have improved it in many other respects, so that it became equal, if not superior, to any church at that time in England. The next great benefactor to this Cathedral was the famous Hugh de Grenoble, called also the Burgundian, the sixth bishop of Lincoln, LINCOLN CATHEDRAL, 5 who rebuilt much of the present fabric between the years 1186 and 1200, a circumstance which may seem extraordinary, considering the usual solidity of Norman architecture, and that the original building, then so recently repaired and beautified by Bishop Alexander, was scarcely a century old. Some have supposed that the placing a stone vaulting on walls which were intended only to support a roof of timber had so injured them as to make it necessary to rebuild the greater part of the church ; but an historian of the times, Benedict, abbot of Peterborough, accounts for it in another and much more probable way: he informs us that the church was cleft from top to bottom by an earthquake, which happened in the year 1185, the year before Bishop Hugh's advancement to the see : in all likelihood, however, much more was done than was at all necessary, from the great love of magnificence in architecture which then every where prevailed, and of the pointed style, which was about this time first introduced into England from other countries, or, as some will have it, gradually and naturally arose here, as elsewhere, from the style which immediately preceded it. However this may be, it is certain Bishop Hugh took down at least one half of the Cathedral, and built the present east transept, with its chapels, the whole of the choir, chapter house, and east side of the west transept, with part of the additions to the original west front, as is sufficiently evident from the style of these portions of tbe Cathedral as it exists at present, without appeahng to history, which however affirms the same thing. In the year 1791, when the choir was new paved, it was discovered that Bishop Hugh's church extended no farther to the east than where the altar now stands, and that it terminated in a half hexagon. There is reason to believe that the west wall of the greater tran- sept, as high as the second tier of windows, was also erected by him. The Galilee porch was certainly built after the wall to which it is attached, as may be plainly seen in the room above it; it is therefore probable that this transept was erecting at the time of Bishop Hugh's death, and finished, with the Galilee porch, soon afterwards. The nave also, and the rest of the great west front, are considered, with good reason, to have been built about the same time by Bishop Hugh de Wells, who sat in this see from 1209 to 1235, and was certainly a wealthy and liberal prelate. 6 LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. In tlie last-mentioned year the Cathedral was much injured by the fall of great part of the central tower, then newly erected. The famous Bishop Grostcste repaired the Cathedral, and rebuilt the tower as far as the first story above the roof. The eastern part of the Cathedral, beyond the upper transept, was begun in the year 1 306, as some say, while others, with less reason, declare it to be half a century earlier. There seems to be in most antiquaries a feverish, restless desire to assign to buildings an earlier date than can be satisfactorily proved; which has caused them oftentimes to overstep the iDOunds of probability, and make light of or overlook some stubborn truth which would drive them to a more recent date. Now it is agreed on all sides that the upper part of the great tower, the style of which corresponds exactly with that of the eastern part of the Cathedral, was begun in 1.306, and when we add to this, that the architects of the middle ages paid no attention to the designs of their predecessors, we cannot but conclude that these two portions of the Cathedral are of the same date. The building of the cloisters must, for the same reason, have been going on at the same thne. The upper story of each of the western towers are both of a much lower date ; but when they were built is not exactly knowTi from any authentic document. Both these towers, and the central one, had upon them spires of wood, covered with lead : that on the latter was blown down in 1547, probably soon after it was placed there ; and those on the former were very judi- ciously taken down in 1808. The upper part of the south end of the greater transept, the stalls of the choir, and the statues and windows above the west entrances, may be safely dated at the close of the fourteenth century, as may also the upper story of the western towers. The pinnacles above the buttresses, on the west side of the great transept, and on the south side of the nave, were the last material additions to this Cathedral, except sepulchral monuments and chantries, which continued to be erected till the Reformation, when, and during the civil wars, this, in common with all other cathedral, abbey, priory, and collegiate churches, was robbed of its costly vessels, shrines, and other furniture, its statues and painted glass were destroyed or mutilated, and its walls defaced and injured. Before we proceed to a more particular description of the present LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. 7 Cathedral of Lincoln, we must not omit to take notice of a very curious stone arch, which is to be seen a little above the stone vaulting within the timber roof of the nave, and which connects the western towers at their base, i. e., the base of them just at the point where they rise above the west front. It is supposed to have been constructed at the time the upper part of the towers was added, to ascertain, as they were in progress, whether so great an additional weight could be safely set upon the original part of them. This arch (though indeed it can scarcely be called one) is twenty-eight feet long, and rises about nine inches ; the stones of which it is composed are therefore nearly vertical; they are twenty-one inches thick, chamfered on the under edges, and on an average about sixteen inches wide, and do not appear to be tenanted together ; their upper surface is flat, and the centre or key stone is eleven inches deep.' The chord of the arc is not horizontal, but is about thirteen inches lower on the north side than on the south, and hence arises its liabi- lity to be affected by a very trifling settlement at either end, and indeed such is the extreme delicacy of its construction, that it vibrates very sensibly when only stamped on by the foot ; in appearance it is more like a wooden beam than a stone arch. In the north tower was hung the famous bell, commonly called the Great Tom of Lincoln, which was six feet three inches and a half in diameter at the mouth, and weighed four tons eight hundred weight. It was cast at Lincoln in the year 1610.* The situation of Lincoln Cathedral is most commanding, and the first view of it from any point, however distant, most imposing : it stands on a lofty eminence, surrounded by an immense extent of level country. It looks down not only upon the modern city at the base, and creeping up the side of the hill, but also upon a great part of this still too extensive diocese. At a distance, the two great defects of this Cathedral, its want of elevation in the body, and its enormously high-pitched timber roof, are not so apparent, and rather serve to correct each other, as a great 3 See Mr. Ware's Tract on Vaults and Bridges. Tract i. PI. 9. * This bell became cracked in December, 1827, was broken up in June, 1834, and with six other bells from the Rood Tower, called the " Lady Bells," recast into the present bell and two quarter bells. The new bell weighs one ton more, and is seven inches larger in diameter, than the old one : its key is A ; that of the old one was B. It was founded by Mr. Thomas Mears, of Whitechapel Road, London, November, 1834, and placed in the Rood Tower of Lincoln, April, 1835. 8 LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. part of the latter may be very well supposed to be the body of the church. We say not so apparent, but even at a distance the eye would be better pleased with a much greater elevation in the body than the ridge of the roof appears to give it. On a nearer approach the attention, though caught by many architectural beauties, is continually distracted by these two very obvious defects. We should like much to see the walls of the nave, choir, and transepts, raised to about the middle of the lower story of the towers, and the point of the timber roof to the commencement of the upper story of them. The towers would want no more elevation in consequence, but, on the contrary, there would be a better proportion between the body of the Cathedral and its towers than there is at present. Having gained the summit of Lincoln Hill, let us walk round the superb edifice which crowns it, and take a more particular survey of its EXTERIOR. Of the beauty of the west front much has been said, but the plain solid work of Remigius is injurious to the general effect. That it should have been allowed to remain in its original state, when the additional portion was built, is quite astonishing, when we consider the great desire there was at that time to adopt every where the pointed style of architecture ; and however interesting it may still be to the antiquary and the architect, we cannot avoid expressing a wish that the elegant rows of pointed arches, with their slender columns, were continued over the face of the front of Remigius, and that the lateral semi-circular recesses of his work were made to correspond with the central one, which was increased in height and pointed when the faqade was enlarged, as it now appears ; flanked by octagonal turrets, rising a little above the straight-topped and ornamented parapet, and finished with spires. The gable of the nave is very much enriched, and is set upon the parapet between the towers. We will now continue our walk by the south side of the Cathe- dral ; the first object we meet with, on turning round the south-west turret, is a building in fi*ont of the side aisle of the nave, and of the same style with both, internally divided into two unequal rooms, one used for lumber, the other and larger is called St. Hugh's chapel. The side aisle has windows of one light each, highly pointed, between ILIMCOILrr CATM^ElOmALL SQITH WEST ANGI.K ^' ILElfCC (&)■$, H' (S Air M^ 23) MAIL Vmw OF SOVIH THAMSEFT » CKWTW^U. TO\*»« LIjrCOLN CATHEDRAL. 9 which are buttresses very plain, alternately large and small, with high pointed gables, rising above the ornamented parapet, to the larger of which are attached plain fl}dng buttresses;, which terminate between the windows of the clerestory, which are like those of the side aisle ; above these windows the nave is finished with an elegantly carved parapet, similar to that which runs all along the top of the west front, except where it is interrupted by the gable. This parapet of the nave is also interrupted at regular intervals, by what may be called little shrines, v/hich rise considerably above the parapet, with singularly good effect, since they break the heaviness of the high pitched timber roof of the nave ; as the lofty pinnacles, on the west side of the great transept do with still better effect in respect to its roof. This transept has no side aisles to the west, but at the southern extremity of its west side is built what is called the Galilee porch ; a porch of the same name, and for the same purpose,^ is placed at the west end of Ely and Durham Cathedrals; no reason has been assigned for its peculiar situation at Lincoln. The south face of this transept comes next in sight, it is flanked by double buttresses at the angles, surmounted by lofty pinnacles : that on the west angle crocketed, the other quite plain ; it is divided into three stories, the lowest is divided into two equal parts by a plain buttress, without any pinnacles, on each side of which are two narrow highly pointed windows of one light each : the middle story contains a rose window, filled with good flowing tracery, so common in French and so rare in English Cathedrals, and though perhaps the best example of such a window that can be found in this country, it is not comparable to those which are so fi'equently to be met with in France. The gable itself, which forms the third stor}-, contains a pointed window of five lights, the head of which is filled with tracery as good, and not very unlike that of the rose window below it : along the bottom of the gable runs a band, adorned with quatrefoil tracery, very bold; the sloping sides of the gable are enriched with double crocketing, the outer line of it free^ which has a very good effect. The eastern side of this transept, with its side aisle, is very plain; ^ In these porches, which were formerl)' attached to the west end of all cathedrals and abbey churches, public penitents were stationed, dead bodies deposited before interment, and females allowed to see the monks of the convent, who were their rela- tions. At Durham women were not allowed to attend divii\e service, except in the Galilee. VOL. n. C 10 LINCOLN CATHIiDUAL. the south face of the hitter contains two highly pointed window of one light each, with smaller ones of the same kind in the slope above, and is flanked at the eastern end by a double buttress, surmounted by a large plain and heavy pinnacle. The buttresses and windows of the side aisle of this transept are similar to those of the side aisle of the nave, and are connected in the same way with the clerestory above ; the parapet wall of which is quite plain, exposing the high pitched roof, without any thing to relieve it. The eastern transept, however, is so near the western, that the roof on the eastern side of the latter is not very much seen. For the same reason the w^estern side of the eastern transept is not so visible; and the defect of the timber roof is in both instances not so glaring. The south face of the eastern transept comes next into view ; it is flanked with double buttresses at the angles, which rise as high as the beginning of the gable, from whence very elegant octangular pinnacles rise up to a little above the point of the gable. The front is divided into four stories, the lowest similar to that of the western transept, but has only two windows of one light each ; the next story has four windows of one light each, of course only half the breadth of those below, as both the one and the other fill up all the space between the flanking buttresses ; these four are also about half the height of the other two. The third story has also four windows of one light each. The gable itself forms the fourth story, which is adorned with five highly pointed arches, supported upon slender columns. The middle arch rises quite up into the gable point, and the others diminish on each side, rising as high as the slope of the gable will allow. The clerestory of the east side of this transept is of the same style with the south face of it; it has an ornamented parapet, but no pinnacles to conceal or break the blemish of the timber roof, which is here and on the remaining and most beautiful portion of the Cathedral (the presbytery) to be seen but too plainly. On the east side of this transept are two semi-circular bays of the same style with the transept itself. We now come to the presbytery, the whole of which is a most beautiful example of the perfection of the pointed style. The buttresses, which were in the former age too plain, have their use and solidity in this instance of the succeeding age disguised by ornaments, thepedimental teraiinations being decorated with crockets, foliage, and finials; the angles with clusters of slender columns, and the faces with brackets LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. 11 and canopies for the reception of statues. The windows which were before of single lights, are here divided into several, by mullions, and tracery of geometrical form, an invention peculiar to pointed archi- tecture, and of the highest importance, as it enabled architects to increase the size of their windows to any required extent, in every respect; in short, a degree of lightness and elegance is observable here which was unknown in buildings of an earlier date. But that which is most of all worthy of remark in the architecture of this age is the prevalence of sculpture, together with its superiority over that of the preceding century in regard to its design, execution, and application. In Norman architecture the few imitations of nature which are to be found, either of foliage or animals, and especially of the human form, are barbarous in the extreme. As instances of the best sculpture of this age may be mentioned first, the alto relievo over the south porch of the presbytery, which embodies the awful idea of the Last Judgment, given in the 25th chapter of St. Matthew, and must have been executed by a sculptor to whom the excellencies of ancient art were not unknown. Secondly, the four statues in the piers of this porch, mutilated and headless as they are should be mentioned, they were intended to represent the four Evangelists, and were probably the work of the same masterly hand. The statue of the Virgin and infant Saviour, which once adorned the pier which divides the porch into two doorways, has been removed. This porch is unusually deep ; its sides and arch mouldings are very much enriched with rows of statuary and strings of foliage alternately, and reminds us a little of the portals of French Cathedrals, though greatly inferior to the best examples of them both in dimensions and in richness of decoration. On the east side of this porch is the chapel of St. Blaise, built and endowed by Bishop Russell, who died in the year 1494 ; on the west side of the same is the chapel of St. Catherine, built and endowed by Bishop Longland, who, living to the year 1547, had the mortification of witnessing the inutility of its erection, and the transfer of its endowments to the king. These chapels are very nearly alike, and are very good examples of the style called perpendicular by Gothic architects. We come now to the east end of the Cathedral, of the extreme beauty of which much has been said, but nothing too much. It consists of three gables, all flanked by double buttresses, whose sides 12 LINCOLN CATHEDllAL. are elegantly panelled with pointed arches and slender columns, and further adorned with brackets and canopies, and whose pediraental tops are richly crocketed and terminated by finials. These buttresses rise as high as the beginning of the gables, and upon them are set octangular pinnacles with slender columns at each angle, supporting straight canopies, from the midst of which rise spires, w hich are also crocketed and terminated by finials. The middle portion of the east end is much broader and loftier than those on each side of it, which are but the east ends of the side aisles of the presbytery, while this is the east end of the main body of it. The middle portion is divided into two stories, in each of which is a window of beautiful design. The larger one in the lower story occupies nearly all the space between the buttresses, and is divided into eight lights ; the head of it, which is a pointed arch, is filled with feathered circles of various diameters beautifully disposed. The dividing mullions are in the form of slender columns with capitalsof foliage, and between the exterior columns on each side of the window are inserted two series of rosettes. The point of the head of this window reaches the string course under the window of the next story, which is in fact nothing more than the gable itself. This upper window is also pointed, and is as large as it could be in that place ; it is of five lights, and the head of it is occupied by one large and two smaller circles, the larger having eight trefoils placed round its inner circumference, the two smaller a single trefoil within each. All round the top of the pointed arch of this window, between the mouldings, a single series of rosettes is placed, similar to the double series in the sides of the great window below. The sloping sides of this gable are adorned with a double row of crockets, one between the mouldings on the face of the gable, the other on the edge of the exterior moulding ; the point of the gable has a beautiful finial, out of which rises a highly decorated cross. The side portions of this east end are nearly similar, they have a window each in the lower story of three lights ; the pointed heads filled with three feathered circles, and having their sides ornamented wdth double rows of rosettes ; above these windows is a row of ti*efoiled-headed arches upon slender columns, and above that within the gables is panelling, which in design is similar to the windows below. The gables are terminated by decorated crosses. Underneath all the windows of the lower story is placed a row of trefoiled-headed arches upon short ■-^^- 4 a. u 4 y UNCOLN CATHEDRAL. 13 columns, whith is continued round the centre buttresses, but not round the external ones. Upon the whole there is a gay, dressy, flowery, appearance about the east end of Lincoln Cathedral, which is quite charming, and to which no words can do justice. It is light, graceful, and' elegant in the extreme ; no fault has ever been found with it ; and it seems to be agreed on all hands to instance it as a perfect example of the beautiful style to which it belongs. Of the north side of the Cathedral very little need be said : it is in the main very similar to the south side already described. The chief differences are, first, that the northern porch of the presbytery is not so rich ; it has a chapel only on the east side of it, that built and endowed by Bishop Fleming, and dedicated to the Holy Trinity . it is of perpendicular Gothic, and very similar to those already noticed on the south side. The next difference worthy to be observed is the porch and entrance in the north front of the greater transept. It projects from the face of the transept wall considerably, and has a triple pedimental canopy over it. At the north end of the eastern transept is a vestibule leading to the cloister, which is an oblong of one hundred and eighteen feet on the north and south sides, and ninety on the east and west. The north side is entirely modern, and is the work of Sir Christopher Wren, whose contempt for the pointed style induced him to be guilty of this impropriety. It consists of an arcade supported by columns of Doric proportion, and above it is a room, used as the library. The other sides of the cloister are of a style subsequent to that of the presbytery, and consist of several bays, of which each contains an arch divided into four lights, and other tracery, by stone muUions. The vaulting is of wood, and some of the bosses at the intersection of the ribs are ornamented with figures, beautifully designed and excellently carved. In the middle of the cloister court nearly, and a few feet only below the surface of the ground, a tesse- lated pavement was discovered some years ago, which, although in- ferior in merit to many others that have been found in other parts of England, is a proof that the site of the present Cathedral was once occupied by the Romans. Under the east side of the cloister is the entrance to the chapter- house. This building is a regular decagon, about sixty feet diameter within, and about forty-two in height, vaulted with stone, and has a centriil uillar composed of ten reeded columns of Purbeck marble, set 14 LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. round a circular pier of stone, and bound together by a fillet, whicli runs round them all, about midway between the base and the capital. The capitals of all the ten slender columns are composed of well executed foliage, flowing elegantly into one another, so as to form ])()th a distinct capital for each, and yet one whole, looking at the pillar as a single one. From this central pillar the arches of the vaulting are carried to the angles of the walls, where they arc supported by a cluster of columns, resting on richly ornamented l)rackets. The vestibule, leading to the chapter-house from the cloister, corresponds, on the sides, with the body of the building, and is tcmiinatcd at the west end by an arcade, or triforium, over the entrance, and an unornamented circular window. Externally the wall is plain, and has three unmeaning pediments ; and as seen over thereof of the cloister, is as ugly as any architect, however unskilful, could make it : it is surprising that the same person who built the chapter-house could be the author of such a design for this portion of the works. On the outside of the chapter-house the abutment is remarkable, bcinir formed by arches of flying buttresses, supported by, massive piers for detached from the wall; the coping, ornamented with quatrefoils, is not original, nor are the pinnacles on the smaller buttresses, between the windows, for they anciently terminated with gables, and a finial of drooping leaves, of which one example still remains at the north-west angle. The roof, which had been injudiciously altered, as shewn in early jirints, was restored to its original form by the dean and chapter, in the year 1800. The windows in each side of the building are highly-pointed, of one light each, but in pairs, two in each side, so as to have the appearance of one window ; divided do-wn the middle with clusters of slender columns of Purbeck marble, banded together with two sets of fillets, and capitals of foliage, and interlaced with zig-zag mouldings. The vaulting is simple and good, and the bosses, at the intersection of the ribs, of good design and execution. Several chapter-houses of cathedral and collegiate churches are of a polygonal form, but this of Lincoln was probably the very first that was ever erected in Enjrland of this form ; since others, known to have been buih in the twelfth century, as those of Durham, Gloucester, Bristol, LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. 13 and Peterborough, were all oblong, and it seems reasonable to suppose that the discontmuance of that form was suggested by the circular churches of the Knights Templars, erected at the close of the twelfth century, in imitation of that over the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem." The Temple Church, in London, the finest remaining example of those buildings, was dedicated in 1185, which was one year prior to St. Hugh's advancement to the see of Lincoln, and fifteen years before the completion of his chapter-house^ the decagonal form of which nearly approximates to the beauty of a cii'cle, and avoids that distortion of the arches which results from horizontal curvature. The rose window, in the north end of the greater transept, has much less tracery in it, and is not so good a specimen of that sort of window as that in the south end of the same. The remaining portion of the north side of the cathedral, is so very similar to the corresponding portion on the south side, that no particular remark need be made upon it. Having now walked round this magnificent pile of building, let us raise our eyes to the towers, which are the chief pride and glory of it. The western towers are each of them worthy, for their dimensions, proportions, and decorations, to be the chief or central tower of any Cathedral, or other important church ; and the central tower itself has a stateliness and a dignity about it, such as can be seen in no other tower of any Cathedral of England, France, or perhaps any other country. The correct representation of these towers in the accompanying plates, will supersede the necessity of any laboured description of them, but it ought to be noticed, that the arches in the great tower immediately above the roof were formerly open, and that the embrazures on the top were erected by Mr. Essex in 1775. The height of this tower, from the ground to the top of the embrazure, is two hundred and thirty-eight feet, the external breadth fifty. It is chiefly to this feature that the exterior of Lincoln Cathedral owes its majestic grandeur when considered as a mass, and the picturesque combinations it presents under almost every point of view. Being now thoroughly acquainted with the exterior, by means of the plates and the foregoing description, let us now enter the Cathedral, and take a survey of its * Essex on the OiijTin and Antiqnit)- of Round Clinrches. Arch. vpl. vi. p. 17<>. 16 LINCOLN CA^THEDRAL. INTERIOR. Let the reader suppose himself to enter by the middle, or principcal archway, of the west front. He is then standing at the western extremity of the nave, and the eye can penetrate at once to the east window of the pi'esbytery, which is distant from him nearly five hundred feet : a vast space is now before him, and though the effect upon the whole is dignified, and even solemn, yet it has none of that sublimity which is to be found in York Minster, of which this Cathedral is supposed to be the only rival in England. The great, and perhaps the only defect, is a want of height ; the vaulting is not sufficiently elavated for the length and breadth of the Cathedral. The beholder at once exclaims, " This is too low." The eye cannot be satisfied with less than five-and-twenty feet more of elevation. It is almost impossible for a church in the pointed style to be too lofty, but it may easily be too low ; this style requires a greater proportion of height to length and breadth, than any other style of architecture. Beauvais Cathedral is said to be higher than need be, but no one has ventured to call it a defect ; on the contrary, every one allows it to be sublime. The vaulting of the nave of Lincoln Cathedral is somewhat higher than that of the choir and presbyter}', the height of both which is again lessened by the pavement being raised above the pavement of the nave. In the length of the nave are seven pointed arches, on each side, supported on eight clustered columns, six of which are isolated, and two (one at each extremity) engaged. The two first arches westward are narrower than the others, and more acutely pointed. The open arches, above these last named, are divided down the middle, into two ; those over all the others into three. The windows of the clerestory are all alike, viz., three in each division, side by side, of one light each, the middle one rising higher than the outer ones : except indeed, that those over the two narrower arches of the nave are of course narrower, being inserted in a less space- The A^aulting of the two first, or western compartments of the nave, is much more simple than that of all the rest, and of the nave itself. All alono- under the windows of the side aisles (which are of one light each, and two within each compartment), the wall is adorned with a line of X,EH(S(D1LT? (EAlTMDSlOmAIL VlhW IN T1IK NAVK . LOOKING ACllOSS TH F NOltTVI TRAXSKPI IL E r? € ® )L iNf c ^^, CHOIK I.OOKIJJG WliS'l' LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. 17 trefoiled-headed arches upon short clustered columns.^ Having walked along the nave to the eastern extremity of it, we are brought into the greater transept, and under the central tower. The four clustered columns which support it are regular and well proportioned; they are composed of twenty-four attached columns of various diameters, of which twelve are of stone and twelve of Purbeck marble ; they rise to the height of forty-eight feet, and the massive arches they sustain are made to assume an air of lightness by the number and delicacy of their mouldings, and the decoration of the spandrils with trellis work. Above these arches are two tiers in each side of the tower, with columns and arches deeply receding ; behind which, on the upper tier, are windows of one light each ; at this height the further view of the interior of the tower is prevented by a vaulting of stone, with elaborate tracery, erected in the time of the treasurer Welbourne. The west side of the greater transept is very similar to the nave, the north and south ends^ of it have each a circular window of the same dimensions, though of different de- signs ; they are each twenty-four feet in diameter, and, together with the windows below them, are both filled with ancient stained glass, which gives to the interior of this transept that rich glowing but subdued light, the want of which is felt so keenly in every other part of the Cathedral. The east side of the transept is very similar to the choir, except in the clustered columns of the principal arcade, which are each composed of sixteen shafts, chiefly of Purbeck marble. The aisle in both wings was anciently appropriated to chantries, but no vestiges of altars now remain. They are divided from each other by projecting piers of very elegant design, and from the body of the transept by screens of excellent perpendicular character, which add greatly to its beauty. We will now enter the choir, which it must be confessed is more curious as an important link in the history of the pointed style, than commendable for architectural merit, especially if compared with the ^ We may here mention the font, which is placed in that part of the building now used as the morning service chapel : it is curious, and at least as old as the original church of Remigius. It consists of a circular basin, cut out of a square block of porphjTy, supported by four columns, and decorated on the sides by grj-phons and other animals very rudely carved. * The gable of the south end of the greater transept was erected by Mr. Hayward, architect to the Cathedral, in 1804, in imitalion of the original one, wliicli \va.« blown down in January, 1S02. VOL. II. D 18 I-INCOLN CATHEDRAL. choirs of many other Cathedrals, and particularly of York, with which this Cathedi-al is continually brought into comparison, and yet from the great beauty of the presbytery, two compartments of which form the chancel end of the choir, the richness of the prebendal stalls and other accessories, it is by no means deficient in appropriate effect. There are sixty-two stalls for the dean and prebendaries, with elabo- rate canopies, and containing- misereres, or half seats, ornamented with foliage, and various grave and ludicrous devices. The seats of the vicars and some others are fronted by arches, containing excel- lent carvings of kings, and angels playing on musical instruments ' the whole of these are of oak, and appear to have been executed late in the fourteenth century. The bishop's throne is placed at the end of the south side, and, though modern, agrees very well with the stalls, a merit which the pews are entirely without. The organ also over the west end of the choir is very bad, and the front of it has displaced some rich tabernacle work, which adorned the ancient jube, as the gallery above the screen used to be called. In the chancel, on the south side, are two table monuments for Catherine Swineford, wife of John of Gaunt, and their daughter Joan. The brasses have been taken from both, and instead of the canopy which was originally over them, is now, alas ! a Corinthian cornice, erected after the restoration. Opposite to these are two monuments, or rather cenotaphs, which Bishop Buller has consecrated to the memory of Remigius and Bloet, the founders and first bishops of this see. They are in the style of the presbytery itself, or a little later; the one ascribed to Bishop Bloet is remarkable for the sculpture in the basement, consisting of three figures of men in chain armour and surcoats, reclining on their shields, and supposed to represent the guardians of the holy sepulchre. The altar screen is somewhat in the style of these monuments, and is a proof of the correct taste of the late Mr. Essex, by whom it was erected. It contains a painting of the Annunciation, according with the dedication of the church, from the pencil of the late Reverend William Peters. The fragment of a monument in the south aisle of the choir, though unimportant in itself, has some interest attached to it as re- lating to the httle hero of an affecting ballad, called Sir Hugh, a child, who is supposed to have been crucified at Lincoln, by certain Jews, in derision of the Saviour, in the year l'2-25, and who was rJz^sr-'ed 'oy ^'•fF'.t II i^ '4; ^ IL 1?T CA.iriaiElDlEiv.IL T UK CHAN C K 1. LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. 19 afterwards honourably interred in the Cathedral, by the desire of the canonsj as a martyr in the Christian cause. The whole of the east transept corresponds in style with the choir, excepting the upper part of the south end, which appears to have been rebuilt about the middle of the thirteenth century. We come now to the presbytery, which comprises the whole east end of the church, beyond the upper transept, and here the statues in the spandrils of the arches of the first triforium should be particu- larly noticed ; of these there are thirty, ten of which (the centre and principal one of each bay) are of still higher merit than the rest. The greater number are represented as employed in singing or play- ing on musical instruments, consisting of the harp, zebec, cittern, trumpet, tabor and pipe, double pipe, and bagpipe, which last is de- signed with great taste, the upper part of the instrument being in form of a bird, which rests on the left hand of the performer, while the beak appears to supply the reed on which he plays. The great east window is filled with modern stained glass, put up in 1762 ; it is poor and feeble, and the effect not good. The space beneath this window, where anciently stood the altar of John the Baptist, was appropriated to the chantry of Queen Eleanor, originally founded at Heneley, where she died, and was transferred to this place by Edward II., in 1310. It contained an altar tomb of marble, on which was placed her effigy, in gilded brass. At the east end of the north aisle of the presbytery was the chantry of the Burghersh family, founded by Bartholomew, Lord Burghersh* in 1345, and dedicated to St. Catherine. On the north side of it is the monument of the founder, who died in 1356. The monument opposite to this is that of Bishop Burghersh, brother of the above- named, who died in 1340 ; and the one in the same style adjoining it is ascribed by Gough, on the authority of the armorial bearings upon it, to John, Lord Welles, who died in 1361. These tombs had formerly an elaborate canopy. At the east end of the south aisle of the presbytery is a chantry founded by Nicholas, Lord Cantilupe, who died in 1372. By the side of this is another of the same style exactly, and supposed to be that of a prior of Norton, of the Wymbish family ; both have rich crocketed canopies with finials. Against the north wall is the chantry of the Holy Trinity, founded 20 LINCOLN- CATHEDRAf-. by Bishop Fleming, and fronted by bis monument ; his effigy in the pontifical dress is placed on a slab beneath the canopy, and under- neath he is again represented in an emaciated state, in his shroud. The tomb was in all probability erected during the life-time of this prelate, which ended in 1430. The two chapels attached to the south wall of the presbytery we have already mentioned in the de- scription of the exterior ; the bishops by whom they were founded have similar monuments within them, consisting of elaborately de- corated screens, on each of which is an altar tomb under an ex- tremely flat arch. The cornice of Longland's has this punning in- scription, " Longa-terra mensiiram ejus dominus dedit ;" and his original intention was doubtless to have been buried here ; but it appears that his heart only was deposited at Lincoln, his bowels at Woburn, where he died, and his body at Eton. Beside the monuments here noticed, there were anciently some others, and a number of remarkably fine brasses, which were taken away by the Puritans. But the chief ornament of the sepulchral kind which this Cathedral possessed before the Reformation was undoubtedly the tomb of St. Hugh, which occupied a space of eight feet by four in the middle of the presbytery. The bones of this saint, inclosed in a chest of gold, were translated to this shrine with great pomp and solemnity in 1282, at which time it may be presumed this part of the church was just completed. The Cathedral of Lincoln is certainly one of the first class in England, and most amateurs are disposed to place it second, and inferior only to York Minster. It will be seen by the ground plan that its form is a double cross, like Canterbury and some others of the principal Cathedrals, and it is estimated that it covers no less than two acres, two roods, and six perches of land. From the building let us now turn our attention to the most re- nowned of those who have sat within it as bishops of the diocese. Having had occasion to speak much of Remigius, the first bishop of Lincoln, already, we have now only to add that according to the report of historians he was very charitably disposed towards the poor, feeding a thousand of them, daily, during three months of the year, clothing above one hundred and fifty that were blind, lame, and unable to help themselves, and had thirteen poor persons to dine with him every day. hj B-WmkleB xi[?=r€®ip; fE:ii'iri£ii£2)mAiL HlSnoP LONG LAND'' MONUMENT. IH iL li ^ -B ■ A -l-^- A iL R£F£RENrE TO Pi,A AAjVclic' a/hd.-'luLcs. B B JTvc IVcst Towaj C C I'ojmjU I'lacixt D MoriLuui Srivit:^ Ovapel E /;>/(./ F bi^lurp SiLqh's ChjipcL : CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL. 39 acts of severe mortification of the body, and the question put to the advocates of these things, '' Who hath required these things at your hands, to tread my courts?" Many miracles are reported to have been wrought by this prelate in his life-time, and after his decease, these, together with a life of austere piety, led to his canonization in the year 1262. This event became immediately a fruitful source of great revenue to the see of Chichester, and ceased to be so only with the superstition in which it originated. John Kemp, elected in the year 1420, and afterwards attained the highest honours in the state under the king, and in the church had no superior but the pope. In 1421 he was translated to London; in 1426 he became archbishop of York, over which province he pre- sided twenty-eight years, and was then removed to Canterbury. For four years he was chancellor of England, While he Avas archbishop of York, he was created a cardinal, in the year 1439.- While arch- bishop of Canterbury, he founded a college at Wye, in Kent, He died in the year 1455, and was buried in the Cathedral of Canterbur}'-. Adam Molyneux, elected in 1445, was very zealously attached to Henry VI,, by whom he was made secretary to the privy council and keeper of the privy seal. Alarmed at the unsettled state of the times, as some say, or as others, finding himself unable to discharge any longer the duties of his high office, he obtained permission to resign his bishopric, and to go abroad with an annuity for his main- tenance of five hundred marks ; but in the same year, 1449, while at Portsmouth preparing for his voyage, he was basely murdered in a boat by some sailors, hired for the purpose, as historians assert, by Hichard, duke of York. Reynold Pecocke, elected in 1449, was unjustly removed for having boldly declared the necessity of a reformation in the doctrine of the church and morals of the clergy ; he has the honour of being the first bishop in England who dared to do this during his episcopate. He held the see thirteen years, and was then publicly tried for heresy, was obliged to recant, was then degraded from his office, when all his writings were burnt, and he himself, half prisoner, half guest, was consigned to the care of the abbot of Thorney, in Cambridgeshire, who had with him an annual salary of £40. for his maintenance. This unfortunate prelate has been accused of holding and touching doctrines of a Socinian cast. However this may be, he did not long 40 CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL. survive his degradation ; but died of grief at Thorney, about the end of the year 1462. Edward Storey, olected in 1478, built the beautiful market cross in the city of Chichester, and founded the grammar school there. He died in the year 1502. Richard Montagu, elected in 1628, was a prelate of great eru- dition, the most acute and powerful controversalist of the age in which he lived. His avowed and equal opposition both to papists and puritans were alone sufficient to recommend him to the ruling powers of the day for promotion to the bench of bishops; it certainly procured for him the see of Chichester first, and his translation after- wards to that of Norwich in 1638, which he retained only three years, dying in 1641, bishop of that see. Henry King, elected in 1641, was son of John King, bishop of London, who was the great nephew of Robert King, the last abbot of Oseney and first bishop of Oxford. He is ranked among the best poets of his own times, and was a most popular preacher, as in his discourses he adopted the language and manner of the puritans, a sect then daily gaining ground in the kingdom. His acceptance of the mitre lost for him the former good opinion of the parliament : so that at the siege of Chichester his Cathedral was attacked Avith ten- fold fury, his palace and goods ransacked and destro3^ed, and he liimself treated with cruel indignity by the soldiery. At the Restora- tion he returned to Chichester, and repaired the Cathedral and palace, and died in 1669. John Lake, elected in 1685, having taken the oaths of allegiance to James II., refused with Archbishop Sancroft and four other bishops to repeat them to William III., and was therefore suspended from his functions and emoluments, and died in London a few months after his deprivation, in the year 1689. Ever}^ action of his life was marked by firmness and consistent conduct. Thomas Manningham, elected in 1709, was also chaplain to Queen Anne, who being ill, the bishop was desired to read prayers in another room; but he replied, " I do not choose to whistle the prayers of the church through a key-hole." Bishops Patrick and Mawson, having both been translated to Ely, will be noticed in the history of that Cathedral. ELY CATHEDRAL. The Christian religion in England gradually declined from the time of the Saxon invasion, and was entirely extinct in many parts, when Pope Gregory sent a number of missionaries from Rome, with the famous Augustin at their head, to endeavour to bring about the con- version of our Saxon ancestors. This company of preachers arrived in the Isle of Thanet, in the year 597, • The Isle of Ely at that time formed a part of the kingdom of East Anglia, which was founded by UfFa, the eighth in descent from AVoden, about the year 575. Redwald, grandson of Uffa, -was persuaded by Ethelbert, king of Kent, to embrace the Christian faith, and was accordingly baptized in the year 599. Ethelbert, at the instigation of Augustin, founded a church at Cratendune, one mile from the present city of Elj^ soon after Redwald's conversion; and Redwald himself, it is asserted, founded one in Ely. This is nevertheless questioned by some, and yet all are agreed that he certainly founded one at Rendlesham, in Suffolk, one of his royal seats. Redwald, however, soon after his conversion relapsed into idolatry, at the instigation of his wife and other evil councillors; and yet not so as wholly to reject the Christian religion, for he had in the same building an altar dedicated to Christ and another to idols. Probably his conversion was never sound and sincere, or perhaps he Avas but imperfectly instructed ; however this may be, he has the character of having been indifferent about all religion, and, as might be expected, under such a king, the Christian religion languished during the whole of his reign in the kingdom of East Anglia. Redwald died in the year 624, and was succeeded by his son Eorpwald, Avho was not converted and baptized till after he ascended the throne. This event was brought about by the persuasion of his friend Edwin, king of Northumberland, who was a very zealous Christian. Under Eorpwald, had he lived, the Christian religion would have flourished, but the general conversion of the East Anglea was soon again interrupted by his death, He was slain by Ricbert, ft pagan, wtto nt the same time took possession gf the Hingdomj though vol. Ih 9 42 ELY CATHEDRAL. he was never firmly seated on the throne. For three years nothing but confusion and misery was to be seen in East Anglia. At the expiration of that time, Sigebert, the brother of Eorpwald then an exile in France (though on what account is not known), returned to England, and was soon after placed on the throne which his father and brother had filled before him. During the period of his banish- ment in France he had been converted and baptized, and is said b}^ historians to have been an eminently virtuous and pious prince. The origin of the neighbouring university of Cambridge is attributed to him ; he founded also a bishop's see at Dunwich, an abbey at Burgh Castle, and another at Bury, all in Suffolk. After a prosperous reign of four years, in which the general conversion of his subjects was completed, he retired from his kingdom and the world into his own abbey at Burgh Castle, where he took the profession and habit of religion. He resigned his crown in favour of Egric, his cousin, who had for some time been coadjutor with him in the kingdom. About four years after the abdication of Sigebert, Penda, the pagan king of Mercia, came suddenly with a poAverful army into East Anglia, and laid the whole country waste with fire and sword. In this distress Egric and his subjects besought Sigebert to come forth from his retirement, and lend them his powerful assistance by his advice and his presence. He resisted, however, their first solicitation, and replied to it, that he did not think it consistent with his religious profession and habit to bear arms; but on a second application, he so far yielded to their wishes as to leave his retirement, and appear with the army on the field of battle, though he Avould have nothing in his hand but a wand, and persisted to the last in his resolution of taking no active part in the fight. The consequence was that both Sigebert and Egric were slain, and their whole army defeated. To Egric succeeded Anna, the son of Enus, who was the brother of Redwald. Anna was an excellent Christian prince, greatly and justly beloved by all his subjects. In his time Christianity flourished; but the same Penda came again into East Anglia, the country was again reduced to a desert, and the good king Anna, A^ithh is eldest son, Jurminus, both slain. Before Anna came to the throne he mar- ried Hereswitha, daughter of Hereric, grandson of Edwin and sister of the famous St. Hilda, the foundress of Whitby Abbey. By Hereswitha, Anna had a numerous, and as Bede says, a glorious ELY CATHEDRAL. 43 offspring, viz. Jurminus, slain with his father in the field of battle; Adulfus, who succeeded his father in the kingdom ; Erkenwald, who was bishop of London, in the year 675, and founded the abbey of Barking, in Essex; Sexburga, who was married to Ercombert, king of Kent; Edelburga, who became abbess of Barking; Withburga, who founded a nunnery at East Dereham, in Norfolk; and Etheldreda, the renowned foundress of the abbey in Ely, Avho was born about the year 630, at Ixning, then a place of considerable importance, but now a small village in the most western part of Suffolk, bordering on Cambridgeshire. Etheldreda became the first abbess of her own foundation at Ely, about the year 673, which she governed so as to gain the esteem and veneration not only of all the members of her convent, but of the inhabitants of the surrounding country. She died in the year 679, and was succeeded by her sister Sexburga, who was then become a widow. Sexburga governed the establishment with equal credit to herself and advantage to the convent and the neigh- bourhood for twenty years, and dying in the year 699, was succeeded by her own daughter Ermenilda ; how long she remained at the head of the convent is not known, but her fame as a good abbess is scarcely, if at all, inferior to that of those who preceded her in the same place and dignity. She had a daughter named Werburga, who became the next abbess on the death of her mother ; of Werburga we know but little more than that, like her predecessors and relatives, she also was canonized; and hence Ave may presume she Avas little, if at all, inferior to them in respect of piety and charity, and those austere virtues and mortifications which usually paved the way for a reception into the calendar. The time of her death is not known, nor the manner of it, but many abbesses after St. Werburga succeeded each other till the year 870, when the monastery was destroyed by the Danes; and shortly after that was occupied by a college of secular priests till the reign of King Edgar, when the abbey Avas refounded by Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester, in the year 970. Brithnoth, prior of Win-* Chester, was the first abbot : he was placed here by the founder, and rebuilt the conventual church. In 1066, Thurstan Avas abbot, and defended the Isle of Ely seven years against William the Conqueror. In 1081 Simeon, another prior of Winchester, Avas elected abbot, Avho laid the foundation of the present Cathedral. After his death there was a vacancy of seven years. In 1100 a person, who is called only g2 44 ELY CATHEDRAL. Richard, succeeded Simeon. This abbot Richard obtained the king's licence and the pope's consent to erect the abbej'' into a bishopric, but he died before the change was legally effected. In 1 1 07 Hervey, bishop of Bangor, from which see it is said he was unjustly driven awa}', was elected abbot of EI3-. He renewed the attempt of his predecessor to make Ely a bishop's see, and after two years suc- ceeded, and was himself the first bishop of it. Many obstacles presented themselves, but he had the good fortune to overcome them all. After the change had been determined upon, the next question was as to Avhat should constitute the new diocese. Ely wa.s already a part of the diocese of Lincoln, and the bishops of Lincoln claimed some sort of jurisdiction Avdthin the Isle of Ely itself, though it seems this claim had never been legally settled in their favour. Hervey communicated with Robert, then bishop of Lincoln, upon this subject, and it was at length agreed upon between them, that the manor of Spaldwick, in Huntingdonshire, then part of the possessions of the abbe}' of El}^ should be given up and conveyed to Robert and his successors for ever, in exchange for all his peculiar jurisdiction in the isle, and all his episcopal rights over the whole county of Cambridge, which Avas henceforth to form the new diocese of Ely. The matter was next brought before a council assembled in London by the king's desire in the year 1108, wherein it was agreed that the diocese of Lincoln Avas too extensive for the superintendence of one bishop, and that the interests of religion required that another bishopric should be taken out of it, whose see should be fixed in the abbey of Ely. To this arrangement the pope, on application being made to him, readily consented. Such was the origin of the see and diocese of Ely. We will now proceed to give an account of that superb fabric whose foundations were laid as an abbey, but which very soon after became a Cathedral Church. The foundations of the present Cathedral were laid by Simeon, abbot of Ely in the time of Henry I. and William Rufus: he did not live to furnish more than the old choir and the transept. Of his A\ork the transept only now remains. The nave, great AA^stern tower (as high as the first battlements), with its south wing, are the next por- tions in point of antiquity: the former was finished in 1174, and the latter in 1189. In 1200 the western portico was begun and finished in 1215 ; it was anciently called the Galilee. Of these adjuncts to ELY CATHEDRAL. 45 our Cathedrals some account lias been given in the history and description of Lincoln Cathedral. In 1552 the Cathedral was extended east\vard six arches more. This building is called the presb3^tery. About the same time a spire was erected on the old central tower, \^hich in all probability con- tributed to its downfall, which happened in the year 1322. . In 1321 the new Lady Chapel, now Trinity Church, was begun. In 1322 the octagon was begun, and in the year following the building of the three arches eastward of it, the former ones having been destroyed by the falling of the old tower principally in that direction. In 1328 the stone work of the octagon was finished. In 1342 the wood -w^ork and roof of tlie octagon and lantern were com- pleted; and about the same time the stalls of the choir were erected. In 1349 the 'Lo.dx Chapel was finished. In 1373 three windows on the south and two on the north side of the presbytery Avere rebuilt in the ne\A'er style, to agree with the adjoining biiilding. In 1380 the octagonal building and four angular turrets were erected on the original western tower. In 1405 it was thought necessary to strengthen the arches and piers which support the great tower, on account of this superstructure. This was done by casing them with stone : and in 1454 it became necessary to add still more to the strength of these piers and arches, and Avhich was at that time more effectually performed. In 1460 tAvo more A^•indows Mere inserted on the north side of the presbytery. In 1488 the chapel of Bishop Alcock Avas erected, and in 1534 that of Bishop West ; since AA'hich nothing lias been built, but many things destroyed. The cloisters were taken doAA;n in 1650, and irreparable mischief at the same time done in various parts of the Cathedral. Since that period many and important have been the repairs, AA'hich time and accidents have rendered necessary. In 1662 the north Avail of the nave AA'as repaired. In 1669 the north-Avest angle of the north Aving of the great transept fell clpwij_ and Avas restored. In 1748 the spire AA-as ordered to be taken down from the top of the great Avestern toAver, which Avas so much against the Avill of the inhabitants of Ely, that they petitioned to liaA'e it remain, Avhicli petition Avas granted, but the spire has since been removed. In 1762 the Avood AA'ork of the octagon and lantern Avore thoroughly and A^ery cleverly repaired. In 1768 the roof of the presbytery A^'as repaired, 46 ELY CATHEDRAL. t and at the same time the upper part of the east end being two feet out of tlie perpendicular, ■^^"as skilfully restored to its proper position by that most able mechanic and architect, Mr. Essex. In 1770 the choir w^'s, removed into the presbytery, by •^^'hich all the interior effect of the Cathedral has been greatly improved. In 1801 the upper parts of the tower were repaired, and in the following year the roof of the Lady Chapel. In the same year the outside of the galilee was restored and beautified, as was also the inside of the great tower. For the former part of the foregoing information ■\^•e are indebted chiefly to Mr. Bentham's excellent history of this Cathedral, and for the latter to Mr. Miller's description of the same, than which no visitor can have a more faithful, useful, or pleasant guide in his hand, while he inspects this highly interesting and imposing edifice. Few Cathedrals indeed have had the advantage of such an his- torian as Bentham, and few historians have had such a subject for their investigation as Ely Cathedral presents. It is certainly one of the very first magnitude and importance. A more vast, magnificent, and beautiful display of ecclesiastical architecture, and especiall}^ of the different periods of the pointed style, can scarcely be conceived. The Norman portion of the building is late in its date, and lighter in its character than earlier examples of the same style : indeed, in many places it bears evident marks of transition from the round to the pointed style. Of the various portions of the present Cathedral, then, the dates are well ascertained from authentic documents. This being the case, and the fact admitted that the pointed style continually progressed all over England at least, and with nearly equal pace, it follows that the several portions of Ely Cathedral become valuable as criterions of the age of other buildings in this country, in the absence of more precise and certain evidence. Of each of the three successive styles of Gotliic architecture Ely possesses in its Cathedral Church a pm-e and perfect specimen; pure as being free from all transition mixture, and perfect as to the design and execution of the detail. The galilee and the presbytery Avere built Avhen the first or early English stjie was settled and perfected; The octagon, the three arches east of it, and the Lady Chapel, Avhen the second, or decorated English, was in that state ; and Bishop Alcock's chapel, when the third, or perpendicular style, had reached the same. » IS mT ^r Alf m K 3D IFv AE- ELY CATHEDRAL. 47 It has been observed that there is more variety of plan among the Cathedrals of the pointed style in England than among those of the same style in France. Ho^vever this may be, there is certainly in every Cathedral in England something peculiar to itself, and this of Ely has more peculiarities than any other in England, for, first, the great west tower, Avith its south wing, has no parallel in England. At Bangor, the Cathedral has indeed a tower at the west end, and so have the parish churches of England very generally, than which that Cathedral is nothing more in its external appearance ; and if the towers could be compared (\\-hich would be like comparing a giant to a dwarf, or a mountain to a mole hill,) yet Bangor tower has no wing ; that feature is entirely peculiar to Ely Cathedral. Another peculiarity is the octagon AA'ith its lantern ; another, the unusual size and situation of the Lady Chapel ; and, lastly, the anti-choir or space between the octagon and the choir screen. This peculiarity indeed is of modern date, and no part of the original design. The AA'ant of cloisters and a chapter-house is an accidental circumstance ; both once existed, as some remains of both, which are still visible, suf- ficiently prove. Several different sorts of stone have been made use of in the building of this Cathedral, all of which must have been brought fjom various places, and some from considerable distances. There is besides in the construction of the interior detail a vast quantity of Purbeck marble, and of a soft stone of a chalky nature, which is known in this part of the country by the name of clunch. From these general remarks we will now proceed to take a more particular survey of ever}' part of this huge and solemn pile. EXTERIOR. The west front of a Cathedral is usually the most important and imposing portion of its exterior ; and had this of Ely Cathedral remained in its original state, nothing of the kind could have exceeded it in impressive grandeur. But, alas ! the north wing is gone ; and the tower, by the additional octagon and turrets, already spoken of, being raised upon it, is become of a most disproportionate height. The galilee, also a most beautiful object in itself, helps to destroy the 48 ELY CATHEDRAL. harmony of the whole. But take that away, Avhich formed no part of the original design ; take down also the octagonal addition to the tower with its turrets, and erect the north wing exactly like the south which still remains, and a more august and striking facade cannot be conceived. Such was the noble design of the architect, and for a few years it probably existed in that state. Is it ever likely to be seen so again"? Prudence may perhaps hereafter demand the demolition of the offensive octagon and turrets, and the sooner the better. But, alas ! the same motive must ever operate in these days against the re-edification of the north wing. Geoff"ry Ridel, the third bishop, designed and lived to finish, nearly, the original west front. He died in 1189, and nothing but the battlements of the original tower were left for his successor Longchamp, to erect. With respect to the upper portion of the tower and turrets above the original battlements, whether it Avas the work of the bishop or convent is not certain, it was injudicious on all accounts ; its injurious effects were very soon perceived, and vast sums were expended to counteract them at different times. This great superincumbent Aveight in all probability has caused the de- struction of the north wing-. Whenever the former shall be taken off, the materials should in all justice and fairness be employed in the re-construction of the latter. These wings of the great tower formed a sort of second transept to the church at that point : they had, and the south wing still has, polygonal turrets at the angles ; that at the south-west angle is nearly double the diameter of the other, though they are of equal height. They seem to be dodecagons engaged, that is, eight of their sides are external, and four within the walls of the building which they thus flank. This wing with its turrets is covered all over with ranges of arches one above another; the three lowest are circular, the fourth are trefoil-headed, the fifth, and all above on the turrets, which rise considerably above the wing, are pointed and profusely adorned with Norman mouldings; the wing and turrets are both embattled. The western portico or galilee by which the Cathedral is entered is a beautiful example of the early English style, and being, as is generally agreed, the Avork of Bishop Eustachius, is a very early example of the perfect state of that style; for Eustachius died in the year X215. ajid tliejefore this work mast have been finished at least ELY CATHEDRAL. 49 five years before the present Cathedral of Salisbury was begun. Within the large arch are two smaller ones, feathered, resting on a single clustered column, which divides the entrance into two equal parts. The intervening space above the smaller arch is adorned with an elegant leafy pattern of open stone work, not unlike the tracery often found in the heads of windows belonging to the succeeding style of Gothic architecture. Above this portal are three tall lancet- headed windows of one light each, the centre one only a very little taller than the other two : the space on each side the windows and portal is adorned with four tiers of arches, supported on slender columns, and flanked by clustered buttresses terminated by plain conical pinnacles. It is surmounted also by an embattled parapet, the middle portion of which rises higher than the rest. The nave and transept, with their side aisles, are very nearly alike on both sides the Cathedral, the clerestory exactly so, viz. a plain parapet, projecting a little and supported by pilasters, dividing it into compartments, which are filled up with three round arches on slender cylindrical columns with plain capitals ; the middle one forms a window of one light, and is wider and rises higher than the others. The side aisles are embattled, and divided into the same number of compartments on the face of the wall, as in the clerestory, but by slightly projecting buttresses instead of pilasters ; they are also divided horizontally by a string course into two stories. The windows with the exception of three on the south side of the nave, (which are of the original form,) are all insertions of later ages, some of decorated and some of perpendicular clj^racter. The cloisters were on the south side of the nave, the north-east angle of them is still perfect ; and other portions in ruins are still visible in the dean's garden. Under the north-east angle of the cloisters is what is called the monk's entrance into the Cathedral, at the north-west end of the same is the prior's ; they are both of Norman architecture, the former richly sculptured, and the latter a still more magnificent and elaborate work of that style. A httle to the south of the cloister stood the chapter-house, of which only just enough remains to shew that it was a building co- eval with the oldest part of the present Cathedral. The south and north fronts of the transept are not exactly similar, the principal diflPerence between them is in the gable portion of each. VOL. II. H 50 ELY CATHEDRAL. The south gable has one wide and low window of seven lights, with simple tracery in the head, and is sunk within a deep recess of the same ungraceful form. The north gable has two much better pro- portioned windows side by side, and of about the same age. The lower portions are of the original Norman work; a slight difference exists between them as there does also between the upper part of the turrets, by which both fronts are flanked, which the spectator will detect, but which would take more room to describe than the difference deserves. The octagon with its lantern, in the place of the old central tower, is quite unique. The extreme beauty and merit, however, of this portion of the Cathedral is observable chiefly from within. Exter- nally it is too wide and too low, and the lantern is not only disproportionately small, but being of wood, has no agreement with the massiveness and grandeur of the stone octagon, in connection with which it must always be viewed. The octagon is not equi- lateral, but is in fact a square with the corners cut ofl", the four broader sides correspond with the four arms (so to speak) of the Cathedral, and the four narrower cut off the corners made by the intersection of those arms, and are therefore visible down to the roof of the side aisles in each case. The octagon is only of one story above the roof, and is adorned with an arcade of pointed arches, feathered and canopied, some of which are pierced through and glazed to admit light : the broader sides have six, the narrower only three of such arches: it is also further adorned with an open stone parapet of beautiful design. The spaces below the arcades of the narrower sides are filled up with large and acutely pointed windows of four lights each, with good flowing tracery in the heads of them. At the points where the external angles of the octagon would be, if the sides met, hexagonal embattled turrets rising above the parapet are cleverly inserted, so as to display three of their sides outwardly, which relieve the octagon of some part of its heavy appearance. As soon as th6 south wing of the transept is passed, a succession of deeply projecting buttresses and a crowd of crocketted pinnacles burst upon the view. The introduction of larger windows, a lighter style of architecture, and stone vaulting, made these external sup- ports absolutely necessary. Had these props been nothing more than THE EAST ENT ELY CATHEDRAL. 51 plain solid masonry sloping from the top to the bottom, they would have been equally useful ; but in that case all the external appear- ance would have been sacrificed to the beauty of the interior : to obviate this the buttress is first of all broken into three or more stories ; that is, it slopes a little way, and then takes a perpendicular direction ; slopes again, and is perpendicular again : and so on till it projects as far as is needful for the safety of the building: then the buttress is surmounted with a pinnacle, oftentimes both panelled and crocketted, and in later times every portion of the buttress was panelled with feathered tracery and some figure set upon each break, or increase in the projection, and when the build- ing to be thus propped had also side aisles, the buttresses were built to the walls of them, and in order to support the clerestory walls above, what are called flying buttresses were adopted, which reach from those walls in a sloping direction to the buttresses of the side aisles below. These are also oftentimes adorned with panel- ling, and sometimes also, though not often in England, with beauti- ful open tracery ; and thus not only was every objection to these external props removed, but they themselves became a most con- spicuous addition to the external beauty of the fabric which they at the same time supported : of this, the south side of the choir and anti-choir of Ely Cathedral, now under review, is a splendid proof. The east end of the choir is of the same style with the rest of it. It is divided into three stories, the lowest has three lancet-headed windows side by side of one light each, and (what is rather singular) all of equal height. The next story contains five windows side by side of one light each, and pointed in the same manner, but, in this instance, the middle one rises higher than the one on each side of it, and these again than those beyond them. The third story, which is the gable itself, is adorned with three lancet windows of nearly equal height, which admit light between the roofs. Above these windows are three feathered panels deeply recessed : the like are also on a smaller scale inserted in the two stories below. The gable point is adorned with an ornamented cross. This east end is also flanked with square turrets or buttresses, whose surfaces are enriched with deeply sunk and feathered panels. The eastern faces of the side aisles appear as wings to the east end of the choir ; the south wing has in it the window which lights Bishop West's chapel, of late H 2 52 ELY CATHEDRAL. perpendicular character ; tlie north wing, a window of late decorated or of transition style from that to early perpendicular, which lights Bishop Alcock's chapel. The wall above the former window is plain solid masonry ; above the latter it is adorned with an arcade of lancet arches. Both wings are flanked with double buttresses at the angles, upon which is set an enormous octagonal pinnacle crocketted. The north side of the choir and anti-choir is so nearly the same as the south side, that nothing need be said more upon the subject. Indeed the Lady Chapel being built parallel to it, and not much above forty feet from it, the north side of the choir is but little seen. The south-west angle of this beautiful chapel adjoins the north-east angle of the north wing of the transept. Such a situation for such an edifice is perhaps unique. The chapels dedicated to St. Mary were generally at the east end of the church, though sometimes at the side ; they were also usually of much less dimensions. The plan of this chapel is an oblong, having a very large window at the east and west end, and five windows on each side ; the first window at the western extremity of the south side is indeed walled up, and under it is the entrance into the chapel from the north wing of the Cathedral transept. Between each win- dow is a projecting buttress, crowned with a richly crocketted pin- nacle : at the corners of the chapel are double buttresses, on each of which is erected a pinnacle of much larger dimensions; the east and west fronts are richly decorated with arcades and canopied niches ; and the gable point is adorned with a niche rising above the elegantly pierced parapet which runs all round the building. Passing by the north side of the nave, which is too similar to the south side, already described to need any further description, we come to the ruins of the north wing of the great west tower. It is generally believed that the weight of the octagon upon that tower caused the destruction of this north wing. By what still remains of it we may safely conclude that it was in all respects exactly similar to the south wing. Unfortunately it was never rebuilt, although it is quite evident that a building on the same spot, of different dimen- sions and style, was begun some years after the fall of the original wing ; that such a building was never completed is a subject of congratulation rather than regret. Nothing but the re-construction of a wing similar to the south wing can ever satisfy the eye of the ^ s a ^ m > ^ h N w 4 1^ a r-i « (1 ■M 12; ^ Diiwu^jy EjLy.c t B» j%\:iir ti'X winkiesi Laxiiedi M )L f ■ €• AT la IE © ]R AIL THZ GALILEE PC R err ELY CATHEDRAL. 53 antiquary, or the architect, or the visitor of. correct taste. But alas ! such persons arfe more likely to be called upon to deplore the loss of the south wing than to i-ejoice together over the rebuilding of the north, as it is now in a very tottering condition, and much defaced, by being propped, cramped, screwed, and tied together in every part and in various ways. INTERIOR. The Cathedral is entered from the west through the galilee. The sides of this building internally are occupied by two large pointed arches, comprehending under each two rows of smaller ones ; the upper of five, the lower of three, supported by very slender columns. In the upper row on each side, the middle arch has a cinquefoil head, and those on the sides of it such portions of the cinquefoil as bring them within the circumscribing arch. The lower rows have trefoiled heads, and all are decorated with that favourite moulding, which is like a flower of four leaves, with its leaves, turned backwards towards its stem. All the shafts are of Purbeck marble, with wreathed capitals of flowers and foliage. Below the arches on each side are stone benches. Here the penitents used to sit, while they waited their re-admission into the church. The arch of entrance into the Cathedral is very similar to that by which the galilee is entered from without. They both rest on ten slender columns, five on each side, while a middle column with detached shafts divide them into two smaller arches. From the galilee the visitor passes into the lower part of the tower, and from thence obtains a general view of the interior of the Cathedral, the effect of which is indeed subHme. The long and lofty nave, with its side aisles, opening into the ample octagon, beyond which the richly decorated anti-choir, with its screen and organ, and over that and stretching far beyond it, the present choir may all be seen at once, from underneath the tower, where the reader must now suppose himself to stand. Before we take him from that spot we must acquaint him with the improvements which have been made in this part of the building. In the year 1802 the old belfry floor, with the spars and beams for the bell ropes, were re- moved, and the magnificent arch by which the tower communicates with the nave then became visible in all its extent. Here also the reader may see what was done to strengthen the tower, after the 3E3LT €iv.T]Sr]E©3EAEd TI. 7 J ELY CATHEDRAL. 55 those below. Each arch of these arcades comprehends two small ones, supported by a single cylindrical column. Above this arcade is a third, composed of three arches in each compartment, side by side, the middle one rising a little above the others, and containing a round-headed window of one light. The nave of Ely Cathedral is simple in its outline and vast in its dimen- sions ; the columns and arches may be said to be almost without ornament ; all that can be called ornament, being merely a band of single billet moulding running the whole length between the first and second arcade, and a still more'simple one of a semi-cylindrical form, between the second and third, and at the top of all. The effect is very imposing, altogether, but it is somewhat injured by the want of a stone vaulting. All is now open from the pavement to the leads ; in looking upwards the visitor is disappointed at seeing nothing but a set of rafters, which at so great a height appear not more substantial than those of an ordinary parish church or dwelling house; and as he passes along the nave will be led to say within himself, surely these sohd walls and massive arcades were intended for a nobler purpose. Persons, however, have been found to admire this timber roof, for its lightness and ingenious construction, and it may be in itself worthy of admiration, but it is totally out of place here : and though some think that it adds to the lightness and loftiness of the nave, it is more generally thought that a plain stone vaulting would be a great improvement. Such a vaulting the side aisles of the nave do actually possess ; it is perfectly plain, and of the original Norman work. Under the windows of the side aisles runs an arcade of small semi-circular arches, resting on pilasters. The southern side aisle has three windows of the original form ; the first (beginning westward), the third, and the last but two ; all the rest of the windows in both side aisles are of later ages. An interruption of the arcade under a window in the north aisle denotes the place where there was a door of communication with the parish church of St. Cross. This door was closed up above two hundred years ago, when the Lady Chapel was given, instead of that church, to the parish of the Holy Trinity. At the west end of the same aisle, under an arch in the wall, is a relique of antiquity deserving some notice. It is the lower part of a stone cross, with its square pedestal, found many years ago 56 ELY CATHEDRAL. at Iladdenham, in the Isle of Ely, and placed here by Mr. Ben- thain, the celebrated antiquary and historian of this Cathedral. The inscription on the pedestal is very legible ; — LUCEM TUAM OVINO DA DEUS ET REQUIEM. AMEN. This Ovin, to whose memory the cross was erected, was steward to Queen Etheldreda, the foundress; it is therefore in all proba- bility a work of the end of the seventh, or at latest the beginning of the eighth century. ^^'e come now to the octagon and lantern, a most singularly beautiful and skilful work ; in which solidity and gracefulness, mag- nificence and lightness, are so happily blended together, that the spectator is at a loss to decide in which of these respects it is most worthy of admiration. The original square tower which stood here gave way and fell eastward, involving in its ruins the three first arches of the original choir. This happened in 1322, and though the building of the new Lady Chapel was begun the year before, yet the repair of this extensive mischief was instantly undertaken. The stone work of the octagon was finished in six years, and its wooden roof and lantern in fourteen more. Alan de Walsingham, at that time sacrist, was the architect. The idea was altogether new, and the work remains to this day an undeniable proof of his exquisite skill and taste as an architect. By throwing the weight upon eight strong piers and arches, instead of four, he has given to this part of the Cathedral, not only greater strength, but a mag- nificence of space and a gracefulness of form, such as is to be seen in no other Cathedral in England of the pointed style. An immense body of light is let down from the lantern above, and when the spectator raises his eyes upwards, he cannot but wonder at the skill which has contrived to suspend a very heavy timber roof over so wide an erea without a pillar to assist in supporting it. Before the downfall of the tower the choir was here, and here it was again placed as soon as the octagon was finished, which not only spoilt the effect of it, but also the effect of the general view of the whole interior of the Cathedral. Happily it was removed in the year 1769 to its present situation; a far better one for the purpose; indeed, its former position was the worst that could.be for singing, reading, and hearing. ^^XTm \iy P Gail THZ 0CTAG02J. ELY CATHEDRAL. 57 In the four greater sides of the octagon are four lofty arches, which open into the four principal parts of the church. In the four shorter sides are four other arches, much lower than the others, opening obliquely into the side aisles, and having those windows above them, which have been already described as visible externally, and comins: down to the roof of the side aisles. All these arches are supported by those elegantly clustered columns which were then come into general use. Their capitals are composed of wreaths of flowers and foHage gracefully designed and exquisitely finished. The wall between these arches and the windows above is orna- mented with trefoiled recesses, canopied, and having brackets, upon which doubtless once stood statues. The clustered columns from which the ribs of the vaulting of the octagon spring are not continued to the pavement, but seem to rise from the top of a number of niches richly canopied and crocketed, but nov/ without statues ; these niches rest upon brackets which are, each of them, supported by a small cluster of very slender columns, upon the capitals of which are represented in relief the most important events in the history of St. Etheldreda. Beginning at the right side of the north-west arch, the first represents her reluctant marriage with Egfrid,king of Northum- berland ; 2. her taking the veil in the monastery of CoLlingham ; 3. her pilgrim's staff taking root while she slept by the way, and bearing leaves and shoots ; 4. her preservation, with her attendant virgins, on a rock surrounded by a miraculous inundation, when the king pursued her with his knights to carry her off from her monastery ; 5. her instalment as abbess of Ely ; 6. her death and burial ; 7. a legendary tale of one Brithstan, delivered from bonds by her merits after she was canonized ; 8. the translation of her body. In the centre of the vaulting of the octagon is an aperture 30 feet wide, upon which the lantern is set. It is an exact octagon, having in each of its sides a sharp pointed window ; the square-headed windows spoken of as being above these externally, are not visible within ; under the windows is a gallery, and under that carved panels. The vaulting of the ante-choir is lower than the arch which opens into it; the intervening space is adorned with open feathered tracery, but the effect is not good. Although the ante- choir is now before us, and the organ screen, we must in passing to it look to the right and left to observe a little upon the transept. VOL. II. I 58 ELY CATHEDRAL. This is the most ancient portion of the Cathedral ; both wings of the transept have side aisles. The columns and arches are, generally speaking, like those of the nave ; in each of them how- ever there is a simple cylindrical shaft, which occurs nowhere else in the building. The west side aisle of the north wing is open, that to the east is divided by walls behind the columns. In the south wing both side aisles are entirely closed up. The roof of both wings is of bare rafters, painted with flowers and other de- vices ; large figures of angels with wings expanded support the principals. The same simple mouldings occur here above the se- veral tiers of arcades as in the nave. Let us now contemplate the ante-choir: it is of that age when decoration was no longer confined to particular parts of the build- ing, but scattered over the whole face of it ; but this is a singularly beautiful example of that style; it has a rich, light, and gay ap- pearance ; there is a magnificent display of decoration, but it cannot be said to be loaded with ornament. The screen is an arcade of three pointed arches supported on slender clustered columns, through the middle arch is the entrance into the choir, and above the arcade is a gallery in which the organ is placed. The whole is of good gothic architecture, and agrees very well with the portion of the Cathedral with which it is connected. We now enter the choir, which was anciently called the presby- tery ; it is still known by that name, although, since the removal of the choir into it, it is more usually called the choir. The original choir extended no further in a straight line than the three arches of Bishop Hotham's work, it then became semi-circular, and so termi- nated ; which was the form of the east end of all Norman churches. This semi-circular termination was taken down in the year 1235 by Hugh de North wold, the eighth bishop of Ely, and this most beauti- ful addition of six arches, forming the present choir, was made and finished at his expence in seventeen years. At the dedication of it in 1252, the shrines and reliques of the canonized abbesses were removed into it ; Henry III. with his court were present at the ceremony, and were magnificently entertained by the bishop. It is in that style which architects have agreed to call the early En- glish, and is a perfect example of it. The three arches of the ante-choir, the work of Bishop Hotham, which is also by general TH >; CHOIR, Til 8 ELY CATHEDRAL. 59 agreement called decorated English, adjoins the work of Bishop Northwold, and the two styles being thus brought together in actual contact, the spectator has an opportunity of judging of the comparative merits of each. By the generality of judges the choir is preferred. There is a great abundance and variety of ornament, and all of the most elegant and graceful description ; but it is con- fined to its proper places ; and not as in the other style, spread indiscriminately over the whole surface. The ante-choir dazzles and surprises the spectator, the choir delights and charms him. The eye is so caught by the detail of the ante-choir, that the effect as a whole is lost, and the eye soon becomes tired of gazing upon mere detail ; in the choir it rests with satisfaction and delight, and is never weary of beholding, and is equally fascinated by contem- plating it as a whole, and by dwelling upon its various and graceful embellishments. The superiority of this style over the other is perhaps most of all conspicuous in the vaulting, which is simple and majestic ; its plain ribs diverge from their imposts, and termi- nate in a longitudinal midline, running from west to east, and orna- mented with figures and flowers, where the springers meet it, while the ribs in the vaulting of the ante-choir cross each other continu- ally, and spread themselves into many intricate forms, which have no meaning, and destroy the harmony of the whole. The east end of the choir is pre-eminently beautiful : the three lower windows are of one light each, side by side, and (as was before observed, in speaking of their external appearance), of equal height, lancet-headed and lofty. The upper windows are five in number, of one light each, whose forms and proportions have been already stated ; these as well as the window beneath, are, as it were, deeply recessed within corresponding arcades, formed by a profusion of mouldings, resting on slender columns, with fillets and leafy capitals ; and intermixed like the mouldings of the arches with alter- nate rows of flowery wreaths. The effect of these windows thus adorned is surely far better than that of one huge window filling up the whole end, which was universally adopted in the succeeding styles of Gothic architecture : and a building whose decoration is confined to certain places and within just proportions, must produce a more sublime and majestic effect than one which is equally embel- lished in every part. The early Enghsh style however, with all its I 2 60 ELY CATHEDRAL. gracefulness and elegance, had but a short reign ; it was soon aban- doned for another, which, however gorgeous and dazzling, is far inferior as to general effect. Some architects acknowledging the superiority of the early English over that which immediately suc- ceeded it, have attempted to account for its abandonment by the supposition that it was found to be wanting in strength and solidity. This supposition, however, can hardly be supported, when it is recollected that the works in the early English style were scarcely eighty years old when the new style was universally adopted, and that they could not then exhibit any sign of weakness or decay, since the very same works are still in existence ; are now very little short of six hundred years old, and in several instances, as well as in the case of the choir of Ely, have not needed any more import- ant repairs than those which have taken place in the memory of some persons who are yet living. The east end of the choir was indeed nearly two feet out of the perpendicular, when Mr. Essex in the year 1768, by means of screws, effectually restored it to its proper position. The timber roof was also at the same time repaired, which might have been necessary in any other style of architecture, and this is all that has been done to this portion of the Cathedral since it was erected. The true cause therefore of the abondonment of the early English style may be found in that excessive love of novelty which is inherent in human nature. The windows of the choir were once adoi'ned with painted glass, which was of course demolished by the Puritans. Bishop Mawson had agreed with an artist to fill them with modern stained glass ; the good bishop, however, died before it was put up ; indeed it is said that the artist was not able to fulfil his contract : only the figure of St. Peter and some of the armorial bearings of the prebendaries of that day were finished and put up. The stalls of the choir are beautiful examples of that sort of carving in wood which prevailed at the time when the ante-choir was erected. They were designed by Alan de Walsingham, the architect of the octagon. When they were removed to their present situation, they were found to be decayed in some places, but they have been so well restored, that it is impossible to discover the new from the old work. The altar screen is of modern wood work, and not very good in design, nor correct in its imitation of Gothic. ELT (SATM11BB.A1L, THE LADY CHAPEL ® :ra!l REFERE XCK. BB Wejt Tra/isi/'t. C The l'otfa~. DD JXai'c S:.'Jisles i;E TTte Cctufion. rr TVu: <;7£;a^ Dansept G ^-Inti-OxOLr. HH Oxou^t'JvsUs I Tiirdti/ i3rezpcl K Bish/yp ALcocks Ovnpcl . L BP Wests (1° MM Library .Vestries . Sec. S' South A'nliYULce O Minor canons' Vejtj'i/ P ^IrLcient lioomca/ I) ij -.cT^ forW^Hess Cathedrals nor aved 'bvS !W5i!Jd e ? Scale ELY CATHEDRAL. 61 There is no bishop's throne in the choir; the abbey having been converted into a see, and the last abbot becoming the first bishop, he kept his seat after he had changed his title and dignity, and every succeeding bishop has continued to sit in the same place : viz. on the right hand side of the entrance. The prior still kept his place on the left hand side, and continued to do so when the last prior became the first dean, and every succeeding dean has occupied the same seat. The presbytery was once filled with the monuments of bishops, priors, and deans ; all these have been removed, except two, that of Bishop Gray, a flat stone (a part only of a noble monument) under the arch leading into the north aisle, and that of Cardinal de Lux- emburg, archbishop of Rouen, and perpetual administrator of the diocese of Ely, which is on the south side of the altar, concealed by the screen; its decayed and ruined condition is said to have prevented its removal; it had been also very roughly handled by the Puritans. In the side aisles the slender columns, detached shafts, and lancet-headed windows of the early English style are every where to be seen : at the east end of the north aisle is Bishop Alcock's chapel, a rich but heavy specimen of the florid, or as it is now called, the perpendicular Gothic. At the east end of the south aisle, is the chapel of Bishop West, a delicate and elegant example of the latest period of the perpendicular, but not altogether free from some approach to the revived Italian style. Both these chapels are lamentably mutilated. We will conclude our account of the interior of this Cathedral with a few remarks upon the Lady Chapel, now the church of Trinity parish, in Ely. The principal merit of this beautiful edifice is its fine proportions. The windows are large, divided into many lights, with elaborate tracery in their upper portions, especially those of the east and west ends ; the vaulting and the walls are, like Bishop Hotham's contemporary work in the ante-choir, profusely decorated in every part, and as free also as that from any heaviness of eflfect. The Cathedral Church is dedicated to St. Peter and St. Ethel- dreda. Its interior dimensions are as follows, viz. whole length from west to east, 517 feet; breadth of nave and side aisles, 78 feet; length of transept from north to south, 179 feet 6 inches; height of the vaulting of choir, 70 feet; Lady Chapel 100 feet long, 46 broad, and 60 high. 62 ELY CATHEDRAL. Besides the bishop, the Cathedral establishment consists of a dean, an archdeacon, and eight prebendaries, several minor canons, singing men, choristers, vergers, and an organist. In the time of Henry VIII. the bishopric was stated to be worth £2134 ISs. 6hd. per annum ; the present yearly value, as returned by the late bishop to his majesty's commissioners, is £11,105. The bishop of Ely, besides the whole patronage of the Cathedral, except the appoint- ment of the dean, had in the Isle abundance of patent offices at his disposal, and was vested with greater prerogatives than any other bishop in the kingdom, except Durham. By the late Act of Parliament, however, the future bishops of Ely and Durham will be shorn of all their civil honours and privileges, to the great comfort of them both, as their w'orldly cares will be thereby greatly diminished, and they will be able to devote themselves equally with their brethren the other bishops, more exclusively to the spiritual concerns of their dioceses. The bishops of Ely will, however, continue to have considerable power and patronage in the Univer- sity of Cambridge. They are, as such, visitors of four colleges, patrons of the mastership and one fellowship in Jesus College, choose one out of two nominated by the college to be the master in St. Peter's College, and the fellows therein : the Bishop of Ely has also nearly one hundred livings in his gift. The dean and chapter of Ely pay a pension to the bishop of £135 7*. 3^d. The tenths also of the whole diocese were long since granted to the bishop, and are still paid to him ; but the whole amount of them is somewhat less than the sum paid to him by the dean and chapter. The original diocese of Ely consisted of all Cambridgeshire, except a small portion of it which belonged to the diocese of Nor- wich, as much too small as that of Lincoln was too large. As decided friends to episcopacy on the highest grounds, we rejoice that by the same Act which relieves the bishop of Ely from the burden of many temporal concerns, his episcopal jurisdiction will be increased, and from the same source out of which it was first taken. The Act states, that the diocese of Ely shall be increased by the counties of Huntingdon and Bedford, in Lincoln diocese, the dean- eries of Lynn and Fincham, in the county of Norfolk, and diocese of ELY CATHEDRAL. 63 Norwich, and by the archdeaconry of Sudbury, in the county of Suffolk, and diocese of Norwich, with the exception of the dean- eries of Sudbury, Stow, and Hartismere, and by that part of the county of Cambridge which is now in the diocese of Norwich. Our limits will not allow us to give much more than a bare list of the names of the most eminent bishops who have filled this see from its foundation to the present time. William Longchamp elected in 1189, was chancellor of England, pope's legate, chief justiciary of England, and regent of the kingdom during the absence of Richard I. He was succeeded by Eusta- chius in 1197, who was also chancellor of England. William de Kilkenny, elected in 1254, chancellor of England also. Hugh de Balsham, elected in 1257, founded St. Peter's College, in Cambridge. He was in 1286 succeeded by John de Kirkeby, who was both chancellor and treasurer of England. In 1316 John Hotham was elected, and was also chancellor both of England and of the ex- chequer. Simon Langham, elected in 1362, was treasurer and chancellor of England, and a cardinal, he was afterwards translated to Canterbury. Thomas de Arundel, elected in 1374, was chan- cellor of England, and translated first to York, and from thence to Canterbury. Lewis de Luxemburg was elected in 1438, and held this bishopric by a dispensation from the pope, being at the same time archbishop of Rouen, and a cardinal. He was succeeded by Thomas Bourchier, who was chancellor of England, and after- wards translated to Canterbury. In 1478 John Morton was elected, and became chancellor of England, and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. He was succeeded by John Alcock in 1486, who was also chancellor of England, and founder of Jesus College, in Cam- bridge. In 1534 Thomas Goodrich was elected, being the last bishop of Ely, who was chancellor of England : he was a zealous reformer, and was succeeded by one of the opposite persuasion in 1554, who had previously been bishop both of Westminster and Norwich, and was deprived under Queen Elizabeth. Matthew Wren, elected in 1638, had been previously master of St. Peter's College, Cambridge, dean of Windsor, bishop of Hereford and of Norwich. He was a great sufferer in the Rebellion and Usurpa- tion, but outlived both. Francis Turner, elected in 1684, had been master of St. John's College, Cambridge, dean of Windsor and 64 ELY CATHEDRAL. bishop of Rochester. He was deprived, in 1690, as a nonjuror, and succeeded by Simon Patrick in 1691, who had been first dean of Peterborough, and afterwards bishop of Chichester. It was after he was translated to Ely that he begun and finished his Commentary on the Scriptures, which will make his name famous, perhaps, to the end of time. In 1754, Mathias Mawson was elected bishop of Ely : he was a member of Corpus Christi College, in the University of Cambridge, of which society he became first a fellow, and afterwards master. In 1734 he was offered the bishopric of Gloucester, but conceiving that Dr. Rundle (afterwards bishop of Derry) had been injuriously set aside from that see, he refused to accept it under these circumstances. In 1738 he was appointed to Llandaff, and two years after translated to Chiches- ter; while bishop of that see he gave the present throne in the choir of that Cathedral, and proposed to repair and embellish the whole choir, but being translated to Ely in the year 1754, he was obliged to abandon his design, in order to give himself entirely to his newly-acquired diocese. He was a great benefactor to the Isle of Ely, by suggesting and supporting plans of roads and embank- ments in the fens, by which that district was essentially improved. He was also a great benefactor to the see of Ely, inasmuch as he nearly rebuilt the palace. That he was an encourager of useful learning and sound religious education, his founding twelve scholar- ships in his own college is a solid and ample proof, nor should it be forgotten that he both appreciated and rewarded the learning and diligence of the great historian of Ely, Mr. Bentham, with a prebendal stall in the Cathedral. Bishop Mawson died in the year 1777, at an advanced age, and was buried in the Cathedral: he was highly esteemed and beloved in his life, and in his death as much regretted and lamented. PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL. The see of Peterborough is comparatively of modern date. It is one of those erected by Henry VIII. soon after the dissolution of the abbey. The charter by which it was erected into a bishopric bears date September 4, 1541, and before the end of the same year John Chambers, the last abbot, was chosen first bishop, and the abbey church became from that time the Cathedral. No part, however, of the present fabric has been built since it became a Cathedral, and therefore in giving its history, we must necessarily begin with the history of the famous monastery to which it once belonged. The name of the place was originally Medeshamsted, from a pit in the river Nen called Medeswell, which tradition says was a little below the present bridge. But this well, together with another called St. Lawrence's, of great celebrity in former days for its miraculous properties, is now entirely lost. The locality of the latter indeed is only guessed at by Gunton in his valuable history of this once abbey and now Cathedral Church. His conjecture is a very reasonable one ; there was a chapel dedicated to St. Lawrence, the chancel of which is yet standing, and forms the hall of one of the prebendal houses : near the chapel must have been the well of St. Lawrence, if the chapel itself was not built over it, as was often the case with wells supposed to be possessed of supernatural virtues. Medeshamsted being a part of the county of Northampton was of course within the kingdom of Mercia. Penda is reckoned by most antiquaries to have been the first king of the Mercians. He had five children, three sons, Peada, Wulfere, and Etheldred, and two daughters, Kyneburga and Kyneswitha. Penda being dead, was succeeded by his eldest son Peada, who in the year 656, or as some say 655, founded the monastery of Medeshamsted ; the stone of which it was built was certainly brought from Barnack, near Bur- leigh, in the same county, and those laid in the foundation, are said to have been of so large a size, that eight yoke of oxen could with difficulty draw one of them. But Peada did not live to finish his VOL. n. K Ci6 PETEUIJOKOUGH CATIIEDKAL. work, for bis wife Alfleda (unmindful of the pious memory of her grandfatlier Oswald, the martyred king of Northumberland, king Oswine her father, and king Alfred her brother), betrayed him to death at the feast of Easter, after he liad reigned only four years . when his crown and kingdom descended to Wulfere, his next brother. AVulfere was converted and baptized by Finanus, a Scotch bishop, and upon his coming to the throne vowed to purge his king- dom from idolatry, and to the utmost of his power promote the Christian religion. He married Ermenilda, daughter of Egbert, king of Kent, a very virtuous and pious princess, who was afterwards canonized ; on this occasion he solemnly repeated his vow, which however not long afterwards he entirely neglected to fulfil, through tlie persuasion of his steward Werbode, so that the Christian reli- gion rapidly declined, and heathenism again prevailed. By his wife he had two sons, Wulfade and Rufine, who were both converted to the Christian faith by St. Chad. Their conversion was concealed from their father for some time, but they were betrayed at last by the same Werbode, who so inflamed the king against his sons, that having watched them both into an oratory, slew them with his own hands, whilst they were praying before the altar. Werbode and the king then demolished the place, and left the bodies of the murdered princes buried in the rubbish. Soon after this Werbode is said to have hanged himself, and king Wulfere being deeply wounded in conscience, consulted his queen Ermenilda, who advised him to go to St. Chad, to which he consented ; and having made a full confession of his heavy crimes, and manifested his repentance, he was readmitted into the bosom of the church, and upon his pro- mising to perform any penance St. Chad should think fit to impose upon him, he was only desired by that good man to be ever mindful of his former vows in future, and so to restore the Christian religion in his kingdom, to repair its ruined temples, and to build new ones. The monastery of Medeshamsted, begun by his brother, became, as we may well suppose, the object from henceforth of Wulfere's peculiar care and favour. In his zealous endeavours to complete it, he was assisted by his brother Etheldred, and his sisters Kyneburga and Kyneswitha. When finished, he dedicated it to St. Peter, and on this account in after times the place obtained the name of Peter- borough, and lost its original appellation of Medeshamsted. At the PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL. 67 same time king Wulfere bestowed upon this abbey many great and valuable privileges and immunities, and very large possessions. The bounds of its jurisdiction estabhshed by him were from Croy- land on the east, to Walmesford, or Wansford Bridge on the west, and so northward to Easton and Stamford, and all along by the river Welland to Croyland again ; as it may be seen in the charter which he sealed and confirmed in the presence of kings, nobles, and bishops, in the year 66i, and the seventh of his reign. King Wulfere died without issue, in what year is not exactly known ; but his brother Etheldred succeeded him both in his throne and in his good affection for the monastery of Medeshamsted. Etheldred reigned thirty years, and then laid down his crown and sceptre, and became first a monk, and afterwards abbot of Bardney, according to William of Malmsbury, about the year 704. But (observes Gunton), speaking of the completion of the monastery of Medeshamsted, the nest being thus fitted and prepared, care was taken to furnish it with birds : and first with an abbot, who should become a sort of call bird to others, till the nest was full. The first abbot was Saxulfus, an earl, who thought it no degra- dation to be the head of the religious establishment in this place. His reputation for piety was very great, so that he soon gathered a convent of monks, who flocked to him from all parts. He presided over this monastery with great fidelity and zeal for thirteen years, and was then elected bishop of Durham, and was succeeded by Cuthbaldus, one of the monks, who from his extraordinary sanctity, was thought the fittest person to fill the place and dignity thus vacated. The monastery continued in a flourishing condition till the year 870, when the Danes having burnt down Croyland Abbey, and put to death the monks there, proceeded to Medeshamsted, slew both the abbot and the monks, eighty-four in number, set fire to the con- vent, and utterly destroyed the church, the altars, monuments, and library, with all the adjacent buildings. At this time Hedda was abbot: the fire continued burning for fifteen days together; the sight was terrible, and the desolation complete. In this ruinous condition the monastery remained for a whole century, till the year 970, when king Edgar rebuilt it, and called together the princes, nobles, bishops^ and abbots of his kingdom to be present with him at its consecration. It was dedicated to St. Peter, and on this occasion, and for this K 2 68 PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL. reason, the name of the place was changed from Medeshamsted to Peterborough. Edgar procured Adulphus his chancellor to be elected abbot of the re-edified monastery, who after having enjoyed this dignity for twenty years, was advanced to higher places, being first promoted to the see of Worcester, and afterwards translated to the archiepiscopal see of York. Kenulphus, a learned, eloquent, and pious man, succeeded him, who inclosed the monastery with a wall ; and was afterwards elected bishop of Winchester. Leofric, a person of the blood royal, and in great favour with the king, became abbot a little before the Norman conquest, and was a great benefactor to the abbey. His means must have been ample enough, for he held at the same time with this of Peterborough four other abbeys, viz. Burton, Coventry, Croyland, and Thorney. He was however more fitted to be a soldier than a churchman, as he put himself at the head of the English army to oppose William the Conqueror, but sickness obliged him soon after to return to the monastery, where he died on the first of November, in the year 1066. Thorold was elected abbot in 1069, and has made his name infamous as a waster of the abbey goods ; when he entered upon his office they were valued at £1500, and when he died they were reduced in value to £500. Soon after he was elected he became weary of his situation, and contrived to obtain the bishopric of Beauvais, in France, and carried off with him many things which belonged to the abbey of Peterborough. He was however so unwelcome to the church of Beauvais, that he was expelled thence in four days after his arrival. He then desired nothing so much as to return to his former situation, and by large presents to the king he was reinstated in the abbacy of Peterborough. In the year 1116a great fire happened, which was all but as destructive as that which was lighted by the Danes ; how it origi- nated historians have not informed us, but they tell us gravely that it was a judgment upon the abbot, who was an impetuous man, and had been cursing and blaspheming all the day because a fire in his lodgings would not burn; at length he concluded his malediction upon it with these words, " The Devil kindle thee !" upon which the whole monastery was in a blaze, and the church rebuilt by king Edgar destroyed by the conflagration. In the month of March U17, John de Sais, at that time abbot, PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL. 69 laid the founddtion of a new church, but did not live to finish it. The work was interrupted at his death, which happened in the year 112.5, and for the three years after that event, during which time the place of abbot was vacant ; neither did the work go on under the next abbot, Henry de Angeli, who held the place for five years. But in the year 11 33, Martin de Vecti was elected abbot, who pro- ceeded with the work of re-edification with the greatest assiduity, and had the satisfaction of seeing it completed. It was rededicated to St. Peter in the year 1 140 according to some, or in 1143 accord- ing to others. This ceremony was performed with the greatest pomp in the presence of the bishop of Lincoln, the abbots of Croyland, Thorney, and Ramsey, many barons and knights, and a vast number of inferior ecclesiastics. This, which may be called the third abbey church, is in great measure still remaining, and forms the present Cathedral. Martin de Vecti's church, however, has undergone several im- portant alterations, and received some considerable additions. We find that abbot William de Waterville, who was deposed in 1175, after governing the establishment for twenty years, almost rebuilt the transept and great central tower, added the cloisters, and founded a chapel, which he dedicated to St. Thomas-k-Becket. His successor, Benedict, prior of Canterbury, who was elected in 1 177, finished these works, and built the nave of the church after a better manner than before, from the central tower to the porch. But as the church is said to have been entirely finished and dedi- cated in the year 1143, and nothing disastrous is recorded to have happened to the building after that period, we cannot suppose that the works of abbots William and Benedict amounted to a total re- edification of the nave and transept, which had only been finished between thirty and forty years, by Martin de Vecti. Possibly there- fore they made considerable alterations in these portions of the church, according to the taste of the times ; perhaps raised the clerestory, or at least enlarged the windows, and gave a different form to them. Perhaps Benedict also gave a new roof to the nave ; the one which still exists is certainly as old as his time. Abbot Robert de Lindsey after this gave glass to about thirty of the windows in the church, which having been left unfinished by his predecessor had till now been stuffed with straw. 70 PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL. Of the west front no date has been assigned, and no name men- tioned of the benefactor or architect. In the absence of all docu- mentary evidence, Mr. Britton assigns this most magnificent part of the present Cathedral to abbots Acharias and Robert de Lyndsey, whose united govenment of the abbey comprised a period of twen- ty-two years, viz. from the year 1200 to the year 1222. Richard de London elected abbot in the year 1273, erected the great steeple where the bells hang. The Lady's Chapel, which was destroyed in Cromwell's time, was built by abbot William Parys. Robert Kirton, elected abbot in the year 1496, erected the build- ing at the east end of the church, which was in Gunton's time known principally by the name of the new building. Abbot Robert died in the year 1528, and was succeeded by John Chambers, the last abbot who in the year 1539 surrendered the abbey to king Henry VIII., and had a pension assigned him of £266: 13:4 per annum, which he afterwards resigned upon being appointed the first bishop of Peterborough, which happened only two years after the suppression of the abbey. It is said that Henry Vllt, spared this abbey church, and made it a Cathedral, on account of the remains of his first queen, Cathe- rine, which still repose within its walls. Those of Mary queen of Scots, which were also at first interred here, were afterwards re- moved by her son James I. and again interred at Westminster, where a magnificent monument is erected to her memory. Pity it is, says Brown Willis, that Henry VIII. did not likewise spare another magnificent abbey, that of St. Edmund's Bury, in SuflTolk, for the sake of another queen buried there, in his lifetime, viz. his own sister Mary, the French queen. Great and extraordinary were the privileges which this monastery enjoyed from the earliest times, through the favour of kings, popes, princes, and nobles. It is said that the documents confirming these privileges were preserved during the Danish invasion by the pious care of some of the monks, and were discovered and exhibited to king Edgar at the dedication of the new church, who wept for joy that he had a second Rome in his own kingdom ; for one of the privi- leges was, that if any desired to visit Rome, and could not, by reason of the great distance or any other impediment, it should suflSce to visit this abbey, here they might pay their vows, obtain absolution, and PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL. 71 receive the apostolical blessing. So great, indeed, was the esteem in which this abbey was held, that whoever came, whether king, bishop, baron, abbot, or knight, they took off their shoes at the gate of the monastery, and entered its sacred precincts barefoot, and when any of the monks were seen in the neighbouring villages, they were treated with the profoundest reverence. The abbots were called to parliament in the reign of Henry III., but had not the honour of wearing the mitre till the year 1400. It was a benedictine abbey, in which at the time of the dissolution, there were forty monks. It was a very wealthy establishment, though there were others in the kingdom still more so. Its posses- sions were valued at £1721 : 14s. per annum, according to Dugdale, and £1972 :7s. according to Speed. When Heni'y VIII. converted the abbey into a Cathedral, he placed therein a bishop, a dean, six prebendaries, a divinity reader, eight minor canons, the same number of lay-clerks or singing-men, the like number of choristers, and a master over them : two other school masters, twenty scholars, six alms men, and some inferior officers. In the king's books the bishopric is charged at £4141 : 7s. 8d. per annum, and the gross annual value of the same, as returned by the present bishop to the commissioners is, £3518. Since it became a Cathedral this church has suffered much and gained little till within the last few years, when the late dean. Dr. Monk, now bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, proposed and liberally supported a subscription for the refitting of the choir, but of this we shall take occasion to speak in its proper place. We repeat that this Cathedral suffered most lamentably, in Cromwell's time, the cloisters being then destroyed, together with many of the adjacent buildings, and no doubt the whole of this magnificent fabric would have soon perished, had not the church been re-established, with the restoration of the king to the throne of this kingdom. For by an act passed August 19th, 1651, the minster (as it was then called) was granted to the inhabitants of Peterborough both for a place of worship and for a workhouse, at the same time, to employ the poorer sort in manufactures — the inhabitants, at their own costs and charges, repairing and maintaining the same. Such, then, is the history of the abbey, and origin of the see of 72 PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL. Peterborough. We come now to speak more particularly of the Cathedral itself, of the several portions of which we have given the dates, as far as they can be ascertained either by documentary or architectural evidence. The situation of the Cathedral is something like that of Ely, placed on gently rising ground, and surrounded by a vast extent of level country, which is oftentimes inundated. Its appearance at a distance is not very prepossessing. Having no tower or spire, or any important feature which rises much above the roof ridge, it looks a huge heavy lump of building when it first breaks upon the view, and of no describable form or shape. On a nearer approach, however, the mass appears broken, by bold projections. The transept and low central tower, with its angular turrets, are plainly discernable, and, within a mile, the magnificent western facade, with its tower, turrets, pinnacles, and gables, is rising seen majestically far above the chimneys of the highest houses of the city. EXTERIOR. The Cathedral of Peterborough is far less encumbered by adjacent building than most others. The precincts are entered from the town under a gothic gateway, when the visitor has the most superb and imposing portion of the fabric immediately before him, viz. the west front, to which there is nothing superior in gothic architecture, if there be any thing equal. If there be any thing in England that can be brought into competition with it, it is the west front of Wells Cathedral, if any thing in France it is the west front of Rheims. In respect to extent they may vie with Peterborough, in respect to the quantity of decoration they may, and Rheims certainly does exceed it, but in respect to form, proportion, and general efiect, the west front of Peterborough is far superior to them both, and perhaps is unrivalled in the world. The west fronts of Rheims and Peterborough have been thought to resemble each other by some, but it would puzzle a good gothic architect to discover the resemblance ; Rheims has, indeed, three deep pointed portals side by side, the middle one being higher and wider than the other two, and Peterborough has three lofty arches side by side, of equal height, and supported on clustered columns, so that unless a colonnade can be said to be like a door (for it is not pretended o^-n-i I-, ' V\ "WEST FRONT. Tl I'J. PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL. 73 that there exists any other point of resemblance), these two west fronts cannot be said to be in the least degree alike. But what a grand conception is here, the front of the temple of the Deity is adorned with a gigantic and finely proportioned portico, flanked with towers adorned with lofty pinnacles ; such is the design. The ornamental detail is both well selected and judiciously applied, and of the effect of the whole, it is not too much to say, that it is not in the power of the pencil or the pen to do it justice ; it must be seen to be duly appreciated. Strictly speaking, the west front is per- fectly finished and perfectly uniform : but behind it are two towers, one of which is finished, while the other wants the upper story. The finished one appears over the gable towards the north, and being seen in connection with the west front, seems to form a part of it ; but the other to the south not being seen above the corresponding gable gives from some points of view an unfinished and irregular appearance to the whole, and injures the effect. Never- theless it must be confessed that the first view of this facade is striking and imposing in an unusual degree. There is a solemnity in the effect which it produces such as is observable in no other Cathedral, and which is not unmixed with awe. The architects of the thirteenth century certainly understood better what a temple for the Deity ought to be, than any that have appeared before or since from the first establishment of Christianity to the present times. It is with reluctance we quit this most attractive portion of Peterborough Cathedral, to describe the rest of its exterior; which, however, is not wanting in any part of it in respect of dig- nity and importance. Let us then turn round the corner of the north-west tower, and the whole length of the nave with the side aisle, north wing of the transept and central tower, burst upon the view ; all in the same style originally, and all altered as to the lower windows in the same taste at a subsequent period. Some of these windows had been stopped up with plaster, but the late dean Dr. Monk had them re-opened with the best effect both externally and internally ; the dean also ornamented the ground on this side of the Cathedral, and all round the east end, by tastefully laying it out in flower beds and walks, and planting trees and shrubs : it had before the character of a common churchyard, and was not kept in the very best order. VOL. II. L 74 PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL, The north front of the transept has three rows of windows, one above another, and three in each row, and one single window above all in the gable ; it is also adorned with two rows of arcades, one above the second tier of windows and one above the third, running under the base of the gable. This front is also flanked by turrets, which are square, as high as the upper row of windows, and octa- o-onal in their upper portions, which rise to the height of the gable point, and are finished with battlements. Before we pass this front, it will be well to look back towards the west end of the nave, and call the reader's attention to the tower (before mentioned as appearing above the portico of the west fa9ade), and to the adjacent portions of the fabric. It will be here perceived how much wider the facade is, not only than the nave, but also than even the building which forms at that point a sort of second transept. The tower flanks the nave to the north, and beyond the tower is a short transept, whose north front is adorned with a large and beautiful pointed window of decorated Gothic, and flanked with towers similar to those of the north front of the greater transept. Passing now the north wing of the transept, we have the choir and building to the east of it in view ; to the east side of the transept, both north and south wing of it, is attached a side aisle. The choir with its side aisle is nearly of the same age and style of architecture with the nave and transept, and similar alterations have been made in the windows. The choir ends circularly, plainly indicating its Norman origin, but at the points where the circular wall begins on each side are built square buttresses engaged in the walls, which at the point where they rise above the parapet become octangular, and are terminated by plain spires. The beautiful building which surrounds the circular termination of the choir is of an oblong form, having four pointed windows of four lights each, with perpendicular tracery in the sides of it to the north and south, and five of such windows in the length towards the east ; between the windows are buttresses with statues in the place of pinnacles ; and an elegantly pierced and embattled parapet, very similar to that of King's College Chapel, in Cambridge, runs all round the building. The south side of the choir is too similar to the north to need any particular description of it ; the south wing of the transept is inclosed ^ CO ^-f .ijj; UAVi;.. PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL. 77 The ceiling of the nave is of wood, and Mr. Blore, who two or three years ago, examined it minutely in order to its being repaired, pronounces it to be coeval with the walls on which it rests, and therefore is a very curious and rare specimen of the ceilings which were in use before stone vaulting was introduced. The central and by far the greater part of this ceiling is flat, and being higher than the walls of the nave, the side portions are consequently placed in a sloping direction to meet them. It is painted in panels of a lozenge form, in various colours and patterns, the panels them- selves being also adorned with figures, probably of saints and angels, abbots, kings, and princes, and other benefactors of the abbey. The side aisles of the nave are vaulted with stone, and the windows which light them are the insertions of a subsequent age, divided by muUions into several lights, with good simple tracery in the heads of them. We come now to the transept and central tower. Both wings of the transept have a side aisle to the east ; no longer open, indeed, but divided into rooms now used as vestries. The south wing has an aisle also to the west, which is closed up and divided into two rooms, one of which now serves for a chapter house. Of the columns of the transept, some are cylindrical and some octagonal, of vast diameter, and the lower arches have an ornamental moulding, which is wanting in those of the nave. The roof of the transept is of wood and flat throughout ; it is elegantly painted in a pattern composed of octagons recurring, and filled up with subdivisions, while the in- tervening squares are ornamented with flowers and other devices. The central tower is built upon four clustered columns and the same number of arches, of which those which open into the transept are semicircular and original, and the others, opening into the nave and choir, are now pointed. That they were also originally semi- circular there can be no doubt, and that the change in their form was the work of abbot Benedict seems equally certain. The other two arches would have undergone the same change, but the worthy abbot most probably saw the danger to which the tower would be exposed by the execution of such a project. Indeed the column at the south east angle is now banded together with iron, and seems to be in a very tottering and dangerous condition, owing, perhaps, in some degree to the mischief done in pulling down the old wall and 78 PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL. erecting a new one, in order to change the form of the arch from semicircular to pointed. Over the semicircular arches which remain the form of a pointed one is traced upon the wall by a single moulding , which seems to indicate what was wished and intended, but which, from prudential motives, was never effected. The mouldings of the pointed arches are many but plain; those of the semicircular are equally numerous, and the outer ones adorned with the zigzag. Above the arches of the tower are the windows which light it, two in each of the four faces of three lights each, with decorated tracery in their heads, which are pointed, and having between them and in the angles of the tower clustered shafts, from which spring the ribs of the wooden vaulting. We come now to the choir and its side aisles, a work of the same age and style with the nave and transept, it has (as all Norman churches had) a semicircular termination, and the windows in the apse, although they retain their original form, have been since filled with tracery which belongs to the second period of the pointed style. The ceiling of the apse is perfectly flat and of wood, and painted in a pattern of circles and lozenges. The lower arches of the apse are covered with a rich facing of perpendicular and feathered detail, and the inter-columniations, as high as the stall work, have been of late filled up with a screen of stone most correctly imitative of the deco- rated Gothic, which forms a part of the new fitting up of the choir by Mr. Blore. The state of the choir previously was mean and incon- gruous to the last degree. The late dean Dr. Monk, saw and lamented it, but did not despair of effecting a change; and although the discou- ragement with which the subject was at first received was enough to damp any zeal but his, he nevertheless persevered, and proposed a subscription, which was liberally supported not only by himself and the prebendaries both in their individual and corporate capacity, but also by the bishop, whose example was followed by many of the nobility, gentry, and clergy of the diocese. The means being thus raised, Mr. Blore, whose accurate knowledge of the various styles of architecture in use in this country from the Norman inva- sion to the disappearance of the pointed style in the revived Italian, well quahfied him to undertake the work, was selected for the architect. The stalls, throne, pulpit, seats, and organ-case, are all of oak, carved from Mr. Blore's designs in the style of decorated PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL. 79 Gothic, and so successfully is that style imitated, that the most practised eye might mistake it for a work of the age when that style prevailed, and suppose that the whole had only undergone such repairs and cleansing as time had rendered necessary. The stalls strictly speaking are confined to the west end of the choir under the organ loft, four on each side of the entrance arch, but the family seats of the members of the chapter ranged on each side the choir have in front the appearance of stalls. The organ-screen is of stone, and is shewn in one of the plates. The design is exceedingly beautiful ; in the centre is the arch of entrance of most graceful proportions, deeply feathered and adorned with a straight canopy richly crocketed, and surmounted by a finial of the most elegant description. This entrance arch is flanked by octangular buttresses decreasing gradually towards the top, and terminated by crocketed pinnacles with finials. On each side of the entrance are four deep and long niches, with projecting canopies in the best taste, with buttresses and pinnacles between each ; the whole front of the screen is flanked at each end with buttresses and pinnacles exactly similar to those which flank the entrance, and the parapet is straight at the top, and adorned with open trefoils. The old choir extended nearly as far as the first columns of the nave, but when it was newly fitted up it was confined to its natural and architectural position, leaving the transept open, and the new sci'een placed under the eastern arch of the central tower. The roof of the choir from that arch to the apse (the roof of which has been already described) is of wood, and partly vaulted and partly flat: the ribs of the vaulting being continued over the flat part in squares, which are each of them twice crossed diagon- ally, and with the same description of mouldings. The interior of the building which surrounds the apse is as to its groined roof and its windows so very like the interior of the chapel of King's College, in Cambridge, and so nearly of the same date, that it is probable the same architect was employed about both. The only defect in this addition to Peterborough Cathedral is a want of due elevation. Of the cloisters very little now remains ; they were on the south side of the nave, and judging from what is still to be seen, they must have been of considerable extent and beauty. Under the north-east 80 PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL. and north-west angles were entrances into the abbey church, which still remain, though seldom used. Peterborough Cathedral, as will be evident to the reader from the plates and from the description, is certainly one of the first class as regards size, magnificence, and architectural importance. Its dimensions are as follows: — breadth of western fagade, 156 feet, length of nave from the western wall to the choir entrance 266 feet 3 inches, breadth of do. 35 feet 5 inches ; total breadth in the clear of outside walls 79 feet 4 inches: length of transept 184 feet 9 inches, length of choir from the entrance to the eastern extremity of the apse 128 feet, thence to the east wall 35 feet; breadth of Lady Chapel 83 feet 5 inches. Total external length of the Cathedral 479 feet; general height from the pavement to the ceiling 81 feet; height of lantern 135 feet. Of the estabhshment we have already spoken in part ; it will be only necessary to state that by the late act the archdeaconry of Leicester is now added to it. Of the value of this see in the king's books, and the gross annual value of the same at present, notice was taken in the account given of the erection of the see of Peter- borough. , The old diocese consisted of the counties of Northamp- ton and Rutland, originally taken out of Lincoln diocese, to these counties has been added by the Act already alluded to, that of Leicester from the same diocese, a measure, the wisdom of which we cannot suflTiciently extol. With regard to those who have filled this see from its foundation to the present time we have nothing to record but good ; and although, if we except the present bishop, none of them can be accounted stars of the first magnitude, they have all been men of piety, learning, and beneficence, and every way worthy of their high station in the church. The writings of Dr. Marsh, the present bishop, are too well known to need commendation in these humble pages. It will be sufficient to say, that in the opinion of the learned, they have established his character as a most acute and powerful reasoner, and the first biblical scholar of his day. Hvl cx}f^^ uy I J ■» ' L I M i ^5 , FETEIEIg®I^©U©H CAT ME ©1EA.il. TlIK JJVDY CHAPEL fLS2 FIETIlIS.Si'fl)IS®W©BI C^TEEBKAl. V A A * * •/ R.£FZP^E>CC£. A ror&L. D B PuvtzcL. r C Towers. I) II Ntu'e k^4isles . E E 'J/Yuisept. P Toira- Cenbal 't Oiapel . H Chapter He om. I Chapel cr S^Jiurics X" S^Jc/ul K Te^tTLes LL lIu>u- ^.Aisles. j{ M Lcbdy CJuipcL- N N N Unbancej O Tortrait of Old Scarlett . P £rru)ies of^4bbots. Q BiLTuilTUice of Queen. Catherine. R ji/" Miuif Q^ of Scots. -,T. •*- :-^_-,'-.-a:"iaiia.,juii' rlASnkless Cathearals liufrayed "bv-£ ."VBaMes . NORWICH CATHEDRAL. The diocese of Norwich is one of the very oldest in England ; and for the most part consisted anciently, as it still does, of the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The see however has not always been where it now is at Norwich. It was first placed at Dunwich, in Suffolk, then both at Dunwich and Elmham, in Norfolk, at the same time, the diocese being divided into two parts ; then at Elm- ham only, next, though only for a short time, at Thetford, and lastly at Norwich, the most convenient situation for it, and where therefore we hope it may continue to the end of time. Early in the seventh century the king of the East Angles favoured Christianity, though the perceptions he had of its Divine origin and excellence, were very indistinct. His successor was better instruct- ed, and his behaviour more consistent. After his death however the cause of true religion declined, and the people very generally re- lapsed into paganism ; but upon the arrival of his brother Sigebert in England, who had been banished into France, Christianity again revived, and though it suffered much from pagan invasion, it never was again extinguished. The reign of this prince affords a memorable epoch in the annals of East Anglia. During his residence in France, as a banished man, he is said to have acquired a knowledge and taste for monastic institutions. Soon after his accession to the throne of East Anglia he induced Felix, a Bur- gundian, to leave France, in order to instruct his subjects in the Christian religion, and on his arrival appointed him the first bishop of a new diocese, and fixed the see at Dunwich, at that time the capital of his kingdom. Sigebert caused churches to be raised and monasteries to be founded in every part of his dominion, and somewhere or other, though antiquaries are not agreed as to the place, a public school was instituted, having the cultivation of re- ligion for its principal object. Malmsbury states that he established seminaries of learning in different places, and thus enabled a people who had been uncivilised and pagan to taste the sweets of literature and true religion. It had been well both for Sigebert and his subjects, and especially for the latter, if the former had VOL. II. M 8H NORWICH CATHEDRAL. been better acquainted with the nature and requirements of that rehgion. Unhappily, however, after a reign of only two years* during which he completely re-established the Christian religion in East Anglia, he thought proper to retire from his throne and kingdom, where he was doing all the good which his exalted station both demanded of him, and enabled him to perform, into the monastery of St. Edmund, which he had founded at Bury, where he could be of no use to any one, however agreeable his seclusion might be to his own feelings. Soon after this, Penda the Pagan king of Mercia invaded East Anglia, and finding Egeric the prince, then upon the throne, unable to resist him, he laid waste the whole kingdom with fire and sword. For a long time his former subjects endeavoured by all the means in their power to draw Sigebert from his religious seclusion at Bury, but in vain ; at length however he was induced, by compassion for tlieir suffering to quit his beloved monastery for the battle field, but when there, such was his mistaken piety, he refused to play the part of a soldier, and carried nothing in his hand but a slender wand. The very presence however of their former king among them encou- raged the East Anglians to exert themselves to the utmost to drive out the enemy, but to no purpose, a dreadful conflict took place, in which the East Anglians were cut to pieces, and Sigebert and Egeric both slain. Felix the first bishop survived this dread- ful calamity, and governed the diocese seventeen years, and was afterwards canonized. He founded a monastery at Soham, near Ely, and was buried first at Dunwich, but his remains were after- wards conveyed to Soham, and finally removed to Ramsey. To bishop Felix succeeded Thomas Boniface, and to him Bosa, who was consecrated in 669. Bede says, "that in extreme old age this bishop divided the diocese into two parts, the county of Suffolk forming one, the see of which was continued at Dunwich, and the county of Norfolk the other, the see of which was placed at North Elmham." Ecclesiastical historians enumerate eleven bishops in succession over the former see, and ten over the latter, before the two dioceses uere again united, and the see continued at Elmham. After this, thirteen bishops in succession sat at Elmham ; Egalmere the last was deposed by the Conqueror, and Herfast, his chaplain and chancellor, appointed to succeed him in NORWICH CATHEDRAL. S3 the year 1070. This bishop at first seized on the rich abbey of Bury for his Cathedral and residence, but was foiled in this project by the influence and exertions of Baldwin then abbot, who took a journey to Rome in order to lay his case before the Pope, and succeeded in gaining his holiness on his side. Herfast however would not give up his design till he had tried the persuasive eloquence of one hun- dred marks of gold in vain, but in defiance of the papal bull renewed his contest with the abbot, nor did he entirely relinquish it before the year 1081, when king William convoked a council at Winchester on the subject, and issued his royal charter in favour of the abbot and monks, to the great discomfiture of the bishop. Failing thus in his unjustifiable attempts on the abbey of Bury, the bishop next availed himself of the decree of Lanfranc, made in London in the year 1075, and removed his see from Elmham to Thetford, then the most con- siderable town in Norfolk. There he built a Cathedral and palace, died, and was buried there. His successor was Wiiham Galsagus, or Balfagus, or Beaufo, who was also chaplain and chancellor to king W^illiam I., and was appointed to this see in the year 1085. During the six years of his prelacy, he exerted himself greatly in the duties of his office, and was the most liberal benefactor to the see from its foundation to the present times. In the year 1091 he was succeeded by Herbert de Losing, or Lozinga, who came from Nor- mandy with W^illiam Rufus, and purchased the bishopric for £1900, a vast sum in those days ; he also bought for his father the place and dignity of abbot of Wiiichester for £1000, for which simoniacal practices he was cited before the Pope at Rome in 1090, and sen- tenced to lose his pastoral staff and ring, and commanded to build certain churches and monasteries, as a penance for his many and grievous faults not only in these but in several other particulars long before he came into England. On his readmission into office, he removed the see from Thetford to Norwich. Here he laid the foundation of a new Cathedral in the year 1096, and Pope Paschal soon after constituted it the mother church of all Norfolk and Suffolk^ In the course of five years after this period the Cathedral and palace on the north side of it were in a state of great forwardness, as well as a priory begun about the same time on the south side ; for in the month of September, 1 101, the bishop signed their foundation deed, and placed a prior and sixty monks upon it. The oldest portions M 2 S4 NORWICH CATHEDRAL. both of the Cathedral and palace plainly testify of their Norman origin, and may therefore without hesitation be regarded as the work of bishop Herbert, who died on the 22nd of July, in the year 1119. Blomefield in his History of the County of Norfolk, assigns to this bishop the choir, the transept, and the central tower; he states also that Eborard, tlie successor of Herbert, completed the Catliedral by building the nave with its side aisles. The manner in which bishop Eborard's work is spoken of has induced some to think that he built the whole Cathedral. The nave is certainly of vast and unusual length, so that the builder of it may be very justly esteemed even a greater benefactor to the Cathedral than the founder, who lived to finish only those portions of it which have been already mentioned. Be this as it may, in the year 1171 it was a good deal damaged by fire, but bishop John de Oxford repaired it and fitted it up with ornaments and vestments, so that it arose from its ashes in greater splendour than before in the year 1 197. The Lady Chapel at the east end, long ago destroyed, was the next addition to the Cathedral, and owed its origin and completion to the piety and munificence of Walter de SuflSeld, the tenth bishop who filled the see of Norwich from 1244 to 1257. Thus the building of the whole original Cathedral is accounted for ; the appearance of the same fabric at the present time plainly indicates the alterations and additions of a later age. In the year 1271 the tower was greatly injured by lightning during divine service. The next year the w hole church was damaged considerably in the violent warfare which was at that time carried on between the citizens and the monks. So many and great were the repairs consequent upon the mischief done at that time, that they were not completed until tiie year 1278, when it was thought necessary to re-consecrate the whole fabric, which was done on Advent Sunday in that year, by the bishop elect, William de Middleton, who was himself on that occasion enthroned, in the presence of Edward I. and his queen, Eleanor, and of the bishops of London, Hereford, and Waterford, and of many earls, barons, and knights. It is generally agreed that bishop Ralph de Walpole added the spire upon the tower about the year 1295, though some are of opinion that it was not finished as it now appears till 1361, by bishop Percy. The same bishop, Ralph de Walpole, who sat in this see from 1289 NORWICH CATHEDRAL. 03 to 1299, about two years before his death built the chapter -house which has been since destroyed, and began the cloisters, which however were not finished till the year 1480, as they now appear. In 1463 the spire was struck by lightning, and the damage repaired soon after the accident by bishop Lyart, who was in other respects a great benefactor to the Cathedral. The beautiful stone vaulting of the nave was raised by him, and a new floor laid about the same time. He caused also an altar-tomb to be raised over the grave of the founder. Bishop Goldwell his successor continued these improvements and embellishments by constructing the vaulting of the choir, and making the upper windows and flying buttresses of the same ; and bishop Nix completed the whole by adding a stone vaulting to the transept. The gi'eat west window was probably inserted in the time of bishop Lyart, when the stone vaulting of the nave was put up, and the old Norman portal beneath it was altered to what it now is to correspond with that window. Several of the original windows have been enlarged and changed in their character from Norman to pointed, and some, though they retain their original size and shape, have been filled with the mullions and tracery of a much later age. Notwithstanding however all these comparatively modern additions and alterations, Norwich Cathedral still retains for the most part both internally and externally its original Norman character. It is greatly to be i-egretted that the stone of which it is built should be of so soft and perishable a nature ; it peels off in large flakes, which gives a shabby and ruinous appearance to the edifice. On the north side this is particularly the case ; there indeed the stone has more than peeled off, it is worn away into deep holes almost as close to one another as the compartments of a honeycomb. The situation of this Cathedral is so low as to prevent its making an imposing appearance from any distant point. On a nearer ap- proach it appears to the best advantage just before the entrance into Norwich from the Yarmouth road. From that point it is found to possess all the dignity and importance of a Cathedral of the first magnitude and architectural merit, and among such Norwich Cathe- dral has an undoubted right to be classed. 86 NORWICH CATHEDHAL. EXTERIOR. The cloisters on the south side and bishop's palace on the north, together with its extensive pleasure grounds and other premises, shut out from public view all the exterior of this Cathedral except the west front. But were it altogether disencumbered, isolated, and set in the middle of a spacious lawn, its external appearance either as a whole or in detail, if we except the tower and spire, would be found to possess few if any attractions at all. Plain walls blackened with smoke and worn with age, irregularly dotted over with windows of various size and shape, and having no relief from the buttresses, which are too flat to be called projections, such a state of things is perhaps better concealed than exposed, and as the tower and spire are well seen from every point clear of all incumbrances, the present inclosed condition of the Cathedral is not at all to be regretted. The west front is entirely open, and has a good broad space before it, adorned with lofty trees, beneath whose shade the inhabitants of the Cathedral close may walk or recline on seats placed there for the purpose. The stone facing of this front has been renewed, but its architectural merit is very moderate. It has none of that dignity and magnificence for which many of the western facades of otiier Cathedrals are so justly celebrated. It consists of three compart- ments corresponding with the nave and its side aisles, of which the middle is by far the largest, being the west wall of the nave. It is flanked by square turrets which rise to the same height as the gable point of the nave, and are terminated, alas ! by domes surmounted with balls. The lower part of this compartment contains the prin- cipal entrance into the Cathedral. It is a deep and vaulted portal of pointed architecture within a square head, and is adorned on each side with canopied niches, an upper and a lower tier of them. Above this portal is a well-proportionsd large pointed window of many lights, and perpendicular Gothic, which fills up the whole space between the flanking turrets. The gable has a single small window unglazed with a pointed head and one light, which with the excep- tion of a decorated cross on the gable point, is all the ornament which this portion of the fabric possesses. The two lateral com- partments are exactly similar, divided into three stories, the lower -^ " -.^^^a r-nordT-a oy x- W Ci^ I^-WICIHI SAT W IS ©MAIL , ■WF. ST KJiONJ' NORWICH CATHEDRAL. 87 containing the original round-headed door, the next an arcade of round-headed arches also original, the third a round-headed window with a single arch of the same kind, supported on slender columns engaged on each side of it. The window of one light is now filled with mulhons and tracery of perpendicular design. The battlements are of the same age, but the compartments are both flanked by their original Norman turrets, which are square as high as the battlements and then become round, and are, like the other turrets of this fagade, most incongruously surmounted by domes and balls of Elizabethan architecture. Such is the west front of Norwich Cathedral, of which perhaps one half is original and the other the work of the fifteenth century. It is not exactly known to whom these architectural alterations are to be attributed, but tradition seems to favour the supposition that bishop Alnwyk, who filled the see from 1426 to 1436, was the benefactor who both designed and completed them. The south side of the nave may be seen from the cloister yard; the wall of the side aisle is unusually lofty, and is divided into three stories, a portion only of the lowest is seen above the roof of the cloister and is adorned with some blank arcades of round-headed arches, and two large windows, which are insertions of the latest age of the pointed style ; the story above this contains a series of small round-headed windows of one light each, one between every two buttresses, with a recess of the same size and shape on each side of every window ; the uppermost story has lost all its original windows, and in their stead are wide obtusely pointed windows of four lights each with tracery of perpendicular character in the heads of them ; above these runs a plain embattled parapet of the same date. The windows of the clerestory have been also altered and divided into two lights each, and have recesses on each side of them of the original Norman work; the clerestory is surmounted by an embat- tled parapet, exactly similar to that of the side aisle below it. The south wing of the transept is more nearly in its original state, with the exception of the parapet and the introduction of a single mul- lion into the windows ; it is in all other respects, exactly so ; only the upper part of the south front of it is visible, on account of the buildings which adjoin ; it is flanked by square turrets, which rise to the height of the gable point, and are enriched in the upper por- 88 NORWICH CATHEDRAL. tions with small arcades one above another, and are terminated by embattled parapets, and crocketted pinnacles of a latter style at the four corners of each ; the gable itself is adorned with a low round- headed arcade upon circular columns, and a small circular window with round-headed recesses on each side it and above it, all original. The east side of this wing of the transept is very similar to the west side, the upper portion of it only is visible over walls and trees. We come now to the choir and its adjoining side aisles and chapels. The lower story all round is original as to the main walls, but windows square-headed with perpendicular tracery have been inserted since. On the south side a small chapel nearly square projects with a large decorated window in the south front of it. Exactly at the point where the round end of the choir begins, on both sides are chapels of extremely curious form and character; they belong to the original work of bishop Herbert de Losing. Tlifiir walls are portions of two interesting circles of different diameters, having a round projection at the point of intersection. The windows are pointed, and are evidently the work of more modern times ; above these windows is an arcade of round-headed arches upon short plain circular pillars, and above the arcade is a series of round- headed recesses, having the appearance of windows walled up ; a low plain parapet runs round the whole of these very curious ad- juncts. That to the south is called the chapel of St. Luke; the other that of our Saviour. The clerestory of the choir is a work of a very different age and style; and terminates pentagonally, though set upon the original semicircular Norman work. This part of the fabric owes its existence to the munificence of bishop Gold well, who was elected in 1472, and died in 1499. It is a remarkably pleasing example of perpendicular gothic, and though the obtusely pointed arch was at that time introduced, the architect wisely preferred for his windows the arch of the preceding style. The clerestory is lofty, and the windows which light it are large and beautifully pro- portioned. Between the windows all round the clerestory rest plain flying buttresses, which slope down to meet the upright but- tresses of the side aisles, and there terminate. The whole is sur- mounted by a richly decorated and embattled parapet. The Lady Chapel to the east of the round end of the choir is gone, but marks of its roof where it joined the choir end are still visible on the walls J- -^ SOTITH £AST VIEW PI.S9. NORWICH CATHEDRAL. 89 as well as the' arch of entrance into it, divided by a pillar into two, with a feathered circle between, although now of course walled up : above this arch is a window, or rather three windows close together, of one light each, all within one wide pointed side arch, probably inserted soon after the destruction of the chapel. The north side of the Cathedral inclosed within the bishop's pre- mises, and much concealed by the palace itself, and the trees which adorn the palace gardens, is in most respects like the south side, but much more discoloured and worn away; so much so indeed as to lose the appearance of masonry, and to make it difficult, except to a practised eye, to say in what style of architecture it was origi- nally constructed. The most important and by far the best external feature of Norwich Cathedral yet remains to be described, viz. the tower and spire. Perhaps the best spot from which these can be viewed is one of the drawing-room windows of Dr. Proctor's prebendal house. The proportions of the tower and spire are good when separately considered, and equally so when considered together, and in refer- ence to each other. The tower is a very curious and valuable spe- cimen of late Norman architecture, without any mixture from its base to its battlements of the pointed style. It is, for a perfectly Norman work, very lofty and very rich. No other Norman tower in England can boast above half its height, and not half its deco- ration. The great western tower of Ely may vie indeed with this in both these respects, but it is not a purely Norman work, it belongs rather to the transition period in which round and pointed arches are found together : here there is no mixture of styles, all is pure Norman up to the battlements ; but these are not original : the present embattled parapet is the work of a much later age, perhaps coeval with the spire. The plan of the tower is square, with square turrets at the corners, whose external angles are cut off. The four faces of the tower are divided into four compartments by horizontal bands ; the first above the roof ridge contains the windows which light the lantern, as it is called ; this compartment is adorned with an arcade of round arches upon slender pillars, within which are the windows, three in each face, of the tower. A billet moulding divides this from the next compartment, and is also continued round the angular turrets, which is not the case with any of the other VOL. n. N 90 NORWICH CATHEDRAL. horizontal bands, and from this circumstance it has been thought that the tower was intended originally to terminate there, with a plain parapet upon it, making it the usual height of a Norman tower. If this were so, it was soon afterwards determined to raise the tower to its present height. The next compartment contains an arcade of intersecting circular arches, on shorter columns of the same description. The next, a much loftier arcade, composed of round mouldings, within which (three in each face of the tower) are the round-headed windows of the belfry ; between these windows the round moulding is fancifully disposed in a pattern of lozenges and circles alternately ; the next and highest compartment is quite unique, the same round moulding is formed into a double row of circles one above another, five in a row on every face of the tower; between the circles are perpendicular shafts of the same round moulding, and the upper row is connected with the lower by short pieces of the same. The upper circles are pierced and serve for windows to light the upper portion of the tower within. Above this compartment, and immediately upon it the parapet is set, which as we have before hinted at is not original. It is embattled and adorned with good tracery of decorated Gothic. The angular turrets are adorned on all sides with a profusion of round mouldings, perpendicularly set and parallel, but which have spaces between them about equal to the diameter of the mouldings ; these are continued from top to bottom and produce a very rich and pleasing effect. The turrets are finished with a battlement, and upon each one is set a well-pro- portioned and richly crocketted spire ; these, together with the battlements of the great tower, are the additions of a later age, and were probably constructed at the same time with the great spire, which alone remains to be described. It is, as we have already observed, of most graceful proportions; the base of it is enriched with projecting buttresses, terminated with crocketted pinnacles, which are set at the eight angles of the spire, and with the happiest effect; just above these pinnacles are windows of two lights each, pointed and canopied, and higher up windows of the same descrip- tion but of less dimensions. Several plain horizontal bands encircle this beautiful spire at different heights, and the whole is richly crocketted and terminated with a finial, which is surmounted by a weather-cock. Momwaos cATMEPmAiL, Vlirw Jl CROSS THE NATE. NORWICH CATHEDRAL.. 91 INTERIOR. Let the reader now suppose himself to return to the west front, and to enter the Cathedral by the middle portal. The nave is all before him, of vast length and due height, and elegantly vaulted with stone. It is divided in its length into fourteen compartments on each side, and built upon as many semicircular arches, of great solidity and depth, and supported by piers of the same description, excepting in two instances, where instead of piers are placed two cylindrical columns of vast thickness, ornamented with spiral flut- ings, one on each side of the nave and opposite each other. The arches of the nave have a few plain and very bold surfaces, and the outer one of all is adorned with a billet moulding. The triforium is of great and very unusual height ; it is composed of arches and piers very similar to those on which they stand, and nearly the same height. This arcade is entirely open, and is, not as is commonly the case, subdivided in each arch by a single pillar supporting two smaller arches within the greater. The outermost surface of the arches is adorned with the zigzag moulding; the arcade above this is unusually low, formed by three semicircular arches, side by side, in each of the compartments of the nave, with very simple mould- ings resting on short cylindrical columns, the middle arch being of three times the span of the outer ones, and through which are seen the windows of the clerestory. These windows are plainly the insertion of more modern times ; the original window was round- headed, wide, and of one light ; the round head has been walled up, and an obtusely pointed arch introduced beneath it, and the window divided into two lights by a plain muUion with correspond- ing tracery in the head of it. The roof of the nave is magnificent both in its design and extent, for though the choir obtrudes itself into the nave as far as the two first compartments eastward, this arrangement does not interfere with the vaulting, which is seen in all its length from the west window to the central tower. Had this vaulting been erected a century earlier, it might have agreed better with the architecture of the nave, but in itself it is a beautiful work, and rich though it be, and elaborate in its design, it does not injure the effect of the whole. The side aisles of the nave are N 2 92 NORWICH CATHEDRAL. in their original state, the vaulting of them is exceedingly plain and ponderous; it is semicircular without any mouldings, or ribs, or carved key stones. The transept is intercepted by the choir, which is partly under the central tower, and stretches beyond it, as we have before observed, into the nave itself. When the choir screen was altered it would have been better to have removed it to the eastern arch of the tower, that the transept with its lantern might have been seen at once in its length and breadth, and in connection with the nave. This portion of the Cathedral is also original^ ; it is singular in hav- ing no side aisles ; it is of good length, rather deficient in breadth, but of the same height with the nave and choir, and like them elegantly and richly vaulted with stone. To the north wing of the transept and to the east wall of it is a building, now in a ruinous condition, called a vestry, but originally perhaps a chapel; it has a window in the east end of it which is semicircular : from the south wing of the transept the present vestry is entered, a large room of modern date, filling up the corner between the transept and a build- ing on the south side of the choir, called bishop Beauchamp's chapel. We now come to the choir, the effect of which on first entering it is very imposing ; coming across the transept, and into the nave it is of unusual length ; the stalls however do not extend beyond the lantern, so that the choir, architecturally speaking, is entirely open space unencumbered by stalls, pews, or seats of any kind. The lantern is set upon four semicircular arches with plain mouldings, and supported by four massive piers of the same plain solid description. The fii'st horizontal compartment above these arches is an arcade of semicircular arches resting on short cylindrical columns, behind which is an open gallery all round the lantern. The next compart- ment is adorned with a similar arcade, without the accompanying gallery, but it does not extend the whole length of each side, instead of which the spaces on each side of every one of the four arcades are pierced with a circle with a plain moulding round it ; the third and highest compartment consists of a lofty arcade of semicircular arches, and of a complicated and curious character, through which are seen the windows before noticed in the description of the ex- terior ; and this arcade has also behind it an open gallery all round. ' Tbe south wing of tbe transept has been restored by Salvin to its original state, having been previously much dilapidated. Drsxn. TjyR&dTlima far'VBxxMhtss Cadiedrals j;ast rj>ra> or csoie. NORWICH CATHEDRAL. 93 Immediately above this is a flat ceiling of stucco work, with cor- nice and pannels, adorned with wreaths and medallions, very good in its way ; but we need hardly say totally out of place here, and spoiling the whole effect of the lantern. The stalls of the choir are good, richly carved in oak with high backs and projecting canopies, and crowned with a multitude of crocketted pinnacles. The screen has been altered and improved as well as the organ case, which is now in unison with the stalls. The side pillars and arches of the choir are concealed by a screen of richly-decorated Gothic, in which some monuments have been con- structed in the same style. The arches of the apse are not concealed, and are of the same style with those of the nave, as is the triforium all round the choir, but all the arches are a little less in the span. The clerestory of the choir is of a totally different age and style, and yet the effect of the whole is exceedingly good. The windows are pointed, well proportioned, of four lights each, with good tracery in their heads. Between the windows on both sides are lofty deep niches feathered and canopied, which doubtless once had statues. From the top of these niches spring the main ribs of the vaulting, which is similar to that of the nave and transept. The windows in the clerestory of the apse are of the same size and character with those on each side of the choir, but they are so close to each other that there is no room for any thing between them; but a cluster of three slender shafts, on the top of which spring the ribs of the groined roof of the apse, which is well designed and has the most charming effect. Indeed this part of the clerestory is very cleverly set upon the triforium of the apse, which is semicircular, while this is pentagonal. The lofty, wide, and open triforium of this Cathe- dral, both in the nave and choir, has a very majestic and imposing effect throughout, but more especially in the apse where the arches are of less span, and nearer together. The side aisles of the choir are of the same age and style with those of the nave, and vaulted in the same plain and ponderous manner. In the side aisle to the south is the entrance into what was bishop Beauchamp's chapel, now the consistory court, a small oblong room with groined roof, and a large window of decorated character opposite the entrance. A little further on at the south- western extremity of the apse, is the entrance into what was St, Luke's chapel, which is now used as a parish church, the organ for 94 NORWICH CATHEDRAL. which is placed between two of the aspidal piers of the choir. At the north-western extremity of the apse is placed the entrance to another chapel very similar to that of St. Luke, and dedicated to our Saviour, and in the middle of it is the tomb of Sir Thomas Windhami. The dimensions of Norwich Cathedral are as follows : from the great western door to the choir screen 212 feet; breadth of nave 72 feet 7 inches; of side aisles 12 feet 3 inches; length of tran- sept 177 feet; breadth of do. 30 feet 6 inches; from choir door to the farthest point of the apse 170 feet; breadth of choir from screen to screen 45 ; height of the vaulting about 73 feet. Height of tower and spire 313 feet. We have yet to speak of the cloisters, which are surpassed by none in beauty of architecture and solemnity of effect. Tliey are on the south side of the Cathedral, which may be entered both at the north-east and north-west angle of them. They form a square of about 150 feet. The style of architecture may be called decorated Gothic, though not altogether unmixed with details belonging to the succeeding style. The windows all round are of three lights each, with tracery of good design in the heads of them. The form of the vaulted roof is particularly pleasing, and the ribs and carv- ings at their intersections equally worthy of commendation. This Cathedral is dedicated to the holy and undivided Trinity. Formerly there were four archdeacons, but now since the late act only three, viz. of Norfolk, Norwich, and Suffolk, that of Sudbury being transferred to Ely. These archdeaconries are in the gift of the bishop ; besides these there is a chancellor, a dean appointed by the crown, and six prebends, of which five are also in the gift of the crown, but presented to by the lord chancellor, and one is annexed to the headship of Catherine Hall, in the University of Cambridge. There are also belonging to this Cathedral a full com- plement of singing-men and choristers, schoolmasters, vergers, and other inferior officers. The see was once very wealthy, but Henry VIII. took from it its original endowment of lands, and gave the lands of St. Benedict, in Norfolk, in exchange. In the king's books it is rated at £834: 11 :7| per annum, and was returned by the present bishop to be worth £5395 in gross annual value. ' The only monument with a statue upon it in this Cathedral at present, is that of Bishop Goldvvell, who died in 1498. }^0:^WW.m C AT HIE 10) la AIL, HEyEJ Tomb In.ient Font m. fcr VvOiLkless Ca.tkedrals En^ayed "by B.l^nldes "I1.1. 1'' I I I I i Lihnt I.I. (hoir and Aisles K . S* Andrews ihapel L SlJamej's tlutpei M . S*(reoiyrs Chapel y. S* Savwurs df O. S'Jfarjf MattdaUtie's df P. S*6tthriels M,u,ri,-,- Lor.1 £erk,-h-,i l"Th,'m„s l,T,l B^-rl.Ini forWinHess Catheiral- Egrired'b7? .TOri- go 90 too r. OXFORD CATHEDRAL. The see of Oxford is another on the new foundation (as it is called) of Henry VIII., originating in the dissolution of religious houses. Were we to confine ourselves to the history of the see and the description of the present Cathedral, a very few words would suffice, the see being comparatively of modern date, the most eminent of the prelates that have filled it having been translated, and the Cathedral itself being by far the smallest and meanest of any in England. The history however both of the religious houses upon whose dissolution the see of Oxford was erected, and of the magnificent collegiate establishment with which it is connected, will be highly interesting to our readers. We will therefore trace these to their origin first, and then proceed to give the usual information respecting the diocese and present Cathedral. The new diocese of Oxford was taken out of Lincoln, and although the see was for three or four years fixed at Oseney, it does not appear that the bishop took his title from his see but from his diocese, which till the late Act consisted of nothing more than the small county of Oxford. The origin of the religious estabhshment at Oseney, according to Tanner, was this. Robert D'Oilly, the second of that name, and nephew to the first, at the desire of his wife Edith, built in the year 1 129 upon one of the islets made by the river, not far from the castle of Oxford, a priory of canons of the order of St. Augustin, to the honour of the ever blessed Virgin. To prevail with her husband to undertake this work of piety and charity, she told him (says Bishop Kennett) a story of the miraculous chattering of birds, and a still more miraculous interpretation of it by a friar. Of course the sub- ject of the chattering was the foundation of a religious house in this spot. The friar being the interested person, some perhaps will not altogether acquit him of the charge of roguery in this matter, or at least of having made use of a pious fraud to bring about the foun- dation of this house, of which indeed he would not hesitate to acknowledge himself guilty, if he were so, at least among his own VOL. ir. s 130 OXFORD CATHEDRAL. fraternity, as it would in those days have been regarded as a meri- torious rather than an immoral proceeding. We will not however speak positively on this point ; the friar might really believe what he told the Lady Edith. Zeal without knowledge will make us beheve any thing ; enthusiasm will carry its subjects away no one knows whither. If the friar were zealous and enthusiastic, he would soon persuade himself that the birds were directed by hea- ven to speak of the foundation of a religious house of this particular order in that spot, and Edith and her husband, being involved in the universal superstition of the age, might with as much ease be persuaded that the fact was so. Nor need we be surprised at this, nor boast much about the superiority of our own times, when we remember that there are still followers of the self-deluded Johanna Southcote to be found among us ; and of a more lamentable, because a more specious delusion, originating in the late Mr. Irving ; than whom there could not be a more respectable character, and as long as he retained his senses, a more powerful preacher. His delusion indeed has some analogy to this of the friar ; the latter listened to the chirping of birds, and thought they were directed to chirp as they did by heaven itself, and that heaven had also given him the interpretation of it ; Mr. Irving and his followers think that in the gabbling of some of their brethren, they hear the out-pourings of the Spirit, and that others of their society are gifted to interpret that gabbling. We speak in the utmost charity of this new sect, whose lives show that they have not confounded right and wrong, and who notwithstanding their pitiable delusion on one point, are yet followers in the main of every thing that is good. We heartily wish them a right judgment in all things, but we could not overlook so strong a proof as this, that the mind of man is always the same, prone to superstition and liable to delusion, not only in a dark, but also in an enlightened age. It is not however within the province of mere human wisdom to detect delusions of this kind, nor to distinguish accurately and safely between superstitions and true religion. An age famous for the march of intellect, as it is called, may notwith- standing be an irreligious age, and if it be guided only by the light of human learning, though it may avoid superstition, it will be very likely to fall into the opposite extreme of infidelity, an extreme much more dangerous and much more disgraceful too in a christian country, OXFORD CATHEDRAL. Igf than any sujierstition that has arisen in modern times, or than that which gave rise to the foundation of the priory of Oseney. This priory we are informed by Tanner, in some short time after its foun- dation became an abbey, and had at the time of its dissolution, yearly revenues to the amount of £651' lOs. '2d. according to Dugdale, and £755 18s. 6d. according to Speed. Among the abbots of this house we find none of note. Robert King, the last of them, was appointed the first bishop of Oxford. In Dugdale we read that one Thomas Manne, of Oxford, accused of the heresy (as it was called) of Wick- liffe, was condemned to perpetual imprisonment in the abbey of Oseney. At this time there are no intelligible traces of the buildings of this once rich and flourishing abbey; a print of the tower and some adjoining parts of the structure, publislied in the second volume of the Monasticon, has been re-engraved in Skelton's Oxonict Antiqua Restaiirata. Judging from that print, in which however the detail is but poorly made out, those portions of the abbey buildings were of Norman architecture, but of no very great mag- nificence. The common seal of the abbey is appendent to the acknowledgment of the king's supremacy in 1534, which document is still preserved in the chapter-house at Westminster; the impression is in green wax, the subject, the Virgin and Child. This abbey was changed into a Cathedral Church, dedicated to Christ and the blessed Virgin, wherein were settled a dean and six prebendaries, who v.'ere to form the chapter of the bishop of Oxford, whose palace was to be at Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College. This state of things however did not continue quite four years. In the year 1546, the see was removed from Oseney to the priory of St. Frideswide, in Oxford, of the origin of which religious house we must now give the reader some account, as well as of the circum- stances which led to its being changed into a bishop's see. About the year 730, according to Tanner, Didanus, a petty king in these parts, is said to have founded a nunnery here to the honour of the Virgin Mary and All Saints, which consisted of twelve religious virgins of noble birth, under the governaient of his own daughter Frideswide, who being buried here, and afterwards canonized, this monastery was in a little time dedicated to her, and called by her name. But the nuns being dispersed by the Danish wars, this church came into the possession of secular canons, and was burnt s 2 132 OXFORD CATHEDRAL. to the ground in 1004. It was afterwards rebuilt and better en- dowed for them by king Etheh-ed, But a certain king before the Norman conquest is said to have expelled those canons, and to have given this monastery to the monks of Abingdon for some few years, and then to have restored it to the canons. After the con- quest the seculars were again ejected, and an abbot and monks were placed here, and continued in possession for some time. After this the seculars got in once more, and continued here till 11 1 i according to some, or till 1 121 according to others, when Roger bishop of Salisbury placed in this church a convent of regular canons of the order of St. Augustin, under the superintendence of Guimond, a learned clerk, and chaplain to King Henry I. who thereupon became the first prior. The annual revenues of this religious house, before its suppression, were valued at £224 4*. 8d. according to Speed, but Bishop Tanner says he had seen a valuation in MSS. which made it amount to £284. 8s. 9cl., viz. in spiritualities £69. 175. lid., and in temporalities £214. 10*. lOd. This priory was suppressed before the dissolution of religious houses, by virtue of a bull from pope Clement VII. dated 3 non. April 1524, allowed of and con- firmed May 10, J 525, by Henry VIII. who by letters patent dated July 1, of the same year, granted the site and lands to Cardinal Wolsey, who thereupon began the foundation of a noble college, for a dean, subdean, one hundred canons, viz. sixty of the first and forty of the second order, thirteen chaplains, professors in divinity, law, physic, and all the liberal arts, and for other persons, to the number of one hundred and eighty-six, and dedicated it to the holy and undivided Trinity, the Virgin Mary, St. Frideswide, and All Saints. Among the priors of St. Frideswide we find none of any note. John Burton was the last ; in his time and in the year 1518, Wood informs us, that the king, the queen, and Cardinal Wolsey came with a splendid retinue to Abingdon, and there lodged in the abbey. The next day certain persons of the university went to congratulate them : but Queen Catherine being desirous to come to Oxford, was attended in her journey by the cardinal, and being entered within the hmits, was received by the students and others with every demonstration of love and joy. After she had received their courtesies, she retired to the monastery of St. Frideswide to pay her devotions to the holy relics of that virgin saint, being the OXFORD CATHEDRAL. 133 chief occasion as it seems of her journey to Oxford, and after that was done, she vouchsafed, continues Wood, " to condescend so low as to dine with the society of Merton College." The same writer informs us also that in the year 1523, Cardinal Wolsey sent John Longland, bishop of Lincoln, as his orator to the University of Oxford, announcing his intention of founding a college for two hundred students and seven lecturers : not long after which the bishop came and made preparations for the cardinal's build in o-s and caused the canons of St. Fridesvvide to leave their habitations : this idea was however afterwards abandoned for the other before men- tioned ; and which began to take effect on the actual suppression of the priory in 1525. The cardhial obtained leave very soon to enrich his foundation by the suppression of other priories and nunneries, the yearly revenues of which were estimated at nearly £2000. The king's patent, after a preface paying high compliments to the cardinal's administration, enables him to build his college principally on the site of the priory of St. Fridesvvide, and the name originally intended, "The College of Secular Priests" was now changed to Cardinal College. The secular clergy in it were to be denominated the dean and canons secular of the cardinal of York. Of these the cardinal himself named the dean and eighteen canons. Dr. John Hygden, president of Magdalene College was the dean, and the canons were all taken from other colleges in Oxford, and were also all men of acknowledged reputation in their day. The cardinal afterwards added others deliberately, according as he was able to supply the vacancies by men of talents, whom he determined to seek wherever they could be found. As a nursery for this magnificent college, he founded a school at his native town of Ips- wich, the beautiful gate-house of which still remains. But before these vast designs could be perfected, the cardinal fell in the year 1529, not only out of the king's favour, but also into bl prcemunire, upon which all his estates real and personal became forfeited, and among his other lands, those appointed for the better endowment of this college, which however continued in being till 1531. On or about the 17th of July, 1532, it was re-established, and augmented with Canterbury college and Peckwater inn, for a dean and twelve canons, under the style of King Henry VIII's College in Oxford. This was also surrendered up again into the king's hand on the 18th of July, 1545. But the see of the bishop of Oxford being the next 1.34 OXFORD CATHEDRAL, year removed from Oseney, the priory cliurch of St. Frideswide was made his Cathedral by the name of Christ Church, and King Henry VIII. refounded the chapter and college, which remains to this day, and consists of a dean, eight canons, 101 students, eight chaplains, eight clerks, eight choristers, and twenty-four almsmen. It ought to be mentioned to the honour of the cardinal's memory, that in his last communication with secretary Cromwell and the king, when all worldly prospects were about to close on him for ever, he pleaded with great earnestness, and for nothing so earnestly as that his majesty would be pleased to suffer his college at Oxford to go on. Such were the circumstances which led to the erection and removal of this see. We must now speak particularly of the Cathedral Church. It has none of that importance or dignity which most other Cathedrals of England possess, either at a distance or on a nearer approach. It is surrounded with collegiate buildings and gardens, and scarcely any thing of it is visible, except a clumsy spire upon its central tower. Willis ascribes to Guimondi the first prior, the building of this Cathedral, which he says was finished under his two immediate successors. He died, according to some, in 1130, according to others in 1141. The entrance door to the chapter-house is of the same age, but the chapter-house itself together with the upper story of the tower, and according to some the spire upon it, are all about a century later, as is also the dean's chapel. The Latin chapel, and the cloisters are another century later still. The vaulting of the choir and its clerestory windows are the work of the sixteenth century, when the priory church was made the Cathedral of the Bishop of Oxford, whose palace is now at Cud- desden, a few miles from Oxford. EXTERIOR. The original west front was destroyed, together with three arches of the nave, to make room for the cardinal's college, the high wall ' In tbe time of abbot Robert, or John de Olney, Henry III. in spite of the tradi- tion which represented it as dangerous for any king of England to enter this monastery, paid his memorable visit in 1264. At his departure he gave the annual sum of ten marks to be paid at Michaelmas by the sheriff of Oxford and Berks, for the maintenance of fourlightstobekeptconstantly burning day and night before the shrine of St. Fridewide. OXFORD CATHEDRAL. 135 of which comes so close upon the present west front that it is im- possible to view it, so as to judge of its efTect. Any thing good in such a situation would be lost, but as it is there is nothing to regret. From the area of the cloisters the south side of the nave and its side aisle, the west side of the south wing of the transept, and the central tower with its spire, may be seen at one view. These walls are all plainly embattled. The clerestory windows are round- headed, and of one light each, bespeaking clearly their Norman origin. There is a low building also embattled, placed in front of the side aisle, and apparently of the same age with the cloisters. The lower story of the tower is evidently Norman ; it is quite plain, with circular turrets engaged at the four angles. The ridge of the timber roof once reached the top of this story, but since it has been lowered, there is too much of this plain part of the tower exposed to view. The next story has the circular turrets at the angles continued, but with diminished diameters, and adorned with arcades of pointed arches supported on long slender columns. These turrets are terminated by cylindrical pinnacles with conical spires. The four sides of the tower have each of them two belfry windows, and are adorned besides with pointed arches resting upon slender columns. Upon the tower, which has no parapet, is set a low dumpy spire, with projecting windows in four of its sides at the base of it. The effect of this tower and spire is as bad as any thing in Gothic architecture can be. The south front of the transept is not visible ; some of the collegiate buildings are attached to it. To view the rest of the exterior of this Cathedral, the private gardens of the different members of the chapter must be entered. From one of them a good view of the east end of the chapter-house and of the vestry, together with the south side of the choir, may be obtained. The east end of the chapter-house is flanked with low and slightly projecting buttresses, between which are five pointed arches, side by side, rising on each side one above another to the centre arch, which rises highest of all. The three middle ones have within them the original windows of one light each, but now divided by trans- verse masonry into an upper and lower window. The gable has a square-headed window of three lights, divided by a transverse muUion, but is otherwise entirely plain. The east end of the vestry has a very good window of decorated character. Both the pro- 136 OXFORD CATHEDRAL. portions and the tracery are good. The south side of the choir is plain, the parapet is not embattled, the walls are original, the win- dows of the clerestory are of the plainest perpendicular character. The east end has a large window of the same kind, and is flanked by two square Norman turrets, which do not rise much above the parapet. The north side of the choir, as far as it is visible, is very similar to the south : but the dean's chapel is built against this, has a gable and a half to the east, with the original windows stopped up, and very bad modern ones inserted. The Latin chapel adjoins the dean's, and has a large and very ugly window to the east. The north side displays its original windows, which contain good deco- rated tracery; the buttresses between the windows are without pinnacles, and the wall has no parapet. To see this, together with the north front of the transept, another private garden must be entered. That north front is flanked with the original square Norman turrets, upon which have been set cylindrical pinnacles with conical spires, which have a very awkward eflect. The large window which fills up the whole space between the turrets is of perpendicular architecture, and the most inferior description. The gable is flat, with a plain parapet. The north side of the nave is too much like the south to need any further notice. INTERIOR. There is no west entrance. The exterior having given no pro- mise of much internal magnificence, the visitor experiences no dis- appointment on entering. The pillars of the nave are alternately cylindrical and polygonal, they are of considerable diameter, tall and with capitals bearing some resemblance to old composite architecture ; the arches are semicircular. The triforium, or something in the place of it, is inserted beneath the arches and is supported by other circular arches built between the pillars and resting on brackets in their sides. The windows of the clerestory are some of them pointed and some round, and each one stands between two round arches on short co- lumns. These arrangements are we believe unique, certainly no other Cathedral Church has them. Beneath the window of the clerestory is a sort of upper triforium, disfigured with a modern balustrade. e^ ^ ^ e % (i5 M y :-• (^ r- ^ H U 5 © Dii-wn Irj RGadani. for "WaiiMes's Cathedrals Zner^iv-d "b— E Vutale": ITQP.THilSLE OF CHOIR ;0)ZFC .7 ME©:- REFEHEyCE A A.. Nave ami AisUs 15 15 . ihotr anti Aisles C Transept E . Latin Oiapel F. Deans Chapel G . Record Room H . fh/ipter Bouse &r 1. tloLTters MoxrsfEsrs 1 , Jiufwp JCi/iffs ifon f .V Sir mDe JUitkes J^ 3 Friar GtOfniontis d". 4. Lady Elizabeth Montaaii^'s d'' 5 , Shrine of S' Fndeswide 0' . Monu^otJomes Zourh Crawn Vv R. Garland. for "Vfiakles -. '^.i1w<1r^V: Engraved Vv-B.'Wii Settle a f Feet ^ -^ ^f |*c» T£ ^tf ap 200 f* THE CHOIR. n.io3. OXFORD CATHEDRAL. 137 The roof of the tower and transept is of wood panelled in squares, and nearly flat. The side aisles are vaulted in the Norman manner with stone. The transept is of the same style of architecture as the nave. The north wing of it has a side aisle to the west, opposite to which are the entrances into the dean's and Latin chapels. The wooden screens which separate the chapels from the transept are heavy, and formed at top so as to make with the nether arches (before mentioned), a complete circle, which has a very unpleasing effect. The organ and screen on which it stands, together with the stalls and fitting up of the choir, are all works of the worst ao-e of architecture, 1630, of course incongruous, and with the exception of the organ itself all very mean. The vaulting of the choir is a good example of the latest Gothic, rich, elaborate, and with long pendants^. The chapter-house is a beautiful room of early pointed architecture, vaulted with stone, nearly square, and adorned with pointed arcades supported on slender columns of Purbeck marble, with beautifully carved capitals, fillets, and bases. Of the cloisters only parts of the east and south sides remain, the rest was taken down to make room for the cardinal's college ; they are low and narrow, but the stone vaulting is good. The dimensions of this Cathedral are as follows, length from east to west only 152 feet, transept from north to south 101 feet, the height of nave 41 feet, of the choir only 37 feet. There is a chancellor of the diocese and one archdeacon, viz. of Oxford, both in the gift of the bishop. The dean and canons are appointed by the crown. The original diocese was all the county of Oxford, which by the late Act has been increased by the county of Buckingham from the diocese of Lincoln, and by Berkshire from the diocese of Salisbury. The bishopric is valued in the king's books at £381. 11*. Ok/, per 2 The ancient monuments are neither numerous nor important; beneath the last arch eastward on the north side of the dean's chapel is a rich screen of the latest per- pendicular, built in front of the shrine of St. Frideswide ; beneath the west arch is an altar tomb with niches and statues to the Lady Montacute; beneath the next is a canopied monument of early pointed architecture, called by some the tomb of prior Guimond, but by others with better reason, of prior Philip. Both these last mentioned have recumbent figures upon them. Many modern tablets disfigure the walls and columns of this Cathedral, but in the north wing of the transept is a monument to Dean Jackson, which consists of a pedestal on which a statue of the dean is placed, sitting, and in his academical costume ; the likeness is very good, the design and execution equally excellent. But how could it be otherwise ? the whole is the work of Chantry. VOL. II. T 138 OXFORD CATHEDRAL. annum, and returned by the present bishop to be £264^8 per annum. The see of Oxford has been filled by men of first rate learning, and of the most exalted piety and charity, who have been all, with one single exception, translated to other sees : the exception is in the instance of Dr. John Fell, elected in 1675, who died bishop of Oxford in 1686. He was the son of Samuel Fell, dean of Christ Church, and was himself both dean and bishop at the same time. His admirable wi'itings have been universally read. He was a divine and moralist of the first class. This good and great man was also a liberal benefactor to his college, which he contributed to complete. His edition of the work entitled " The Whole Duty of Man," has been read with pleasure and advantage by thousands, and the same may be said with equal truth of his edition of other works of a moral and religious nature ; and of his own sermons. By these publications, by his preaching, and by his example, he laboured incessantly to enlighten and improve all his fellow Christians, and particularly those committed to his charge. Of the celebrated prelates who were translated afterwards to other sees we must mention first, John Potter, D. D. He was the son of a linendraper at Wakefield, in Yorkshire, where he was born about the year 1674, and in the school of which town he was educated. At the early age of fourteen, however, he was sent to Oxford, and entered at University College. In 1694 he was chosen fellow of Lincoln College, and in the same year went into orders and took pupils. In 1704 he was chosen chaplain to Archbishop Tenison, and consequently removed from Oxford to Lambeth. In 1706 he proceeded to the degree of D. D. and soon after became chaplain in ordinary to Queen Anne. In 1708 he was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity, which preferment brought him back to Oxford; and led doubtless to his advancement in 1715 to the see of Oxford. The celebrated Duke of Marlborough was his patron ; but he owed his promotion more to his own literary and theological labours, and intrinsic merit as a scholar and a Christian, than to any patron whatever. While bishop of Oxford he was very much noticed by Queen Caroline, then Princess of Wales ; and upon the accession of George II. preached the coronation sermon, which was afterwards printed by his majesty's express commands, and is inserted among the OXFORD CATHEDRAL. 139 prelate's theological works. It was generally believed at this time that the chief direction of ecclesiastical affairs was intended to be committed to his care, but as he saw that this must involve him in the politics of the times, he declined the proposal and returned to his bishopric, until the death of Dr. Wake in January, 1737, when he was appointed to succeed him in the archbishopric of Canterbury. This high office he filled during the space of ten years with great reputation, at the end of which period he fell into a declining state, and died October 10, 1747, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. He was buried at Croydon. His most celebrated works are his " Antiquities of Greece," and his " Church Government." The latter is inserted among his theological works, which consist of sermons, charges, and divinity lectures. He has left behind him the character of a prelate of distinguished piety and learning ; of strict orthodoxy as a member of the estabhshed church, as well as a zealous and vigilant guardian of its interests. Secondly must be mentioned Thomas Seeker, the son of a protestant dissenter, and born at a small village called Sibthorpe, in the vale of Belvoir. His father had a paternal fortune, and followed no profession. He was educated at several private schools in the country, and made great progress not only in Greek and Latin, but Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac. His father designed him for the ministry among the dissenters, but not being able to decide upon certain doctrines, or to what communion he should belono-, he resolved to pursue some other profession, which would leave him at liberty to weigh these things more maturely in his thoughts; and therefore about the end of 1716, he studied physic both in London and Paris. He afterwards took a degree in physic at Leyden ; but having now made up his mind in favour of the church of England, he entered himself as a gentleman commoner of Exeter College, Oxford. His first preferment after his ordination was the rectory of Houghton-le-Spring, to which he was presented by Bishop Talbot in 1724, which enabled him to marry the next year the lady of his choice. Miss Catherine Benson, sister to Bishop Benson. On account of his wife's health he was obliged to leave Houghton, and exchanged it for a stall in Durham Cathedral. In 1732 he was appointed chaplain to the king by the Duke of Grafton, who was induced to distinguish him in this manner at the recommendation of 140 OXFORD CATHEDRAL, Bishop Sherlock, who having heard him preach at Bath, thought his abilities worthy of being brought forward into public notice. His fame now as a divine of the first class was well established, and produced for him in 1735 the bishopric of Bristol ; and (on Bishop Potter's translation to Canterbury), his removal to the see of Oxford. Although some obstacles of a political nature stood in the way ot his further advancement, his distinguished merit as a scholar, a divine, and a Christian, overcame them ; and on the death of Arch- bishop Hutton, he was appointed to succeed him in the see of Canterbury, which he held for more than ten years. Among his numerous and valuable publications should be mentioned, besides his sermons, his excellent Lectures of the Churcli Catechism. He died in 1768, in the seventy-fifth year of his age ; he was buried according to his own desire in a covered passage leading from a private door of the palace to the north door of Lambeth Church ; and he forbad any monument or epitaph to be placed over him. Lastly, Robert Lowth, born Nov. 27, 1710, educated at Win- chester, and elected scholar of New College, Oxford : he was the son of William Lowth, a distinguished divine of the church of England, whose Commentary on the Prophets, originally published in 4to., have since been republished, together with additions, in one volume folio, as a continuation of Bishop Patrick's Commentary on the other parts of the Old Testament. Robert Lowth was first patronized by Bishop Hoadley, who gave him the archdeaconry of Winchester. He was afterwards chaplain to the Lord lieutenant of Ireland, and was offered the bishopric of Limerick which he declined. In 1765 he was involved in a controversy with Bishop Warburton, In 1766 he was promoted to the see of St. David's, and about four months after was translated to Oxford. In this see he remained eleven years, and on the death of Dr. Terrick was translated to London. When Archbishop Cornwallis died, the see of Canterbury was offered to him, but he declined it. Of his works his " Life of William of Wickham," and his " new translation of Isaiah," are the most esteemed. He died Nov. 3, 1787, and was buried at Fulham. END OF VOLUME II. Coe, Printer, Old Change, St. Paul's, London. # v^i «<\^ ^W^ ■"•»' Universii Soutb