O AN ENGLISH O CATH EDR AL JOU RN EY KATE F. KIMBALL THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES :>/ r — /€j^ An English Cathedral Journey ■v I, ■' ihh t ■srn^'A 'vm-i J. G. Charlton, Photographer, Canterbury. CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL — NORTH SIDE, WITH CLOISTERS. An English Cathedral Journey BY KATE F. KIMBALL ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS NEW YORK THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1913, By THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY. Published March, 1913. DEDICATED TO m^f^op 31of)n ^. ©intent FRIEND THROUGH THE YEARS 15625S6 PREFACE THE several chapters of this book, with the exception of the first, were origi- nally published in the Chautauquan magazine as part of the course of reading for the "English Year" of the Chautauqua Honie Reading Circle. They were an attempt to give something of the atmosphere of the Eng- lish cathedrals to people who might never have the privilege of visiting England, and to add to the enjoyment of those who had been or might be travelers to some of these famous shrines. Of the books mentioned in the Bibliog- raphy many have been most helpful, and to their authors the writer would express her sincere gratitude, particularly to Canon S. A. Barnett, who has most courteously permitted the use of the very clear ground plan of West- minster Abbey, taken from his "Walk through Westminster Abbey." She recalls with pleasure the unfailing courtesy of the vii PREFACE cathedral vergers and the many privileges which they accorded her. Especially would she express her appreciation to Mr. G. Free- mantle of Salisbury, and to his daughter, who kindly provided not only a photograph, but also an original drawing of one of Salisbury's beautiful consecration crosses, which appears in the cover design of this book. The friendly cooperation of photographers in all parts of England is also gratefully recorded. In ven- turing to put these chapters into the hands of a wider public, the author would express her indebtedness to the friends who have taken a generous interest in the work and offered helpful criticisms. Till CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Some Characteristics of Cathedral Ar- chitecture IN England 1 II. Canterbury 22 III. Rochester 53 IV. Lincoln 79 V. Durham ...Ill VI. Ely 140 VII. Salisbury 167 VIII. Lichfield 193 IX. York 219 X. Westminster Abbey 245 Notes : Cathedral Churches of England .... 277 Church of England : Titles of the Clergy . . 278 The Thirty-seven Bishoprics of the Church of England 279 Measurements of Nine Churches .... 280 Architectural Periods 281 ix CONTENTS Selected Bibliography: PAGE Books on Special Cathedrals 283 General Works 287 Glossary : Architectural Terms 289 Ecclesiastical Terms 294 Index 297 ILLUSTRATIONS Canterbury Cathedral, North Side . . . Frontispiece OPPOSITE PAGE Map, English Cathedral Cities 1 Fig. 1. — Headbourne Worthy Church 2 Fig. 2. — Norman Stairway in Green Court ... 2 Fig. 3. — Norman Pier Arcade, Triforium, and Clerestory, Ely 4> Figs. 4 and 5. — Norman Capitals, Lincoln .... 6 Fig. 6. — Norman Pillars, York 6 Fig. 7. — Norman Capitals, Durham Castle Crypt 6 Fig. 8. — Early English Capitals, Lincoln .... 11 Fig. 9- — Curvilinear Decorated Gothic, Lincoln . 1 1 Fig. 10. — Plate Tracery of South Transept, York . 11 Fig. 1 1 . — Lancet Windows, Lincoln Cathedral . . 13 Fig. 12. — Nave of Lichfield, showing Lancets Grouped 15 Fig. 13. — Bar Tracery P(^9^ 15 Fig. 14. — Curvilinear Tracery " 17 Fig. 15. — Perpendicular Tracery " 18 Fig. 16. — Ogee Curves, Lady Chapel, Ely .... 18 Fig. 17. — INIouldings of Early English Arches . . 18 South Door, Canterbury Cathedral 22 Choir, Canterbury Cathedral 27 Trinity Chapel and Coronation Chair, Canterbury Cathedral 31 xi ILLUSTRATIONS OPPOSITE PAGE Plan of Canterbury Cathedral P^i/^ 48 Nave, looking East, Rochester Cathedral 53 Exterior, Rochester Cathedral 54 Norman Triforium, Rochester Cathedral 54 Choir, Rochester Cathedral 59 Two Entrances, Rochester Cathedral 60 Plan of Rochester Cathedral P^^g^ 74 West Front, Lincoln Cathedral 79 Lincoln Cathedral from the South 82 East End, Lincoln Cathedral 95 Nave, Lincoln Cathedral 95 Angel Choir, Lincoln Cathedral 98 Plan of Lincoln Cathedral po^g^ 106 Durham Cathedral from the River Ill Nave, looking East, Durham Cathedral 117 North Side, Durham Cathedral 124 Galilee Chapel, Durham Cathedral 124 In the Triforium, Durham Cathedral . . . . . . 133 Plan of Durham Cathedral pctgre 136 Tower and Octagon, Ely Cathedral 140 Nave, looking East, Ely 146 The Presbytery, Ely Cathedral 159 Ely Cathedral from East End 160 Interior of Early English Porch, Ely l60 Plan of Ely Cathedral page 162 Salisbury Cathedral, North Side 167 Nave, Salisbury Cathedral 170 Cloisters, Salisbury Cathedral 177 Lady Chapel, Salisbury Cathedral 177 Salisbury Cathedral from the West 182 Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows 187 xii ILLUSTRATIONS OPPOSITE PAGE Bishop's Palace, Salisbury 187 Plan of Salisbury Cathedral P^'O^ 188 West Front, Lichfield Cathedral 199 Nave, Lichfield Cathedral 202 Interior of Lady Chapel, Lichfield Cathedral . . 210 Exterior of Lady Chapel, Lichfield Cathedral . . .213 Plan of Lichfield Cathedral P^^g^ 214 West Front, York Cathedral 220 Nave of York Cathedral 223 The Five Sisters, York 228 The Five Sisters — Exterior 228 Lady Chapel, York Cathedral 237 Chapter House, York Cathedral 237 Plan of York Cathedral poge 240 Nave of Westminster Abbey, looking East, showing Choir and Screen 245 The Chancel, Westminster Abbey 252 Henry VII's Chapel — Stalls of Knights of the Bath 260 Tomb of Henry VII — Edward VI beneath Altar, Figure of Dean Stanley in Chapel on right . 260 Henry VII's Chapel and East End of Abbey, Chapter House on Left 269 Poets' Corner — Chaucer's Tomb on Left, Spenser at End, Browning and Tennyson in Foreground 269 Plan of Westminster Abbey P<^g^ 272 Xlll ENGLISH CATHEDRAL CITIES. An English Cathedral Journey SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF CATHEDRAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND IF you had come over to conquer England in the year 1066 with Wilhani the Nor- man, you would possibly have discovered that Normandy had already begun its con- quest of England, not with sword and battle ax, but with its massive and splendid archi- tecture; for the last hereditary Saxon King of England, Edward the Confessor, during his long exile in Normandy had been impressed with tlie dignity of the vast Norman churches, and when he returned to England began in 1050 his great Abbey of Westminster. Within the next century more than one hundred great Norman churches, displacing their humbler Saxon predecessors, had taken possession of English soil. William the Conqueror did much to bring 1 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY about this change in the appearance of Eng- land, for he secured his firm hold on the coun- try by establishing Norman feudal lords at every strategic point, and appointing Norman bishops over every diocese except that of Worcester. Many of these Norman bishops were famous builders. They were familiar with the stately churches arising in their own country, and. England's early Saxon monas- teries and cathedrals, to which the people had long looked for light amid the constant rav- ages of war, rapidly disappeared under the architectural enthusiasm of the Norman bishops fresh from the richer civilization of the Continent. But it was true also that the rise of these great Norman cathedrals often meant the ruin and displacement of scores of humble homes, for close to the cathedral rose also the bishop's castle, and in the lawless state of things in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the bishop's castle was an important strong- hold. Although this desolation of homes was one of the inevitable tragedies of a changing order, there were some compensations, for the building of a castle, and even more of a great cathedral, brouglit together a small army of craftsmen. From all over England 2 Salmon Series. v.»as»jiii^ra> Fig. I.— headbouk;.^ /.orthy church. Fig. 2.— NORMAN STAIRWAY IN GREtN COURT. CATHEDRAL ARCHITECTURE and Europe came masons, carpenters, glass and metal workers, with others in their train. New homes sprang up and each had a vital personal interest in the growing community, which felt the stimulus of a new atmosphere. Castle and cathedral were in still other ways linked with these beginnings of England's civic life, for the widespread interest awakened by the early Crusades developed alike in feudal lord and in his retainers a personal loy- alty to the Church, which held before them a high standard of sacrifice and through its daily ministrations encouraged and shared their de- votion. Hidden away under present-day cathedrals you can find the foundations of some of the earlier Saxon churches. Very diminutive were these old Saxon cathedrals compared with the huge structures which later towered above them. Indeed, England's great Norman churches quite out-distanced the largest churches of Normandy and even of France itself. Cluny, the largest twelfth-century cliurch of western Europe, had an area of only 54,000 square feet to compare with Eng- land's Norman Winchester, with 65,000, and Bury St. Edmunds' 68,000. 3 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY The churches of Normandy which became England's model for more than a hundred years belonged to the great building era known as Romanesque, which developed with the slow emergence of Ein*ope from the Dark Ages. In that early, shadowy period Roman- esque architecture took shape in Italy, France, Germany, and England, for the so-called Saxon chiu'ches in England at the time of the Norman Conquest were really Romanesque, but of a primitive type which had already died out in northern France before the Norman bishops assisted it out of England. Of this primitive Romanesque type in England one finds few surviving churches, and they are very small and plain, preserved probably be- cause of their insignificance ; but two very per- fect examples can be seen at Escomb near Durham, in northern England, and in the south at Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire. An- other, slightly altered, is at Headbourne Worthy near Winchester. These churches are not cruciform and have no semicircular apse. They consist simply of two rectangular sections, the smaller used for the chancel and the larger for the congregation. In Italy, northern France, and Aquitaine, whose com- 4 Fig. 3— NORMAN PIER ARCADE, TRIFORIUM. AND CLERESTORY, ELY. CATHEDRAL ARCHITECTURE mon Romance tongue naturally crystallized into different national forms of speech, Primi- tive Romanesque architecture also gradually took on characteristic local features, and it was the localized Norman Romanesque of northern France which imposed itself upon England. One can readily understand that to the English people, slowly struggling up from the barbarism of their Saxon and Danish an- cestry, the immense churches erected by the Xorman bishops were plain evidence of the tight grip of their conquerors; yet the un- dreamed-of magnificence of these new church interiors, with tlieir sumptuous furnishings and rich stained glass, must have awakened also some dim conception of the larger ideas and richer civilization of the Continent. The Xorman churches were built in the form of a Latin cross. How this particular form came into use, scholarly research has not yet enabled us to decide with absolute cer- tainty. It may have come originally from the basilica or Roman law court, a rectangular building with a central hall separated from side wings by rows of columns, and at the end a semicircular apse where stood an altar 5 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY for the administration of oaths. Many of these existed during the late Roman Empire. But we must remember that for centuries before the time of Constantine, the Christians worshiped in great obscurity, often in private houses, and quite possibly in the scholge, halls erected for lodge meetings, funeral observ- ances, or a variety of other needs. At all events, as the church ceremonial grew more elaborate the addition of a transept to the long, narrow hall would be quite natural either to meet an architectural need or pos- sibly as a matter of religious sentiment. Whatever the cause, the cruciform shape was so eminently appropriate that religious feeling has naturally perpetuated it. These cross- shaped churches were always placed with the head of the cross toward the east, the chief entrance being at the western end. If you go into a great Norman church like Durham, you will see that it has certain dis- tinct features. The Nave forms the long end of the cross. It is subdivided by two rows of heavy cylin- drical or other piers running lengthwise, with a narrow aisle on each side. These piers form the supports for great arches which carry the 6 S. Smith, Minister Book Shop, Lincoln. Figs. 4 and 5.— NORMAN CAPITALS, LINCOLN. F. Frith & Co., Ltd. Fig. 6.— NOf?MAN PILLARS, YORK. Fig. 7.— NORMAN CAPITALS, DURHAM CASTLE CRYPT. CATHEDRAL ARCHITECTURE heavy wall above them. This feature is known as the pier arcade. The Triforium: The aisles are much lower than the rest of the nave. They are roofed with stone vaults, and between these stone ceil- ings and the outer sloping roof is an open space or gallery called the triforium. It looks into the nave through a row of smaller arches just above the pier arcade. It was sometimes known as the blindstory, though in many in- stances windows were inserted in its outer wall. The Clerestory : The wall of the nave ex- tends above the triforium arches, and the win- dows w^ith which it is filled have given it by contrast the name of clerestory. The three chief vertical divisions of the church you thus find are the pier arcade, the triforium, and the clerestory (Fig. 3). The Roof: The Normans rarely at- tempted to vault very wide spaces with stone. Durham's magnificent nave is an exception. The naves were usually covered with sharp- peaked wooden roofs, beneath which was a flat wooden ceiling. The architects relied upon the great weight of their masonry, rather than upon buttresses, to give it stability. Hence 7 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY the walls were enormously thick, and plain, heavy t>uttresses built flat against them on the outside helped to resist the pressure of the stone vaults of the aisles. The walls of Dur- ham's choir aisles had an average thickness of seven feet. The Transepts were frequently without aisles. This is noticeable at Canterbury, where the present narrow transepts stand on the original Norman foundations. One aisle on the eastern side, as at Durham, was not uncommon. Ely's two aisles were a most un- usual extravagance. (Plan, page 162.) The Choir and Crossing: The east end of the church, known as the choir, was much shorter than in the later Gothic period in England. The choir usually had aisles and terminated sometimes in a single semicircular apse, or the aisles continued around the east end (ambulatory) and the end was finished with three or more apsidal chapels. This short east end in monastic churches did not accommodate the members of the choir. They sat in the Crossing beneath the great central tower and in the adjoining bays of the nave. This is the case in Westminster Abbey to- day. (Plan, page 272.) 8 CATHEDRAL ARCHITECTURE Early Norman work was rude. The joints of the masonry were very wide and the cement often of poor quahty, resulting in the down- fall of great towers like those of Ely and Win- chester. The round arch was the prevailing form, at first very plain, with flat, sharp edges. The piers supporting these great arches were without ornament and their capi- tals cut with an ax, but in the hands of a French mason the ax was a more flexible implement than its name woidd suggest. Capitals: There were two prevailing types of Norman capital: one was shaped like a hemisphere (Fig. 3) with a section cut off on each of its four sides, forming a flat-topped cushion on which rested the square block or abacus which held the arch above it. The other had its four sides decorated with a leaf or figure ornament and at its four corners four volutes or rude spirals ( Fig. 7 ) . These two types of capital have been called faint survivals of the Doric and Ionic of old Greece. Later Norman: After the return of the first crusaders the quality of the Xorman mason's art imjDroved. Skilled craftsmen brought back from the East new ideas of the perfection of classic architecture, and the later 9 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Norman work is in many cases extraordina- rily rich and beautiful. The results of more skillful workmanship appeared both in the fine jointing of the stones and in the increase of ornament. When Durham was built the great nave arches were recessed ^ and deco- rated with moldings. The capitals of Lin- coln's western doorway and of Rochester's piers were given a beautiful scalloped form, and Lincoln's west door also displayed foliage very similar to classic Corinthian (Figs. 4 and 5). The cylindrical piers them- selves (York's crypt and Durham's nave) (Fig. 6) were carved with the older patterns of lozenge, spiral, and zigzag; smaller col- umns (Canterbury's crypt) showed spiral and other forms; while the shafts of door- ways introduced figure designs, medallions, and other devices. The doorways were more deeply recessed than in the early Nor- man period. The execution of all these de- signs, with their deep, clean-cut effects, showed that the ax had given place to the chisel. Transitional: Just as Norman Roman- ^ Divided into two or more portions, receding one behind the other. 10 S. Smitli, I^incoln. Fig. 8.— EARLY ENGLISH CAPITALS, LINCOLN. F. Frjtli ac Co., Ltd. Fig. 9— CURVILINEAR DECORATED GOTHIC. LINCOLN. I "I'.V'K'il, I'lintc.rliri.lil.- Cm., Lt.i , J.IHlclc.n. Fig. 10.— PLATE TRACERY OF SOUTH TRANSEPT, YORK. CATHEDRAL ARCHITECTURE esque had driven out England's primitive Saxon variety, so the Pointed Arch called a halt upon the splendid Norman minsters. There were signs of its coming. It crept into Norman designs before the twelfth century- was over. Canterbury used it freely in her new choir. Durham, too, gave a hint of the com- ing change. She built her a charming Galilee Chapel (opposite page 124), filled with Nor- man ornament and round arches, to be sure, but so bewitchingly light and graceful that it seemed to disclaim all relationship with the ponderous cathedral to which it belonged. It was not strange that this should be; you will recall that the thirteenth century was one of the great periods of the awakening of the human mind. In England it was the age of Magna Charta, of parliaments, universities, town guilds, and of growing intercourse with Continental cities. There was a new note of liberty and aspiration in human affairs, and it was inevitable that England's art in its high- est expression should reflect it. Durham Ca- thedral was one of the earliest leaders. Before 1135 its architect boldly experimented with great pointed arches for the huge nave, and be- cause of them dared to venture upon a stone- 11 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY vaulted roof. Nevertheless, the great church remained sturdily Romanesque in all its de- tails, for as yet no one in England had equipped the pointed arch with the mold- ings, capitals, shafts, windows, etc., suited to its aspiring temperament. It was Lincoln Cathedral which paved the way in 1192-1200. Early Efiglish Gothic: 1190-1245 (Rich- ard I to Henry III). The pointed arch solved the chief problem of the cathedral archi- tect,— how to protect the nave of a great church with a stone vault. The rigid round arch was practicable for roofing limited spaces onlv, but its attitude was "so far and no farther." With the pointed arch and its mar- velous flexibility the architect's imagination was set free. He could construct a frame- work as lofty as he chose, brace it with but- tresses and flying buttresses, and rest his stone roof upon it all with perfect security. It was but a step from this point to the glorious win- dows which were to become the supreme ex- pression of Gothic beauty. No longer de- pendent entirely upon great masses of ma- sonry, Early English Gothic took on lighter forms than the Romanesque. Solid cylindrical piers gave way to clus- 12 From Shurpe's "Seven Periods." Fig. II.— LANCET WINDOWS, LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. CATHEDRAL ARCHITECTURE tered shafts, dark marble being interspersed with native stone, all gathered under one capi- tal (Fig. 8) and bound together with narrow bands. The great arches were pointed and adorned with deep-cut moldings (Fig. 17). The abacus or upper block of the capital on which the ends of the arches rested was changed from the heavy, square block of the Norman to a rounded form reduced in thick- ness. The characteristic jSTorman ornaments dis- appeared in favor of the violette or dog- tooth,^ and the bell-shaped capitals of col- umns large and small were delicately carved with stiff-leaved foliage rising from slender stalks (Figs. 8 and 17). Rigidity of ornament was displaced by the freedom of living forms. The pointed arch showed itself also in the shape of the windows, which took their name from an evident resemblance to a surgeon's lancet (Fig. 11). These beautiful windows ranged in size from a few feet (see illustra- tion facing page 167) to the great lancets of * The origin of tlie dog-tooth is obscure. Its ancestry has been traced to the Norman nail-head molding or to the chevron cut into sections. Some who incline to leaf forms have traced it to the grouped leaves of the laurel, which it strikingly sug- gests. The French call it violette. 13 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY York (opposite page 228) more than fifty feet high. Their exquisite forms gave an ap- pearance of great refinement to Early Eng- lish Gothic. When used in the small arches of the tri- forium the pointed arch was accompanied by circles, trefoils, qnartrefoils, etc. (Fig. 10), cut in the blank wall spaces above. This was known as plate tracery. In this Early English period all the mold- ings of the arches, and the carving generally, were cut very deep, casting bold shadows which greatly heightened the decorative effect. Geometrical Decorated Gothic: 1245- 1315 (Henry III, Edwards I and II). For more than fifty years Early English, or the lancet period of Gothic, held its own ; then the desire for larger windows led to the combina- tion of several lancets under a single arch, with circles or other openings above (Fig. 12) . The slender curved bars of stonework needed to bring about these combinations of windows became known as bar tracery, to distinguish it from the plate tracery of Romanesque and Early English times, which required large slabs of stone and was quite impracticable for the growing windows (Fig. 13). From From Sharpe's "Seven Periods." Fig. 12. — NAVE OF LICHFIELD, SHOWING LANCETS GROUPED. CATHEDRAL ARCHITECTURE this device it was a natural transition to the evolution of immense windows, as seen at Lin- coln. This particular form became known as FIG. 13.— BAR TRACERY IN GEOMETRICAL WINDOW. Geometrical Decorated Gothic, to distinguish it from the next stage of window develop- ment, in which the geometrical forms grad- uallj" disappeared and curvilinear tracery took their j)lace. This Geometrical period gave to England one of her most magnificent churches, that of Westminster Abbey, begun by Henry III in 1245. It shows in many respects how strong- ly French artistic influences were being felt in England. Under Henry's son, Edward I, came further developments. Venetian galleys 15 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY found their way to England, Florentine trad- ers settled in her Southern ports, and many an Italian craftsman found use for his skill in the ambitions of both noble and bishop for great cathedrals. All these influences helped the standard of artistic work among English craftsmen. With the enlarging of the win- dows there came other changes. Decoration was used more profusely. The stiff-leaved stalks of the Early English capitals, some of them wonderfully fine in execution, gave way to a more natural type of foliage massed around the capital. The dog-tooth ornament gradually disappeared and the ball flower ornament became the typical decoration. The deep-cut moldings of the Early English pe- riod also became shallower; but each of these significant changes came in gradually, so that the later and earlier forms are frequently seen side by side. All the work of this time was characterized by great elegance. Details were carved with artistic feeling and the ut- most skill. The period represents the high- water mark of the English stone workers' achievement. Curvilinear Decorated Gothic: 1315-1360 (Edward II and Edward III). This latter 16 CATHEDRAL ARCHITECTURE part of the Decorated period takes its name from the curvilinear effects which became very prominent. Its most characteristic feature is the ogee or double curve, which wrought the window tracery (Figs. 9 and 14) in peculiarly FIG. 14.— CURVILINEAR TRACERY. graceful forms and varied designs and was used very extensively also for small arches and other details (Fig. 16). The whole period of Decorated Gothic, both Geometrical and Cur- vilinear, gave to England some of her loveli- est Gothic buildings. In its later forms it sometimes tended to be overexuberant and lacked the simplicity and restraint of the earlier time, but on the whole the work is very noble and beautiful. Perpendicular Gothic: 1360-1550 (Rich- 17 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY ard II to Henry VIII). The last stage of English Gothic was peculiar to England alone. It is known as Perpendicular from its prevail- ing tendency. England had passed from the simplicity of her early struggles for liberty FIG. 15.— PERPENDICULAR TRACERY. into a fully developed national life. Evidence of her increased wealth and ambition was not far to seek. One of the most striking features of the Perpendicular style was the fan-vaulted roof. The famous chapels of King's College at Cambridge, Henry VII at Westminster, and St. George at Windsor, show that Eng- lish Gothic was no longer the simple, strong art of an earlier time, but lavish and extrava- gant, though with much beauty of detail. The change in window tracery makes very plain 18 >■ _l 111 UJ Q. < I o >- o < I/) u > o u UJ o I li. CATHEDRAL ARCHITECTURE the use of the term Perpendicular (Fig. 15). The curvihnear tracery of the last part of the Decorated Period was superseded by straight lines. In many cases the straight stone mullions ran to the very top of the window, and the general effect of vertical lines is extremely marked. A new shape of window arch became commonly known as the four- centered arch. Stronfflv marked horizontal lines are also noticeable both in window tracery and in the extensive paneling which is very conspicuous as a leading form of decora- tion. (See Henrj^ VII's Chapel, opposite page 269.) Capitals at this time were often small and inconspicuous without carving. The ogee arch used in the Decorated Period was still a prominent feature, and the Tudor rose became a characteristic ornament. English and French Gothic: If you should cross the Channel into France, you would at once realize how very different Eng- lish Gothic churches are from those of the Continent. In France the architects in a passion of constructive enthusiasm carried their soaring Gothic roofs to an immense height. Windows increased till they became literally walls of glass, and the flying but- 19 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY tresses which secured the perfect poise of the building often siuTOunded the church hke a great stone framework. It has been called "structure of maximum tension." Wonderful are these mighty French creations. England never developed her Gothic to the same extreme. Her tallest church, Westmin- ster Abbey, is slightlj'^ over a hundred feet in height, but the great length of the English choirs strikes every observer. Often these have been so extended as to leave the main transepts midway of the building. The square east end became a favorite form of English Gothic, strikingly different from the curving French chevet. Nor has the flying buttress been so extensively employed in Eng- land as in France. English cathedrals, sur- rounded as they frequently are with their broad, beautiful lawns, have a restful atmos- phere in contrast with those of France, which are usually taller, more complex, and often placed in the heart of a busy town. A quarter of a century ago, English and French writers vied with each other in ex- travagant claims for the birth of "true Gothic" each in his own country. Later writers have happily shown a growing tolerance. The 20 CATHEDRAL ARCHITECTURE aspiring qualities of Gothic architecture have been illustrated by superb works of art in both England and France, each modified by the native taste of its own country. Romanesque architecture represented im- maturity. It relied upon the obvious material powers of weight and mass. Gothic laid hold of the invisible, the careful, accurate balance of mighty forces tending to produce perfect poise. Its keynote was aspiration. "Properly speaking, Gothic art had no birth. The spirit of Gothic was but the com- ing of age of Romanesque." 21 II CANTERBURY YOU are making your first visit to Can- terbury, and instead of entering the town by the prosaic method of the rail- way, you are coming in by the famous old Pilgrims' way, the road from London over which Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims trav- eled, ''The holy blisful martir for to seke." About a mile and a half from Canterbury lies the little village of Harbledown, in the quaint language of Chaucer's day "a litel toun Which that y-cleped is Bob-up-and-doun Under the Blee, in Caunterbury weye, " The road, true to its name, drops into a valley just before you reach the village, then rises sharply, and as you come over the crest of the hill you get your first view of Canterbury and 22 O I CANTERBURY its noble Cathedral, the Mother Church not only of England, but of countless English- speaking peoples the world over. Canterbury lies in a hollow encircled by low hills, and the red roofs of the picturesque old town make a rich setting for the soft gray stone of the Cathedral which towers above them. You can imagine what this glimpse of the sacred city meant to the Canterbury Pilgrims, though the building which you see is far goodlier than that which they beheld with its glittering Angel Steeple. The old steeple is gone and instead rises the majestic central tower, the most perfect Gothic structure in England, its fine buttresses running from base to pinnacle without a break. The two lower western tow- ers in the foreground are quite different in form from their peerless companion and seem to emphasize its faultless proportions. It was at this point that Henry II, in 1174, on his way to humiliate himself at the shrine of Becket, dismounted from his horse and walked some distance to the church of St. Dunstan, where he changed his ordinary dress for the garb of a penitent and from there traveled barefoot into the town. As you approach the city, you are confronted with the huge bulk 23 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY of the old West Gate, for Canterbury was a walled city back in prehistoric times. The West Gate has a pedigree not to be lightly re- garded. Repaired in Roman times and re- built again in 1380, it has frowned down upon Roman and Saxon, Dane and Englishman. Its earliest written record tells of the mighty procession accompanying Canute, the Dane, who brought back the body of the martyred Archbishop Alphege to the Cathedral from which viking hands had torn him. The royal visitor left his crown of gold at the high altar to atone for the sins of his lawless subjects. Coming down High Street from the West Gate, you turn into little old narrow Mercery Lane, and as you glance ahead you see one of the most artistic bits of old Canterbury. At the end of the narrow lane rises the beautiful gateway leading into the Cathedral precincts. It has stood there since 1517, and its grim Norman predecessor stood for centuries be- fore it. The gateway could tell many a tale of pageants, for the history of Canterbury is the story of the making of England, anji her ancient shrines and powerful archbishops wielded an enormous influence from British times to the Reformation. 24 CANTERBURY Before you enter the gateway you must make a short excursion to get the best possible historic setting for your visit to the Cathedral, first to the tiny church of St. Martin, the old- est church in England, on the site of the chapel where St. Augustine in 597 baptized his first English convert, the Saxon King Ethelbert. The King, you will remember, was a little suspicious of the new religion and stipulated that Augustine should remain on the Isle of Thanet, where he had landed, until after their first meeting, which was to be held in the open air secure from the danger of magic spells ! "The frank attitude of Augustine appealed to the equally sturdy character of Ethelbert, whose Queen, Bertha, a French princess, had brought her own Christian bishop from France and had already established service in a small chapel outside the city walls, once used by the earlier British Christians, and named by her for St. Martin of Tours. Within the present church, which retains in its walls some of the old Roman bricks, vou find an ancient Saxon font, where presumably the Saxon King was baptized on June 2, 597. Such traditions are to be doubted, but the font is imquestionably very old and fitly commemorates the momen- 25 AX ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY tons event which broiioht Roman Christianity into England. Ethelbert next presented Angustine with a neighboring Saxon temple, which was speedily dedicated to St. Pancras and became a center for public worship. I^ater the King granted a large tract of land for an Abbey, where the new religion might estab- lish a monastery and school. And so St. Ans^ustine's Abbey became England's yener- ated Alma INIater, "the seat of letters and study, at a time when Cambridge was a deso- late fen and Oxford a tanoled forest in a wild waste of waters." All of these buildings were without the city walls, the Abbey at the special desire of Aus^ustine that he mioiit have a consecrated spot for his bones after death. According to the Roman and Oriental usages to which he was accustomed, such burial could not be thought of within the city walls. But King Ethelbert, not content with having the new faith represented outside the city alone, re- moved his own palace to Reculver, not far dis- tant, and, having consecrated Augustine the first Archbishop of Canterbury, gave him the former royal palace and an old British or Roman church as the foundation of the new 26 CANTERBURY Cathedral, which Augustine named Christ Church. As you return to the Cathedral, you go into the gateway of St. Augustine's monastery and look around the ancient precincts. The crum- bling crypt of the Abbey church and the dis- tant ruins of St. Pancras are eloquent of the glory of departed days. Even the burial place of Augustine is now unknown. The Abbey and its traditions were swept away by Henry VIII, but the spirit of Augustine is still marching on, for the restored buildings now harbor an efficient school for missionaries and the old Abbey sends its Christian teachers to the remotest ends of the earth. Back to the Cathedral gateway again, and with eager anticipations you enter the pre- cincts. ' ' Far off the noises of the world retreat, ' ' and you are greeted by broad stretches of English lawn, splendid towering lindens, and fine old houses inclosed by picturesque walls over which vines clamber and beckon allur- ingly. Keeping in mind that the two end towers of the Cathedral face the w^est, it is a delight to stroll slowly along the south side and 27 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY gather first impressions. What an immensely long structure it is! The transepts, instead of being near the east end as in many churches which face west, are actually midway of the building, and a second pair of transepts ap- pears farther on. There is a fascination about it like that of reading a great book carved out of stone. We begin to see clearly that nave and west- ern transepts are all of one "style," with their tall, "Perpendicular" window^s and huge fly- ing buttresses terminating in graceful pinna- cles, and over the roofs of the aisles the flying buttresses which help to steady the arches of the nave. Just above the clerestory windows along the edge of the roof are additional pin- nacles, all helping to convey the impression that the huge nave rests lightly upon its foundations, though in reality the pinnacles by their weight have an important share in steadying the walls of nave and aisles. A few steps beyond the first transept the whole appearance of the building suddenly changes. This part plainly belongs to an earlier time. Here is the massive architecture of the Nor- man; strong, solid walls pierced by round- arched windows. Yet a graceful tower with 28 CANTERBURY a pointed roof shows how beautifully even this more serious architecture can be handled by a skilled artist. Still moving eastward, a lovely little chapel, St. Anselm's, comes into view and our attention is arrested by the con- trast between its Norman beginnings and the graceful "Decorated" window which adorns its south wall and is evidently a later embel- lishment. Just above you, creeping over the roofs of the aisles, are some rather insignificant-looking flying buttresses. Xotice how timorously they hug the roof. But you must look at them with respect, for they represent the ear- liest appearance in English architecture of the flying buttress on the outside of a church. Compare them with those of the nave and see how they were later developed by the Gothic builders. At Westminster Abbey you will find them soaring above the roofs with the greatest abandon. The plain lead roof of this end of the Cathe- dral is gracefully rounded at its east end, and here we come upon a very striking feature, the semi-detached, never finished "Corona" whicli completes the church and is popularly known as Becket's Crown. We walk slowly around 29 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY the Corona. The north side of the Cathedral was the territory of the old monastery, until its monks, like those of Augustine's Abbey, were scattered by Henry VIII. We look with dismay on the ragged, vine-covered Nor- man arches, the fragments of the old Infirm- ary, and we pass by them into the "Dark En- try" haunted by a ghost as told in the "In- goldsby Legends." Here we discover other buildings — chapter house, library, and the monks' lavatory clustering so close to the Cathedral that we can hardly puzzle out the features which balance those of the south side. But if the south side told us its architectural story very frankly, this north side is utterly charming from its varied and bewildering at- tractions. You peer through a long, dark pas- sage and catch a glimpse of partly ruined clois- ters surrounding a venerable graveyard. The ghostly dark entry opens out between queer little twisted Norman columns into a lovely bower of lawn and shrubbery, and when you pass out through the old prior's gate into the beautiful Green Court you realize something of what the monastery must have been in its palmy days. Now the boys of the King's School, one of England's oldest public schools, 30 iiiiii"'! f'CAT^cnrttii^i TRINITY CHAPEL AND CORONATION CHAIR, CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL. CANTERBURY dwell where the home of the monks once stood, and near by is a rarely beautiful old Norman stairway, one of Canterbury's most cherished possessions. The Cathedral Library is housed in an ancient dormitory, and round about are the houses of Dean and Bishop and the recently rebuilt palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Until a few years ago, the Archbishops had had no official home in Can- terbury since Puritan fanatics pillaged and destroyed the old palace more than two hun- dred years ago. Retracing our steps we enter the Cathedral by the beautiful south door adorned with kings and other worthies of Canterbury's glorious past. This south entrance, unlike the chief doorways of many cathedrals which open at the west, indicates a survival of Canterbury's long-past custom when disputes not referable to other courts were heard in the south porch of the Cathedral. It was an old British prac- tice and "the one link betw^een the present Cathedral and the old British Church which Augustine received from Ethelbert."^ In the panel just above the doorway is a weather- worn representation of the altar of Becket, * Freeman. 31 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY and you are reminded that Canterbury was for centuries, in the minds of thousands of people, chiefly the shrine of St. Thomas. We can only understand the amazing results of the murder and canonization of Becket by re- membering that at the time of his death Chris- tianity had fallen under the strange domina- tion of relic-worship. The importance of the great monasteries was so dependent upon the possession of relics that the most surprising efforts were made to secure them, with results both pitiful and ludicrous, as sho\\Ti by the modern traveler's experience with fragments of so-called saints. The burial of St. Augustine's body outside the city walls, with the subsequent interment there of succeeding archbishops, gave to the Abbey a prestige which the monks of Christ Church, the Archbishop's own Cathedral, saw with growing concern. At length the ninth Archbishop, Cuthbert, discerning his oppor- • tunity, left his bones to the Cathedral, charg- ing the monks not to ring the great bell until three days after his death. The plan worked successfully, and after that with one exception no primate was interred at the Abbey, and down to the period of the Reformation not 32 CANTERBURY more than six were buried outside the Cathe- dral precincts. Gradually the prestige of the Cathedral in- creased as her soil became sacred with the dust of the departed. Dunstan, one of the great- est statesmen of Saxon England and Arch- bishop for twenty-seven years, died at Canter- bury, and Canute, as we have noted, restored the martyred Alphege. During the troublous times of the Conquest, in 1067, the Cathedral was burned; and when Lanfranc, the first Norman Archbishop, was greeted by a dis- mantled church he straightway set about rear- ins a more noble structure. For three hundred years Lanfranc's Norman nave and transepts, his impressive crypt, western towers, and cen- tral steeple with its gilded angel, stood un- changed. Not so the "Choir" eastward of the central towers ; for within twenty years of Lanfranc's death, Anselm, his great successor, pulled it down and entrusted the task of en- largement to the prior Ernulf, who developed the new structure on a magnificent scale, ex- tending Lanfranc's crypt far eastward. On the wall near the entrance to the crypt is some diaper ornamentation, regarded as Ernulf's mark. Ernulf afterward became Bishop of 33 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Rochester, and a similar pattern is still visible on the ruins of his monastic buildings at Roch- ester. Ernulf's successor, Prior Conrad, fin- ished the work with such skill and enthusiasm that, as the old chronicler says, "Nothing like it could be seen in England either for the bril- liancy of its glass windows, the beauty of its marble pavement, or the many-colored pic- tures which led the wondering eyes to the very summit of the ceiling." It was long known as "the glorious choir of Conrad." A recently discovered fresco in St. Anselm's Chapel con- firms the tale of its beautiful color effects. It was during this period of the Cathedral's splendor that the spectacular murder of Thomas a Becket, and his canonization as a saint, with the miraculous powers attributed to his shrine, spread the fame of Canterbury throughout Christendom. Becket's quarrel with Henry II and his subsequent murder are familiar matters of history, but one may trace here the steps of the tale as immortalized in the stones of the Cathedral. Entering the nave of the church, we are at once impressed by its light appearance. Our anticipations of Storied windows richly dight. Casting a dim religious light," 34 CANTERBURY are rudely shattered, but, sadly enough, not more so than were the splendid old stained- glass windows destroyed by fanatics in the days of the Commonwealth. We are in a nave of later construction than Lanfranc's, but as we stand near the west door and look up toward the choir we notice one of the most impressive features of this Cathedral, the great flight of steps beneath the central tower leading from the nave up to the screen which cuts off the nave from the choir. The ex- planation is to be found in the huge crypt which lies beneath the choir and, with its later additions, raises the whole eastern end of the church more than twenty feet above the nave. Turning into the north transept, now known as "The Martvrdom," we are on the very spot of Becket's assassination, and through the open doorway into the cloisters catch a glimpse of the peaceful graveyard. The Archbishop's palace adjoined the clois- ters, and under the arcades and through this doorway the monks urged Becket on that fate- ful winter afternoon of the 29th of December, 1170. The murderers had held a violent altercation with Becket in his palace and had left him, as the monks correctly inferred, to get their weapons. They urged Becket to 35 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY take refuge at the High Altar, for the vesper service had ah-eady begun; but he Hngered in the transept, refusing to let the monks close the door on their brethren, who were fleeing, panic-stricken at the rumors of soldiery, from the cloisters to the Cathedral. Urged by the monks, Becket mounted a few steps of the flight leading to the choir; but on the ap- proach of the murderers, who in the dim light of the candles at the various altars, and amid the general confusion, could not identify the Archbishop, descended and faced them. His assailants hesitated, partly from dread of com- mitting sacrilege; but Becket resisted all efforts to drag him from the church and in a few moments fell dead, the final violent blow of Richard the Breton severing his scalp from the skull and snapping the sword which dealt it. Carrying the body to the High Altar, the monks watched with it all night. The discov- ery of a monk's habit and hair-cloth shirt be- neath Becket's garments revealed the fact that he was virtually one of themselves, though he had never been formally recognized as a monk. The discovery excited the greatest enthusiasm and he became at once Saint Thomas. The 36 CANTERBURY very drops of his blood as well as other relics were religiously preserved. Fear of his ene- mies led to his hasty burial in the crypt below. An altar was erected here and also in the tran- sept, and the shrines speedily acquired a sanc- tity unparalleled in the history of sainthood. Four years after Becket's death Henry II made his famous pilgrimage to Canterbury, kneeling first in the porch of the Cathedral, then on the stones where the archbishop had fallen. At the tomb in the crypt he received more than two hundred strokes from the monks and spent the night on the bare ground. Canterbury's crypt has the distinction of being the finest in England, and it is with a thrill of admiration that you stand at the west end and look down the long vista of dusky arches, noting the sturdy Xorman columns with square abacus and variously carved capi- tals. The columns, too, exhibit differing zig- zag patterns. In the southeast transept of the crypt is the Chantry Chapel of the Black Prince, given at the time of his marriage in 1363. It is pleasant to think of Canterbury as a refuge from the horrors of St. Bartholomew, for since 37 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Elizabeth's time French Huguenots and their descendants have worshiped in this chantry and on special occasions the large crypt has been hospitably opened to them. They have left traces of their sojourn here in French in- scriptions on pillar and arch. At the east end of the crypt is a chapel to the Virgin, in early days gorgeously decorated and crowded with offerings, but now in darkness, for a loftier crypt has arisen beyond. Between two slen- der pillars on the edge of this newer part is the spot where Becket was buried in the earlier crypt and Henry II passed his lonely vigil. The pointed arches and the use of the round abacus on the newer though massive columns show the fine Early English work which nobly completes Ernulf's ideal of an imposing "un- dercroft." Two months after Henry II's visit in 1174, Conrad's glorious choir was completely de- stroyed by fire. The people of the town, trained to rely upon relics and superstitions, lost control of themselves, "tore their hair, uttered tremendous curses against God and his saints, and beat the walls and pavement of the church with their shoulders and hands." But the monks speedily took heart and an 38 CANTERBURY able architect, William of Sens, was imported from Normandy. Five years later a fall in- capacitated him and his plans were carried out by an English William, "small in body but in many kinds of work acute and honest." It is the w^ork of these two Williams that we see to-day in Canterbury's choir. William of Sens brought his ideas of Norman construc- tion from his o^vn church at Sens, and the architecture is especially interesting from its blending of the old Norman with the later Early English. The old chronicler states that the former choir was "sculptured with an ax and not with a chisel." This was really a way of saying that the work of the two Williams was more delicately and elaborately carved. The Early English style was foreshadowed by the frequent use of pointed windows and a general sense of lightness, walls and roof rest- ing upon the pillars, instead of conveying a sense of solid walls pierced by arches and win- dows. At the corner of the southeast transept and the western choir aisle you can see an in- teresting combination of round and pointed arches, Norman billet and zigzag work, and also the dog-tooth moldings of the coming Early English period. The capitals of the 39 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY pillars are also very well worth noticing, for they are not Norman, such as we have seen in the crypt, nor the strictly Early English to be observed in other cathedrals, but they suggest classical capitals of the Corinthian order and show the early French influence which Wil- liam of Sens brought with him. As you come up from the crypt and enter the choir, you notice the great height of the altar and at once recall the lofty arches of the eastern crypt. When the church was rebuilt, the shrine of Becket had already brought to the Cathedral not only great distinction but its richest source of revenue, and a new Trinity Chapel was designed for the bones of the saint. You can see the arches of Trinity Chapel just above the High Altar, and beyond them still other arches leading into the Corona or Becket's Crown, popularly supposed to have held the relic of his severed skull. A walk around the aisles which inclose the choir brings us to some of the Cathedral's greatest treasures, but we must first not fail to notice the beautiful stone screen work, just in front of the pillars, executed a hundred years later by Prior d'Estria, a fine example of the Decorated style which succeeded the 40 CANTERBURY Early English. The Archbishop's throne with its graceful canopy stands on the right, and opposite it we go through a doorway into the north aisle. What a picture it all is ! The light steals through ancient stained-glass win- dows which portray the miracles of Becket. Slender shafts of brown marble decorate the piers and triforium arches, making a rich con- trast with the light gray Caen stone. In ad- joining chapels and all about us are the tombs of the illustrious dead who served England when archbishops were virtually prime minis- ters, and just ahead are the stone steps worn into hollows by the feet and knees of tens of thousands of pilgrims. Becket's new shrine was set up just fifty years after his death, and the occasion brought an immense throng of people to Canterbury. The bones were car- ried from the crypt by Pandulph, the Pope's legate, the Archbishop of Rheims, Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Hubert de Burgh, Grand Justiciary of Eng- land. King Henry III, the young son of John, led the imposing procession. A repre- sentation of the shrine still exists in one of tlie adjoining windows. The wealth of gold and jewels which accumulated at the spot is in- 41 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY credible. A watching tower in St. Anselm's chapel guarded the tomb by night and a great cover was let down over it during the day, drawn up by a monk at intervals for the edi- fication of the pilgrims who gazed upon its splendors and rubbed their poor, diseased frames against the stone arches supporting the shrine. Directly east in the Corona stands the chair of Augustine, probably not earlier than the twelfth century, but undoubtedly antique and still used for the consecration of the archbishop. On its left is the tomb of Cardinal Pole, the last Catholic archbishop under Queen Mary, and on the right the beau- tiful kneeling portrait statue of the late Arch- bishop Temple, who crowned King Edward VII. His body and Dean Farrar's both rest in the cloister graveyard. The place of the shrine, now marked by the worn pavement where the multitudes gath- ered, is flanked on one side by the tomb of Henry IV, the only King buried in Canter- burj'-, and on the other by that of Edward the Black Prince, who sleeps with the armor which he actually wore, hanging above him — helmet, gauntlets, leather-covered wooden shield and velvet surcoat. Beside the Black 42 CANTERBURY Prince's tomb is that of Archbishop Courte- nay, who drove Wiclif and his followers from Oxford but could not silence them. Across the aisle is an ancient stone coffin identified in 1889 as that of Hubert Walter, made Arch- bishop by Richard I on the field of Acre. Af- terwards as Chancellor he raised the ransom for his King. When found, the body, remark- ably preserved, was arrayed in its ancient vest- ments with ring and pastoral staff. For more than three hundred years the shrine continued to attract thousands of pil- grims, but the Middle Ages were passing and the visit of Colet and Erasmus about 1512 in- dicated its waning authority. Both were de- voted on the "New Learning." Colet, lecturer at Oxford and one of the earliest teachers of a rational Christianity, made drastic remarks upon the childish spectacle of the martyr's rags offered for adoration. Erasmus, keenly sen- sitive to the beauty of the Cathedral, felt the terrible incongruity of it all. A few years later came the final blow when the divorce of Henry VIII and his consequent stand against the Pope separated the English church from Rome. In 1538 the shrine was called upon to empty its wealth into the king's treasury, 43 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY and its jewels and gold were borne off in two strong coffers by seven or eight men. Serv- ice, festivals, pictures, and images of St. Thomas were forbidden, and he was hence- forth to be known only as Bishop Becket.^ The strange circumstance that the change came about with scarcely a protest from the people is significant of the changing times. As we leave the choir and look up at the end of the Martyrdom Transept, we notice a broad band of rich old stained glass. This and a few fragments are all that remain of the magnificent window given by Edward IV, showing the King and Queen, the princesses, and the pathetic little princes afterward mur- dered in the tower. In this transept Edward I was married to Margaret of France and hung the golden crown of Scotland by Beck- et's shrine. His Archbishop, Peckham, one of the earliest of the great medieval preach- ers, lies here in the congenial company of War- ham, who protected Colet and Erasmus when ^ There was long a theory that the monks did not burn Becket's bones, as ordered by the King, but secretly buried them. In 1888 a coffin was discovered in the Crypt containing the, bones of a very tall man. There were marks of violence on the skull. The skull was photographed and the bones buried where found on the site of the old shrine. The belief that they are the bones of Becket has been ably advocated. 44 CANTERBURY the "New Learning" was fighting for exist- ence. One other famous tomb claims our special homage, a worthier shrine than that of Becket. In the Warriors' Chapel opening out of the southwest transept an arch was built in the wall, when reconstructed in later times to admit a grave which now lies half within and half without the building. It is the tomb of Archbishop Stephen Langton, who stood for English freedom against the despotism of King John and led the barons in their struggle for Magna Charta. We step back into the nave and stroll slowly down the aisles. The marks of Cromwell's troopers who stabled their horses here, are still visible. By way of contrast is the long line of tablets along the wall to gallant British sol- diers who have carried England's empire around the world. The last tablet on the south wall is that of Dean Farrar, and across from it sleeps the late Archbishop Benson, the first archbishop since the Reformation to be buried in the Cathedral. We sit down bv the west door and look up through the long vista as the late afternoon sunlight streams down through the central tower. Lanfranc's old Norman building is gone, though the great 45 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY central tower rests on his massive Norman piers, which were cased with new stone when the Perpendicular nave was built. The broad arch buttresses across the nave and South Transept were erected very soon after the tower was completed, and the slight bulging of the northwest pier, which had no buttress, shows how necessary were these additions. The difference between the triforium of the choir and this of the nave is striking. The nave is Gothic, and Gothic of a late period, when the clerestory windows were being given great prominence and the triforium gallery becom- ing subordinate. Contrast the paneling of the nave triforium with the open arches of that in the choir. Gothic was scarcely born when the two Williams built the choir, and two hun- dred years of changes had passed when this nave was built. Carved capitals had come and gone, and these tall, stately arches with their very plain piers and capitals had become typi- cal of English "Perpendicular" Gothic. Can- terbury's enthusiasm for building did not come when English Gothic was in full flower. Nevertheless, England had become English when Prior Chillenden rebuilt the nave and transepts in Wiclif's time. The slender clus- 46 CANTERBURY tering shafts and vast pointed arches which support the roof suggest the new spirit of re- ligious aspiration which was feeling its way in England. Wiclif's belief that "In the end truth will conquer" could not be overthrown, and the days of "pilgrimages" were doomed. As you sit in the growing dusk your percep- tion of the grandeur of the Cathedral deepens. It is England's great monument to her spirit- ual struggles and triumphs for thirteen cen- turies, and is still instinct with life. When in 1495 the Cathedral added her crowning glory, the superb central tower, Columbus had dis- covered America, the printing press was at work, and a new era was dawning. But Can- terbury had still to await her deliverance. Her shrines were to be demolished ere she could be freed from the ignominy of relic worship, her great Archbishop Cranmer was to perish in the fires of the Reformation, and religious fanaticism was to wreak its vengeance upon her glorious art. Yet with prophetic vision she raised aloft her beautiful tower for the England of the future, typical of the beauty of holiness yet to be realized. 47 (1) WABf?IC7R3'CttAPa (2) CRVPT C3) B»LACK QR\nctS (5) A«5tLrW CrtAPtL {6^ nAPTYRDOn PLA/^ OF CAHTLRDUR-V CATHEDRAL 48 BRIEF SUMMARY FOR THE TRAVELER Cathedral begun in 1070. The Mother Church of Eng- land. Its interest strongly Historical. Architec- turally chiefly Norman, Early Transitional and Per- pendicular Periods. Plan : A double cross with an elongated circular apse, and a circular eastern chapel beyond. • Early Fragments (1070-77) Norman. Remains of Lanfranc's cathedral in the plinth of the wall of nave and transepts and the core of the col- umns of the central tower. Crypt (1070-1184) Western part, Norman. Built chiefly after Lanfranc's time. Notice Ernulf 's diaper pattern near the entrance. Some of the Norman capitals are still unfinished. Chapel of St. John, very striking Norman capitals and traces of painting on the roof. Chapel of Our Lady Undercroft, traces of decoration on vault still visible. Perpendicular stone screens, 15th century, surround it. Tomb of Cardi- nal Morton marked with Tudor portcullis. Black Prince's chantry founded in 1363, Early Perpendicular 15th cen- tury decoration. Eastern Crypt, Early English. Conrad's Choir (1096-1115) Norman. "The glorious Choir of Conrad" was burned in 1174, but a good deal remains. St. Anselm's Chapel survived but has been much altered. A fresco of Con- 49 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY rad's time may still be seen. His clerestory windows survive in the triforium of the eastern transepts. In St. Andrew's chapel the diaper pattern of Ernulf ap- pears over the arch of its apse. Outside^ the arcade on the southeast transept side walls is Conrad's work, and also the beautiful pointed Norman tower. Present Choir (1174-84) Transitional. Longer than Conrad's Choir and than that in any other English church, 180 feet. Vaulting low. Elongated apse known as Trinity Chapel, a French feature. Corinthian Capitals with square abacus, coupled columns in Trinity Chapel almost a copy of those at Sens, Normandy. Slender dark Purbeck marble shafts and dark abacus for each column; this marble became later a characteris- tic Early English feature. Round and pointed arches, Norman billet and zigzag work with the coming Early English Dog tooth ornament. See combination at cor- ner of southeast transept and western choir aisle. Outside: Notice low flying buttresses over aisles. The first outside flying buttress in England. Contraction of choir due to survival of towers of St. Anselm and St. Andrew from Conrad's Choir. Three tiers of steps, a very notable feature: at the crossing, the High Altar, and in aisles leading up to Trinity Chapel. Triforium arches pointed. Notice fan vault- ed roof in Henry IV's Chantry, 1433. Lancet windows, where used, are rather broader than the late Early English type. Center window in the Corona is ancient glass. The others modern. Three of 50 CANTERBURY the old 13th century Beckct windows remain on north aisle of Trinity Chape\ Some old glass transferred from other windows appears in western windows of north choir aisle. In St. Anselm's Chapel large south window geometrical style of Decorated period, 1336. D'Estria's beautiful screen incloses choir stalls. Lower part and base seen in choir aisles is earlier time of William of Sens, but upper part all d'Estria's. Carving of Decorated period 1301-5. Original doorway into north choir aisle remains. That into south choir aisle is in later style. Transepts (1378-1411) Perpendicular. Like the nave, built on Lanfranc's foundations. Hence unusually short and narrow and without aisles. Northwest, or Martyrdom Transept. Interesting old tomb of Archbishop Peckham, late 13th century work. Great north window presented by Ed- ward IV, 15th century. Much of the glass destroyed. Dean's Chapel (formerly Lady Chapel) on the east, built 1460 in Perpendicular style. Notice beautiful fan vaulting and the delicate decoration of the chapel. Southwest Transept: Warrior's chapel, date uncer- tain, probably late 14th century. Tomb of Stephen Langton retained in its place from an older building. Nave (1378-1411) Perpendicular. Built on Lanfranc's original plinth for the aisle walls. High in proportion to its length. Shortness due to preservation of Lanfranc's Northwest Tower, which was replaced in 1834. Clerestory and 51 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY triforium subordinated to pier arches, which are very tall in proportion. Large west window made from fragments of old glass. JNIost of remaining windows unpleasantly mod- ern. Western side of choir screen 15th century. Per- pendicular work. Older work of d'Estria in choir re- mains behind it. Exterior: Very small triforium windows. Very ex- ceptional south door. Western towers 130 feet high. Central Tower (1495) Perpendicular Period. Interior: Original Norman piers cased with later work. Buttressing arches across nave and south transept. None on north transept, hence northwest pier bulges eastward. Exterior: Perpendicular; remarkably beautiful. No- tice graceful outlines of windows. Very effective and unusual are the buttresses at the corners, rising in un- broken lines from roof to pinnacle. 249 ft. 4 in. high. 52 < Q < U LU »- (/) liJ I o o 1/5 < z o o < z CHAPTER III ROCHESTER ROCHESTER possesses the true atmos- phere for a mystery. Dickens divined this when he began to weave his plot for a story which should center about the Ca- thedral. The to^Mi to him was "a silent city, deriving an earthy flavor throughout from its cathedral crypt." So powerful has been his spell that when you walk the streets of the an- cient town or stroll through the Cathedral, your thoughts are quite as much of Jasper and Tope and Canon Crisparkle and Durdles as they are of those robust personalities whose carved figures adorn the Choir screen, Pauli- nus, Gundulph, De Hoo, Fisher, and the rest. But this darksome little town with its creepy Cathedral would never have given Dickens such a setting for his tale had it not been for the grim decrees of fate which molded its his- tory. Legend, in its earliest dawn, represents the 53 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY pagan residents of Rochester as opposing a stout front to Augustine's mission. It even asserts that they attached fish tails to the gar- ments of the preacher, and although they finally arrived at the dignity of a Christian bishopric in 604, their first bishop, Justus, had to flee to Gaul in a few years, when owing to the death of King Ethelbert the church lapsed into most determined heathenism. A similar tragedy overtook Paulinus, the brave Augus- tinian missionary who escorted Ethelbert's daughter to Northumbria as the bride of King Edwin and with her converted him to Chris- tianity. The story belongs to the annals of York, but touches Rochester also, for Edwin fell before the host of Penda of Mercia and Paulinus brought the widowed queen back to her Kentish home and remained as Bishop of Rochester, while the north was left to Celtic missionaries. Rochester on its hospitable river Medway naturally proved a seductive prize for pirates. The Danes plundered the town whenever their fancy dictated, though once at least King Al- fred beat them off; and one of the most per- sistent of early traditions asserts that the doors of the Cathedral were covered with the skins of 54) EXTERIOR, ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL. Thomas Asli & Sons, Kochester. NORMAN TRIFORIUM, ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL. ROCHESTER Danes. The Normans, with their military in- stincts, reared an impregnable castle on the river bank, and despite the ragged holes in its once trim exterior, which Dickens said looked as if the rooks and daws had picked its eyes out, a defiant spirit breathes from it to this day. A climb to the top of the castle brings vividly back the age of warfare, — dungeons below your feet, the deep cut of the portcullis overhead, cheerless, dark, winding stairways, unguarded corridors, and grewsome openings where stones and hot lead might be precipi- tated upon the head of the enemy. You are glad to reach the outlook of the battlements with a lovely view of the Kentish hills and nothing more immediately warlike in view than the neighboring military dockyards of Chat- ham, while the pigeons build their nests in the chinks of the castle and gulls float above the river as they must have done with sinister in- tent in the cruel days of long ago. Here Wil- liam Rufus besieged tlie Conqueror's half brother, the rebel Bishop Odo. Later King John undermined its outer wall and Simon de Montfort and Wat Tyler each in turn tested its strength. 55 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Three miles away across the river is Gad's Hill, where Dickens spent the last ten years of his life/ The name awakens Shakespearean memories also. Was it not here that Falstaff, the arch robber, met his equal in Prince Henry? A few miles to the south is a group of prehistoric stones known as Kits Coty House. Over the slope of this hill Hengist and Horsa are said to have marched in 449, when, turned back })y the guarded walls of Rochester, they passed down into the valley of the Medway to that world-famous battle where Horsa fell, the first of England's war heroes. But it was long after Horsa and Paulinus and the Danes that an archbishop of Canter- bury, William de Corbeuil, built this formi- dable castle, and it was an asset that must have rested heavily upon him. He had crowned King Stephen in 1154 after solemnly swearing to support the cause of Matilda and is said to have died of remorse for his faithlessness. The ^ In Dickens's study at Gad's Hill was a shelf of counter- feit book baclcs ingeniously devised by him and his friends. Some of them suggest his cathedral studies: "King Henry VII I's Evidences of Christianity," 5 volumes; "Noah's Arki- tecture"; "The Wisdom of our Ancestors: I. Ignorance, II. Superstition, III. The Block, IV. The Stake, V. The Rack, VI. Dirt, VII. Disease." 56 ROCHESTER Cathedral lies in a hollow just below the castle. You look down upon its odd little central tower, antique in design but really newest of the new. The previous tower, a square, eight- eenth century production, was rebuilt under the late Dean Hole, whose zeal turned the pro- ceeds of an American lecture tour into the treasury of his Cathedral, and the tower once more took on its early proportions. This is one of the best view points for the Cathedral, which is much hemmed in by build- ings. Its Norman west front has often been restored and quite altered by a large perpen- dicular window, but the lower tier of the fa- cade has suifered less change and its fine cen- tral Norman doorway is a credit to its early architects. The pioneer of its Norman build- ers was Bishop Gundulph, a remarkable man, for years a monk at Bee in Normandy. Bee was one of the greatest seats of learning in Europe and the monastery of Canterbury's famous archbishops, Lanfranc and Anselm. Gundulph, intimately acquainted with these prelates, was made Bishop of Rochester by Lanfranc. Like his distinguished associates he was an able architect and built the White Tower of London, part of the wall of Roclies- 57 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY ter Castle overlooking the river, and much of the early Norman Cathedral, where he estab- lished a strong colony of Benedictine monks. His huge, rugged tower, at one time more than sixty feet high, still stands on the north side of the Cathedral and has been the puzzle of an- tiquarians. Whether built for defense or for bells is uncertain. It was unquestionably used for bells and was as certainly built before the church. It was a melancholy deed of the Dean and Chapter in the early nineteenth century to use some of the stones of this venerable tower for repairs to the Cathedral. The close connection between Rochester and Canterbury is obvious from their history. Lan- franc had scarcely finished the Norman Cathe- dral at Canterbury when Gundulph began his work at Rochester about 1080. When Anselm pulled down Lanfranc's choir to enlarge it he put Prior Ernulf in charge of the work, but Ernulf later became Bishop of Rochester, and it fell to his lot and that of his later associates to rebuild and complete Gundulph's nave. It is not unlikely, therefore, that Rochester's beautiful nave conveys to us some idea of what Canterbury's choir may have been in its early years. 58 CHOIR, ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL. ROCHESTER Norman times under Henry I saw Roches- ter Cathedral at the mercy of two devastating fires. The horrified chronicler, still under the spell of the church's dedication and the King's presence, naively records that "a dreadful con- flagration broke out and without any regard to the Majesty of the King, grandeur of the Church, or solemnity of the occasion, laid the city in ashes and much damaged the new church!" It was especially tragic, for Eng- land was deprived of one more complete Nor- man monument, though the growing ambitions of the people and the recent beautiful work of the "two Williams" at Canterbury doubtless made them welcome the new pointed style. We are told that the sacrist William de Hoo in- itiated the architectural scheme of this new de- parture, and tradition has been busy in identi- fying him with "English William" of Canter- bury, finding many parallels in the work of the two men. The stern Norman architecture with its heavy round arches and solid walls has been likened to the dominant Norman himself, hold- ing the country in his tight grasp. Perchance, as William de Hoo's pointed arches and grace- ful vaulted roofs began to rise above the choir, 59 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY monks and people nnconscioiisly breathed more freely and were reconciled to the change. A somber and unlooked-for event at this time gave the Ccthedral a "practical" saint, one more immediately profitable than its pa- tron, St. Andrew! A pious Scotch baker, William of Perth, whose charity of one loaf in ten for the poor had already established a twelfth-century "bread line," set forth in 1201 on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, possibly to be interpreted as Canterbury. His road lay through Rochester, but just beyond the town he was murdered bv his servant, who robbed him and fled. The Rochester monks conveyed the body of this holy pilgrim to the Cathedral and buried it in the choir, where "he moalded miracles plentifully" at his tomb, so that "St. William," for he was afterward canonized, de- veloped a career least thought of by himself. He became the munificent patron of the Cathe- dral, the offerings at his shrine making good the loss which the church had suffered by fire. But for one patron in the thirteenth century the Cathedral encountered two despoilers. After King John had successfully besieged his rebellious barons in Rochester Castle in 1215, he celebrated his victory by plundering the 60 < a UJ I I- < u u o a: UJ o z < q: 1- z 'I^W^l-'- •sm •-. «l Ml 1 > (1 •>•! M !>■ a • I .' ■ ■ >l MM .« )» «-■ 1 (• •B <« cc O O o 1/J UJ ROCHESTER Cathedral till there was "not a pyx" left for use in the Holy Sacrament. Fifty years later, on Good Friday, the Cathedral again bowed to its fate, when, after the capture of the city by the troops of Simon de Montfort, armed horsemen "coursed around the altars," dragged away the monks, robbed and mur- dered, and turned church and monastic build- ings into stables. It is pleasant to remember that in this same thirteenth century a peaceful bishop, Walter de Merton, founded the oldest college at Oxford. His tomb in the eastern transept of the Cathedral is still under the care of Merton College. It suffered both in the Reformation and in the Civil Wars, though the Cathedral as a whole escaped with only minor injuries. These pictures of the past flit through your mind as you come down from the ramparts of the grim castle and follow the winding road to the Cathedral. The time-worn statues of Henry I or II and his queen which greet you on both sides of the great west entrance are two of the oldest in England, and the doorway itself is one of the finest specimens of Xorman workmanship to be found anyvv'here, with its varied and elaborately ornamented moldings 61 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY spanning the quaint tympanum above the in- geniously carved capitals. It has been likened to the architecture of Southern France, and its rich ornamentation is almost Saracenic. A flight of four steps leads down into the church, and after your first glance at the short Nor- man nave and its unusual decorative features, you notice at once the incongruous appearance of the large clerestory windows, which are en- tirely unrelated to the arches below them. These, with the flat wooden roof of the same date and great west window, are evidence of the enthusiasm for Perpendicular Gothic which prevailed in the fifteenth century. In Rochester's somber climate the Norman church was doubtless none too cheerful, and new fash- ions which promised more light would be read- ily accepted. Fortunately, in still earlier times, some guid- ance, probably lack of funds, saved the fine old nave on which Gundulph and Ernulf and Bishop John had lavished so much skill, and you study with delight the great variety of moldings, billet, cable and others, on the inside of the west front, and a beautiful little Nor- man doorway in the southwest corner of the nave. The scalloped capitals occurring here 62 ROCHESTER and on the pillars of the nave, with the elabo- rate carving of the great arches, are charming examples of fine late Norman work. Gun- dulph's share can be seen in the south aisle, where the arches are perfectly plain, but in the nave the later builders in the early twelfth century cased his work with fine Caen stone and reveled in decorative ef- fects. Most striking of these is the upper part of the triforium, where the heads of the main arches are filled in with stone and carved in a great variety of patterns, giving to the nave an almost Oriental richness, and sug- gesting its far-distant Byzantine ancestry. The triforium, you notice, opens into the aisle, a very unusual feature, but found also in St. Stephen's Church at Caen, Normand}^ where Lanfranc was once abbot. Only six of the eight bays of the nave are Norman, and even these had a narrow escape, for we learn that the last bay of the triforium on each side east- ward, while apparently Norman, is really by masons of the Decorated Gothic period, re- placed when it was decided to retain the old work. Just below, where the two styles face each other under the sixth arch, is a beautiful capital of carved Decorated foliage. At this 63 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY point the two tall arches of the later builders cut off the triforium entirely. In Rochester you feel the essential difference between Norman and Gothic. The Gothic principle of a building held aloft by its skill- fully constructed framework cannot be success- fully applied w hen new work is patched on the old, as in Rochester's nave and also in William de Hoo's Early English choir, where he re- tained the thick Norman walls separating the choir from its aisles and allowed his Early English clerestory to rest upon them. There is no triforium. A blind arcade of Early Eng- lish arches upon the face of the solid Norman walls takes its place. The choir is entirely cut off from its aisles and these in turn are sepa- rated by heavy walls from the eastern tran- sept, for the church is in form a double cross. Moreover, Gundulph's old crypt raised the choir to a considerable height, as at Canter- bury, and the heavy screen which divides it from the nave, with the flight of steps leading up to it, forms another w^all of separation, so that the church does not get the benefit of its actual size, small as it is, but suggests a series of semi-detached apartments, somewhat typi- cal of the attitude of the monks and townspeo- 64 ROCHESTER pie, who did not always illustrate the graces of Christian charity. The monks worshiped behind their screen, and the parish of St. Nich- olas possessed the nave, and many were the dis- putes between them, ended only by the erection of a separate church in the cemetery to the north. A relic of these old days still survives in the right of the mayor and corporation on occasion to enter the Cathedral by the great west door, in all the pomp of their civic au- thority. Rochester was on the highway to Canterbury and the Continent. Fear of the crowds passing through may have contributed to the isolation of the choir from the rest of the Cathedral. Entrance to the choir is through the four- teenth-century doorway of the heavy screen, which was decorated with historic figures in the last century as a memorial to the late Dean Scott, one of the compilers of Liddell and Scott's famous lexicon. Saints Andrew, Jus- tus and Paulinus, with King Ethelbert, repre- sent Rochester's early traditions; Bishop Gun- dulph, William de Hoo, Bishop de Merton, and Cardinal Fisher her most famous builders and bishops. Gundulph holding a model of his cathedral seems here to have been endowed 65 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY with second sight, for the small model displays prominently the Perpendicular windows of the present church. Within the choir you seem in another church. There is much fine carving here of the dark marble shafts so freely used. The graceful clerestory with its dog tooth moldings, a marked Early English feature, and the blind arcades which take the place of the triforium, are well worth attention. The brilliant wall decoration above the choir stalls, though modern, is a repetition of an ancient pattern discovered behind the stalls. Its fleurs de lis and rampant lions are quite probably an appreciative memory of the French wars, and of John II of France, who, captured by the Black Prince at Poictiers and brought to Eng- land, returned to his own country in 1360. He must have been glad enough to get out of Eng- land, and his gift of sixty crowns to Rochester by the way was doubtless a thank-offering! Another ancient bit of painting, part of a thir- teenth-century fresco of a wheel of fortune, was found hidden behind a pulpit. The fickle goddess is portrayed watching her votaries rise, and the missing portion doubtless made evident the fleeting nature of worldly success. One can fancy the long and pathetic procession 66 ROCHESTER of monks, who, day after day through the cen- turies, contemplated this fresco and thereby subdued their human aspirations. You must notice one or two exceptionally fine windows of the Decorated Gothic pe- riod in this part of the church, and, most im- portant of all, the beautiful Chapter House doorway, with its graceful ogee arch, be- neath which is the ball-flower ornament, both very characteristic Decorated features. At the top of the door is a tiny nude figure of a soul just freed from purgatory, with angels just beneath. The lowest figure on the right, a woman blindfolded, represents the Old Dispensation, and that on the left the Chris- tian Church. The latter was headless in the early nineteenth century and for fifty years thereafter bore uncomplainingly a bearded bishop's head. In 1897 its "rights" were con- ceded, and a female head substituted for that of the bishop! Bishop Hamo de Hythe, to whom the Decorated work in the choir is at- tributed, also built the central tower in 1346, and placing in it four bells, named them with due reverence Dunstan, Paulinus, Ythamar and Lanfranc. From the Chapter House door we return 67 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY through the south choir aisle and pass down into the crypt. Gundulph's crypt is entirely taken up by the mechanism of the organ, and its Norman pillars are scarcely visible in the gloom, but tlie later Early English portion is very imposing. Traces of painting and sites of old altars show how extensively it was once used. Dickens, in his "Mystery of Edwin Drood," takes Jasper and Durdles down into the crypt by moonlight, and as they come up the colors of the stained-glass windows are thrown upon their faces with weird effect. Before leaving the Cathedral by the side door, we linger to read the tablet to Dickens on the wall of the south transept. He wished to sleep in the neighboring churchyard, but Eng- land claimed her right to his grave in West- minster Abbey. Just above his tablet memo- rial windows to General Gordon and his asso- ciates who fell in the Egyptian campaign, have been placed by the Royal Engineers, who also erected a fine bronze statue to Gordon at Chatham, close to Rochester. One more trace of the Cathedral's youth we must see in the crumbling arches of Ernulf's Chapter House and dormitory, southeast of the Cathedral, still marked with his character- 68 ROCHESTER istic diaper pattern, and even in their decay testifying to his artistic skill. Not far distant a plain old building, near the Prior's Gateway, now used for dwelling houses, is all that re- mains of the early Episcopal palace, the home of Bishop John Fisher, the greatest of Roch- ester's bishops and the last to live here. As Chancellor of the University of Cambridge he was distinguished for "grete and singular vir- tue," and as bishop lent his strength to Eras- mus, welcoming him to his home when the New Testament in English was struggling for rec- ognition. He anticipated the progressive the- ology of our own day when he calmly insisted upon the use of reason in religion. Then, in the supreme test of Henry VIII's time, the old bishop refusing to sanction the King's divorce from Catherine and his absolutism ex- pressed in the Act of Supremacy, went to the scaffold, and as he knelt, opened his New Tes- tament at random and read, "This is life eter- nal, to know thee, the only true God." His grave is not in Rochester, but beside that of Sir Thomas More in the gloomy chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London. Nicholas Ridley, the companion martyr of Latimer at Oxford, was bishop here for three 69 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY years before he became bishop of London in 1550. Just inside the Prior's Gateway stands Minor Canon Row. Here Dickens located his high-minded, athletic, "classical, cheerful" young Canon Crisparkle, who, with his charm- ing old mother, "the china shepherdess," play such an important role in the "Mystery of Ed- win Drood." The houses are so much alike that you make j^our own selection. "Red brick walls harmoniously toned down in color by time, strong rooted ivy, latticed windows, paneled rooms, big oaken beams in little places and stone-walled gardens where annual fruit yet ripened on monkish trees." Glancing in at a friendly window, you picture the inimitable scene of the dinner party when the pompous Mr. Honeythunder and his wards make their first appearance, the oppressive philanthropist finally reducing his hosts and fellow-guests to "a sort of gelatinous state in which there was no flavor or solidity and very little resistance." You are liable to meet Durdles anywhere about here as he trundles his wheelbarrow, in- tent upon neglected tree trunks, pruning and cutting, and you can see for your- self how Dickens has imparted his own 70 ROCHESTER peculiar flavor to the native traits of Durdles. Through the Prior's Gateway you find vour wav into the ancient vineyard, now a well-kept park known as The Vines, where the Princess Puffer has her mem- orable interview with Edwin Drood, which sends him off with misgivings in his heart to walk over the long bridge till dinner time, while "the woman's words are in the rising wind, in the angry sky, in the troubled water, in the flickering light." Dickens visited The Vines only a few days before his death, and the last chapter which he wrote again portrayed the Princess Puffer in the park, this time on a still hunt for Jasper, when she reveals to Datchery her former conversation with Edwin, and the plot thickens. Emerging from the park into Crow Lane you pass close to the former site of the "Traveller's Twopenny," recalling "Winks," the graceless imp, its "manservant," who earns an honest ha'penny at night by ston- ing Durdles home if he "ketches 'im out after ten." Crow Lane runs into High Street, Dickens's "one narrow street in Cloisterham by which you get into it and get out of it." On the right looms up the house of Mr. Sapsea, Auctioneer, "the purest Jackass in Cloister- 71 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY ham," who apes the Dean m dress and man- ner, "has been bowed to for the Dean, in mis- take; has even been spoken to in the street as JNIy Lord, under the impression that he was the Bishop come down unexpectedly without his Chaplain," and just across the way you discern the Nun's House, through whose garden you stroll, seeing in fancy the sinister figure of the snake-like Jasper leaning on the sun dial while timid little Rosa flees to the house in horror at his advances. The house, now the Eastgate Museum, has lost all traces of its boarding- school days under prim Miss Twinkleton, when with its resplendent brass sign it "reminded imaginative strangers of a battered old beau with a large modern eye-glass stuck in his blind eye." Slowly you ramble along the High Street, drawn by an irresistible fascination, to the very citadel of the story; Jasper's Gateway, above which so many thrilling scenes were en- acted and beneath which, with "everything as quaintly inconvenient as he could desire," dwelt the detective, Datchery, "a single buffer, living idly on his means" and all under the friendly guardianship of good Mrs. Tope and the venerable verger, endeared to the commu- nity as "Old Tope." Like Winks, you elude 72 ROCHESTER the vigilance of Old Tope and slip once more into the Cathedral, reflecting there upon the wonders of the human imagination which could people the venerable city with a group of spirits who never shared its material existence, yet are as much a part of its history as those who in actual life walked its ancient streets. 73 PLAN OF WChZSTm CATrtEDRAL (DTOn&OF BISH- OP WAUTE.B.OE. f?)5VJPW5EC>TOrl0 '•'^'oFSTWIUlAn OF PERTH CHAPT-R HOUJE. BRIEF SUMMARY FOR THE TRAVELER Cathedral begun about 1080. Chiefly Norman and Early English. Plan: A double cross. Nave (1080-1137 ?) Norman, in six of the eight bays. Gundulph's early work, 1080, in south aisle. Later builders in early 12th century cased his work with fine Caen stone and carved it richly. Arches of nave carved with zigzag and other moldings. Capitals of piers scalloped. Triforium opens into aisle, very unusual. Triforium has two arches, with containing arch above. Beneath this arch the space is filled in and carved in diaper patterns in great variety around a central ornament. Western wall enriched with billet, cable and other moldings and blind arches. Very beautiful Norman door- way in southwest corner. Norman windows in aisles. Two eastern bays of nave Early Decorated Gothic lat- ter part of 13th century. Decorated capital under sixth arch. No triforium in the Gothic work. Perpendicular windows in clerestory and in west front about 1470, also the flat wooden roof about the same time. External facade chiefly Norman or restoration of Nor- man work. Design more effective than fronts of many cathedrals. Low aisle ends make the towers more im- posing. Great central doorway, finest example of a 75 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Norman doorway with tympanum. Five receding arches, rich carving, and two of the oldest statues in England. Cloisters (1115-24) Late Norman. Ernulf's work. Chapter House wall with three open arches formed west wall of oblong chap- ter house. Walled-in arches below represent part used for burials. Ernulf's diaper pattern in spandrels of central upf)er arch. Adjoining are arches of dormitory wall. Crypt (12th century Norman and 13th century Early English) Old Norman in western part, now occupied by the organ. Circular columns with cushion capitals. Eastern part Early English circular and octagonal columns, plain bell-shaped capitals with round abacus. Traces of painting and old altars. Choir (1200-27) Early English. Presbytery and eastern transepts built first. No triforium. Tall arches carry clerestory in Presbytery. East windows are restorations of the 19th century. Here also are windows of lancet shape but tracery of the Late Decorated period. Doorway into Chapter House one of the finest pieces of Decorated Gothic in England, middle of 11th cen- tury; characteristic ogee arch and ball flower orna- ment. The choir proper is inclosed by old Norman walls. Early English clerestory rests upon them. No triforium, blind arcade instead. Dog-tooth and billet moldings. 76 ROCHESTER Each single clerestory window has a triple screen in front. Wheel of Fortune Fresco on choir wall prob- ably 13th century. Carved Purbeck marble corbels un- der slender vaulting shafts. Ancient wall pattern 14th century behind stalls reproduced in modern choir. North choir aisle has stone steps to Shrine of St. ^^'illiam, also door leading to Gundulph's tower. Choir screen very recently decorated with figures. Height of choir due to crypt, as at Canterbury. North Transept (about 1235) Early English. Clerestory lancets have screens in front of wall passage. Much use of dark marble shafts in both transepts. South Transept (about 1280) Early Decorated period. But lancet windows on south wall and dog tooth ornament show early English characteristics. Geometrical windows on west wall in- dicate Early Decorated period. In east wall two bays formed into a wide arch about 1320, making a recess for an altar to the Virgin, this transept served as a Lady Chapel. Lower south windows commemorate Gen- eral Gordon and members of his Egyptian Corps. Tab- let to Dickens on south wall. Central Tower (1343) Originally crowned with wooden spire. Rebuilt in 171'Q and again some 80 years later. In early 20th cen- tury the top was altered from a square-pinnacled tower to its original form of a pointed spire. 77 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Lady Chapel (about 1490) Perpendicular style. The so-called Lady Chapel ad- joining the south transept on the west was built in the 15th century as a choir for the altar to the Virgin in the south transept. 78 Copyright, Fliotdiini mh c .... Ltd., i,c>iiil,,ii. WEST FRONT, LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. CHAPTER IV LINCOLN FEW English cathedrals can compare with Lincoln in the splendor of its situ- ation. As you stand by the banks of the river Witham in the "lower town," you look up the steep sides of a huge, abrupt hill-top forming a citadel that Agamemnon might have envied. The Cathedral, with its straight, strong lines and square towers, nobly crowns the height, and seems conscious of its protect- ing powers, looking securely down upon the city clustering at its feet, or off at the wide- spreading fen land where countless toilers take heart at sight of its mighty central tower, the highest in all England. With such a situation it is very evident why Lincoln became an important Roman colony, five main roads centering in the town. Frag- ments of the old Roman walls are still pointed out, and one imposing Roman gateway, the 79 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY last but one in England. After the Romans withdrew, the rude folk of the Lincolnshire fens took a hand in the duel fought by Briton and Saxon for this coveted retreat. Then fol- lowed the missionar3\ Ultimately to be driven from his northern field, came Paulinus, Bishop of York, whose tall, slender form and black hair must have contrasted strikingly with the sturdiness of his fair-haired Saxon flock. Blecca, the "prefect" of Lincoln, became a con- vert, and about the year 628 erected a stone church for his fellow-Christians. This ancient foundation is still perpetuated in the church of St. Paul in the city, but the pedigree of the present minster goes back to the church of St. Mary at Stow, eleven miles northwest of Lin- coln. On the site of this little village was the ancient Sidnacester, which became the "bishop's stool" of the diocese for two hundred vears, till the Danes burned the church and the bishops retired to Dorchester on the Thames. By the time of William the Norman, Lincoln had become the fourth city in the kingdom. To the Conqueror's mind a Norman castle was a suitable ornament for its formidable hilltop, and he ordered scores of modest dwellings within the Roman walls to be torn down, while 80 LINCOLN the grim Norman keep rose on their ruins. In the plain below can be seen to-day the towers of two ancient Saxon churches built for the evicted tenants, tragic reminders of their need of religious consolation. One of William's followers was Remigius, a monk, almoner of the Xorman monastery of Fecamp, who had furnished one ship with twenty knights for the invasion of England. At the death of the Saxon bishop of Dorches- ter Remigius succeeded him, and when the de- cree went forth in 1072 that bishops should dwell in walled towns, he naturally turned to Lincoln. It was a fortress-like church that Remigius reared just east of William's castle. The wall of its apse, some eight feet thick, was typical of the whole structure. A fire fifty years after his death burned the roof, and the falling timbers broke the slab of his tomb. It was left for Bishop Alexander the Magnificent to repair the cathedral and enrich it with beau- tiful late Norman work. Alexander was a nephew of that Bishop Roger of Salisbury whose numerous castles had excited the suspi- cions of King Stephen. Alexander, it would seem, had his "princely" qualities also, and Stephen treacherously seized the possessions 81 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY of both uncle and nephew. But the king's turn came soon, for in his struggle for the throne against the claims of Matilda, her champions seized Lincoln Castle and Stephen was fain to take refuge in the cathedral, which he sacrilegiously fortified. Omens of evil were soon observed. A wax candle offered by the King broke as it was being handed to the Bishop, and the chain supporting the pyx snapped asunder. In the battle which fol- lowed, Stephen was captured and the city plundered. The Norman church stood until 1185, when in the great earthquake which was felt throughout England "the minster was cleft from top to bottom." As you walk up from the river bank through High Street and climb the street named, for its chief characteristic, "Steep Hill," you gain the summit at a point mid- way between castle and cathedral. In front of you stands the fine old "Exchequer Gate," built in the fourteenth century, and as you pass under it you are face to face with the towering west front of the cathedral, one of the most imposing in England. Salisbury's west front at once occurs to you. Indeed, the arrangement of Lincoln's great stone screen 82 D O If) ui I O < a. a oi I I- < (J O o LINCOLN seems less justifiable than that of Salisbury, for these two noble western towers offered a fine opportunity for a great design instead of being half hidden by the huge wall which in no sense suggests the structure of the cathedral behind it. But this whole front is immensely interest- ing. You can, in fancy, take it apart like a dissected map. Those three round arches, except the upper part of the central one, al- tered at a later time, were built by Remigius in the eleventh century, but the Norman door- way in the central arch and the two adjoining it were inserted by Bishop Alexander more than fifty years later. Look closely at the stone work and you will see the difference between the older "wide- jointed" masonry where mortar is used very liberally and Bishop Alexander's finely jointed doorway. These doorways with their exquisite carvings are among the finest examples of their kind — late Norman just before it passed into the Early English. In studying the central door- way, notice the freedom of these early build- ers. They delighted in variety. No two shafts are alike, and on one side of the door you see scalloped capitals while on the other 83 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY their shape is very closely akin to the Corin- tliian capitals of classic architecture. The abacus, you observe, is square. The round form had not yet made its appearance. Just above the two smaller side arches you discover some quaint old Saxon or Norman carvings set into the stonework. Their origin is un- certain. The subjects are all Biblical; Noah and the Ark with attendant animals, Daniel in the lion's den, and other scriptural worthies, are portrayed with an enthusiasm which is delightful. In spite of crudities the work is very effective as a bit of architectural detail. On each side of the central doorway, just above the round arches, are short bands of wall arcading. These are part of Bishop Alexander's Norman work. He also built the two west towers to a point just above their three rows of arcading, but here the Norman features cease. The gable above the end of the nave roof was lower in his day and the arch lower and rounder. Now pass around for a moment to the south side of the cathedral and you will notice on the side of the south tower a Norman gable composed of rows of arcading. It is quite probable that something similar to this was once a 84 LINCOLN feature of the front of each tower before the great screen was built. In imagination we can almost construct for ourselves the Nor- man front of Bishop Alexander's time. Within a year of the great earthquake which shattered the Norman church, a re- markable man was appointed to the bishopric. Hugh of Avalon was a Frenchman, the son of a noble living at Avalon near Grenoble in Burgundy. In his young manhood Hugh had entered the priory near his father's cas- tle, but was later transferred to the Grand Chartreuse, where he became bursar of that famous Carthusian monastery. Conspicuous for his abilities, it was not strange that when a new monastery of this order was to be estab- lished in Witliam, Somersetshire, Henry II should send ambassadors to secure him as its first prior. For ten years Hugh ruled his quiet English monastery; then the bishopric of Lincoln fell vacant and the King prevailed upon him to take the post. Hugh reluctantly agreed to the change. He had deep convic- tions as to the resiDonsibilities of a bishop, and Henry realized the sort of man he had to deal with when, for just cause, Bishop Hugh ex- communicated the King's chief forester. Nor 85 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY did he hesitate to refuse to bestow a cathedral position upon one of Henry's favorites. Richard I also felt the temper of his Lincoln prelate, when at a council in Oxford Hugh and the Bishop of Salisbury alone opposed a grant for the King's foreign wars and "spoke up for the laws and rights of English- men." But this uncompromising bishop was no mere fighter. To organize his diocese, to lead the jjeople against royal despotism, and to plan the details of a great cathedral were the natural activities of his fine spirit, while oc- casionally he would retire to his little Somer- setshire priory, for Lincoln never was a mon- astery, and live for a time as a simple monk practicing the austerities of his order. With the shattered Norman cathedral constantly confronting him, Bishop Hugh must have had visions of what a new church might be on such a superb site, and we know that he de- voted six years to collecting materials and preparing for the work. To appreciate the significance of Hugh's work we must remember that at this time the great Romanesque churches of the Norman were the prevailing type in England. West- minster Abbey was still Edward the Con- 86 LINCOLN fessor's old Norman church, nor had Salis- bury Cathedral departed from its rude Nor- man beginnings at Old Sarum. But at Can- terbury the choir of the "two Williams" had just been completed, the first hint of coming changes. St. Hugh, as he later came to be known, took a long step forward when he set aside the familiar round arch and planned his new choir with pointed arches throughout, slender, lancet windows and a variety of ornament new in style and developed with such artistic skill that it still takes high rank among the most beautiful productions of cathedral art. Where did St. Hugh get his inspiration ? The question answers itself when we remember that the thirteenth century in Europe w^as one of the great centuries of human awakening. The Crusades had stirred the life of the people and new ideas were in the air. Parliaments were soon to take shape. England's Magna Charta was signed only fifteen years after St. Hugh's death. Hugh himself was a genius, and such a man was sure to be a little ahead of his time. We know that his architect had a French name, Geoffrey de Noyers, but it is claimed that his family had lived in Lincoln- 87 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY shire for generations. Moreover, a very emi- nent French critic of the last century, M. Viollet le Due, admits that during St. Hugh's lifetime, previous to 1200, there was nothing in France of a similar character. Nor must we forget that no great archi- tectural change springs into life full grown. The late twelfth century was a period of great building enterprises. Norman and French craftsmen were doubtless at work all over England. St. Hugh's six years of prepara- tion for his great church and his frequent episcopal journeys must have made him familiar with all current building projects. The choir of the two Williams at Canterbury would, of course, be eagerly examined where the pointed arches and use of the tooth orna- ment were an indication of new developments. There were other Earl}^ English beginnings about this time, but the distinction of St. Hugh's work is that it was, so far as known, the earliest great English church to use the pointed arch as its chief constructive feature and with it a system of ornament wholly different from the widely prevalent Norman, slender lancet windows, dog-tooth molding, stiff -lea\ed foliage, and the round abacus for 88 LINCOLN its columns, though it still retained some features of its Romanesque ancestrVo As we scrutinize its details we can imagine the delightful hours which Bishop Hugh and his architect must have sj^ent as they dreamed and schemed together over their plans. The material was to be of Lincoln limestone, un- surpassed in its resistance to weather, and possessed of a beautiful yellow brown tint suggestive of old parchment. What more suitable for a cathedral ! Shafts of dark Pur- beck marble were to be used to enrich tri- forium and clerestory, and then finished, not with Xorman capitals, as at Canterbury, in- herited from countless past generations, but with a new form adorned with leaves such as might have grown in England. These leaves must of course have a little conventional stiff- ness to preserve their general tone, but they were also to be exceedingly well carved and by no means devoid of grace. Above these, the square block, the old Norman abacus, would scarcely be needed, for all the arch moldings were to be of a distinctly lighter nature than in the old choir of Remiffius. Therefore a light rounded abacus was sub- stituted. Over the triforium arches a drip- 89 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY stone with its deep-cut moldings would help to make beautiful shadows, and the ends fin- ished with corbels could be carved with added effect. Then, while Hugh's skilled workmen experimented with leaf designs, perhaps some one — was it a master carver who had carved a certain small Norman door in Rochester Cathedral or had helped to introduce a new style of ornament at Canterbury? — showed a bit of stone with the new leaf pattern on it. However it came about, the exquisite "dog- tooth" molding was adopted and "Early English" had achieved another triumph. Did the master masons first look askance at the long, very narrow lancet windows and their exceeding plainness? We shall never know. But this device alone was to give to England in the next century the loveliness of Salisbury Cathedral. In St. Hugh's choir you are at once attracted by the charming double arcade running along the walls of the aisles and continued on the north side of the great transept in both directions, where it marks the limit of St. Hugh's work. The lovely capitals and the very sincere and de- vout angels just above can be studied at close range. Possibly these adoring angels may 90 LINCOLN have suggested the idea of the later Angel Choir. Notice St. Hugh's triforium in both choir and eastern 'transept — not too highly decorated, the arches very gracefully propor- tioned — and his use of plate tracery in the trefoil or quatrefoil or circular openings under each arch. The falling of the Central Tower in 1237 shattered part of this choir, and you notice how the pier arches next the great transept differ from their neighbor. The passage which runs along in front of the clerestory windows is a survival of Norman building methods when the churches had flat roofs and access to them was often desirable. Indeed, it is not surely known that the present vaulted roof is St. Hugh's. His may have been flat. Certainly in his time the tall roof shafts ran clear to the floor. They have been cut off since to make room for the choir stalls. The stalls are perhaps the finest in England. The upper row is very rich in carving, and in the miserere seats the fourteenth century workmen let their imagination run riot. The fox as a preacher, monkeys at play, kings and knights and creatures of every sort en- gage in grotesque pranks. The tablets above the stalls indicating certain psalms point to 91 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY a very old custom at Lincoln, when each member of the Chapter was assigned a group of psalms to be, repeated "daily if nothing hinders," so that the whole psalter with certain prayers might be said each day for the living and deceased benefactors of the church. The custom, it is said, has not been allowed to lapse altogether. One striking feature of English Gothic which St. Hugh did not achieve was a square east end for his church. The foundations of his old apse just beyond the High Altar show that its form was five-sided, with little chapels surrounding it, very characteristically French. In one of these chapels St. Hugh directed that he should be buried,^ not far from the Altar of St. John the Baptist but "near the wall lest it should be a stumbling block to those approaching." He met his death as he had desired, lying on the bare ground on a cross of consecrated ashes. His funeral at Lincoln in 1200, when King John and a great body of nobles and church dignitaries carried ^ A legend of St. Hugh, like those of St. Francis, refers to his skill in taming birds. It tells of a swan which attached itself to the Bishop on the day of his consecration at Lincoln and remained his companion for fourteen years, showing ex- treme grief on the approaching death of its master. 92 LINCOLN the body on their shoulders, was celebrated in an old Lincoln ballad which records that "A' the bells o' Merrie Lincoln Without men's hands Avere rung." His memory was already on the highw^ay to sainthood and his church so auspiciously be- gun went on without delay/ The great western transept, finished soon after St. Hugh's death, possesses inexhausti- ble interest from its rare old stained glass, especially its famous round windows, the "Dean's Eye" and the "Bishop's Eye." These face respectively the Deanery and the Bishop's palace, though some will have it that the "Dean's Eye" looks northward, to guard against the possible ai^pearance of Lucifer, and the "Bishop's Eye" southward to the region of the Holy Spirit, who alone is able to overcome the wiles of the fallen angel. The glass in the "Dean's Eye" is very old, ' St. Hugh's Choir has been the battle ground of architects for many years. An eminent English authority claims that it is "pure English Gothic and the earliest building of that style in the world." An equally distinguished French critic admits all its fine points but considers them not Gothic but "Anglo-Norman." Certain other critics believe that it was in- fluenced by F'rench ideals or that it was not entirely built by St. Hugh. 93 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY early thirteenth century, even older than some of that at Canterbury, and it has a brilliant jewel-like quality due to the wonder- ful transparency combined with depth of color achieved by the glass workers of that time. The "Bishop's Eye," you notice, is quite different in design from the "Dean's." The stonework here of the Curvilinear or Late Decorated period takes the form of a leaf designed with exquisite grace, but the chief glory of this window, even iallowing for its lovely tracery, is its glass, made up en- tirely of broken fragments, artistically dis- tributed and so glorious in themselves that the effect is one hardly to be surpassed. Look back also through the choir aisles to the old windows at the eastern end, ablaze with bril- liant color, and compare them with the later glass of the great middle window of the choir. The advantage is plainly with the old glass. The low vaulting of this western transept is very apparent. The nave also is in height fifth of great English churches, Westminster Abbey, York, Ripon, and Salisbury all ex- ceeding it. But such comparisons seem super- fluous, as you study this wonderful interior and think of the early days when the old 94 Copyright, Photochrome Co., Ltd., London. EAST END, LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. Copyright, hliotoLiirumc Co., l-td , London. NAVE, LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. LINCOLN stained glass glowed and sparkled in aisle and clerestory. The soft greenish hue of the polished marble shafts, blending harmoniously with the warm tints of the limestone, must have made an incomparable background for the brilliant windows. In the southwest cor- ner of the nave stands the old font of Remi- gius, and it is under his great round arches that we look out westward; but all the rest of the interior speaks of the awakening of the Gothic spirit. Study the carving of the wall arcading and tlie pier capitals. You will find many points of difference between the north and south aisles, little touches in which the old stone workers delighted. Then look again at the clustered piers and the far height of the vaulted roof and try to picture that thirteenth century audience who first looked with won- dering eyes upon the fair proportions of this interior. Before the nave was finished, Lincoln had another great bishop. You can discover his hall-mark, a fine diaper pattern, on the great central tower. But he did not need to carve his name on the cathedral. It was burned deep in the records of his time. Bishop Robert Grosseteste, of humble birth but of 95 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY great natural ability, was one of the foremost scholars of his time. He saw with anxious forebodings the widespread degeneracy of the clergy, and the frequent alliance of the Pope with royal despotism. In the first year of his bishopric, 1235, Grosseteste found it neces- sary to remove seven abbots and five priors, but when he made a "visitation" of his cathe- dral the clergy revolted, claiming that the dean was supreme. An old chronicler gravely records how, in 1237, when a recalcitrant canon was fulminating from the pulpit against Grosseteste, dramatically claiming that "if we were to be silent the very stones would cry out for us," the central tower promptly came down with a crash. The tower, rebuilt by Grosseteste, still stands! Pope Innocent IV, however, stood by the bishop, and one of Grosseteste's first reforms was the abolition of the scandalous custom of the "Feast of Fools." Later he crossed swords with the Pope, refusing to receive into a rich benefice an Italian ignorant of the English tongue; nor would he appoint even the Pope's nephew, as demanded by his Holi- ness. His letter to the Pope is still preserved, respectful in tone but pointing out the unfit- 96 LINCOLN ness of Di Lavagna for the post. The Pope excommunicated him, but Grosseteste ignored the fact and continued his duties until his death in the same year, 1253. Lincohi was the scene in Richard I's reign of a frightful massacre of the Jews, which extended to York and other cities. A sturdy stone dwelling on Steep Hill Street, known as the Jew's House, is evidence to-day of their contributions to English Domestic archi- tecture, for they were among the first to build stone houses superior to the hovels of the burghers around them. Popular hatred made it difficult for a Jew to secure justice, and many false tales were undoubtedly circulated. The incident of little St. Hugh may have been one of these, but it had an immense in- fluence on the populace. One of several ver- sions tells how, when — "The bonnie boys o' Men-ie Lincoln Were playing at the ba'. And wi them stude the swete Sir Hugh The flower among them a'," — the ball fell into a Jew's garden. Hugh was decoyed in and kept in custody until his trial, patterned after that of Christ, and then 97 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY the boy, a child of eight, was put to death. His body was found at the bottom of a well and given to the canons of the Cathedral, who buried it as that of a martyr. Many Jews were cruell}^ executed. The shrine of Little St. Hugh, which stands in the South Choir aisle, was badly damaged in the Civil Wars. The base still remains, and a fragment of the original canopy. The ball flower ornament on the arcade behind is part of the language of the Decorated period. Soon after Grosseteste's time the whole eastern end of the Cathedral was changed. You return from the nave to the lovely Angel Choir, and you recall that proud day, October 6, 1280, when Lincoln was astir from end to end for the "translation" of the relics of St. Hugh, for the Angel Choir had necessitated the removal of part of the city wall and all of St. Hugh's apse, and the saint's remains were to be housed in a gorgeous shrine back of the high altar. How Hugh himself would have protested! The people crowded to see the pageant. King Edward I helped to carry the coffin of St. Hugh, and his gracious Queen Eleanor st®od with him. The King's 98 LINCOLN brother Edmund, the Earls of Gloucester and Warwick, the Archbishop of Canterbury, numerous bishops and two hundred and fifty knights must have made a spectacle brilliant in the extreme. And the setting for it was this famous choir — no longer the simple Early English of St. Hugh, but the begin- ning of the Decorated Gothic. There are no lancet windows. They have become larger and are divided by traceries into geometrical patterns. Compare this triforium with that of St. Hugh and see how Early English was already developing into exuberant decoration and away from the restrained simplicity of the earlier time. The angels in the spandrels of this triforium are as individual as could be desired, those on the south side being rather superior in execution, and you discover on the north side the famous Lincoln Imp snugly ensconced at the end of the corbel above the easternmost pier. In ten years the Angel Choir sheltered a monument to Queen Eleanor herself. She had died near Lincoln, was embalmed, the viscera buried here, and from Lincoln the King began his long journey to Westminster, marked by crosses at each halting place. That 99 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY we see none of these monuments now is due to the looting propensities of Henry VIII in the case of St. Hugh, while the parlia- mentary soldiers were equally assiduous in their attention to the beautiful gilt brass effigy of Eleanor's tomb. The minster itself was seriously threatened in the Common- wealth, when "certain godly ones were gaping after its stone, timber and lead." The Mayor of the city, Mr. Original Peart, saved the church by assuring Cromwell that "if it were down, Lincoln would soon be one of the worst towns in the county." We leave the choir by the south door, for a chronological stroll around the outside of the church. One feels indebted to the old cathedral for the tenacious way in which it has clung to some one expressive feature of every English style, from the early Norman to the end of the Gothic period, offering us a series of beautiful stone pictures with the open sky for a background. You have al- ready seen the Norman work on the west end, and here close to the south door is St. Hugh's eastern transept. If it looked very ethereal when the early architect sketched it on paper, it certainly is a delicate creation 100 LINCOLN as realized in stone. With its long, beautiful lines and deeply cut moldings, high-bred sim- plicity seems its keynote, and you feel that it must have been purposely subordinated to its neighbor, the imposing western transept, where the highest artistic skill was lavished upon the superb rose windows. On the west side of this greater transept we step into its little Galilee porch, built as a state entrance for the bishop, whose palace is just across the minster vard to the south. If the doo-- tooth ornament had been a pure invention and not an evolution, one might easily be- lieve that its inventor had labored here, its five thousand or more "dog-tooths" show such passionate enthusiasm for the device. Just above you rises the splendid central tower, with the lattice work of Grosseteste on the lower part. In 1311 the tall windows were added and it reached its present height of 271 feet. From various points of view the great Victoria Tower at Westminster is said to look broader at the top than below. The Lincoln architect skillfully avoided such a possibility by drawing in the upright lines of his great tower two and a half inches, twenty feet below the parapet. From this 101 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY tower rings out Great Tom, the fourth largest bell in England. Notice the low-roofed chapel just beside the aisle of the nave. This, with its north side companion, probably led to the building of the wide western screen in Grosseteste's time. Again, you see his lattice work in the tall front gable. The Perpen- dicular windows of this west front are, of course, of later date. Fascinating details engage your attention at every step. A de- lightful illustration of early democracy is the statue of St. Hugh on the south pinnacle, balanced by that of the Swineherd of Stow on the north ! The Swineherd could not build a cathedral, but he gave a peck of silver pen- nies and they were counted unto him for righteousness. At two points on the south side "the Devil looking over Lincoln" gazes sardonically from the back of a witch, even as the Imp views the interior with wide-eyed bewilderment. The minster yard widens as you turn east- ward and opens out into a beautiful English green, leading off to distant gateways and historic houses, glimpses here and there of a steep descent giving you a sense of being lifted high above the world. Here we see 102 LINCOLN the Angel Choir from the outside, and mark its progress in crockets and pinnacles and outward adornments since the simple days of St. Hugh. Like the puzzle makers, you at- tempt in fancy the evolution of a geometrical window. In the upper window you can de- tach two lancets and a trefoil which might easily make the first combination. In the gable at the left two of these "twos" are grouped under a quatrefoil, or you can use half the device of the lower window with a sixfoil or the uj^per one with five lancets and an eightfoil, and so on. This upper window is surely too large for its gable and rests rather oppressively on the apex of the win- dow below. Did the enthusiasm for large windows get the upper hand of the architect for the time being? When cathedral win- dows had grown sufficiently, their tracery be- gan to show signs of evolution. There was increasing enthusiasm for natural forms in leaf cajjitals and other decorative stonework, and naturally the windows were affected by this new spirit. You could no longer take a window to pieces without destroying its essen- tial pattern. The upper window in the west- ern transept is only a "cousin" to its neigh- 103 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY bors of the east end, and the great rose window belongs to the same flowery stage of Decorated Gothic. The quatrefoils above are what remain from the original window. This round window looks awkwardly low, but you recall the low vaulting of the transept and if you go around to the cloisters you can see the exterior of the north end, which re- mains just as it was left in St. Hugh's time. Close to the north side of the Angel Choir you notice a chantry in the Early Perpen- dicular style, which marks it as fifteenth cen- tury work. Bishop Fleming, who built this chantry, was in his early college days an advocate of the doctrines of Wiclif, but many years later he founded Lincoln College at Oxford to offset supposed heretical tenden- cies in the young clergy. As Bishop of Lin- coln it therefore became his duty to carry out the decree of the Council of Constance and ex- hume the bones of Wiclif from the church- yard at Lutterworth, burn them and cast them into the river Swift. One last charming feature of the Cathedral is the south door, through which we came from the Angel Choir. Unusual are these great doorways in England, and this is a gem; but, 104 LINCOLN alas, the "restorer" has tampered with it both in recent and in earher years. Such frag- ments of the old carving as remain show un- usual grace and feeling. On each side of the door is a chantry built when Gothic had reached the Perpendicular stage. You easily recognize its characteristics in the elaborate design of the parapet, the paneled buttresses, and vertical tracery of the windows. Then you stroll away across the green to the north to watch the sun go down behind the western towers and your thoughts turn again to Hugh of Avalon, of whom Ruskin said, "He is the most beautiful sacerdotal figure known to me in history." Close by stands Watts' noble statue of Tennyson, who was born almost within sight of the minster. Did St. Hugh, as he slipped out of life with his greatest dream only half fulfilled, turn back in thoiight to Avalon and the golden dreams of his boyhood? It was a happy inspiration that placed close beside Hugh's completed church the great dreamer of a later age, who discerned in his own vision of Avalon that half-invisible boundary beyond which dreams are realized. 105 ei3HOp:5 wPCH (l)(2yC3U4) BISH- OP HV^OH'J" AP5I- DAL CHAPE.LS (5) O'u'EEN ELEAN- (6) THLvShRIMLOF UTTLE5AlfSTHVCrt Vy EST ERIi TOWERS O^ DC0RWAY5 PLAi^ or LI/iCOLH CAT/iEDRAL 106 BRIEF SUMMARY FOR THE TRAVELER Cathedral begun about 1074. Illustrates each STAGE OF English Architecture from Early Nor- man TO Late Gothic. Plan: A double cross with numerous side chapels. Norman Remains (1074-92-1146) Early Norman. Three round arches of west front, except upper part of central one, and part of first bay of nave. Wide jointed masonry, very plain and mas- sive. Late Norman. Three doorways of west front and intersecting arcade above side arches. Western towers to a point just above their three tiers of arcading. St. Hugh's Choir (1192-1200) Early English. The capitals in the triforium of St. Hugh's choir and eastern transept are among the finest carvings in England. Great arches rather blunt in con- trast, with pointed triforium and lancets of the clere- story. Notice plate tracery and deep hood molds of tri- forium and fine contrasts of color. Fall of the tower in 1237 injured western piers. Restoration ugly. Arcaded screens separating choir from its aisles erected at same time to strengthen the new tower. In aisles, St. Hugh's beautiful wall arcad- ing with sculptured angels. Effect of vaulting shafts impaired by cutting them off when the oak choir stalls were added in llth cen- tury, "finest examples in the Kingdom." Statues of 107 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY saints recent additions. Grotesque carvings of misereres. Best examples in upper row. Additions in Late Decorated period. Shrine of little St. Hugh in south choir aisle. Notice the ball flower or- nament, a characteristic of this style. Near by the screen of the choir boys' vestrj'^^ diapered with lilies. Easter Sepulcher in Presbytery. Fine piece of carving with natural leaf capitals and sleeping soldiers, end of 13th century. The consecrated host was watched here from Maundy Thursday to Easter Sunday. Transepts (1203-53) Early English. Begun by St. Hugh and adorned witli his double arcading in the chapels of their eastern aisles. Choir screen fine Early Decorated work, end of 13th century. Very beautiful carved doorways. Windows: Dean's Eye, 1220. Glass, early 13th cen- tury. Five lancet windows below contain medallions and fragments of old glass. Two large lancet windows still lower; the eastern contains old geometrical patterns and fragments, the western also fragments, probably end of 14th century. Bishop's Eye: tracery 11th century Cur- vilinear period, glass fragments from Early English pe- riod. Notice tracery of quatrefoils around the edge. Early English medallions from other windows in the four lancets below. Exterior: Galilee Porch, with its 5,355 dog-tooth or- naments. Nave (1203-53) Early EngUsh. Piers of clustered marble shafts banded. Capitals bell-shaped, and stiff-leaved foliage. 108 LINCOLN Triforium beautiful arches, double and triple. The vaulting shafts, unlike those in St. Hugh's Choir, rise from corbels just above the capitals of the piers. Very charming are the variations in wall arcading and in all carving on the two sides of the nave. Morn- ing Chapel on north side of nave, with beautiful central pier. Glass in nave modern. West window tracery Early Perpendicular 15th century. Cinquefoil window above by Grosseteste, 13th century. Clerestory a remark- ably early example of the grouping of lancets, the cen- ter one being larger than the other two. Exterior: Notice beautiful curvilinear parapet. Up- per screen and turrets and wall of West Front built in Grosseteste's time. » Angel Choir (1256-80) Early Decorated Gothic. Notice difference in shape and carving of capitals of Pier arches, clustered col- umns still banded as in Early English style. Profusion of ornament. Notice in triforium bar tracery instead of plate tracery above the arches and lavish decoration of hood molds. Notice large windows in clerestory and aisles, devel- opments of the lancet form. Compare wall arcading with that of nave and St. Hugh's Choir. Angels in spandrels of triforium. Numbers 4 to 18. counting from southeast corner, best in execution. Foun- dations of St. Hugh's polygonal apse indicated in floor of South aisle from near eastern transept. Windows, largely modern glass. East windows of north and south aisles original Early English glass, re- 109 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY moved from nave and hence older than the present win- dow tracery. The grisaille glass, into which the medal- lions are set, is perhaps the oldest in England. Great East Window: the finest Geometrical Decorated window in England, but modern glass. Exterior: Perpendicular Chantries. South doorway a rare design for England, very large and fine. Orig- inal carving of an unusually high order, but unfortu- nately much restored. Chapter House (1203-53) Early English. Ten-sided. One of the earliest polygonal Chapter Houses in England. Buttresses added later. The Dean's chair fine 14th century carv- ing, time of Edward I, who held Parliament here. Cloisters (about 1296) Geometrical Decorated Gothic. On south wall a por- trait slab of Richard of Gainsborough, the supposed carver of the Angel Choir. Arcading of north walk re- stored in 1674 by Sir Christopher Wren in Classical Style. Original swineherd of Stow preserved here. Central Tower (1233-1311) Early English, with Decorated Gothic in upper stage. Grosseteste's lattice work both inside and out. Com- pleted 1307-11 by Bishop Dalderby. Great Tom, Eng- land's fourth largest bell, hangs here. Western Towers (1074-1146-1400) Early and Late Norman below. Perpendicular above. no CHAPTER V DURHAM FOR more than eight hundred years Dur- ham Cathedral and its neighboring castle liave dominated the north country. Firmly planted upon a frowning, rocky promontory encircled by a swift-flowing river, their towers and turrets outlined against the sky, they have long held this formidable stronghold, to the confusion of their enemies. No wonder Durham's bishops have been a race of warriors, with the unconquerable Scot never far off. So often was the mighty Cathedral involved in these conflicts that it still suggests some huge living thing crouch- ing in watcliful attitude liigh above the river bank, and peering over the side of its im- pregnable rocky fastness, alert and sleepless as in the warring centuries. Dm'ham is a gray little mining city, with much of the dreariness of an English medieval 111 AN ENGLISH CATHP^DRAL JOURNEY town, where only bare brick and stone are visible to the public eye and whatever of beauty exists is hidden behind high brick walls. Through its steep, narrow streets you clamber upwards till a sharp turn, once oc- cupied by an uncompromising gateway, leads to Owengate Street and you come out upon Palace Green, an immense open square sug- gestive of military maneuvers, bare and stony, except for one big central grass plot. On your right rises the castle keep, and across the square, within its own setting of green, stands the great Cathedral. Even in the bright sunlight of a summer morning there is something eery about this hoary old Cathedral. You roam through the church- yard toward the west towers and suddenly find yourself looking over the brink of a precipice into tree-tops which rise in terraces from the river nearly a hundred feet below; or, retracing your steps, you work your way down the steep bank along well-kept paths, with many glimpses of the rapid river at your feet and always the gigantic Cathedral tower- ing above you. Full four hundred vears before the Nor- man Conquest, the destiny of Durham was .. 112 DURHAM foreshadowed. In the story of Lichfield's founder, St. Chad, the struggle of Christian- ity against heathen influences in middle England is closely linked with that of the brave Celtic missionaries who rescued the north from paganism. Oswald. King of Northumbria, educated by Irish monks at lona in western Scotland, founded a great monastery at Lindisfarne, near his own for- tress of Bamborough on the North Sea. Zealous in spreading Christian ideas, he was one of the earliest martyrs to the new faith, and Durham, which owed her existence to Lindisfarne, puts him high in her calendar of saints. Even after more than a thousand years the figure of this enthusiastic young king wins our admiration. Often fighting, as the savagery of his time required, he car- ried the cross as his standard, with it van- quishing the pagan host of the Welsh Cad- wallon at Heaven's Field. In the intervals of peace, with Aidan, the famous bishop of Lindisfarne, he devoted himself to teaching and preaching. But at thirty-eight years of age he had at last to face his bitterest enemy, Penda, the cruel old pagan king of Mercia, who slew and then savagely mutilated his ad- 113 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY versary- Oswald's- head was buried at Lindis- fame, and, later, with the bones of St. Cuth- bert, came to Durham. Few saints of the north country are so deeply revered as St. Cuthbert, the great preacher to the Northumbrian peasants. Dur- ing his boyhood, as a dreamy shepherd lad, he was said to have seen visions, meteors in the clear night sky seeming to him angelic spirits bearing away the spirit of Aidan. Developing into a sturdy young manhood, he felt called by the example of Aidan, and en- tered the monastery at Melrose, a mission station of Lindisfarne, and at length was sent out as a traveling evangelist into the half- civilized hamlets of the north. Here his sym- pathy and helpfulness knew no bounds and his finest fiber was tested. Possessed of rare skill and tact, Cuthbert was made bishop of Lindisfarne in the discordant daj^s which fol- lowed the secession of the Celtic monks who refused to become subject to Roman author- ity. Except for the years spent as a hermit on one of the near-by Fame Islands, he re- mained bishop until his death in 687, retiring to his hermitage as he felt his end approach- ing. The signal of his death, flashed by can- 114 DURHAM die from his little hut to the watching monk at Lindisfarne, is a familiar story. But there came a day in the year 875 when all Northumbria trembled. Not even the royal castle at Bamborough, entrenched amid its rocks, could protect the neighboring monks of Lindisfarne from the fury of the Danes. In terror the monks arose and fled, taking with them their most treasured relic, the body of St. Cuthbert. Legend naively relates how, for years, the saint led them through north- ern England and Scotland, a Pilgrim's Progress from the City of Destruction, their route being traced by the churches dedicated to St. Cuthbert. At Chester-le-Street they lingered for about a hundred years, but in 975 the Danish terror again overtook them, and under Bishop Aldhun they set forth once more, until their venerable relic, by clinging resolutely to the ground, constrained them to go no further. Mysteries multiplied when it was revealed that their destination was to be Dunholme, a spot seemingly as intangible as the Celestial City itself, until the wander- ings of a dun cow supplied the clue. With the unshaken purpose of a homing creature, like the bearer of classic Europa, she led them 115 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY by devious ways to their land of promise, where the bones of the saint have since re- mained. The dun cow for her reward has been sculptured conspicuously on the outer wall of St. Cuthbert's Church these eight hundred years! The sober groundwork of the legend seems to be that the ancient "Congregation of St. Cuthbert," bishop, monks, and their families, for at tliat period the Saxon monks had be- come a kind of secular clergy, removed to Durham on the advice of the Earl of North- umbria, whose position gave him great in- fluence. Extensive lands between the Tyne and Tees had long since been given to St. Cuthbert, and in settling at Durham, the con- gregation were not only within the saint's territory, but on a spot easily defended, where wealthy offerings might be made with secu- rity and the privilege of sanctuary guaran- teed. The immense wealth accumulated by the See of Durham was doubtless due in great measure to the prestige of its patron saint. Naturally, building began at once. A little stone chapel housed the sacred relic until Bishop Aldhun's "White Church" was fin- ished in 999. But, except in the theories of 116 John R. Edis, Photographer, Durham. NAVE, LOOKING EAST, DURHAM CATHEDRAL. DURHAM antiquarians, no vestige of this first church remains, though it held its own for nearly a hundred years. Such tumultuous years as these were for St. Cuthbert's "Congrega- tion"! Strong walls had been built around the citadel and a lower town gradually grew up around it. Both JNIalcolm and Duncan, kings of the Scots, early attacked the place, only to be beaten off with great slaughter. William the Norman, with fresh recollections of Xorthumbrian rebellions, ordered a strong castle to be built, and Waltheof, Earl of Xorthumbria, began the first structure in 1071. Its fine Xorman crypt is still well preserved and shows many characteristic features of eleventh centurv Norman archi- tecture, — sharp-edged round arches, animals carved on the capitals, the square abacus with volutes curling under the foiu' corners. In its palmy days the castle must have been quite worthy of a Northumbrian earl. Soon after its erection, the first Norman bishop, Wal- cher, was murdered at Gateshead, near New- castle. He had intrusted his affairs to others, who tyrannized over the Saxon populace, till they turned and wreaked their vengeance on the bishop, then hotly pursued his retainers 117 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY to the very gates of the castle. So with war and bloodshed, Durham Castle comes upon the scene. The next name in the bishopric is forever associated with the venerable Norman cathe- dral begun in 1093. William of St. Carileph founded, partially built, and in great measure planned the church as we see it to-day. No nobler specimen of Norman work exists than this wonderful cathedral, one of the great churches of the world. Entering by the north door, j^ou are fairly sj)ell bound in the presence of its titanic architecture. Some- thing of the awful grandeur of a great pri- meval forest pervades it. What Moses felt at Sinai and Elijah at Horeb, Durham's medieval builders strove to express here. These enormous piers, ponderous columns, and the magnificent stone vaulted roof must have suggested to many a worshiper the very shadow of the Almighty. Some idea of the immense masses of ma- sonry which produce this effect may be gained from the actual size of the piers of the nave, which are formed of clustered pillars covering 225 square feet at the base. These divide each bay of the nave into two arches, between 118 DURHAM which stands a cyHndrical cohimn twenty- three feet in circumference, resting on a base twelve feet square. Around each of the main arches runs a billet molding with zigzag pat- terns beneath. This zigzag decoration is also used with much freedom on the ribs aid arches of the roof, where it adds lovely har- monies of light and shadow to the splendid vaulting. You look with wonder and delight at the huge columns with their beautiful, deep-cut decorations varied in channeled, lozenge, and zigzag patterns, luring you up through the long nave by your eager desire to miss nothing of its charm. Yet with all this ornament the later architect who built the nave closely adhered to the central idea, of Carilef)h's cathedral, a dignified, noble de- sign with just enough of decorative beauty to express his sense of reverence. In the choir you are in the midst of Cari- leph's actual work. Though the Norman de- sign of the whole cathedral was due to him, he died near the end of the eleventh century and Bishop Flambard continued it, the monks adding the roof of the nave after his death. Nor did Bishop Carileph introduce only the Norman cathedral. He installed a new set of 119 AN, ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY monks, displacing the former secular clergy and their families with Benedictines brought here from Jarrow and Monk Wearmouth, and living under strict monastic discipline. The presence of a prison opening out of the cloister is certain evidence of the powers of a Benedictine prior. Durham stands at the head of English Romanesque churches in the fine harmony of its proportions. You appreciate this as you study the symmetry of the nave arcade, tri- forium, and clerestory, each of which blends perfectly with the rest. In front of the im- mense piers rise tall vaulting shafts admirably adapted to their duty of upholding the big transverse arches of the roof. As you look down the nave they stand out impressively, and with the graceful intersecting ribs of the shadowy vault overhead suggest the wooded aisle of some old forest. You soon discover that the transverse arches of the roof which divide the bays of the nave are pointed, while the arches of the intersecting ribs are still round. This was the first apearance of a pointed arch in a nave vault in England. It was a notable event in the progress of Eng- lish architecture, yet this vault was built not 120 DURHAM later than 1135 and before Gothic archi- tecture was born. A distinguished English architect has said that it would be difficult to find another church in western Europe which at this time was so far on the way to Gothic as Durham. Yet Durham takes rank as one of England's finest examples of a genuine Romanesque church, one which de- pends upon the great thickness of its walls rather than the use of buttresses to resist the thrust of its vaulted roof. Durham's beauti- ful ribbed stone vault is an unusual feature in a Romanesque cathedral, where a timber roof over the nave was the usual form. It was the use of the great pointed arches which made this stone roof possible. If you could examine the interior of the triforium of Dur- ham's nave, you would discover another inter- esting hint of future Gothic times. Within this triforium chamber flying buttresses were built, after an accident had happened to the choir roof, in order to make the upper walls of the nave more secure. This was many years before flying buttresses were used in England on the outside of a church. In 1153, Durham had a young bishop, twenty-five years old, Hugh Pudsey, who 121 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY with the enthusiasm of youth planned great things. He bought for life the earldom of Northumbria and added the immense powers of a Northumbrian earl to those of the bishop- ric. From his time the bishops of Durham ruled not only the patrimony of St. Cuthbert from the Tyne to the Tees, but part of North- umberland and Yorkshire. The title of Earl Palatine bestowed upon them shows the atti- tude of royalty toward these prince-bishops, who came to be looked upon as ruling a kind of buffer state between England and Scot- land. They had their own mint and coinage, their own courts of law, appointed judges, and levied taxes. A ducal coronet with the episcopal miter issuing from it was the old form of the Durham miter. Bishop Pudsey was a famous builder. His great hall in Durham Castle is still preserved in part, with its beautiful Norman doorway, which, fortunately, came to light in the last century. He also undertook a Lady Chapel at the east end of the Cathedral, which at that time ended in Norman fashion with three semicircular apses, a large one, at the end of the choir, and a smaller one terminating each aisle. Pudsey made elaborate preparations 122 DURHAM for his new chapel, bringing marble from Dorsetshire. But as the work progressed, cracks appeared, and the bishop, ascribing it to the disapproval of St. Cuthbert, or per- haps of the Lord himself, decided to try the west end. To his persistent devotion we owe the beautiful Galilee chapel, one of the finest illustrations of the transition stage from Romanesque to Gothic. You step into the Galilee chapel from the Norman nave and find yourself in a fairy- like structure with five short aisles divided by arches resting on slender, monolithic, marble columns, and carved with the most luxuriant chevron moldings. Notice the capitals with their plain volutes, a characteristic form of the transitional period. What satisfjang har- monies of light and color the worshipers must have enjoyed when these walls were covered with frescoes, some fine specimens of which still remain. The meaning of Galilee is obscure, but it is certain that it referred to the least sacred part of the church, wherefore the women-kind of that day had the good fortune to fall heir to this exquisite little chapel. Whether justly or not, the tactful St. Cuthbert is credited with an antipathy to 123 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY women, though Eede, Ciithbert's contem- porary, makes no mention of it. In the floor of the nave just west of the great north door- way, you will see a broad band of dark mar- ble. At this. safe distance from St. Cuthbert women might in all humility enjoy the manly devotions of saint and sinner at his shrine. Beyond this they might not venture! Nevertheless, a far more distinguished saint than he has lent the sanctity of his bones to the Galilee chapel. The Venerable Bede was England's first great scholar, a statesman, an inspiring teacher, and a historian whose famous work, "Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England," is still quoted as an authority. Not far north of Durham, in the seventh cen- tury, an energetic Roman monk, Benedict Biscop, had founded two monasteries, St. Peter at Monk Wearmouth and St. Paul at Jarrow, enriching them with art treasures, relics, and manuscripts gathered in his jour- neys to Rome. Bede's childhood was passed at Monk Wearmouth, but while still a lad he went to Jarrow, and there remained throughout his life. One can picture this young enthusiast browsing over manuscripts with the delight of a scholar who, during his 124 NORTH SIDE, DURHAM CATHEDRAL. Valentine Si Wons, I4d., iJundee. GALILEE CHAPEL, DURHAM CATHEDRAL. DURHAM long life, compiled treatises upon almost every branch of human knowledge. Inspired by Virgil, he even ventured to test his skill as a poet. His remarkable gifts as a storj^ teller must have captivated his pupils, who included not only Jarrow's six hundred monks but strangers from all over Europe. It was Bede who first introduced into England the use of Christian chronology, B.C. and A.D. super- seding the old Roman A. U. C. The last and most cherished undertaking of his life was his translation into English of the Gospel of John, completed in spite of steadily failing strength and while, with indomitable spirit, he kept the death angel waiting for him. Bede's school at Jarrow and Alcuin's at York were the great schools of western Europe in the eighth century. It has been said that Ger- many owes her first beginnings of Christian- ity to teachers trained in the school of the Venerable Bede. Bede, who died in 735, was buried at Jar- row, but in 1022, one Elf rid, a Durham monk, stole his bones and put them in Cuth- bert's cofiin, deciding that two such saints belonged together! Bishop Pudsey removed them to a golden casket and erected a shrine 125 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY above it in his Galilee chapel. When Henry VIII suppressed the monastery in 1542, the shrine and gold casket disappeared, but the bones were buried on the spot. Again in 1831 the bones were exhumed, enclosed in a lead-lined receptacle, and on the stone which had covered them was carved "Hac sunt in Fossa Baedae venerabilis Ossa." From the Galilee chapel you return to the east end of the church, which was built half a century later than the Galilee. Bishop Richard le Poore had already begun his beautiful Early English cathedral at Salis- bury when he was translated to Durham. Here he found the Norman apses of the cathedral in an unsafe condition and began preparations for building his famous "Chapel of the Nine Altars." It was not actually be- gun, however, till 1242, after his death. By this device St. Cuthbert's Norman church is furnished at each end with a chapel of strongly contrasting architecture. Bishop Poore's cathedral at Salisbury, in spite of its beautiful proportions, is singularly bare of decoration. Here at Durham we have Early 126 DURHAM English in its finest development. The "Nine Altars" are carved with all the delightful variety and irregularity which was one of the most beguiling features of early Gothic work. Notice especially the very beautiful wall ar- cade, the best effect of which is unfortunately marred by the later insertion of wall tablets. Two heads wearing linen dust caps, carved in the quatrefoils at the south end of the arcade, represent supposedly the architect and his assistant. You can feel their enthusi- asm for this chapel in the fine quality of the carving and its constant variety — dog tooth for the moldings, foliage for the capitals, heads for corbels, figures of men and animals for brackets and bosses. The chapel was some forty years in building, so its east wall of nine lancet windows, each above an altar, was probably earlier than the north one, where the fine geometrical window shows the first stage of the Decorated period. This is known as the Joseph window from its early glass, now gone. The floor of the "Nine Altars" was un- doubtedly made lower than the adjoining choir to allow full play for the Gothic roof without carrying it above the church. It must 127 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY have been no slight architectural problem to join this Gothic chapel to the Norman church. That the transition might not be too abrupt, the most eastern Norman pier of the choir is decorated with an arcade of tall Early English shafts and the adjoining arch on the east is pointed. Above are pointed arches in the triforium and clerestory with dog-tooth decoration. The old choir roof was also en- tirely remodeled. Notice how different it is from the nave and yet how harmonious, with two transverse arches instead of one to each bay, dog-tooth instead of zigzag moldings, and other differences. On the platform pro- jecting into the chapel stood the Shrine of St. Cuthbert, until its destruction by Henry VIII about 1540. Beneath it is his grave. According to Scott's "Marmion," "There deep in Durham's Gothic shade His relics are in secret laid But none may know the place." In 1827 his grave was opened. It disclosed the coffin made in Henry VIII's time, within which wxre many bones and a second coffin. In the second coffin was a third very old one carved with human figures, each head sur- 128 DURHAM rounded by a nimbus. The skeleton within this oldest coffin was entirely intact. It had once been wrapped in various coverings, frag- ments of which remained, and within these were a stole, a maniple, a girdle, and two gold bracelets, records relating to which go back to 916. A comb and a large gold cross decorated with garnets and of workmanship of the seventh century were also found among the robes. A skull found in the grave was presumably that of King Oswald. The bones placed in a new coffin were restored to their resting place and the articles of historic value carefully housed in the cathedral library. It is difficult to picture to ourselves the brilliant appearance of the old gray Cathedral in pre-Reformation days. In the "Nine Al- tars" chapel there was always the steady sparkle of candles and the glimmering of precious gifts to its numerous saints. Close by was Cuthbert's shrine, resplendent with gold and jewels, and the great Neville Screen behind the High Altar, now denuded of its saints, must have been a conspicuous object with one hundred and seven canopied niches filled with figures of alabaster profusely gilded and colored. 129 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY The high-water mark of mihtarism possible to a Bishop of Durham was illustrated in the case of Anthony Bek, in the early fourteenth century. His retinue was one hundred and forty knights, and riding after hawks and hounds was his delight. He was said to have been "very haughty to barons and earls." Edward I found his diplomatic advice and vast private fortune very useful in his Scotch wars, for Bek's twenty-six standard bearers represented five thousand foot and five hun- dred horse. The bishop had a memorable controversy with his prior, whom he besieged in the monastery. The monks took sides, and the local barons, who objected to fighting the Scots except in defense of St. Cuthbert, sustained the prior. At Bek's death he had characteristically added to his other titles Patriarch of Jerusalem and King of the Isle of Man! In the choir you have already noticed the sumptuous episcopal throne, erected by Bishop Hatfield for his tomb. In his time came the famous victory over the Scots at Neville's Cross in 1345. The banner of St. Cuthbert had been taken to the battlefield by Prior Fossor, and in memory of this victory 130 DURHAM a hymn of thanksgiving is still sung on the top of the Central Tower at each anniversary of the battle, on ]May 29. The jNTevilles, one of whom led the English army at this time, had two bays of the nave set apart for their tombs. When Henry VIII broke up the Bene- dictine monastery and substituted a dean and canons, Cuthbert Tunstall, one of the most honored bishops of Durham, held the see. He opposed Henry's supremacy, though he finally yielded, but under Edward VI went back to his old views. In JNIary's time, how- ever, he refused to practice the cruelties of her regime and bought up all available copies of Tyndall's New Testament in order to avoid burning heretics. He consistently refused to take the oath of supremacy to Elizabeth, and was deposed, but committed to the kindly care of his friend. Archbishop Parker of Canter- bury. Under the Commonwealth Durham Castle was sold to the mayor of London and a University of Durham founded. Cromwell housed his Scottish prisoners in the Cathedral after Dunbar, and the choir stalls suffered. But at the Restoration the old order returned, and Bishop Cosin spent money liberally on 131 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY the Cathedral, the Castle, and the Bishop's palace at Bishop Auckland. To visit Durham's monastic quarters you enter the cloisters by the southwest Monks' Door, pausing to admire the beautiful Nor- man doorway and the fine iron work on the door itself. The north door just opposite was once similarly adorned, but now holds only the famous sanctuary knocker as its relic of the past. The Watching Chambers, now gone, were just above the north door. On the east side of the cloisters is the chapter house recent- ly restored as a memorial to the eminent scholar, the late Bishop Lightfoot. This chap- ter house recalls a tragedy, for the baleful in- fluence of Wyatt, "the restorer," fell upon Durham as it did upon Salisbury, Lichfield, and even Westminster Abbey. In 1796, Wyatt having persuaded the authorities that the old Norman chapter house, the finest build- ing of its kind in England, was beyond repair, pulled it down. His radical schemes, among them one for tearing down the Galilee chapel and making a driveway, were mercifully checked, though he "freshened up" the exterior of the Cathedral by trimming off moldings and 132 IN THE TRIFORIUM, DURHAM CATHEDRAL. DURHAM other evidences of antiquity, leaving it sadly shaven and shorn. Great changes came to Durham with the nineteenth century. In 1834 the revenues of the see amounted to nearlv thirtv-seven thou- sand pounds per annum. The Ecclesiastical Commission decreed that at the death of Bishop Van Mildert future bishops should receive a salary, the number of canons be de- creased, and the surplus revenue reserved for a fund to help poorer bishoprics. Before the death of Van Mildert, who was thus the last Earl Palatine, he, with the dean and chapter, founded and endowed the University of Dur- ham, for the use of which the bishop also gave up Durham Castle. The music of some of the great hymns of the Christian Church owes its inspiration to this noble Cathedral. Her famous precentor, John B. Dvkes, wrote the beautiful "Lux Be- nigna" for Newman's "Lead, Kindly Light," and this with scores of other now familiar hymns remain as Durham's gift to the church of the coming centuries. From the cloisters you visit the library, which possesses historic treasures of inestima- 133 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY ble value. Then, by way of the fine large crypt, once the common hall of the monks, you come out into the Cathedral close, em- bowered in shrubbery and surrounded by the picturesque houses of dean and canons. The Central Tower of the Cathedral, of Perpen- dicular Gothic, with its graceful Bell Ringers' Gallery, rises above you. It is evidently far later in date than the two western towers, which in part, at least, go back to Norman days. To see these great towers at their best you enter a shadowy passageway sloping down to the edge of the cliff, and then by a gentle descent through a park of fine old trees reach the Prebends' Bridge, where a tablet on its further end is inscribed with Scott's famous and oft quoted lines, "Half church of God, half castle 'gainst the Scot." Looking across the river you have one of the greatest of all views of the Cathedral, its towers rising in an imposing group above the Galilee chapel, half hidden in the tree tops. You are no longer conscious of its fighting qualities; only of the noble grandeur of the great church, one which in these later days has stood forth as an emblem of peace. The little 134< DURHAM city clustered far below the Cathedral is the home of thousands of miners. In 1892 a great industrial conflict raged for three months over the north country and eighty thousand workers were suffering. Then Dur- ham's Bishop Westcott, with his keen, scholarly intellect, grasp of social conditions, sympathy, and enthusiasm, drew the discord- ant elements together and healed the breach, helping to establish a conciliation board for' future difficulties. His final public appear- ance in the Cathedral was on Miners' Gala Day in 1901, when, in the last address of his life, he said, "At the present time Durham offers to the world the highest type of indus- trial concord which has yet been fashioned." 135 PLAA1 or DURfiAM CAmLDRAL 136 BRIEF SUMMARY FOR THE TRAVELER Cathedral begun in 1093. Finest Existing Example OF A Norman Romanesque Church. Plan: Cruciform, with chapels at east and west ends. Choir (1093-99) Norman arches, triforium, clerestory, and aisles. No- tice the eastern bay, rebuilt in 13th century to connect with adjoining Early English work. Vaulted roof was rebuilt at same period. The dog-tooth ornament differ- ent from that of nave. Neville screen of Gothic Stone- work and Bishop Hatfield's throne and tomb, both 14th century work. Choir stalls, 17th century imitation of Perpendicular work. Choir Screen modern. Transepts (1093-99) Norman arches, triforium, clerestory, and aisles. Large window in north transept: about 1362. Late Geometrical tracery. In 1512 glass repaired and new glass representing "Four Doctors" of the church in- serted, Augustine, Ambrose, Gregory, and Jerome. Large window in south transept ; Te Deum window, Perpendicular style, probably 15th century. Central Tower (Piers 1093-96) Rests on Norman piers and semicircular arches, but Perpendicular in style, late 15th century. Gallery 77 feet above the floor. Two tall windows on each face of 137 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY the tower. String course carved with Tudor rose, a characteristic Perpendicular ornament, just below win- dows. Exterior: Perpendicular windows in two stories, divided by Bell Ringers' Gallery. Height of tower, 218 feet. West Towers (1128) Norman up to the roof of nave. Four upper tiers presumably 13th century. Tall wooden spires removed in 17th century. Present pinnacles and parapets added in 18th century. Nave (1099-1133) Norman. Aisles have interlacing arcade and stone vaulting. Notice that there are two arches to each bay of nave. Plain octagonal capitals of heavy columns. Four-sided capitals on all smaller columns. Square bil- let molding on face of main arches, zigzag or chevron beneath. Stone vault of nave: ribs with round arches, spring- ing from corbels carved with heads. Notice that the transverse arches are pointed, rising from floor shafts. Remains of Watching Chambers over north door. West window of nave 14th century late Geometrical tracery. Southwestern or Monks' Doorway: late Nor- man carving. Notice Norman iron work oij door itself on Cloister side. Cover of Font 17th century, mixture of Classic and Gothic forms. Font modern. Notice band of stone in pavement at west end, excluding women. Exterior: Wall arcade an early feature; north door reconstructed by Wyatt, 1796. 138 DURHAM Chapter House (1140) Norman, 1140. Destroyed in 1796. Rebuilt after old design, 1895. Galilee Chapel (1175) Transition Norman. Five aisles, divided by arcades of four bays each. Arches round, with three lines of chevron and two plain roll moldings. Capitals carved with a volute under a square abacus. Arches rest on two original marble columns and two of stone added later. Present roof and three perpendicular windows on west end early 15th century. Remains of once ex- tensive frescoes. Great west door into nave closed and two small doors cut through in early 15th century. Five massive exterior buttresses added, at the same time. Tomb of Bede. Crypt ' Early 13th century. Common Hall of the monks, once adjoined by a garden and bowling alley. Treas- ury beyond iron grating. Chapel of the Nine Altars (1242) Early English. In east wall nine lancet windows with modern glass. Original glass removed by Wyatt, some fragments of it in Rose Window. Rose window reconstructed in 15th century and again by Wyatt in 18th. Joseph window in north Avail: Geometrical tracery. St. Cuthbert window in south wall: Perpen- dicular tracery, original glass gone from both windows. Exterior of chapel: Pinnacles added by Wyatt. Cloisters (1388-1418) Novices' school formerly in west alley. Dormitory now forms cathedral library. 139 CHAPTER VI ELY ELY, one of the smallest of cathedral towns, lies in the midst of the great fen district of England. The very name of its river, the Ouse (ooze), conjures up a vision of slow-moving waters, drenched fields, submerged tree trunks, and fathomless black soil. You remember how the beauty of the fen appealed to Charles Kingsley, who summed it up in one poetic line, "As of the sea, of boundless expanse and freedom." This vast region has been these many cen- turies drained and diked. The modern fen tax makes every man a trustee of his neigh- bor's welfare, and fair pasture lands alternate with luxuriant fields of grain sprinkled with scarlet poppies. Though the "Isle of Ely" has long since been drained out of existence and the gentle eminence which formed its ancient stronghold is no longer encircled by 140 SJSJT^'^^SVJ ■-;-»^ i^ ¥. Frith & Co , htd , Rtigatc. TOWER AND OCTAGON, ELY CATHEDRAL ELY the river, yet it is still in law and history and poetry and in all reverence the "Isle of Ely," to remain so, let us hope, while one stone of its historic minster remains. Coming up from the station by the "Back Hill" road, j^ou pass under the medieval "Ely Porta" and are in the precincts of the old monastery. Looking up the slope over a splendid rolling meadow dotted with fine old trees, you have your first view of the Cathe- dral stretching its huge length along the high- est point of the "Isle." Something of the spell of the fen country seems to cling about it, a sense of mvsterv and enchantment. At the first glance you notice, rising above the middle of the great building, between the transepts, a veritable fairy creation, a mar- velous stone octagon, pierced with windows and delicate tracery and fringed with light- some pinnacles, while lifted above it still higher is an eight-sided lantern which crowns the dome. Few architects before or since this dome was built have dreamed and dared so greatly, and the fame of Alan of Walsing- ham's work gave Ely a prestige throughout Europe. We look along the west roof of the Cathedral and note the upper row of windows 141 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY of a great Norman nave, completed with a huge west tower and transepts, and we are conscious of a touch of awesomeness in the presence of this gigantic building. That west tower is no fairy structure, but a great bul- wark of massive Norman architecture tur- reted and buttressed like a fortress. There seems a kind of noble defiance in its attitude which savors of the pre-Norman history of Ely, when its predecessor confronted the Con- queror and his hosts. The impression is deep- ened as you pass around to the front and dis- cover that one of the two supporting tran- septs has been torn away, leaving only scars behind it. When and how it went, no record survives to tell. The tower, sufficient unto itself, guards its secret. The origin of Ely goes back to a patron saint, Etheldreda or Awdry, an East Anglian princess. Twice reluctantly married, she re- ceived the Isle of Ely as dowry from her first husband; and when she fled from her s-econd, Ely became a refuge where she founded a monastery of monks and nuns and ruled as the first abbess in 673. The Danes harried the monastery in 870, but for a hundred years superstitious fears kept profane hands from 142 ELY molesting the white marble sarcophagus of the saint resting amid the ruins. In the quiet days of Saxon Edgar new monasteries arose, Ely was rebuilt, a group of Benedictines in- stalled, and in 970 Archbishop Dunstan conse- crated its first abbot, Brihtnoth. Another hundred years was yet to pass be- fore the shadow of the Norman fell over the land, and the abbots of Ely flourished apace. Wealth poured into the abbey. One optimis- tic soul, Earl Brihtnoth, whose bones rest in the church to-day, found life good in spite of its uncertainties and shared his possessions with the abbey. He lost his life in a raid of Danish vikings ; yet, as he breathed his last, an old ballad tells that he thanked the God of nations "for all the joy I have had in life." Then came the Xorman invasion and the last stand of the English under Hereward the Wake, vir strenuissimus according to the old Chronicles, and in Kingsley's fascinating tale he bears out his reputation. INIany abbots bowed to William to save their monasteries and then were humiliated by his contemptuous followers. But stout-hearted Abbot Thurstan of Ely, remembering the fen people's devotion to Harold, stood firm; and his abbey tower, 143 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY visible far and wide, became the symbol of refuge for the English. Happenings so remote have left us only the faintest reminder after nine hundred years, but you find it worth while to climb the west tower even to the extent of two hundred and eighty-eight steps to look out upon the wide fenland. Below you are the ancient monas- tery buildings now used by the dean and canons. It is June, and the high-walled gar- dens are brilliant with roses. Along the top of the walls, radiant blossoms are springing, apparently from no soil whatever, while pink and white snapdragons, still more daring, nod from some crevice high up in the Cathedral itself. Far off to the southwest you can dis- cern Haddenham tower; and beyond, on a low hill, is Aldreth, where William the Norman built his fatal bridge over the mire of the fen. Kingslej^ describes vividly the tragedy which ensued when the Normans, eager for spoil, overcrowded the unstable structure. "That which The Wake had foreseen was come at last. The bridge, strained more and more by its living burden, and by the falling tide, had parted, — not at the Ely end, where the sliding of the sow took off the pressure,— but at the end nearest the 144 ELY camp. One sideway roll it gave, and then, turning over, engulfed in that foul stream the flower of Nor- man chivalry ; leaving a line full a quarter of a mile in length — of wretches drowTiing in the dark water, or, more hideous still, in the bottomless slime of peat and mud. Thousands are said to have perished. Their armor and weapons were found at times by delvers and dikers for centuries after ; are found at times unto this day, beneath the rich drained cornfields which now fill up that black half mile." Returning from the tower, the interior beauty of the Cathedral captivates you, one long sweep of nave and crossing and choir five hundred and twenty feet from the west door clear up to the lovely lancet windows of the east end. The carved open-work screen just west of the choir forms no appreciable barrier to the view. You walk slowly up through the nave, one of the longest in England. Here are no tall "Perpendicular" arches, as at Can- terbury. Instead you have a row of round, massive Xorman arches, with lighter double arches in the triforium above, and still higher the round-headed windows of the clerestory, the small arches on each side of them giving a triple effect. It is as simple and majestic as a Greek temjjle, restful and impressive. 145 AN ENGLISH CATIIKDUAL .JOUKNEY There is no wonderful stone-vaulted roof here, as at Durham, nor was Ely's Norman archi- tect lavish of decoration in his nave; but the rather tall arches are very graceful, and the light color of the stone gives a cheerful tone to the solid Norman masonry. Above is a flat roof, which was placed upon the open timbers as late as 1858 and decorated with scenes de- picting the sacred history of man. The artist used as suggestions for his design a twelfth century psalter and also an unaltered twelfth century ceiling at Ilildesheim, Germany. He employed much gold in his work, and sub- dued shades of blue and green and red, with very harmonious effect. When the sun shines in through the double portal at the west, the whole nave becomes radiant with a golden glow, mingled with rainbow tints reflected from above. The nave and north and south transepts represent the earliest years of the j^i'esent Cathedral. The Conqueror installed as abbot one of his kinsmen, the zealous though vener- able Abbot Simeon. Simeon, like his Biblical namesake, was not prepared to depart in peace, even at the age of ninety, without a new vision of the future, and so he began building 146 _J ui H < z o o _l ui > < z ELY a new abbey church in 1083. He planned it on a big scale, the double aisles in his tran- septs being a very unusual feature in English cathedrals. The foundations of his Norman choir show that it ended in a semicircular apse, and the great vaulting arches at its entrance still stand. INluch of his ten years of work may be seen in the lower tier of Norman arches of the north and south transepts. Ab- bot Richard, who followed Simeon, finished the choir and transepts; and a great celebra- tion was held in 1106, when the coffins of St. Etheldreda and the other abbesses were placed behind the altar in the new Norman choir. These relics had increased much in sanctity with age, and were the object of many pil- grimages. Richard was the last abbot. Henry I made Ely a bishopric, and the "Liberties of Ethel- dreda," as her extensive possessions were called, made the monastery a formidable po- litical power. They were divided between the bishop and the prior, who became the head of the convent. Ely is unusual in having no bishop's throne. The bishop took the abbot's chair in the Choir, and the dean now occupies the prior's. 147 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY As you look back toward the west door, you are puzzled to account for the tall pointed "Perpendicular" arches wjiich support the Norman tower. A closer inspection reveals the original arches above them, showing that the tower had to be braced about the fifteenth century. There seems to have been much juggling with this western tower. Bishop Ridell, who built it in 1174-89, carried it up to the top of the first row of battlements on the outside. You notice that the section above is quite different from the rest of the tower. The tall "Decorated" window indicates that it was a hundred years later. Before the latter part was added the tower had a lead-covered, wooden spire, and when the decorated section was substituted, a spire was again placed on top. The tower was a cause of uneasiness for centuries, for the central tower of the Cathe- dral had early collapsed and the western tran- sept had also fallen. The spire was finally re- moved about a hundred years ago. This Norman front possesses great fas- cination. It must have been a splendid struc- ture when the two wings were complete and buttressed the big tower with their four flanking turrets. It is a most beautiful 148 ELY specimen of Xorman work. Follow the lines of arcading upward and see how they de- velop from round-headed to trefoiled arches and then to pointed forms. The rich dec- orations remind you of those Byzantine qual- ities of the Norman style which we saw illustrated in the nave of Rochester. The octagonal top, with its curvilinear window so different from the rest, seems to have been an attempt to harmonize it with Alan's octagon finished a few years earlier. A great gateway something like the still surviving "Ely Porta" once bridged the neighboring street still known as the Gallery, and over the top of the gateway ran a passage connecting the bishop's palace with the Cathedral. The doorway, now walled up, on the south wall of the transept is still visible from the dean's garden, and the beautiful palace just across the street is a dignified building, its finely wrought architectural details and harmonious proportions giving it an air of distinction. The interior of the west transept is quite in accord with the beauties of its exterior. Whatever the nave lacks of decorative detail is fully made up here in this most charming of transition-Norman chapels, called St. Catha- 149 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY rine's and used as a baptistery. The walls are adorned with arcades of interlacing or plain, round arches, rising tier above tier and ex- hibiting great variety of design. It is finished on the east with a semicircular apse, a charac- teristic Norman feature. Two circumstances prevented Ely from re- maining almost entirely a Norman building. The first was the coming in of the Early Eng- lish style, and the second the collapse of her central Norman tower. Ety is famed among English cathedrals for her Early English architecture. You have already noticed the remarkable porch which buttresses the western tower, by common con- sent one of the most exquisite of Early Eng- lish effects. From the outside nothing could be more striking than the airy grace of this porch in contrast with the solid tower behind it. To think of it as buttressing anything seems almost ludicrous. Note the three shapely lancet windows above the door, with their deeply cut moldings at the sides and capitals with leaf designs. Smaller arches cover both front and side walls and art wrought with trefoils and other characteristic forms, the corners of the porch being finished 150 ELY with slender shafts terminating in points. Within the porch a figure of Etheldreda, forming a tiny stained-glass window of an- cient date, looks out from above the double doorway into the even more beautiful interior. Low stone seats run along the sides, adorned with tref oiled arches above and below. Varied and finely wrought carving enriches the door- way, which though more elaborate is similar to that in front. It is all exuberant, yet re- strained, as in the best Greek work, w^hich per- haps was the reason why Professor Freeman called it "a Greek portico translated into Gothic language." The coming of the pointed arch into Eng- land has been ascribed to the Crusaders. Whatever its origin, the transition from Nor- man to Early English reveals the spread of ideas between England and the continent. The new spirit of Gothic art struggling for ex- pression in France and Italy was bound to work itself out in England also, and the monasteries with their schools and great build- ing enterprises attracted men eager to express their ideas. Bishop Eustace, to whom the porch is attributed, died in 1215, when English Gothic was just beginning to make itself felt. 151 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY As you compare the porch with the tower you see in the pointed arches and use of the tre- foil indications of the coming change of style. Ely has suffered more than once in the inter- est of "improvements." She had a narrow escape in 1757, when an architect advised the destruction of this porch instead of spending money on repairs, since "this part of the building is neither ornamental nor useful." Fortunately the dean and chapter thought otherwise. The next striking break with Norman traditions at Ely was made when Bishop Hugh de Northwold, in 1234-54, extended Abbot Simeon's choir a hundred feet east- ward, for the crowds of pilgrims who came to make their offerings at the Cathedral's shrine could with difficulty be accommodated in the old Norman choir. You enter the choir, and passing by the first three arches, come to a bold circular Norman shaft rising straight to the roof and marking the end of the old choir. The six arches east of it are Northwold's presbytery and like the porch a notable ex- ample of Early English. The characteristic signs of the new j)eriod you note in the groups of lancet windows, the slender columns and 152 ELY leaf capitals with the round abacus above each instead of the square block of the Nor- man, the trefoils between the arches and quatrefoils over the windows, which are strik- ing contrasts of light and dark stone. The Gothic roof is especially interesting. Between the lower arches are richly carved bracket-like projections or corbels of dark Pur- beck marble, and above these rise clusters of slender columns which run straight up beside the triforium arches to the bottom of the clere- story windows and there spread out, forming the ribs of a beautiful stone vault, the ribs being joined to those from the opposite side by a slender molding running lengthwise along the middle of tlie roof. The plan of the Nor- man nave of double arches in the triforium and triple arches in the clerestory is repeated here ; but the double triforium arches, with tre- foiled heads and quatrefoil pattern above and dqg-tooth moldings at the sides, are as differ- ent as possible from their sober Norman neigh- bors of the nave. All this is part of the Gothic scheme involved in securing the grace- ful vaulted roof. The main lines of construc- tion tend upward and the sense of lightness and luxuriance about it all makes it seem un- 153 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY necessary to have the columns which support the roof rest upon the ground. You observe that they do not, yet the general effect is both buoyant and secure. Of course the weight of the roof is carried by other means than these slender vaulting shafts, but it is very interesting to see how the Early English architects treated this feature. The Angel Choir at Lincoln is similar to this at Ely. At Salisbury the corbels of the shafts are placed high up in the triforium. In the Early English Nine Altars at Durham, and in the Decorated Nave at Lichfield, as in St. Hugh's Early English Choir at Lincoln, the shafts rest on the ground. By the time Can- terbury's Perpendicular Nave came in, the short form of shafts had passed. Before you study the next stage of the Cathedral you must see the eastern facade of this interesting presbytery, looking down as it does upon a trim green lawn which stretches away from it in the traditional English fashion. It is very beautiful, and you enjoy again the fine grouping of the lancet windows, reinforced on the outside with a row in the gable not visible within. You protest in spirit at the substitution of later windows of a dif- 154 ELY fereiit type in the lower corners, thus marring the original design, for this is one of the finest Early English fa9ades in England. It is plain that the fen country people loved the sunshine of their treeless marshes and were not content with the religious gloom of their old abbey church. Bishop and prior were constantly making changes to let in the light. You notice one of the most surprising of these attempts in the fifth and sixth bays of the presbytery, where some unknown archi- tect cut out a section of the sloping roof of the triforium so that a flood of light fell on the shrine of St. Etheldreda just below. Then he inserted curvilinear windows in the two arches of the triforium, which were left roof- less. The effect on the outside is very extra- ordinary, breaking the lines of the triforium roof and hardly reflecting credit on the archi- tect. About this time the lancet windows of the aisles and triforium throughout the choir were changed to large curvilinear windows, though some of these, showing Perpendicular tracery, belong to a later time; then the en- thusiasm communicated itself also to the win- dows of the triforium in the nave, where the outside walls were built higher so that Per- 155 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY pendiciilar windows might light the dark triforium gallery. In 1322 the square Norman tower in the center of the Cathedral fell with a great noise. The whole city trembled and people thought there was an earthquake, but the calamity be- came in the end a blessing. The Cathedral had at that time a notable bishop, John Hotham, Chancellor and Treasurer of Eng- land, an enlightened prior, John Crauden, and a sacrist, Alan of Walsingham, an ad- mirable architect whose gifts became con- spicuous under the Cathedral's need. He had genius, and he feared not to depart from ol 1 precedents. The ponderous Norman towe • with its limited supply of light had gone, and it was borne in upon Alan that the unusually large transepts might be utilized to produce a superb effect. By cutting off the corners of the former nave and choir, at the crossing, he secured a great open space, 77 feet across, in the center of the church, where he laid deep the foundations of eight piers instead of four. Upon these he raised his eight-sided Gothic dome, its stone Octagon forming the most artistic and conspicuous object on the exterior of the church. It was a skillful engineering 156 ELY feat to balance the great mass of stone so dexterously above his wooden roof. Nor did he attempt stone for the lantern above, but sent far and wide over England for eight great oak trees, sixty-three feet long and three feet thick. These, sheathed with lead and firmly braced, held the dome steady one hun- dred and fifty-two feet above the pavement. Alan's four blank walls, the shorter sides of his Octagon, he pierced with four immense curvilinear windows and steadied by great double flying buttresses on the outside at the angles of nave and transept. On the inside the lantern rises lightly from groups of small clustered columns resting, like Xorthwold's roof, upon brackets. Within the lantern it- self are thirty-two panels painted with figures of angels, above them an equal number of windows, and in the very center of tlie dome a figure of Christ with his hand raised in blessing. The whole has been decorated in recent years by Mr- Parry, in harmony with the nave. In 1321, just a year before the great catastrophe, Alan of Walsingham had laid the corner stone of Ely's Lady Chapel, east of the church. This chapel, forty-six feet wide, is 157 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY said to have the widest single-span stone roof in England, a foot wider even than York's nave, wliich its builders did not venture to cover with a stone vault. The Early English period had passed in Walsingham's time and the later Decorated Gothic, when profusely carved, sometimes seems to modern taste rather overloaded. But it was at this period that England attained her highest develop- ment in the details of Gothic art. Her skilled workmen had the genius and enthusiasm of the born artist, and their work which remains is a priceless possession. No wonder that when the famous architect Pugin visited this chapel and saw the mutilation of its match- less carvings, he burst into tears and said, "O God, what has England done to deserve this." To repair the damage would cost a hundred thousand pounds, but even so, he said, no competent men could be found. The special distinction of the chapel is the series of carvings in the spandrels of the wall arcade, illustrating scenes from the life of the Virgin. The numerous tiny figures of the Virgin are nearly all headless; whether they suffered from the despoilers of Henry VIII's time or from Commonwealth soldiers does not 158 THE PRESBYTERY, ELY CATHEDRAL. ELY appear, though Cromwell lived in Ely at one time and the Cathedral was protected by his influence. Bishop Hotham is credited with rebuilding the three bays of the Xorman choir which were demolished by the falling tower. It is interesting to compare them with the adjoin- ing Early English arches and see how the later period lost much of the simplicity of the earlier time. Prior Crauden's tiny chapel, now used by the boys of the King's school, is one of the sights of Ely. It was Prior Crauden, we are told, who helped to raise money after the tower fell, by "pledging his monks to surrender their special doles of money and wine and sweet things until the work should be accomplished!" No less than fourteen of Ely's bishops were chancellor's or treasurers of England before the Reformation. John Morton, afterwards archbishop, is the Bishop of Ely referred to in Shakespeare's "Richard III." The bishops of Ely exercised temporal power in their dominions second only to that wielded by the bishops of Durham. The revenues from their estates were enormous. The fact that three such important works as the Lady Chapel, 159 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Alan's Octagon, and the repairs to the choir could go on at the same time is indicative of the financial resoin'ces of the see. It must have been a heartening sight for the old monks to behold their bishop leading a procession, pre- ceded by a chaplain bearing not only the pastoral crook but a sword of empire repre- senting his "Roval Franchise"! An Act of Parliament did away with this incongruous situation, and at the death of Bishop Sparks in 1836 the sword was buried with him. Carlyle once came to Ely to see the historic spot where Cromwell had rebuked the formal- ism of a high church clergyman. The Cathe- dral was empty save for the organist, and as Carlyle stood alone in the magnificent church he was conscious of a deep sense of dread of anything tending to mere ^estheticism in religion. "I believe," he wrote, "this Ely Cathedral is one of the finest, as they call it, in all England; and from me also few masses of architecture could win more admiration. But I recoil everywhere from treating these things as a dilettantism at all. The impres- sions they give me are too deep and sad to have anything to do with the shape of stones. To-night as the heaving bellows blew and the 160 ELY CATHEDRAL FROM EAST END. N'uKhtiii.- A: Sunn, l.Vl INTERIOR OF EARLY ENGLISH PORCH, ELY. ELY yellow sunshine streamed in through those high windows, and my footfalls were the only sounds below, I looked aloft and my eyes filled with tears at all this, and I remembered beside it, wedded to it now and reconciled to it forever — Oliver Cromwell's 'Cease your fooling and come out, Sir.' " Happily the tragic years of England's Civil Wars have long since passed, and in England as elsewhere time is smoothing some of the rough edges of religious intolerance. The twentieth century people of the fen country, whatever their creed, cherish the Cathedral which their ancestors helped to build. That mysterious Gothic spirit which cast its spell over England centuries ago and responded to the hopes of the people is stirring again. Ely's mighty walls, like those of her sister cathedrals, have echoed many a time, in recent years, to the music of great oratorios, a re- minder of the long past days when miracle and mystery play once brought religious truth home to the people. Under the pressure of the growing social spirit in England the nation's cathedrals, with all the possibilities of awakening brotherhood that they represent, will surely come into their own. 161 fl) JT CATHLRIhElX CHAPEL 12) no CHOIR AISLE. 13) JOCHOIBAULE (4) ST. EDMVMDy CrtAPLL (5) BISHOP AL£OCKT CMAPEL E)|5H0P WESTJ CBAPEL (7) ALAM DE WALJ IMCH AM J TOn& (8) JT ETHELDRE- DAJ" JttRlNE. (9) ^l(? CrtRI^TO- PiiER WRE/iU- DOORWAV PLAn or ELY CAT/1EDRAL 162 BRIEF SUMMARY FOR THE TRAVELER Cathedral begun in 1082. Originally an abbey, it BECAME A Cathedral Church in llOQ. Chiefly Norman, Early English, and Late Decorated Periods. Plan: Cruciform, with a western transept and de- tached Lady Chapel. Great Transepts (1082-1130) Early Norman. Whole church built on a very large scale. Notice plain cylindrical columns, work cruder than in nave, square-edged arches without moldings, also capitals with volutes, along the walls. Three very early Norman windows have nail-head decoration in west wall of south transept overlooking the cloisters. All other Norman windows in the church have billet mold- ing. In south transept some remains of ancient coloring, part is recent. In north transept, remains of an old fresco in St. Edmund's Chapel. Exterior: Classical doorway in north transept, 1699, by Sir Christopher Wren. Nave (1100-30) Late Norman. Very long and beautiful, tall, rather slender shafts of Triforium and Clerestory, flat roof. Triforium lofty, yet does not dwarf pier arches and clerestory. Very little ornament, arches slightly elon- gated. No round pillars. Triforium lighted by later Perpendicular windows. 163 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Ceiling, 1858. Designed from a 12th century psal- ter and a ceiling at Hildesheim, Germany. Wall ar- cade in nave aisles has chevron molding. Notice very interesting Prior's door in south aisle (westward) and Monks' door (eastward), probably late work of the 12th century. Western Transepts and Tower (1174-89) Late Norman, in the lower stages. Transitional in the upper. Notice the beauty of the arcading, round- headed arches, then trefoiled, then slightly pointed. Oc- tagonal top of tower, late Decorated or Curvilinear. Middle of 13th century. Interior: The tall supporting arches beneath the tower are later still of Perpendicular work. St. Catha- rine's Chapel. The interlacing arches and zigzag mold- ings very beautiful*. Notice semicircular apse, Galilee Porch (1200-15) Early English. Notice the beautiful double doorways, stone arcaded seats with canopies, trefoiled arches, and dog-tooth moldings, a fine example of best Early Eng- lish work. On exterior large grouped lancet windows with f oliaged capitals and deep-cut moldings ; smaller arches continue the effect on the side. In chamber above, possibly a minstrels' gallery, a modern window, 1800, cuts off the light from the great lancets. Presbytery (1234-54) Early English. Six eastern bays. Notice sharp- pointed pier arches, an improvement over St. Hugh's 164 ELY rather blunt arches at Lincoln. Harmonizing especially well with pointed arches and trefoils of triforium and lancets of the clerestory. Contrasts of light and dark marble very fine. Architectural features of Tombs: Curvilinear sub- structure of Etheldreda's shrine by Alan. Bishop Al- cock's chapel Late Perpendicular (1486-1501). Bishop West's chapel still later, its vaulting and stone work suggesting the art of the Italian Renaissance, both chap- els very richly adorned and famous for their beauty of detail. Exterior: One of the best facades in England. Fine grouping of lancets ; later windows in lower corners mar the perfection of the early design. Choir (1322-49) Late Decorated or Curvilinear Gothic. Its three bays are divided from the Presbytery by the great Norman vaulting shaft of Simeon's old apse (1082). Present choir rej^laces the Norman structure, demolished by the fall of the tower. General features of this choir show the growing tendency toward over-decoration and lack of strength. Notice simpler roof of the presbytery. Canopies of choir stalls 1337, a rare example of work of that period. In upper row of stalls the carving of the misereres is ancient and very interesting. Lady Chapel (1321-49) Late Decorated or Curvilinear Gothic. Wonderful example of the work of this period. Roof forty-six feet wide, said to be the widest single-span stone roof in England. Notice especially the carvings in spandrels 165 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY of wall arcade, representing scenes in the life of the Virgin. Great east and west Curvilinear windows showed signs of weakness, and Perpendicular windows were sub- stituted in late 14th century. Prior Crauden's Chapel 1321-41) Late Decorated or Curvilinear Gothic. One of the few monastic buildings not utilized at present in the houses of dean and canons. Octagon Lantern (1322- ) Late Decorated or Curvilinear Gothic. One of the most wonderful achievements of mediaeval Gothic. Sev- enty-seven feet wide. Four open arches. Four walls utilized for light by inserting great windows. Glass has no special distinction. Hood molds of the arches beneath carved with an interesting series of portrait heads; northeast wall, Edward III and Philippa; south- east wall. Bishop Hotham and Prior Crauden; north- west wall, Alan of Walsingham and possibly his mason. Southwest wall grotesques. On corbels beneath canopies of vaulting shafts eight scenes in the life of St. Ethel- dreda. Exterior: Lower Octagon of stone, with pinnacles and narrow-pointed arches, some of which are glazed. Fine contrast with large windows above and below. Eight great oak-trees form the lantern. Notice double flying buttresses at angles of nave and transept. 166 CHAPTER VII SALISBURY IT is a sunny day in an English autumn. You are in Wiltshire climbing the long, gentle slope from Amesbury to Stone- henge in pursuit of the mysterious stone circle of Salisbury Plain. Higher and higher rises the white road, till at the final crest of the hill the whole wonderful scene stretches out be- fore you; not a flat, desolate plain as you had imagined, but a vast rolling prairie, dropping gently into a valley, then rising with a superb sweep up the slopes of the encircling hills. The trees have withdrawn to the horizon. The long, tawny grass ripples in the soft breeze. As you follow the road which stretches away like a white band down into the hollow and up again, absolute silence reigns. Not a living creature is in sight. Not a bird note is sounded. Just ahead of you, silhouetted against the sky, stand the huge stones, old gray monarchs that "have kept 167 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY watch o'er man's mortality," still holding their places erect, preserving their ancient Circle, though many of their comrades have fallen prostrate. Oddly enough, only a stone's throw away a belated airship has dropped down for anchorage! What a strange juxta- j)osition, the stone age and the air age con- fronting each other after unnumbered cen- turies. No wonder the unknown builders of the stone age selected such a spot for their rites of worship or of burial, with the stillness and the sense of infinity all about them. "What though in solemn silence all Move round this dark terrestrial ball." Did some memory of the deep silences of Stonehenge linger with Addison when he wrote those lines? For some of his schoolboy days were passed in Amesbury and he must have been familiar with a spot whose mystery would appeal to a sensitive nature. As you turn back and again cross the distant hilltop, the tip of Salisbury's Cathe- dral spire suddenly comes into view peering over the far-off horizon like a watchful moni- tor. For nearly six centuries the spire, in- sistently pointing upward, has silently noted 168 SALISBURY the passing of events. Armies have marched to and fro over the neighboring downs. Early Parliaments twice found their way to Salis- bury. Royalist and Roundhead alternately held the city during the Civil Wars, and the Prince of Orange entered it triumphantly in 1688. But at Old Sarum the Cathedral had a unique record of still greater antiquity, far antedating that of its present building, and it is with due reverence that you linger on the way back to Salisbury to explore the huge deserted mound once an ancient citadel, Sor- biodunum of the Roman, Searobyrig, "the dry city," of the Saxon, Sarisberie of the Domesday Survey, and now merely an earthly paradise for the archseologist. Excavations have already brought to light the apart- ments of a Norman castle, below which un- doubtedlv lie Roman remains, and beneath these probably traces of previous residents, for the site is a commanding one and the im- mense outer earthworks point to pre-Roman times. Below the Castle itself but within the deep outer moat and the encircling barrier lay the ancient city with its Norman cathedral. The church still awaits the spade of the ex- 169 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY cavator, but in the exceptionally dry summer of 1835 its foundations showed plainly through the turf, revealing a cruciform plan and an entire length of some two hundred and seventy feet. In early Saxon times Old Sa- rum belonged to the diocese of Sherborne, whose first bishop in 705 was Aldhelm, after- ward canonized. Various dividings and reunitings of the see resulted in placing the seat of the bishop at Old Sarum in 1075 under Bishop Herman, a Fleming, who came over with Edward the Confessor and hence was not dispossessed by the Conqueror. His succes- sor, the Norman Osmund, built the church whose foundations can still be seen, though five days after its consecration in 1092 it was so damaged by lightning that considera- ble restoration was necessary ten years later under Bishop Roger. But Osmund's orderly mind was of greater service to his bishopric than even his achievements in cathedral build- ing. Noting the great variety of forms in the ritual used in churches in England and on the continent, he arranged the material so admirably that his "Sarum Use" was widely adopted by the English churches. Although 170 SALISBURY not canonized till four hundred years after his death, his saintly qualities and reputed miracles made his tomb a favorite shrine. Rather militant than saintly is the record left by Bishop Roger, though he restored the damaged Cathedral, and for his skillful ad- ditions to Sherborne Minster was reputed "the great architectural genius of the thirteenth century." As Chancellor of Henry I his abilities were conspicuous, but his numerous castles excited suspicion and jealousy of his power, and in the anarchy of Stephen's time he was thrown into prison by the King and despoiled of his fortresses. Jocelin de Bohun, who helped to frame the Constitutions of Clarendon and was therefore excommunicated by Archbishop Becket, adds another name to the stormy annals of Old Sarum's bishops. With Bishop Richard Poore, 1217, we come to the parting of the ways. The restricted citadel, secure from enemies without, had developed foes within. A state of incom- patibility between the churchly and the mili- tary portions of the community led to fre- quent disputes, sometimes bordering upon open warfare. Town sided with gown against the "castle," and the dean and chapter pro- 171 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY posed to shake the dust of Old Sarum off their feet. Hence an effective list of griev- ances was sent to Pope Honorius III. The church being within the line of defense, the lives of the canons were often endangered. The winds blustering about the elevated spot prevented the singers from hearing each other and also induced rheumatism. Wind and storm kept the church in constant need of re- pair, while the glare of the chalky soil without trees or grass had caused many to lose their sight. Water was scarce and the price of it prohibitive, and finally the clergy had to rent liouses from the soldiers, or if they lived out- side were liable to be excluded on important occasions on the ground that the defenses would be endangered! With the "translation" of the Cathedral, the glory of Old Sarum departed. The people followed the church. The castle became use- less after the invention of artillery, and in 1535 a visitor wrote of it: "This thing hath been ancient and exceeding strong, but syns the building of New Saresbyri it went totally to mine." Yet the ghost of Old Sarum was not so easily laid. For three hundred years more it was "represented" by two seats in 172 SALISBURY Parliament, till it was finally exorcised by the Reform Bill of 1832. The site of the new Cathedral, dedicated to St. ^lary, was determined, some say, by a vision of the Virgin which appeared to Bishop Poore. Others credit it to an arrow shot from the walls of Old Sarum, but whatever the in- spiration, the actual ground was furnished by the bishop himself. No complaints of a "dry city" ever arose from New Salisbury. Tradition acknowledges that the site of the Cathedral was in earlv davs little better than a swamp, and the daily service was actually interrupted at one time by the water in the building. Bishop Douglas in 1791, evidently disturbed by the moisture of his new abode, remarked with some feeling, "Salisbury is the sink of Wiltshire Plain, the Close is the sink of Salisbury, and the Bishop's Palace the sink of the Close." Running brooks in the streets of the town suggested comparisons with Venice, but in modern times they have been trained into suitable channels. Still in quest of the Cathedral, you enter the Close at Salisbury through one of its three medieval gateways. Amid the stones of the wall you easily distinguish fragments of Nor- 173 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY mail decoration, for by royal consent Old Sarum was despoiled to help build the walls and gates of this "New Jerusalem." The freedom and quiet which Bishop Poore and his harried flock sought for, they found at last, for Salisbury in the charm and beauty of its surroundings is unrivaled among English cathedrals. A few steps from the gateway and you are looking across an immense lawn toward the lovely Cathedral, perpetually youthful, which with its soaring spire stands out gloriously in the clear September sun- shine. Around the far-off borders of the green, dignified old elms have ranged them- selves at a respectful distance, while a few of their giant comrades and a cedar or two have ventured across the broad lawn, their long shadows serving to emphasize the im- pression of space and repose. Behind the Cathedral, in its sunny southern exposure, are the beautiful cloisters, never however the abode of monks, for Salisbury was a church of the Old Foundation and always served by secular clergy., Adjoining the cloisters is the Chapter house, and just beyond, the Bishop's palace, a faiiyland secluded behind a high stone wall. Nor is the green itself without its 174 SALISBURY appropriate setting. Back of its guardian elms, enchanting old houses dwell in em- bowered gardens. A scarlet Virginia creeper climbs riotously over a Queen Anne roof to the chimney tops, or festoons itself decorously along the front of a stately Georgian house, while dark English ivy gives an added flavor of age to surviving JNIedieval or Tudor build- ings. Behind them all runs the sparkling Avon, its clear waters at many points reflect- ing the Cathedral's spire. Especially apx^ropriate to Salisbury Cathe- dral is this peculiarly English environment, for, built in all essentials in one period, it stands alone among English cathedrals for unity of design, expressing the Gothic spirit as it was first making its way in England. Nor was it reared on any previous structure, but, free from the restrictions of earlier foimdations, grew from virgin soil in its own characteristic wav. Your eve follows with de- light the graceful lines of chapel and aisle and transept as they rise one above the other, till their growing sense of aspiration is completed in the marvelous spire four hundred feet in height which gathers all the lines into itself and transmits them skyward. 175 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Very exact and self-restrained were these early Gothic builders. Their symmetrical cutting and placing of the stones is the won- der of architects. They were sparing of deco- ration also, apparently relying upon the con- trast between their deep-cut horizontal mold- ings and the upward reach of the beautiful lancet windows skillfully grouped in threes and fives on each bold front or towering gable. Any possible severity of effect in the simple lines of this exterior was finally dis- pelled by the treatment of the cornice, em- bellished w4th a row of trefoiled arches with corbels beneath them, extending around the entire building. This cornice, with the hori- zontal moldings, outer buttresses and the con- tinuous horizontal lines of the basement string course, seems to temper the building's vertical propensities and gives a sense of restfulness and unity to this wonderful church, which is one of the most graceful expressions of har- monious grouping to be found in any country. The north side of the Cathedral is the finest place in England to study the evolution of the lancet window. As you stand on the broad lawn, you have the whole panorama spread out before you. In the lowest tier of the main 176 F. G. O. Stuart, Southampton. CLOISTERS, SALISBURY CATHEDRAL. LADY CHAPEL, SALISBURY CATHEDRAL. SALISBURY transept are three single lancets separated by buttresses; the aisles of the choir and nave show two windows of uniform height between each buttress; at the end of the eastern transept in the lower tier, the number has been increased to three, still of uniform height. But an important change comes in the clere- story, for the middle window of the three is taller than the rest, thus emphasizing the idea of a group; these triple windows are con- tinued around the transepts, but in the end wall of each transept you notice new combina- tions. On the great transept are six windows in groups of two each, the outer two being blind windows and above each group a circle. The final stage is shown in the triforium row just beneath, where six windows are also in groups of two but separated by buttresses, each group having a quatrefoil just above and the combination thus formed inclosed within the arch of a dripstone, giving us the first form of the future Geometrical window. At each projecting corner rises an airy pinnacle, seeming to suggest the higher service of the great spire- One can scarcely imagine the Cathedral without its spire, which is surely, as we see it before us, a logical necessity. Yet 177 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY it seems certain that the original architect did not contemplate it, nor is the exact date of its erection known ; ^ though probably in the * early fourteenth century. It is evident, how- ever, from the extensive buttressing on the in- side of the Cathedral that before the spire was built the tower showed signs of weakening. Yet an artistic genius arose, more artist per- haps than engineer, who saw his opportunity and dared even then to give to the Cathedral its final touch of distinction. To-day the spire is twenty-three inches out of the perpen- dicular, but the settlement took place soon after its erection. It has been strengthened by iron bands in late years, and recent tests reveal no further indication of weakness. Though its architecture shows the influence of a slightly later period, the architects so skill- fully adapted his design that it harmoniously completes the earlier beginnings. You notice especially how the clustering pinnacles pro- duce such an impression of continuity between ' In 1762, when a new copper vane was added, a wooden box was discovered. Within this was a round leaden box, 6^/2 by 2^ inches, containing a piece of fabric supposed to be a relic of the Virgin, placed there to protect the tower from lightning. It was replaced in its original position. 178 SALISBURY tower and spire that one naturally grows out of the other, a supreme artistic achievement. The west front has been severely criticised. A great work of art must be true throughout, and Salisbury's west front is in a measure a screen not closely related to the building be- hind it. Compare this front with the Early English east end of Ely. Even in its muti- lated state, for you remember that its lower corners were altered at a later time, you feel its streno^th and beauty. Notice how the divisions of clerestory, triforium, and aisle are carried over into the plan of the facade, giv- ing a sense of completeness to the whole structure. Here in Salisbury the connection is almost entirely lost. Nevertheless, you may enjoy the beauty of many of the details while you study the proportions of doors and win- dows and consider whether their relation to each other and to the whole gives the best possible effect, and educate your taste by comparisons with other churches as your artistic experience widens. But we must not forget what this west front meant to the people of the thirteenth century, who lavished their gifts upon the Cathedral and found it in those troubled times not only 179 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY a refuge and strength but a great religious teacher. In an age when there were no books, when Chaucer and WicHf were yet unborn and the printing press was two hun- dred years distant, the church wisely used the best possible means for perpetuating the in- fluence of the heroes of the faith. We can imagine one of those far-distant Sabbaths when the people, pouring out of the Cathedral, which still echoed to the strains of the Te Deum, would linger to look up at the glori- ous company of the Apostles, the goodly fel- lowship of the Prophets, and the noble army of Martyrs carved in stone. But we must leave this much discussed front, on which the frequent use of the ball flower ornament indicates the coming Deco- rated stage of English Gothic, and enter the Cathedral by the north door, whose beautiful entrance porch merits attention. Sharp con- trasts greet you in Salisbury's nave. The lack of stained glass windows emphasizes the pallor of the stone, which is further heightened by the profusion of very dark highly polished Purbeck marble shafts, giving to the church as a whole a black and white effect. Yet as you walk slowly down to the historic east end, 180 SALISBURY you find yourself gradually being won by the simple dignity of the building and the har- mony of all its parts. At the extreme east, beneath the Lady Chapel, Bishop Poore in 1220 laid the first five stones of the founda- tion "amidst the acclamations of multitudes of the people weeping for joy and contribut- ing thereto their alms with a ready mind." ^ Bishop Poore's successors finished the build- ing, for he was translated to Durham and died before Salisbury was completed. In 1258 the Cathedral was consecrated, Henry III and his Queen being in attendance. Con- secration crosses of beautiful design may still be seen on the outside of the building. The King was at this time rebuilding the eastern end of Westminster Abbey in the new Early English style, and it would be interesting to know if in any way the two buildings in- fluenced each other. Westminster is richer in its carving than Salisbury; the plate tracerv of Salisbury has become bar tracery at Westminster, which is much higher also ^ Of the five stones the first was for Pope Honorius, then for Stephen Lanjyton, archbishop of Canterbury, next for Bishop Poore, and the remaining two for William l^ongspee. Earl of Salisbury, son of Henry II and Fair Rosamond, and for Ella his wife. 181 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY and narrower, its darker stone work giving it a touch of mystery. Salisbury is frank and open, its form, that of a double cross, easily perceived. Its square east end is distinctly English and quite unlike Westminster and Canterbury, both of which felt the French influence. The very delicate shafts support- ing the roof of the Lady Chapel are a notice- able feature, and close by, the plain tomb of Osmund is a relic of pre-Reformation days and the once glorious shrine of Salisbury's most venerated saint. As you stand in the center of the choir, you see how the security of the spire has been achieved. Behind the triforium arches, at all four angles of the tower, are flying but- tresses of stone, and directly above you where the eastern transept crosses the choir j^ou see the immense inverted arches put in after the buttresses to resist the strain on the transept. Just below the choir, where the greater transept crosses, are two more braces, put in a hundred years later, their paneling characteristic of the Perpendicular period and recalling those at Canterbury. The elaborate carving of the great central arches beneath the tower seems out of keeping, but you find 182 f SALISBURY it was an innovation of the fifteenth century. Another interesting point to be observed is the way in which Sahsbury's Early EngHsh architect arranged the vaulting shafts of his roof. You remember that in St. Hugh's Early English choir at Lincoln the main shafts ran to the ground. In the nave they rested on brackets just above the capitals of the great arches. Here at Salisbury the brackets are up in the triforium, between the arches. The effect is to make the triforium more prominent and to bring out the hori- zontal lines of the nave. Stand at the end and notice the raised block under the columns, a long row of plain clear-cut capitals of the great arches, the dark columns of the triforium and the corbels under the vaulting shafts. Then recall bv contrast Canterburv's nave, re- built in the Perpendicular period, where all the lines seemed vertical, and you appreciate anew one of the differences between Early English in its varied forms and England's later Per- pendicular Gothiv.. The Civil Wars touched Salisbury but lightly. Some secret influence was exerted in its favor. Though the bishop's palace was sold and divided into tenements, workmen 183 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY were engaged to keep the Cathedral in repair; and when one of the Puritan officers sent up to Parliament some of the church plate, he was ordered to restore it. The Reformation laid its hand on shrines and images, but the Cathe- dral's greatest humiliation came at the hands of a "restorer" in the decadent days of the late eighteenth century, an architect Wyatt, known as "the destroyer." Much of the old stained glass was cast out under his adminis- tration, but you can still see an interesting window of grisaille glass with geometric pat- terns in the southeastern transept and some fragments set into the great window of the nave, which were rescued fifty years ago. Wyatt also removed the old tombs from their historic places at the east end and arranged them in "orderly" fashion on the plinth which runs beneath the columns of the nave, — a strik- ing architectural feature, by the way, due probably to the need of making the founda- tions more stable. As a final indignity to the outraged building he "cleaned" the ceiling, thereby obliterating the ancient decorations. In modern times sympathetic attempts at restorations of the old designs have given Salisbury a touch of color once hiore, but the 184 SALISBURY mellow flavor of the past is hopelessly and forever lost. Wyatt's changes have left in the western part of the nave the tombs of the Old Sarum bishops. Their exact identification is uncer- tain, but their antiquity unquestioned. They are interesting examples of a very early class of old English tombs. The unique tomb of the Boy Bishop in the nave recalls a curious old custom, when from St. Nicholas' Day to Innocents' Day a choir boy was elected as bishop, a special service and procession taking place. Americans will linger before the tablet on the north wall of the nave, with its beautiful design and inscrijDtion commemorating those who suffered through the tragic railroad ac- cident at Salisbury in 1906: This tablet was erected by citizens of Salisbury as a pledge of brotherly sympathy with mourners in England and America and Canada, in memory of those who lost their lives through an accident on the railway within this city in the early morning of Sun- day, July 1, 1906, and whose names are here recorded. . . . "In the midst of life we are in death." "Of whom may we seek for succour but of Thee, Lord." 185 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Beneath the floor of the Choir are the tombs of the Earls of Pembroke, and here was laid to rest the beautiful Countess of Pembroke whose death called forth Ben Jonson's famous lament : "Sydney's Sister, Pembroke's Mother Death, ere thou hast killed another Faire, and learn'd and good as she, Tyme shall throw a dart at thee." Salisbury's cloisters and chapter house in their lovely green setting are exceptionally beautiful. The windows show at once that they are later than the Cathedral Early or Geometrical Decorated. In the restoration of the chapter house, pennies of Edward I's reign were discovered. Gothic ideas had developed when it was built, but the English architect of the Cathedral was slow to relinquish his fond- ness for heavy walls and we find only a few fly- ing buttresses on the Cathedral, while the walls of the clerestory are nearly eight feet thick at the top. The numerous pinnacles are in the nature of heavy weights to steady the stout buttresses between the windows, but the idea of windows representing walls of glass had not yet taken hold. Here in the chapter house you see a change. The central pillar within and the wall buttresses without sup- 186 F. Frith & Co Reigato SALISBURY CATHEDRAL FROM THE MEADOWS. BISHOP'S PALACE, SALISBURY. SALISBURY port a framework which makes possible large windows and plenty of light. With the glaz- ing of these large windows plate tracery was no longer practicable, and we have bar tracery in its various lovely forms. The most notable feature of the chapter house is its remarkable series of carvings over the wall arcade. Since Henrv VIII's time, the Pembroke estate, Wilton House, has been a favorite resort of royaltj^ Through the carefully^ trimmed trees of its park there is always visible a glimpse of Salisbury's spire three miles distant. Nor must you leave the Cathe- dral without a view from the lovely meadows, where Constable painted it again and again. In one immortal picture a rainbow is seen just above the spire. Scarcely a mile away, at Bemerton, are the church and rectory where George Herbert spent the last years of his short life. Frequently visiting the Cathedral, his favorite walk must have been along the winding waterways. Perhaps some vision of spire and fleecy cloud reflected side by side in the quiet river may have been the happy inspiration of his poem, "Sweet day so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridal of the earth and sky." 187 1 J-ITE OF CHAPEL — &EAVCHA/nP ■CMAPEL WEJT WOfU PLA/1 OF JAU5DWRY CATHLDI^AL 188 BRIEF SUMMARY FOR THE TRAVELER Cathedral begun in 1220. The first great church WHOLLY IN the EaRLY EnGLISH STYLE, BUILT PRAC- TICALLY COMPLETE IN FORTY YEARS AND ON A VIRGIN SITE. Plan: A double cross with square east end project- ing to form the Lady Chapel. Lady Chapel (1220) Early English. Earliest portion of church forms the square projecting east end; has a central and two side aisles. The beautiful Beauchamp and Hungerford chapels^ Perpendicular in style, built in 15th century, stood on each side of it till destroyed by Wyatt. Cano- pies of niches beneath north and south windows came from the destroyed Beauchamp chapel. St. Osmund's tomb, on the right, is all that remains of his shrine, plundered at the Reformation. Very delicate Purbeck marble columns and plain molded capitals. Very beau- tiful altar triptych and reredos modern — except the altar itself. Choir (1220-58) Early English, Eight Purbeck shafts to each pier. Dog-tooth ornament in pier arches. Triforium and clerestory slightly different from nave. Five beautiful arches in Triforium at east end, contrasting with the three sharply pointed arches just below opening into the retrochoir and Lady Chapel. Ceiling paintings 189 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY restorations of the original, which probably dated from 13th century. Notice carved Purbeck capitals at the climax of ceiling paintings — all others plain. Bishop Audley's Chantry a fine example of Perpen- dicular work. Opposite is Chantry of Lord Hungerford, now used as a family pew, with ironwork of the year 1429 to be compared with Edward IV Chantry at Windsor, 1483, and Henry VII at Westminster, 1509- Choir stalls many periods, a little of the original work. In east transept, on the wall of the Morning Chapel, part of beautiful Early English screen, probably the early choir screen removed by Wyatt. Curious brass of Bishop Wyville in this chapel. Inverted buttressing arches of the choir put in later. They are of the Deco- rated period. See natural oak leaves in capitals. Monument of Bishop Bridport in south choir aisle dates from 1262. Reliefs on it remarkable for their ex- cellence. One original Early English window in south- eastern transept of grisaille glass. Transepts (1220-58) Early English. Triforium and clerestory of nave carried round the transepts. On end wall replaced by two-light windows. Screen with dark shafts in front of windows. Braces, Perpendicular in style, 1450-81, be- tween tower piers across transepts. Carving of great arches of the crossing done in 15th century. Nave (1220-58) Early English. Main arches pointed. Piers, stone columns with four Purbeck marble shafts. Capitals molded, but without carving. Triforium has double 190 SALISBURY arches, resting on dark marble shafts, with plate tracery above; a characteristic of very Early English, like St. Hugh's triforium. The double arches are surrounded by a heavy flattened containing arch. The effect less beautiful than at Lincoln or Westminster. Roof with bosses, but no longitudinal rib. Vaulting shafts rest on brackets between triforium arches. Hori- zontal lines of nave emphasized. Nave 84 feet, exceeded in height only by Westminster, York, and Ripon. Tombs of Bishops of Sarum on north side westward among the earliest examples of their class in England. Boy Bishop's tomb unique. William of Longspee in chain mail. Two lancet windows in each bay of aisle. Triple lancets in clerestory. Fragments of old glass in great west window and at end of aisles. North porch lined with a beautiful double arcade. An upper story, possibly a Galilee, for penitents. West Front (1220-58) Early English. Notice interesting triple doorway, rather small and characteristically English. General effect of the whole front not altogether successful. Its rows of statues represent the four orders of beings men- tioned in the Te Deum Laudamus, beginning at the top with angels, then patriarchs and prophets, then mar- tyrs, etc., and churchmen. All but eight are modern. *The use of the ball flower ornament shows the coming change to the Decorated style. Tower and Spire (1220-58 and early 14th century) Early English for eiglit feet above the roof. The flying buttresses on four sides under triforium roof put 191 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY in soon after the church was finished. Two additional stories and spire in early 14th century. Early Deco- rated Gothic. Height, 404 feet. Chapter House and Cloisters (early 14th century) Early Decorated Gothic. A little later than Cloisters. Octagonal, with central pillar. A canopied arcade above, which is a series of carvings representing early Old Testament history. Much restored, but still of great value and interest. Especially important are the carv- ings on outside of doorway. The cloisters wel*e never the abode of monks. Salisbury's old rhyme perpetuates a popular legend; "As many days as in one year there be, So many windows in this church we see; As many marble pillars here appear As there are hours throughout the fleeting year; As many gates as moons one year does view — Strange tale to tell ! Yet not more strange than true." 192 . CHAPTER VIII LICHFIELD IN Lichfield you are in the heart of England, once the ancient Saxon king- dom of Mercia. INIercia in the seventh century stood for paganism. In the Saxon kingdoms to the north and south, Christian- ity was slowly making headway, but Mercia, under its mighty King Penda, held out stub- bornly. It was the "march" or border against the unconquered Briton of Wales and the last stronghold of the old gods. Far to the northwest on the rocky coast of Scotland an Irish monk, Columba, had founded the island monastery of lona, and hither young Oswald of Northumbria had fled for refuge in the uncertain state of the Northumbrian kingdom. Later, when King, Oswald sent for missionaries from lona to establish a monastery on the eastern coast of his dominions, and at Lindisfarne or Holy Island this new center soon shed its light 193 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY throiiGjhout the dark land. With Aidan, its first bishop, Oswald himself as interpreter fre- quently made long journeys among his peo- ple. But in an attempt to save his neighbors of East Anglia from the yoke of'Penda he was slain, and Mercia gleefully harried the stricken Northumbrians. "See, Lord, what ill Penda is doing," was the pathetic prayer of Aidan. However, while monk and missionary la- bored on, the mills of God were slowly grinding. Penda's son, ruling the Middle English, at length became a convert and brought teachers from Lindisfarne to instruct his people. Bitterly the aged Penda watched the course of events, noting with scorn the human imperfections of the disciples of the Cross. He had slain and mutilated Oswald, and as he saw Northumbria under Christian Oswi becoming strong and reunited, the old chieftain rallied his hosts for a death blow at this latest rival. In 655, at Winwoed near Leeds, the new faith and the old grappled at last. The Mercians fled. A storm-swollen river hastened the work of destruction, and with the death of Penda came the twilight of the gods. .. .„._^ 194 LICHFIELD Within twenty years of the great battle churches had sprung up all over JNIercia, and the life and work of St. Chad had left their mark upon England for all time. These were momentous years for the English church. Should the Celtic form of Christianity in- troduced by Columba and his monks prevail, or that which entered through Augustine under the church of Rome? The Council of Whitby led by King Oswi decided in favor of Rome; and under Theodore of Tarsus, a Greek monk who became archbishop of Can- terbury, the Saxon churches, grouped in their often warring kingdoms, were united under a common head. At this time Mercia was without a bishop, and Theodore, observing . that a certain Lindisfarne monk, Ceadda, temporarily exalted to the bishopric of York, had also accepted his retirement to humbler work with equal serenity, assigned to him the important post of bishop for ^lercia. Ceadda or St. Chad was the first to fix the seat of the bishopric at Lichfield, where his modest hut stood close to the banks of Stowe pool. To-day an ancient stone church called St. Chad's stands hard by, but the little wooden church of St. INIary, built by St. 195 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Chad himself, tradition places nearer the site of the 23resent Cathedral. In his humble habitation, with seven colleagues, St. Chad fasted and prayed and carried on his labo- rious work. No dreams of a great cathedral, still less of a bishop's palace, we may believe, ever flitted before him. He had a huge dio- cese, stretching across England, and long jour- neys on foot were his portion as he shepherded his scattered flock. A Celtic poet sings of his last hours, when angelic voices filled his little cell and he waited for the death messenger, the "lovable guest," to come for him. Less than three years closed his work, but the re- membrance of his devoted life brought great numbers of pilgrims to his shrine and all through Middle England churches were built to his memory. Another twenty years passed. Then Bishop Hedda is said to have built a stone church where the Cathedral now stands and to have dedicated it to St. Peter. Tradition also holds that St. Chad's bones were brought from their resting place near his cell and deposited here, but as to what buildings actually arose on this particular spot, up to the time of the Normans, nothing is really 196 LICHFIELD known. Lichfield's early annals are more than usually misty. Yet Mercia's fighting spirit left its characteristic mark on these early days of her church history, for a hun- dred years after the overthrow of Penda, an- other great ruler, Off a, came into power for nearly half a century. Under him Mercia again stood at the head of the English king- doms. But Charlemagne from his Frankish dominions over the sea was watching this new power on his northern horizon. Enemies of JNIercia were welcomed at his court, and the weaker English kingdoms appealed to him for support. Kent once and again revolted from Offa, and when the Archbishop of Can- terbury was discovered plotting for Frankish aid, Offa humbled him by securing from the Pope the right to create an Archbishop of Lichfield independent of Canterbury. For eighteen years Lichfield's archbishops wielded a widespread authority, but with the death of Offa Canterbury regained her old supremacy. Then came the terror of the Danes. The ab- beys of Peterborough and Ely in the fen country went up in flames, and Mercia paid tribute; but history is silent as to what hap- pened at Lichfield. 197 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY With the coming of the Normans we tread on firmer ground, though the destruction of nearly all archives in the Civil Wars has left Lichfield singularly destitute of early records. The foundations of the Norman church have been traced in part. Nothing remains of it above ground. Even its date is unknown, but it was presumably late in the twelfth century. If ever finished, it was short lived at best. Just before the Norman Conquest, began the long rivalry between Lichfield and its neighbor Coventry for chief authority in the diocese. Influenced by his beautiful Lady Godiva, famed for her ride through Coventry, Earl Leofric built and endowed a great Bene- dictine Abbej^ so wealthy that "the walls seemed almost too strait to hold it all." Wealth meant power, and the monks of Coventry, pitted against the canons of Lich- field, became involved in a warfare far from spiritual. At one period a bishop bought from the King the barony of Coventry, he and his successors becoming also abbots of the monastery, to the great irritation of the monks, who contended that Coventry was be- ing exploited for the enrichment of the Cathe- dral at Lichfield. Roger de Clinton, known as 198 WEST FRONT, LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL. LICHFIELD the "soldier-bishop," for he was a crusader, is credited with building Lichfield's Norman Cathedral, but the thirteenth century saw the complete transformation of the heavy Nor- man building into one of the most beautiful of English Gothic churches. When and how the various changes came about, and by whom they were made, can only be conjectured. Lichfield Cathedral, one of the smallest of English minsters, is also one of the loveliest, with a subtle charm which is captivating. Seen from a slight distance, there is a fascina- tion about the way in which its three delicate spires, "the ladies of the vale," group them- selves to the bewilderment of the beholder. You view them from the southwest over the tree tops by "Minster pool" and they are of equal height. You approach them circum- spectly from the w^est and the two front spires rise to an imposing altitude, while the third drops into the background. Perplexed, you climb the hillside on the north or cross Minster pool at its eastern end, when the cen- tral tower easily soars above her elusive west- ern sisters. Entering the Catliedral Close by the west- ern roadway, only the scantiest indications of 199 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY the old gate, one of Bishop Langton's "beau- tiful gates," can be detected; nor is the en- closure itself extensive. Yet there is a cozy loveliness about the spot which seems an ap- propriate setting for this demure Cathedral resting serenely against the sloping hillside, giving no hint at first of its checkered and perilous career. The color of the building is distinctive, born of its own surroundings, — not a "cathedral gray" nor yet the mellow brown of Westminster, but a warm red sand- stone quarried from the neighboring hills, its varying tones lending their lights and shadows to the nobly designed and richly carved facade. Lichfield Cathedral is Gothic throughout. In striking contrast to the severe Early Eng- lish of Salisbury, it expresses the full flower- ing of the luxuriant Decorated style, with just enough of the Early English to show the evolution of the Gothic spirit. As you enter the church you feel at once its atmos- phere of refinement and elegance, though it is less awe-inspiring, perhaps, than some of the greater cathedrals. Shorter by at least a hundred feet than Canterbury or Ely, its pro- portions are so j^erfect that all considerations 200 LICHFIELD of size are lost in the impression of its beauty. As you stand by the west door and look up through the nave, it seems illumined with a ruddy glow. The lighter shades of the sand- * stone used for the interior have a roseate tinge, and there are no dark Purbeck marble shafts so frequently used in early English archi- tecture. You will notice, perhaps, that the orientation of nave and choir is not quite per- fect. The eastern end inclines to the left about ten degrees north of the true east. There was an old theory that this was in allu- sion to the drooping of the head of Christ upon the Cross, but this theory, like many medieval superstitions, is hardly to be credited in a scientific age. Lichfield has been damaged and restored to a pitiful extent, but the interior of her beauti- ful nave has been remarkably preserved almost in its original state. Here you can study Decorated Gothic in its finest expres- sion. Notice the clustered columns which form the piers of the nave. No bands en- circle them as in the Early English period. The capitals are carved with foliage in great variety. Sculptured heads terminate the drip- stones over the great arches, and the spandrels 201 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY are decorated with circles each enclosing a cinquefoil. Very lavish is the decoration of the triforium with its dog-tooth moldings, above which a similar molding forms the hori- zontal "string course" and still higher up incloses the clerestory windows. These odd- shaped clerestory windows, spherical trian- gles, are somewhat rare, although they may be noticed on the outside wall of the tri- forium at Westminster Abbey. Noticeable also are the heavily carved capitals of the slender vaulting shafts, between the bays of the triforium, where they spread out to form the roof. Lichfield's roof is characteristically English. The long molding running length- wise where the vaulting ribs meet overhead serves to emphasize the great length of the English cathedral, so different from the con- tinental churches where height was especially sought. This roof is more than usually adorned, heavy carved bosses marking the junction of the ribs. The windows of the aisles are very interesting. No longer the single lancets of the Early English, their three lancet-shaped panes set under a single arch, with tref oiled circles above, mark the geometrical stage of the Decorated style. 202 < Q LLl I I- < o > < iKM^^^SSflpif*'!^ J LICHFIELD Below the windows along the walls of the aisle runs a charming arcade of trefoiled arches, and above each arch a pointed molding adorned with crockets. These details show how enthusiastically the Gothic builders in the middle of the thirteenth century strove to enrich their buildings. They were remark- ably skilled craftsmen, and the enormous ex- tent to which Lichfield has been restored dur- ing the nineteenth century frequently makes it possible to compare the old with the later work. Entering the choir just east of the central tower, we are in the oldest part of the present building. The first three bays comprise all that remains of the record of the Early Eng- lish builders, and even this has been largely replaced by modern carving, though restored as faithfully as the nineteenth century was capable of expressing the spirit of the thir- teenth. With the aid of the building itself and the meager records, we learn its story. The transept followed the choir in point of date, and their Early English qualities are very marked. A number of the original lan- cet windows remain, but the story of the five large lancets in the north transept is very 203 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY curious. They had been removed probably at a tmie when large Perpendicular windows prevailed, and one of these, as in the south transept, occupied their place. But in the course of nineteenth-century repairs the head- ings of the original lancets were discovered just as they had been hidden by the earlier workmen. In 1892 these old lancets were therefore replaced, and the headings of the lights on the inside are now complete except for six missing stones, three of which have since been found. The original, probably wooden, roof of the transept was changed to a low stone vault in the Perpendicular period, so that the window in the gable of each tran- sept does not appear on the inside. At the far east end is the Lady Chapel, begun by Bishop Walter de Langton, but fin- ished under his successor, Bishop Norbury, about the middle of the thirteenth century. This chapel is the glory of the Cathedral. Its superb tall stained-glass windows, unusually rich and deep in coloring, shed their radiance over the whole east end of the church, and as you look up through the long vista of the nave their brilliant colors glowing in the distance add the final touch of beauty to this wonderful 204 LICHFIELD little Cathedral. The form of the Lady ChajDel, a fine polygonal Gothic apse without aisles, is a French rather than an English feature, and though the Roundheads left not a vestige of stained glass in the Cathedral, these graceful windows were filled early in the last century with fine old sixteenth-century Italian-Flemish glass of the best period. The Cathedral owes this magnificent acquisition to Sir Brooke Boothby, who discovered the glass in Belgium in 1802, where it had been hidden after the dissolution of the abbey of Herken- rode. The glass has been valued at fifteen thousand pounds, but the donor generously sold it to the Cathedral for the two hundred pounds which he had paid for it. The seven easternmost windows of the chapel are filled with this glass. The remaining two windows contain glass which also came presumably from the Low Countries and belongs to about the same period. It bears the arms of the kingdom of Arragon. The arcading around the walls of the Lady Chapel and the beautiful band of tracery above, with the brackets and canopies for saints, are of ancient date — Dec- orated Gothic — but the Roundheads made short work of the saints and the present figures 205 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY can claim merely the prestige of good modern craftsmanship. Bishop Langton's Lad}'^ Chapel only paved the way for further Gothic achievements. The passion for "improving" cathedrals seems to have been a kind of primal instinct in the Middle Ages. The Early English style was scarcely "up-to-date" at this time, and the presbytery between the Lady Chapel and the choir was accordingly rebuilt in Decorated Gothic. You can detect the skillful way in which the early architects welded the styles together, the third pier carrying Early Eng- lish capitals on the west and Decorated on the east, and if you examine the pier arches of the choir closely you will see that the front half of their moldings has been removed and others substituted to correspond to those in the presbytery. You notice also the differ- ence between the east and west ends of the wall arcading in the aisles of the choir. The Decorated work of this very lovely part of the Cathedral is worthj^ of most careful study. At first glance the large clerestory windows meeting the great pier arches seem to have obliterated the triforium. Then you observe that the windows have very high paneled sills, 206 LICHFIELD allowing a passage to run along in front of them, the true triforium, just behind the beau- tiful tref oiled "string course" above the pier arches. This unique triforium made possible also another unusual and highly decorative feature, the band of quatrefoil molding which incloses each window. Sadly enough, only one of the windows has been suffered to keep its original tracery, which is an exceptionally beautiful example of the Late Decorated style. Cathedral fashions demanded a change, and the Civil Wars doubtless necessitated some res- torations. Lichfield and York cathedrals re- semble each other in many respects. Both are very simple in design, and being cathedrals of the Old Foundation have no cloisters. Each represents chiefly Early English and Deco- rated Gothic, with some Perpendicular addi- tions at a later period. Lichfield's small tri- forium is similar to that at York, while the five lancets of its north transept suggest York's famous "Five Sisters." In the Chapter House and its lavishly adorned entrance passage leading out of the north aisle, there is a wealth of carving later than the Early English choir and transepts, but earlier than the presbytery, so that the 207 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY whole Cathedral illustrates in a remarkable degree the successive steps in the development of a great art. You note carefully in this Chapter House the fine deep-cut carving of capitals and m'oldings, the central pillar with its delicate shafts spreading out like the branches of a tree, and on the wall arcade a series of ingeniously carved heads illustrating in great variety the head-dresses of the time. St. Chad's shrine once stood behind the high altar. In its place is now kept under glass one of the Cathedral's greatest his- toric treasures, an Irish seventeenth-century manuscript generally known as St. Chad's Gospels. The manuscript is on vellum and contains the Gospels of Matthew and Mark and a portion of Luke. St. Chad is supposed to have visited one of the famous Irish monas- teries in his student days, when that country was the center of learning in the north. The manuscript contains marginal notes in Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Latin, and when the Ca- thedral of Llandaff acquired it in exchange for a horse, Aidan (whether the famous bishop or some other is unknown) set his sig- nature to the transaction. Lichfield has probably owned the manuscript for a thou- 20.8 LICHFIELD sand years. It was saved in the Civil Wars by the precentor, who hid it until the troubles were over. Near by in the south aisle is the famous monument of the "Sleeping Chil- dren," by Chantrey, an early example of the new spirit being felt in English art in 1817. Halfway down the aisle a tiny gallery leads to the charming little Early English chapel of the Head of St. Chad, still containing an old stone aumbry or cupboard, the traditional spot where St. Chad's head was preserved and exhibited from the gallery to the pilgrims be- low. The chapel was ruined in the Civil Wars, but in its restored form is a worthy memorial. So from its earliest beginnings the church of the lowly and peace-loving St. Chad has breathed the atmosphere of warfare. When Bishoj) Langton honored the memory of the Saint by erecting a great shrine between the Lady Chapel and the high altar, the fight- ing traditions of INIercia were still deeply rooted in Lichfield, and the militant bishop who was also Edward I's Lord High Treas- urer, built himself a glorious palace with towers and turrets near to the Cathedral and then added to the previous fortifications of the Close "two beautiful gates" and a high 209 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY stone walL A deep moat beside the palace protected the Close on the east, and the beau- tiful Minster pool, supplied by nature on the south, completed its defenses. But the fate of those who "take the sword" was never more signally illustrated than here, for the Cathedral's fortifications proved its undoing. When the anarchy of the Civil Wars broke out, the Royalists took refuge in the Close. In March, 1643, a force of Round- heads under Lord Brooke, an ardent hater of cathedrals, arrived in Lichfield, and the siege began. Having dedicated Lichfield's church to destruction. Lord Brooke had first halted his army in sight of the town and devoutly prayed for some special token of divine ap- proval. He had scarcely trained his guns on the southeast gate of the Close when a shot fired from the battlements of the "great tower struck him in the forehead and he fell dead. His fate was regarded by the besieged as clearly a miracle. It was March 2, St. Chad's Day, and the shot fired from St. Chad's Church was the work of "Dumb Dvott," a deaf-mute whose affliction marked him as a special agent of the divine will! Lord Brooke's dealjh was kept a secret as long as 210 Valentine & Sons, Ltd., Dundee. INTERIOR OF LADY CHAPEL, LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL. LICHFIELD possible, lest his soldiers should consider it a sign, and the bombardment went on for three days, when the besieged capitulated. The Cathedral was in a pitiable state, its walls weakened, the stained glass destroyed, and the central tower demolished. In its fall it had broken the roof of the church in several places. To add to its desecration the Parlia- mentary soldiers took possession of the church, pulled down the carved woodwork, stripped the tombs of their brasses, battered the saints, and destroyed tlie ancient records stored in the Cathedral. The discovery of a chalice and crozier in one of the tombs led to the rifling of others, and the soldiers amused themselves by hunting a cat with hounds through the church, "delighting themselves with the echo from the goodly vaulted roof." The Cathedral remained in a sadly dilap- idated condition until, in 1661, Bishop Hacket cleared out the rubbish, inserted the Perpen- dicular windows, and reerected the central spire, when the inherent beauty of the build- ing was once more apparent. In the eighteenth century a famous preacher, Dr. Sacheverel, held forth in the Cathedral against the perniciousness of dis- 211 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY sent! His most fascinated auditor was Sam- uel Johnson, aged three, who, perched upon his father's shoulders, "would have stayed for- ever in the church, satisfied with beholding him." Lichfield reveres his memory. In its old grammar school, Johnson, Addison, and David Garrick were all educated. His birth- place, where his father also had a bookshop, has been secured by the city as a permanent memorial. Next door is the Three Crowns, where Johnson frequently stayed. Opposite in the public square is his monument, with reliefs commemorating the Sacheverel inci- dent, the devotion of his school fellows who carried him on their backs to school, and his penance at Uttoxeter where he stood bare- headed in the rain for three hours to expiate a youthful disobedience. Behind Johnson's back at the further end of the Square stands Bos well ! In the south transept of the Cathe- dral are tablets to both Johnson and Garrick, and a statue of Johnson also occupies a niche on the exterior of the south wall. During Johnson's century it was found that the walls of the nave, weakened by ill treatment, were being forced out by the heavy roof, which necessitated a change from stone 212 Valentine & Sons, Ltd., Dundee. EXTERIOR OF LADY CHAPEL, LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL LICHFIELD to lath and plaster except in the end bays. At this time also the fatal era of Roman cement was introduced by the architect Wyatt, though it was not until after his time that it ran riot. Then much of the w^est front was cased with blocks of stucco, while rows of ugly cement figures filled the niches and old carv- ings were ruthlessly j)ared away. In the last half of the nineteenth century the Cathedral submitted to its final experience of architec- tural surgery. A more sympathetic restorer, Sir Gilbert Scott, endeavored to approach in stone once more the spirit of the old Gothic. He scarcely escaped the tempta- tion to make all things new which must beset such a restorer, but the building as it greets us to-day is nevertheless a vision of loveliness. A final stroll around the outside of the Cathedral shows us the venerable north transept door and walls of the nave much as the early builders left them. On the south side the bullet marks of the great siege are still visible, and though the south transept door and the entire west front with its ex- quisitely designed doorways are practically new throughout, the general effect of the Ca- thedral is certainly one of irresistible charm. 213 PLAn OF LICHriLLD CATMLDRAL 214 BRIEF SUMMARY FOR THE TRAVELER Cathedral begun in early 13th century. One of THE smallest AND LOVELIEST OF ENGLISH CATHE- DRALS. Chiefly Early English and Decorated Gothic in style. PZon;' Cruciform, with Polygonal Apse at east end. Choir (very early 13th century) Early English. Extended from central tower east- ward to the seventh bay of present choir, but only the three bavs next the tower now remain. First bavs of choir aisles are Early English, with windows which look into transept aisle, showing that transepts were built later. Wall arcading in aisles; first three bays Early English, remaining bays Decorated period and smaller, with differences in pattern. Sacristy in south aisle (now Consistory Court) Early English. Floor contains old tiles and two cannel coal slabs, as used in old choir pavement. Above it is Chapel of St. Chad. Twelve old lancet windows, but otherwise restored in 19th century. Modern glass. Transepts (early 13th century) Early English. South transept earlier and north transept about the time of the Chapter House. Some of the original lancets remain. Low stone vaulting added in Perpendicular period. It cuts off rose win- dow on south wall and upper lancets on north wall. Large perpendicular window in south transept. Early 215 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY English window in north transept^ a genuine restoration by Sir Gilbert Scott, made j^ossible by discovery of orig- inal stones. Central spire probably first built in 13th century. Rebult after Civil Wars. Chapter House and Vestibule (middle of 13th century) Early English, but later than choir. Double and sin- gle wall arcading in vestibule. Capitals and corbels finely carved and deeply undercut. Chapter House doorway double and deeply recessed. Very richly carved. Chapter House octagonal, with central pillar of clus- tered shafts, banded and elaborate capitals. Vaulting ribs spread like a tree. Bosses and corbels very decora- tive features of roof. Windows double lancets. Re- mains of early frescoes over doorway. Glass modern. Nave (late 13th century) Early Decorated Gothic. Geometrical windows in aisles. Clustered piers, with Decorated capitals. Cinquefoils in spandrels of arches. Triforium unusu- ally large and prominent. Dog-tooth molding used lavishly. Clerestory windows spherical triangles. Roof profusely decorated. Carved capitals of vaulting shafts. Arcade, with bench along aisle walls. West window modern, but in the spirit of the 14th century. Roof changed from stone to lath and plaster, except in end bays, owing to bulging of clerestory walls. West Front (1280-1330) Decorated Gothic originally. Nearly all new, but closely patterned after the original design. No win- 216 LICHFIELD dows at end of aisles, an unusual feature — probably built in three stages. 1. Contains the three beautiful doorways, and arcading above with statues of kings. 2. Two rows of arcading, divided by west window, with pediment abovx. 3. Belfry windows and square part of towers. Ball flower a 14th century ornament on towers and spires. Trefoils, quatrefoils, etc., lavishly used. Lady Chapel (early 14th century) Decorated Gothic. Early 14th century. Chapel forms a Gothic apse without aisles, a French feature. Nine tall windows, recently restored to their original style of Decorated tracery. Seven easternmost, filled with Flemish l6th century glass of best period, 1802. Exact history of remaining two windows unknown. Arms of Kingdom of Arragon. Probably from the Low Countries. Nearly same date as Herkenrode glass. Bought by Cathedral in 1895. Arcade of small canopies in Decorated style around entire chapel; above them a trefoiled, battlemented para- pet running beneath the windows. Gothic roof, with slender vaulting shafts running up from the floor. Can- opies and niches halfway up the shafts, beautiful 14th century work. Figures modern, finely carved. Presbytery (14th century) Decorated Gothic. Rebuilt after Lady Chapel. Joined to choir at third pier, which shows Early Eng- lish capitals on the west and Decorated capitals on the East. Front moldings of the three Early English arches altered to harmonize with new work. 217 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Apparent absence of triforium because pier arches reach to sills of Clerestory windows, but passage in front of sills forms triforium, with a trefoiled parapet run- ning outside of it. Compare with choir of York. Bands of quatrefoils surround the windows. One original clerestory window on southeast side, late Decorated tracery, remains from the 14th century. All remaining clerestory windows 17th century imitation of Perpendicular style. Modern pavement of presbytery: Scenes in history of St. Chad. Choir screen modern. Stalls modern, carved by Mr. Evans, a cousin of George Eliot, and presumably the original of Seth in Adam Bede. Spires (1360 and 17th century) Two western spires. Octagonal and open all the way up. Both have been partially rebuilt, 193 feet high. Central spire entirely rebuilt in 17th century. Line of old Norman roof can still be seen at base of tower. 252 feet high. 218 CHAPTER IX YORK YORK Cathedral stands on the site of an old Roman camp. As you stroll about the city within the shelter of its mas- sive walls or along the banks of the river Ouse, your thoughts go back to the days of Agricola in the first century, when his Roman cohorts dispossessed the early inhabitants and planted Roman civilization here for three hundred years. At Bootham Bar you are close to one corner of the Roman camp, and you climb the old gate to the top of the wall, following it around two sides of the cathedral close. You have a strange feeling that the centuries are both beneath and above you as you look down into churchly gardens where Roman sentries must once have kept guard, and then up to the towering Gothic Cathedral. Here you get the finest view of the minster, secure in its posses- sion of a vast immensity which has not its 219 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY like in England, and you feel its character, regal, stately, magnificent. York's Roman name was Eboracum. The Archbishop of York to this day appropriates this oldest of designations and signs himself Ebor. Through Saxon and Danish speech Eboracum evolved into Yorvik and then easily shortened into York. Three Roman emperors found the city worth a residence, and the young Constantine at his father's death in 306 was here first proclaimed em- peror. Centuries before Augustine brought the Roman church to Britain, Christianity by some means found its way hither. Tertullian records that British missionaries labored suc- cessfully outside the Roman settlements, and at York the discovery of a stone coffin with Christian inscriptions seems certain evidence that the light shone within the Roman city itself. Moreover, York was the British capi- tal in the time of Constantine, and at the Council of Aries in 314 British Bishops of York, London, and possibly Lincoln, are known to have been present. But in the next century the Goths came down upon Rome, the legions were recalled and Britain left to its fate. Then the Saxon invasion came surging 220 WEST FRONT, YORK CATHEDRAL. YORK in, and in the struggle with a new group of pagan deities British Christianity in the north disappeared. You linger on the old city wall, looking up at the huge bulk of the great Gothic building. It offers no reminder of either Roman, Saxon, or Xorman. After the Romans left, a thou- sand years slipped by before this present Cathedral was finished, but the whole region is full of memories. We have already seen how jNIercia fought the battles of paganism in the seventh centurj^ It was her great rival, Northumbria, which, under enlightened rulers, won the north for Christianity. In 627 Ed- win of Northumbria arranged an alliance with the daughter of the Christian King of Kent, agreeing that she should be accompanied by her Christian chajilain. Paulinus, possibly a Briton, was consecrated Bishop of York by the Archbishop of Canterbury and set forth with Ethelburga to York. The merits of the new faith were solemnly debated by Edwin and his wise men, till heathen priests and peo- ple at length forsook the old gods, and on Easter Day the King and his court were bap- tized. Edwin erected a temporary wooden chapel for the ceremony, and immediately 221 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY afterward, on the same site, began a stone church, dedicated to St. Peter. A few years later PaiiHnus received from the Pope a pall, the emblem of an archbishop, permitting him to assemble councils and consecrate bishops, and this significant act made York the chief ecclesiastical center of the north. But troublous times were to come. Edwin was killed in battle and anarchy overtook Northumbria. Paulinus fled southward with Ethelburga, whom he restored to her Kentish home, but he never returned. Meanwhile the island monastery of lona in western Scot- land, founded by the Irish Columba, had been sending Celtic missionaries through the north country. Young Oswald of Northumbria, taking refuge in lona, became a Christian. Returning to his kingdom, he straightway founded a new monastery at Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, on the North Sea, installing Aidan as bishop to train preachers for his people. Oswald finished the Cathedral begun by Edwin, but he also fell in battle, and Oswi, his successor, had to face dissensions in the new Christian church and ultimately to decide the future of the Church of England. On the one hand were two active young Roman 222 NAVE OF YORK CATHEDRAL. YORK priests, Benedict Biscop and Wilfred, ardent believers in Roman authority and intent upon regaining the supremacy which Rome had lost. On the other were the Celtic priests, naturally holding with tenacity to their Irish traditions. The differences between the two schools were trifling — the date of Easter and the shape of the tonsure — but the feeling was very bitter. At the great Council of Whitby in 664, called by Oswi, he finally de- cided in favor of St. Peter, whose possession of the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven seemed a more conclusive argument than the modest claims of the Celtic priests in behalf of Columba. Thereupon the Bishop of Lin- disfarne with thirty Irish and some English brethren sailed away to lona, and Wilfred was made Bishop of York. Wilfred charac- teristically refused to be consecrated by a Celtic bishop and went to Gaul for that pur- pose. Energetic and restless, he was a con- spicuous figure in his time. He repaired York minster, and built other churches, trav- eling over his diocese with a train of artists, builders and teachers. He influenced King Ecgfrith of Northumbria to relinquish his Queen, Etheldreda, that she might found a 223 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAI. JOURNEY religious house on the Isle of Ely, and he chafed perpetually against the authority of Canterbury, but the Pope never bestowed upon him the pall. It remained for Egbert, a hundred years after Paulinus, to receive this distinction. From that time the Archbishops of York were independent till the Conquest. During these turbulent years York bowed for a time to the Danish supremacy, but on the approach of William the Norman the people revolted. Aldred, Archbishop of York, had crowned Harold, but after the bat- tle of Hastings he swore allegiance to the Conqueror, and since the Archbishop of Can- terbury had fled, crowned William in West- minster Abbey. For this he was bitterly cen- sured. William found the Yorkists intracta- ble, nor could his castle with three thousand Normans overawe them. A long-planned in- vasion by the Danish fleet encouraged the Northumbrians, and on its approach they rose as one man. Aldred tried to promote peace and is said to have died of despair at hearing of the Danish invasion. William vowed re- venge. He bribed the Danes to retire, burned the city, and laid waste the country so savage- ly that famine swept off a hundred thousand 224 YORK victims, and for half a century the whole re- gion north of York was deserted. You find it difficult to imagine the attitude of York toward the first Norman Archbishop, Thomas of Bayeux, the Conqueror's chaplain. He had to face an outraged people whose city was burned and who had lost its chief glory, the famous university and library built up by the great scholar Alcuin. Yet Thomas re- stored the Cathedral, building a new Norman nave and transepts and possibly utilizing the old Saxon church for the choir, called back the despairing canons, and established a dean, treasurer, precentor, and a chancellor to super- vise the schools. St. Peter's Grammar School, still flourishing, goes back to the pathetic days of Thomas in 1080. At this point it is quite worth while to make a pilgrimage to the Cathedral crypt, for nothing of the Norman period is visible above ground. In 1829 an insane man, Jonathan Martin, hid himself in the church and set it on fire. The stalls, organ, and vault of the choir were destroyed, and in the repairs which followed a large crypt under the western end of the choir was discovered, containing several superb pillars of late Norman construction, 225 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY with diapered patterns very similar to those at Durham. These belong to the time of Archbishop Roger, a hundred years later than Thomas. Roger was a singular character. He had been archdeacon of Canterbury and chaplain to Henry II. He cherished the quarrels of Thomas of Bayeux and the succeeding arch- bishops who had disputed Canterbury's claim to precedence, till they culminated in the childish scene at Westminster when Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury, having seated himself at the right of the papal legate, ap- pointed to settle the dispute, Roger refused to take a lower place and sat down in Canter- bury's lap! A scuffle ensued and the legate retired in disgust. It was finally referred to the Archbishop of Rouen and the French bishops, the titles of York and Canterbury ultimately being fixed as Primate of England and Primate of All England. The Arch- bishop of York at the present time has au- thority over nine bishoprics. To Roger York was indebted for her sumptuous Norman choir. He was familiar with Conrad's "glo- rious choir" at Canterbury. His own choir at York was insignificant and his superfluous 226 YORK energies found fit expression in extending and beautifying the east end of his Cathedral. York Cathedral up to 1200 reflects the his- tory of an independent people slowly adjust- ing themselves to their lordly Norman rulers. Then began to dawn a new time, when Nor- man ideas were no longer dominant. The Gothic spirit was abroad. The beautiful Early English choir erected by Hugh at Lin- coln had made a stir in England. The prel- ates of York were ambitious and aspired to a church of regal proportions in keeping with their position. So for two hundred and fifty 3^ears York slowly cast out the old and raised aloft the new, changing at each step with the changing taste of the years, yet preserving the unity of her Gothic ideal, and leaving at last her magnificent minster to reveal in its own way England's conception of Gothic art. The first stage of the transformation, begun by Archbishop Walter de Gray in 1230, in- troduced the great Early English transepts, w^ith all the lovely effects so characteristic of that period. As you stand just within the south door and look across to the superb "Five Sisters," fifty-three feet in height, you have one of the finest architectural views in 227 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Europe. The heavy choir screen on the right cuts off the distractions of the east end of the CathedraL The vast proportions of the whole transept, 223 feet in length and 93 in width, the great square central tower rising 180 feet above you, and the suggestions of an enor- mous nave just at hand are almost over- whelming. Gradually taking in the details more completely, you notice the strong, bold lines of the triforium, the lancets of the clere- story, the Early English shafts and carving, and above all the daring and masterly way in which the five immense lancet windows with other five above them fill the broad space of the north wall. Ethereal and mysterious are the Five Sisters, still cherishing their ancient splendor. The glass of the windows above them is modern, but here, on the soft gray- green Early English glass of the Sisters, you can see, as in the old days, in delicate tints the pattern of the Herb Benet, with vari- ously colored medallions subtly interspersed, and at the foot of the central light a panel of Norman glass. Legend naturally busied itself in connecting the window designs with the embroidery of five sisters who resisted all at- tempts to allure them into a convent and 228 o LU I- X to a. LU I- LU > LJ I YORK finally slept in the Cathedral, where the light from the windows fell upon their tombstones. You find some of the loveliest carving in the Cathedral in these transepts. Notice especial- ly the shafts supporting the stone vaults of the aisles. The architect evidently delighted in his triforium and made it unusually promi- nent. He enriched it with contrasts of dark and light stone, carved rosettes between the sharp-pointed arches, set plate tracery of qua- trefoils and cinquefoils above them, and cov- ered each group with a wide arch carved with the new dog-tooth molding, then superseding the beautiful Norman devices of an earlier time. An opera glass makes it possible to enjoy these charming details. The wide arch has been criticised by architects as "sprawl- ing." You will find it interesting to compare this w^ith a similar flattened arch in the trifo- rium at Salisburv, and both of these with the different form adopted at Westminster Ab- bey and by Hugh of Lincoln. An extraordinary feature of these transepts is the disagreement between the pier arches next to the tower and the triforium scheme above them. The puzzle is explained when you learn that the bays next the tower on all 229 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY four sides were originally made narrower than the others to span the narrow aisles of the old Norman nave and choir. The widen- ing of nave and choir was done chiefly in the aisles, the result being that a transept pier remained in the middle of each aisle. The solution was reached by what Willis calls "a very remarkable example of the bold engi- neering work of the JNIiddle Ages." The tri- forium was propped up and the pier, which on the one side had supported a narrow arch next the tower, and on its other side a wide arch, was removed. Then the two arches changed places and the pier was replaced, leaving the wide arch to span the aisle. The narrow arch was next blocked up to give ad- ditional strength to the tower, while the old triforium remained regardless of its relation to the supports beneath it. The building of .the upper part of the central tower in the fifteenth century caused the four piers of the crossing to sink some eight inches, displacing the adjoining masonry. It was probably at this time that the four narrow arches were blocked up. King John enjoyed the revenues of the see of York for nine years before Walter de 230 YORK Graj'', who built the south transept, was made archbishop. The dean and chapter had de- cided upon Simon Langton, but John object- ed. Simon's brother, Stephen, and Runny- mede still rankled in his memory. York, as became her custom, enshrined many of her builders amid their own works. Roger was buried in his Norman choir, and Walter de Gray's tomb in the south transept is one of the most famous monuments in the Cathedral. Strangely enough York never had a local saint of great distinction. Archbishop Fitz- herbert, whose relics produced much needed revenue for many years, became St. William chiefly through his sudden death in 1154, pos- sibly due to poisoning from the sacred chalice. Edward I was present at the translation of his relics to the choir, being grateful to the saint for preserving him from the effects of a fall ! The three Edwards were often in York as their armies ranged back and forth over the northern border. Edward III was married to Philippa in the minster in 1331, and his little son, William of Hatfield, is buried here. The Archbishops of York were now and again called upon to take a hand in military 231 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY affairs. Archbishop Melton was beaten at Myton by the Scots when they descended upon York some time after Bannockburn. From the number of clergy in his ranks the event was referred to as the "Chapter of My- ton." The next archbishop, La Zouche, de- feated the Scots at Neville's Cross in 1346. When John of Thoresby, who built the new choir, succeeded him, he found his people suffering from Scottish inroads, the black death, and a general state of brigandage, and that the chief posts connected with the Cathe- dral, even that of dean, had been filled by the Pope's appointees, Italians who were ab- sent much of the time. For nine years this able archbishop devoted himself to the up- building of his people and the abolishing of ecclesiastical abuses. Then he began to carry out his cherished dream of a great Gothic choir appropriately completing the nave and transepts. He sleeps in his own beautiful Lady Chapel. No less than seven of York's archbishops were Lord Chancellors of England. From the nature of things the archbishops were frequently concerned in political controver- sies and sometimes in open rebellion against 232 YORK royal authority. The famous rebellion of the Percies in 1405 against Henry IV was aided by Archbishop Richard Scrope, who was cap- tured by the King's emissaries at his palace of Bishopthorpe, two miles from York. Gas- coign, the Chief Justice, refused to try him, and the King had him condemned to death by a tool of his own, not even a judge, and beheaded near the city. The people were de- voted to the archbishop, and his tomb in the minster became a favorite resort of pilgrims. At this time the rebellious attitude of York's citizens led King Henry to withdraw the liberties of their city until, on their knees and with ropes around their necks, the authorities sued for pardon. It was thirty years after the transepts were finished before the new nave was begun under ArchbishojD John Romeyn, and by 1291 Early English had passed into Decorated Gothic. As you compare the two parts of the church, vou see how the whole scheme of things had changed. The piers of the nave are entirely different from those of the tran- sept. Their capitals remind you of those in liichfield's Decorated nave, somewhat, per- haps, to Ivichfield's advantage. Nevertheless, 233 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY these capitals at York, though rather small for their great shafts, are very finely carved; indeed, you must realize that this whole nave belongs to the most artistic period of English Gothic. Its details, executed with the greatest skill and delicacy, can be studied throughout with endless delight. High up in the span- drels of the pier arches the shields of York's benefactors are carved in stone, and as your eye travels still higher you gradually become aware that the triforium has gone and that the large clerestory windows have evidently absorbed it. Pier arches and clerestory alone have become the chief features of the nave, and the triforium is merely a series of panels with openings at intervals over the roofs of the aisles. From here at one time the patron saints of the European nations looked down into the nave, but St. George alone remains. York was the first cathedral to treat the tri- forium in this way, and bj^^ the weakening of the triforium you can see that the horizontal lines of the nave are no longer emphasized as in the transepts. Nor are its vertical lines correspondingly strengthened. You can scarcely escape the feeling that the piers are rather slender and the tall vaulting hardly 234 YORK bold eno'jgh for such an immense interior. You recall how in Canterbury's nave, built in the Perpendicular period a hundred years later, the shafts which lead the eye to the roof stand out boldly, while here they are rather tamely placed flat against the wall. The decorated period in York's nave was plainly feeling its way toward great window effects. York's passion for great windows has been ascribed to French influence, though English builders never attempted the tremendous heights of French Gothic. Even here, the ar- chitects, having designed their building on an immense scale, feared to attempt a stone roof. Except for the aisles the entire Cathedral is vaulted in wood, and so inevitably misses that crowning distinction of a Gothic building. Nor has the Cathedral escaped the penalty of her lack of engineering skill, for the vault of the choir was burned in 1829 and that of the nave in 1840. The loveliest feature of York's nave is its magnificent west window. Its only English rival is the Decorated east window at Carlisle, and with many people York holds the first place. Its superbly designed curvflinear tracery, the late stage of the Decorated 235 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY period, recalls the great rose window at Lin- coln; and its glass, brilliant and beautiful, glowing in a rich harmony of colors, awakens our gratitude to Archbishop Melton, who in 1338 enriched his Cathedral with this priceless memorial of the fourteenth century. The traceries of both aisle and clerestory windows are of the earlier Geometrical period, though somewhat different in their general scheme. Your first view of the west front of the minster comes as you emerge from the crowd- ed city streets, and you are thrilled at the sight of its noble fa9ade, undoubtedly the finest in England. The central doorway is rarely beautiful, with double portals finely designed, the gable above adorned with niches and bor- dered with the ball flower ornament character- istic of the Decorated period. An arch- bishop, possibly John Romeyn, who began the nave, stands in the center, and on each side of the door are statues of Percy and Vavasour, whose forests and quarries supplied materials. Their shields carved in stone you have already seen within. Here again is the story of de- veloping Gothic windows, Geometrical below. Curvilinear above, including the marvelous tracery of the great west window, and Per- 236 LADY CHAPEL, YORK CATHEDRAL. CHAPTER HOUSE, YORK CATHEDRAL. YORK pendicular tracery in the towers built a hun- dred years later. The carver's skill has been requisitioned for this front to cover almost every inch of space. But as you study it, you are slowly conscious of the same feeling that impressed you in the nave, lack of strong, bold effects. The gigantic church demands a thoroughly forceful expression of its charac- ter. Great Peter, the third largest bell in England, speaks sonorously from his north tower. But the overdecoration of the upper part of these two towers has w-eakened the fine effect of their imposing height. Happily the great central tower, 198 feet high, is splendid- ly sturdy by contrast. York's octagonal Chapter House w^ith its unrivaled vestibule is fully entitled to its Latin inscription, "Ut Rosa flos florum, sic est Domus ista Domorum." If its one lack is a central pillar, the much cherished feature of Lincoln, Lichfield, and other places, the carv- ing above its canopied seats, the remarkable richness and beauty of its vestibule, and above all its six superb old stained-glass windows, offer a charm not to be found elsewhere. Even amid the gloom of a short English day the old windows still glow with their pent-up 237 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY fire. That York retained these priceless win- dows through the perils of the Civil Wars is due to the vigilance and enlightened ideas of Fairfax, the noted Parliamentary leader, who with the Scots captured the city. A Presby- terian service was speedily established in the minster, but the fabric itself was protected. After your visit to the Chapter House you look eagerly for the supreme attraction of the choir. Archbishop John of Thoresby, who substituted this great Gothic choir for Roger's Norman building, laid the foundations east- ward in 1361. The altar of his Lady Chapel stood just beneath the east window and the tombs of some of the earlier archbishops were placed here, but their brasses disajDpeared in the Civil Wars. This great east end of the Cathedral is as striking in its Gothic develop- ments as those you have already traced in the transepts and nave. There the windows grew from lancets to the beautiful curvilinear ef- fects of the later Decorated period. Here in the choir, where the Perpendicular form of Gothic prevails, all previous achievements have been left far behind. With the excep- tion of Gloucester, York's immense east win- dow, 78 by 32 feet, is the largest in England. 238 YORK The narrow eastern transepts, with their tall windows, 73 feet high, do not extend beyond the aisles, and so their full effect is felt. Espe- cially to be noticed is the window tracery. The Decorated style was passing into Perpen- dicular when this choir was built, and you can see that the tracery of the aisle windows still suggests the curves of the Decorated style and has not taken on all the long, straight lines of the Perpendicular period. The latter you can recognize easily in the tall transept windows or in those of the clerestorj?^ and east end. The stonework of these windows was made very delicate and inconspicuous, that nothing might detract from the superb effects of the glass itself. Stand between the two eastern transepts in front of the high altar and you feel the splendor of this great choir as nowhere else. Its vast roof rises grandly above you to the height of a hun- dred feet, while you are conscious of being sur- rounded with wonderful walls of glass radiat- ing their exquisite effects of light and color on every hand. This is York's holy of liolies, one of England's greatest contributions to the spirit of Gothic art. 239 PLAri or YORK CAT/ILD&AL 240 BRIEF SUMMARY FOR THE TRAVELER Cathedral begun about 1230. The largest Gothic CATHEDRAL IN EnGLAND. It COVERS THE THREE CHIEF PERIODS OF ENGLISH GoTHIC. Plan: Cruciform. Norman Church (about 1080) Early Norman. Thomas of Bayeux built nave and transepts, possibly utilizing old Saxon church for the choir. The apse in the cry^^t and the core of the tower 23iers are all that remain of his work. 1154-81 Later Norman. Archbishop Roger rebuilt choir and crypt. Part of the crypt alone remains. Transepts (1230-60) Early English. Note the view from the south door to the "Five Sisters." Vast proportions of transept, 223 by 93 feet. Noble design of the north wall; arcade at the base^ "Five Sisters" above and five graded lan- cets above these, effective use of Purbeck marble. Piers Early English. One Decorated pier in north transept. Aisles on both east and west sides an unusual feature. The Five Sisters: Each window 53 feet high, thir- teen compartments. Note in central compartment at the bottom a Norman window 3 feet 3 inches wide, pos- sibly taken from the earlier Norman church. Triforiums excessively prominent. Notice contrasts of stone, rich carving, and plate tracery. Small but 241 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY very graceful clerestory, in striking contrast to clere- story in other parts of the Cathedral. Roof, wooden. Notice the disagreement between triforium and the pier arches below it in bays next the central tower, due to rebuilding of nave and settling of central tower. Carving of details very fine. Exterior: North front, fine simple effect of the lan- cet windows. South front, more decorative and impos- ing but less successful in design. Nave (1291-1324) Decorated Gothic. Immensity of proportions. Vaulted in wood. Piers of slender shafts, without encircling bands. Capitals rather small for size of shafts, but beautifully carved with Decorated foliage. Whole nave very artistic in all its details, best period of Gothic. Shields of benefactors in spandrels of pier arches. Triforium practically absorbed by clerestory and be- comes a series of panels with openings into the tri- forium chamber. Clerestory windows very large, with beautiful Geometrical tracery, slightly different from aisle windows, also of Geometrical style. Magnificent west window, 56 by 25 feet, of Late Decorated or Curvi- linear tracery, 1338 its only rival Carlisle's east win- dow. It retains nearly all of its original glass. Exterior: North side simpler and beautiful. On the south side notice heavy pinnacles and indications of once intended flying buttresses ; all preparations for a stone- vaulted roof, never built. Vestibule and Chapter House (1286-94) Decorated Gothic. Vestibule opens from north tran- sept. The break between Early English and the Dec- 242 YORK orated style can be seen just within. Traces of old paintings on roof and walls, windows filled with their superb original glass. Arcade of blind tracery, very fine. Chapter House door beautiful design. Windows with elegant tracery of Geometrical period, arches very acute. Arcade below famous for its richness and the exceeding beauty of its carving. Purbeck marble here, unusual after Early English time. Six of the magnificent orig- inal windows remain. Exterior: Flying buttresses and pinnacles, but no stone vault. Choir (1361-1405) Perpendicular: Notice rood screen, fine example of latest Gothic period, end of 15th century. Choir the largest and highest in an English cathedral, 99 feet wide and 100 feet high. Peculiar triforium: In bays east of transepts similar to nave. In bays west of transepts clerestory windows set back and triforium passage runs in front of them. Notice the vaulting shafts which rise from the floor. The outer shaft runs above the point where the ribs begin to separate, a characteristic of Perpendicular style, which gives less prominence to capitals. Vault, stalls and altar screen renewed since fire of 1829. Notice chair of archbishop beside the high al- tar. Notice windows of aisles, tracery is transitional, not the Curvilinear, nor yet the fully developed Per- pendicular. Clerestory windows and great east win- dow Perpendicular tracery. The latter, 78 by 32, the largest in England except Gloucester. Windows of eastern transepts 73 feet high. 243 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY West Front (1338) Decorated Gothic: Fine central doorway with double portals and ball flower on gable above. Archbishop Romeyn or Melton above. Percy and Vavasour on sides. England's finest facade, but lacking strength. Central Tower (1400-23) Perpendicular: Two windows on each side, with ogee gables and canopied niches between. Tower crowned with a battlement. Corner buttresses broken by string courses and gargoyles. One of the finest towers in Eu- rope, 198 feet high. Square rather than tall, but very restrained and impressive. Compare with Canterbury and Lincoln. West Towers (1433-74) Perpendicular. Towers 201 feet high, with Geometri- cal Decorated tracery in the west windows of the aisles. Curvilinear Decorated above them, including great west window and perpendicular windows in upper part, a hundred years later. Upper part of towers overdeco- rated, detracting from their bold effect. 244 London Stereoscopic & Photographic Co., Ltd. NAVE OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY, LOOKING SHOWING CHOIR AND SCREEN. EAST, CHAPTER X WESTMINSTER ABBEY AS yon stand in front of the Houses of Parliament at Westminster, built upon the site of Edward the Confessor's pal- ace, and look across "Old Palace Yard" to the venerable Abbey, it is hard to realize that both palace and Abbey once stood upon an island, in those distant days a marshy jungle, known as the Isle of Thorns. The early history of the Abbey, like the soil upon which it was built, lacks something of solid substance. Its legal name to-day, "The Collegiate Church of St. Peter," points to a definite connection with the great apostle, and out of the misty past various traditions emerge. A tomb is shown in the Abbey as that of Sebert, King of the East Saxons, who in the seventh century, after lielping Ethel- bert of Kent to found St. Paul's Cathedral, betook himself to the west of the city and 245 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY offset his attention to St. Paul by a mon- astery to St. Peter, the West Minster or mon- astery. A favorite legend relating to Se- bert's time, which, however, took shape much later, bears directly upon the future of the Abbey. A stranger in foreign attire ap- peared one evening on the river bank near Lambeth, and inducing a fisherman to row him over to the island, proceeded to Sebert's church, which was to be dedicated the next day. Suddenly the air was filled with angels, who, with incense and flaming candles and due deference to the mysterious one, took part in the dedication of the sanctuary. On departing the stranger instructed the amazed fisherman to report to the Bishop of London on the morrow that "I, St. Peter, have con- secrated my own church of St. Peter, West- minster !" This legend was perhaps the earli- est assertion of two important claims of Westminster Abbey, held tenaciously ever since: an equal antiquity with the Cathedral of St. Paul, and independence of all ecclesias- tical jurisdiction except that of St. Peter. With Edward the Confessor the authentic history of the Abbey begins. Long an exile in Normandy, he had vowed a pilgrimage to 246 WESTMINSTER ABBEY St. Peter's grave at Rome should the apostle restore him to his English inheritance. The departure of the Danes and his election as King followed; but his subjects strenuously objected to the Roman journey, and the Pope's release from his vow was contingent on the establishment of a monastery to St. Peter under royal protection. What spot more suitable than the island shrine already consecrated by the apostle himself, and at that time occupied by a group of Benedictines placed there by St. Dunstan? Here then in 1050 the West Minster was begun on a mag- nificent scale, the first of that long succession of stately churches which England owed to Norman civilization. At the same time the Confessor's palace rose on the river bank, close to the great church destined for his mauso- leum. Fifteen years passed and at Christmastide all was ready, when the King's sudden and mortal illness permitted him only to sign the Charter of the Foundation, while the Queen and her brothers and the rival archbishops of Canterbury and York consecrated the chin'ch. On the fifth of January the Confessor died, and amid the sad forebodings of his people 247 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY was buried before the high altar. The im- mediate coronation of Harold followed, but as to where it took place the chroniclers are silent. It is supposed to have been in the Abbey. One year later, on Christmas Day, 1066, came the Norman Conqueror to be crowned beside the tomb of the last hereditary Saxon King, from whom he claimed the right to pre- sent himself for election. The Abbey was making history fast. Two nations stood within its walls. Saxon and Norman crowded in, while the Norman soldiers on their great war horses stood guard without. Stigand of Canterbury, who had consecrated the build- ing, had fled to Scotland, but Aldred, Arch- bishop of York, was on hand to anoint the new sovereign and place the Confessor's crown upon his head. The ancient Saxon form of popular election was propounded in French by a Norman bishop and in English by the Archbishop of York, but the confusion of tongues resulting from the customary ac- clamation of the sovereign so alarmed the Norman soldiery outside that they set fire to the gates of the Abbey and a stampede en- sued. The Conqueror is said to have trembled 248 WESTMINSTER ABBEY for the first time in his life as he stood in the gloom of the great church and heard the cries of his people without, while Archbishop Al- dred refused to crown him until he had sworn to protect his Saxon subjects. William's coronation established certain privileges which became the established law of later years. The Abbot of Westminster was to prepare each sovereign in advance for coronation, and for the holy anointing. These duties descended after the Reformation to the Protestant Dean. The Dean and Canons of Westminster at coronation take precedence over the Bishops, and only on this occasion do even the Archbishops of Canterbury and York take their places as by right in the choir of the Abbey. The right of crowning and anointing the sovereign belongs to the Arch- bishop of Canterbury and in his absence to the Bishop of London, the privilege of crowning the Consort being held by the Archbishop of York. The Abbey is unique in that for nine cen- turies it has been the solemn witness of the long procession of the nation's rulers coming up in state to be crowned, and, after their share in the making of history, returning for 249 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY burial. No other building in the world can show such a record. Edward's church stood intact for nearly two hundred years, while the conquering Nor- mans and the early Plantagenets slowly learned the temper of the people they were ruling. But with Henry III the Abbey felt the stir of a new era. He, the first of the Plantagenets to be born in England, made Westminster his chief residence. His sons Edward and Edmund bore the names of fa- mous Saxon saints, but his French connection had been early established by his marriage, in the Abbey, with Eleanor of Provence, and in- fluenced by the crusade in favor of Virgin worship which swept over Europe under St. Bernard, he erected in 1220 a chapel to "Our Lady," adjoining on the east the Confessor's tomb. But his architectural enthusiasm went further, and it is to him that we owe the beau- tiful Abbey as we see it to-day. Strongly religious and not perceiving the new signs of the times, he sapped the resources of his king- dom so unsparingly that the growing strength of Parliament had t^ be reckoned with under succeeding sovereigns. The thirteenth century was a period of 250 WESTMINSTER ABBEY great artistic activity. The newly awakened spirit of freedom found its natural expression in the aspiring lines of Gothic architecture, and kindled the imagination of European builders. Henry shared their enthusiasm and in 1245 began the new Abbey. English Gothic in great measure, it possesses also some very striking French characteristics. The King lived to complete only the eastern end of his new church, with five bavs of the nave and the Chapter House, and it was nearly tw^o hundred years before the old Nor- man nave entirely disappeared. Strange in- deed the building must have looked, with its towering Gothic at one end and heavy Nor- man masonry at the other. Fortunately, when the nave was completed the earlier style was copied, so that the harmony of the interior is unbroken. Approaching the east end of the Abbey from the Old Palace Yard, the one striking contrast in its exterior is very apparent. Henry Ill's Lady Chapel has gone. It was pulled down in later times to make way for that of Henry VII, one of the most beautiful buildings of the Tudor or late Perpendicular style in England. You instinctively turn to 251 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY compare it with the Parliament buildings op- posite, erected three hundred years later but in the spirit of the Tudor Gothic. The paneled stonework extending all around the lower half of the chapel is very characteristic, and the emphasis upon perpendicular lines even in the stone tracery of the windows justifies the name of Perpendicular which is also given to this late Gothic. A sumptuous effect is produced by the upper carvings upon the canopied pinnacles and even in the flying but- tresses. The contrast between the adjoining part of the Abbey and this highly elaborated chapel is that between Gothic in the simplicity of its first lofty beginnings and Gothic in the overexuberance of its declining years, yet each has its own distinct charm. Passing around the east end, you reach the great en- trance at the end of the north transept. The tooth of time and the hand of the restorer have destroyed many of its ancient details, but the triple doorway, a noteworthy feature of Henry's church, .is presumably an imita- tion of the splendid portals so common in France, possibly of that at Amiens. The scarcely perceptible beginnings of a central tower render it uncertain whether a taller 252 / WESTMINSTER ABBEY structure was ever intended, and the upper part of the two western towers, designed by Christopher Wren but not finished till after his death, make you wish that Sir Christopher had had greater sympathy with the Gothic spirit. You enter the Abbey by the west door, and the splendor of the noble church sur- rounds you. The towering arches of the nave carry the vaulted ceiling up more than a hundred feet, the highest in England, a touch of the French influence. The warm brown tone of the interior is very different from the rose tint of Lichfield or the soft gray of Can- terbury. Magnificent clustered columns of brown Purbeck marble rise to a great height, and the stonework which they support, lighter in color but shaded perhaps by London smoke, is wonderfully harmonious. The triforium is one of the most exquisite features of the church. Your eye travels down the long per- spective of graceful Gothic arches, with their lovely trefoiled heads, and you notice as you examine them closely that in the older part of the church toward the east the capitals of their slender columns are carved and below the triforium the spaces above the great arches 253 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY of the transepts have been enriched by a deli- cately wrought diaper pattern. You observe also that double lancet win- dows with a circle above predominate in the choir and transepts, while in the later work of the nave a trefoiled form takes their place but without disturbing the harmony of the whole. Westminster, you remember, was be- gun a little later than Salisbury. It has no single lancet windows but a very early com- bination of lancet and circle. It was so much influenced by French architecture that the window designs have been traced to France. Yet at this time English Gothic also had reached its Early Decorated stage, as we have seen at Lincoln, and the geometrical style of window was its chief characteristic. In both countries the traceries at this period were very similar. The walls of the church on every side are crowded with monuments, but between and around them you will see that here also a charming feature of the original design was the beautiful wall arcading, decorated at inter- vals with shields of early noblemen. In the north aisle of the nave the arcading is nearly all intact, and among other devices you can detect the lilies of France and the double- 254 WESTMINSTER ABBEY tailed lion of the great founder of Parlia- ments, Simon de Montfort. Before studying the church in detail we step through a door in the south aisle and stroll around the old cloister. This south side of the church as it appears from the cloisters is most interesting. Its four tiers of windows in the end of the transept and the immense flying buttresses rising one above another are magnificent features of the design. Through the west door a passage leads to the Abbot's courtyard and thence to the famous Jerusalem Chamber. Henry IV died in this room on the eve of his starting for the Holy Land. The Westminster Catechism and Confession were framed here in 1643, and probably part of the work of the King James version was here ac- complished in 1611. In modern times the re- visers of the Bible held their sessions around the long table. Returning to the cloisters, you glance down a low arched passage near which stood the old infirmary. In its twelfth-cen- tury chapel, now gone, occurred the notorious quarrel between Richard of Canterbury and Roger of York, which resulted in their respec- tive titles of "Primate of All England" and "Primate of England." But a far more in- 255 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY teresting building, hcappily still preserved to us, is the "incomparable Chapter House" opening out of the east cloister, through what was once a beautiful Early English porch, re- calling that of Ely but sadly blackened and crumbling with age. In this historic Chapter House, from the time of Edward I, the House of Commons met for three hundred years, with occasional sessions in the neighboring re- fectory. You observe how the great windows almost completely fill the walls, a very early illustration of pure Gothic, where the "solids" are exceeded by the "voids," and the skillfully poised stone framework is held aloft by flying buttresses. Henry III, quite probably, copied these windows from Louis IX's beau- tiful Sainte Chapelle in Paris, finished only a few years before. Passing into the Abbey, a glance at its ground plan makes cjear the arrangement of the east end. The choir stalls are in the nave, the chancel being too restricted for them. Be- hind the high altar is the Confessor's Chapel, and radiating from it polygonal chapels fitted around a polygonal aisle after the French fashion. Henry VII's Chapel is just beyond. The architectural beauty of the interior of 256 WESTMINSTER ABBEY Westminster Abbey is often lost sight of in the profound impression made by its historical associations, but if all these were absent the church would still be the most superb Gothic structure in England. Notice the great size of the clerestory windows, leaving very little wall space for the roof to rest on. Then re- call the mighty flying buttresses on the out- side and you realize that in a true Gothic church the thickness of the wall becomes a comparatively small matter. Look up through one of the long aisles of the nave and see how a distant window in the apse has been placed so as to give a touch of light and color at the end of the vista, an illustration of careful de- sign. As you walk through the transepts and ambulatory, turn away occasionally from near- by objects and enjoy the many lovely views of the building itself. In the end of the north transept, just above the triforium arches, the beautiful "censing angels" are per- haps the finest remaining sculptures of the early builders, and the end walls of both tran- septs show many charming details. Gold and color decoration were doubtless used very freely in Henry Ill's time. There are traces of it on the sculptured angels of the south 257 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY transept; the diaper work of the triforium was quite possibly gilt on a red background. It is probable also that the wall arcading was decorated in gold and color. But over and above all the lesser glories of the church is the nobility of its design, majestic in outline, graceful and harmonious in every line, the comparative narrowness of the nave empha- sizing its vast length and splendid height. As you look across the chancel to the high altar, you realize that on the mosaic pave- ment in front of you has been crowned every English sovereign since Edward I.^ The last year of Edward's reign saw the long-coveted Stone of Scone reft from Scotland. What- ever its legendary wanderings may have been, involving Jacob at Bethel, the hill of Tara in Ireland, and other sacred spots, it finally rested in the Abbey of Scone, where Edward himself was croAvned King of the Scots. In the Coronation Chair the Abbey secured what it had hitherto lacked, a chair of authority, and as befitted the national church, a chair dedicated to the sovereigns of Great Britain. * The earlier kings, from William the Conqueror to Henry III, were crowned on the same spot, but in the Norman church. 258 WESTMINSTER ABBEY A flight of steps leads to the Confessor's Chapel, for Henry III raised a great funeral mound between the high altar and his Lady Chapel, when he erected the magnificent shrine for the bones of the Saint. Back of the altar is the Coronation Chair, and close by the massive unadorned tomb of Edward I, ad- joining that of the Abbey's second founder. Beyond Henry III lies Eleanor, Edward's beloved Queen, her last journey to the Abbey marked by memorial crosses; and across from Eleanor, Queen Philippa, with Edward III, whose sword and shield, carried in the French wars, stand beside the Coronation Chair. Richard II and his Queen complete the circle. At the coronation of Richard II, son of the Black Prince and last of the Plantagenets, the newly created order of Knights of the Bath first appears as the Sovereign's escort. The Confessor's tomb is thus encircled by the proud rulers under whom national life slowly awakened and Parliaments began to feel their power. The tomb of Henry V, greatest of the Lancastrians, witli its overhead chantry, appropriately bridges the gap between Plan- tagenet and Tudor. His share in the Abbey was the completion of the larger part of the 259 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY nave, which echoed to the Te Deum sung for the victory of Agincourt. His funeral was most imposing. A hundred torches carried by men in white robes escorted the car, the clergy singing dirges as they marched, his banners being borne by the great nobles, and his three chargers led up through the nave. "Hung be the Heavens with Black" expressed the mourning for his untimely death. The effigy on his tomb, with its head of solid silver, was marred in Henry VIII's reign and the head stolen, occasioning Roger de Coverley's fa- mous remark, "You ought to lock up your Kings better." Above the tomb hang the helmet, shield and saddle presumably used at Agincourt. The chantry chapel overhead holds the dust of his Queen, Katherine, ances- tress of the Tudors. In the splendid mausoleum just beyond, Henry VII proposed to commemorate his half-uncle, Henry VI, whose mortal remains had already become prolific in miracles, but by the irony of fate Henry VI remained at Windsor. The house of York, whose strug- gles with Lancaster paved the way for the Tudor absolutism, has no royal representa- tives in the Abbey, save the pitiful Edward V, 260 HENRY VII'S CHAPEL — STALLS OF KNIGHTS OF THE BATH. t . -Ml,-, 1,1,1., Du.i.l-..'. TOMB OF HENRY VII— EDWARD VI BENEATH ALTAR, RECUMBENT FIGURE OF DEAN STANLEY IN CHAPEL ON RIGHT. WESTMINSTER ABBEY England's one uncrowned king, and his sister Elizabeth, whose marriage with Henry VII forever silenced the strife of the Roses. In the new chapel, deftly carved in the woodwork, portrayed in the windows or in the superb bronze doors, you notice the port- cullis of Henry's Beaufort mother, the roses^ of York and Lancaster, the crown on the bush recalling Bosworth Field, and, a final touch of security for this new Welsh dynasty, the dragon of the great Pendragonship of Wales. Stalls of Knights of the Bath with floating banners still line the walls. Within a finely wrought bronze screen is the tomb of black marble, with elegantly molded bronze effigies of Henry and his Queen, the work of Michael Angelo's belligerent rival, Torre- giano. Overhead is the marvelous fan-vaulted ceiling, achieved, as Washington Irving said, "with the airy security of a cobweb." The King's fear of death meant masses for * The rose is prominent in the decorations of the whole church. It was the badge of Henry Ill's Queen, Eleanor of Provence, long before York and Lancaster adopted it. It appears in the inside arches of the north door, on the ex- terior of the eastern doorwaj- leading into the cloister, in some of the bosses of the ambulatory, and elsewhere. Lethaby notes the fact that it was used at Amiens in France, and was evi- dently the fashionable flower of the period. 261 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY his soul, priests specially maintained, and gorgeous apparel for altars and images. He was the last of England's medieval Kings. Did any hint of the future reveal to him that his son would sweep away all of these? What historic scenes arise as you walk through this imposing sepulcher: the splendor of Henry VIII's coronation, the clash with Rome, the tragic coronation of Anne Boleyn, so vividly portrayed by Froude, then the scat- tering of the monks and the seizure of relics and treasure; the zeal of Edward VI in fur- ther removing the reminders of Rome, the dangers to the venerated Abbey itself when Edward's grasping "Protector" Somerset had to be bought off with twenty tons of Caen stone for his building projects, then the death of Edward and his burial beneath Henry VII's altar, Cranmer sadly reading the funer- al service of the "Reformed Church of Eng- land" over the youth whom he had baptized. The scene changes — Mary is crowned, not on the Stone of Scone, but in a chair sent by the Pope, and soon the arches of the Abbey re- sound with the mass sung before Philip and Mary welcoming the Cardinal sent to effect the reconciliation of the Church of England 262 WESTMINSTER ABBEY with the Church of Rome. Five years more and Mary is gone, her grave in the Tudor Chapel remaining unmarked for nearly half a century, buried under fragments of broken altars. The coronation mass sung for Eliza- beth is partly in English and partly in Latin, foreshadowing the day dreamed of by Eras- mus, when the Bible in the common tongue should be sung by the husbandman at the plow and by the weaver to the time of his shuttle. Tudor attempts to make the Abbey a cathe- dral ^ and later a monastery are set aside by Elizabeth and it becomes "The Collegiate Church of St. Peter in Westminster," still under the spiritual guardianship of the saint, but as interpreted by the English and not by the papal throne. The great events of the Elizabethan centiny come and go, and at last Elizabeth herself sleeps in the Abbey.^ The ^ Henry VIII dissolved the monastery in 1539, established a dean and twelve prebendaries, and founded the Westminster School. He created a Diocese of Westminster with the Abbey as its cathedral. Edward VI changed it to a "Cathedral in the diocese of London." Queen Mary abolished the cathedral, restored the monastery, and appointed an abbot, but Elizabeth, who endowed the Westminster School, set aside the abbot, re- established the dean and canons, and gave the church its pres- ent title in 1560. It is "extra diocesan" in character, not sub- ject to any bishop. * For many years effigies of the sovereigns were borne in advance of the funeral procession and remained on the tomb 2C.3 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY inscription on her monument erected by James I reverently closes the checkered rec- ord of the Tudors: "Consorts in throne and grave, here we sisters Elizabeth and Mary sleep in hope of the resurrection." On the opposite side of the Chapel rest two other women of distinction, Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, the friend and pro- tector of Caxton ; and, under a canopy erected by her son, Mary Queen of Scots. The south chapel shelters nearly all of the Stuart dy- nasty, and though numerous monuments to persons of lesser distinction fill the adjoining chapels, it is noteworthy that the tombs of Stuart sovereigns are indicated merely by their names. The Cromwell vault was rifled under Charles II, his body with those of Ire- ton and Bradshaw hanged at Tyburn and the heads placed on the pinnacles of Westminster Hall. "I war not with the dead" could not be said of Charles. The last rulers to be buried in the Abbey were George II and Queen Caroline. Since then Windsor has as- serted its claim. for some time afterwards. The heads were at first of wood but later made of wax modeled from the death mask. A re- markable collection of these efBgies is preserved in the Abbey; that of Queen Elizabeth, restored in 1760, is thought to be a striking likeness. 264 WESTMINSTER ABBEY Leaving the royal chapels behind you, the divine right of Kings seems less insistent as you note the Abbey's regard for its un- crowned dead. If it is the national church in its relation to royalty, it is equally so in its recognition of the sovereign people. The Poets' Corner is no longer a corner but the entire south transept. Chaucer was happily destined to consecrate the spot, for his last home, where he wrote the "Canterbury Tales," was in the neighboring garden of the monas- tery. Here he died in 1400, murmuring, "Truth thee shall deliver, 'tis no dread." In Elizabeth's time, when the reign of poesy had fairly begun, his unique graj^ monument was erected by an admirer. Then came added dis- tinction to the Abbey with Spenser, into whose grave Beaumont, Fletcher, Jonson, and per- chance Shakespeare threw their "mournful elegies and the pens which wrote them." Ben Jonson, so tradition said, once petitioned for "eighteen inches of square ground" in the Abbey and therefore was buried standing up- right beneath the floor of the nave. The original stone inscribed "O rare Ben Jonson" is fitted into the wall near his grave, though a medallion gives him also a place beside Spenser. 265 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY In quiet country churchyards all over Brit- ain the sacred dust of her men of literary genius is cherished, "Chapels-of-ease united by invisible cloisters with Westminster Ab- bey," ^ but the Abbey itself claims many for its own. Though Shakespeare sleeps in Strat- ford, his monument in the Abbey looks down upon the graves of Macaulay and Handel, Dr. Johnson and his pupil, David Garrick, Sheridan and Henry Irving. Memorials to Thomson and Goldsmith, Coleridge and Southey, Thackeray and Ruskin, Scott and Burns, surround the master of poets. The Ayrshire Bard's monument was paid for by shilling subscriptions from all ranks of so- ciety, but the great author of "Paradise Lost" was long excluded from the Abbey by the narrowness of Royalist prejudice. The criti- cisms of Addison's Spectator prepared the way for his recognition; but before it came, Addison himself, after lying in state in the Jerusalem Chamber, had been buried at dead of night in one of the royal chapels beside his friend and patron, Montague. "How silent did his old companions tread, By midnight lamps, the mansions of the dead." ' Stanley's "Memorials." 266 WESTMINSTER ABBEY Dickens's wish for a private funeral was re- spected. In the early hours of a summer morning he was laid next to Handel, the only music being an occasional peal from the organ as the service was read; but the people paid their tribute later, flowers were strewn bv many unknown hands, and thousands of per- sons of all classes revealed the affection in which he was held. Scarcely less influential though in widely different ways were the two great poets of the nineteenth century, Brown- ing and Tennyson, who rest side by side near the tomb of Chaucer. At the death of William Pitt, the great Earl of Chatham, London urged his burial in its Cathedral so that the city might express its gratitude and veneration. But Parliament decreed that bj^ right he belonged in the Ab- bey, "near to the dust of Kings." Hence came the Statesmen's Transept, further hallowed in later years by the graves of the Cannings and the younger Pitt, Fox and Wilberforce, the resolute foes of the slave trade, Gladstone, four times Prime Minister, and memorials to Beaconsfield, Peel, and other Englishmen who in Parliament had fought the battles of the nation. 267 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Under the shadow of the nave the men of science have gradually come into their own. You stand beside the grave of the immortal Newton and his great disciple, Lord Kelvin. Near to them sleep Darwin and Herschel. Just above, a memorial window to Sir Benja- min Baker, the creator of the Forth Bridge, indicates the growing recognition of "prac- tical" science. Across the nave lie heroes of Britain's colonial empire, — Lord Lawrence, "the great viceroy whose name was feared and loved throughout upper India," with Outram and Clyde, the dauntless defenders of Luck- now. Macaulay's reference to the Abbey as a "temple of silence and reconciliation" seems more than ever true as you stand before the monument of Andre and recall how in 1821, when his body was at England's request brought from the banks of the Hudson to rest in the nave, "A few locks of his beautiful hair still remained and were sent to his sisters, and the bier was decorated with garlands and flow- ers as it was transported to the ship." ^ A wreath of autumn leaves, America's gift, hangs above the monument. You have al- ' Stanley's "Memorials-." 268 Reginald Haines, Pliutu^i apiitr, Loudun. HENRY VirS CHAPEL AND EAST END OF ABBEY. Deighton, Photographer, London. POETS' CORNER — CHAUCER'S TOMB ON LEFT, SPENSER AT END, BROWNING AND TENNYSON IN FOREGROUND.. WESTMINSTER ABBEY ready noted in the Chapter House the beau- tiful windows, memorials to Dean Stanley, one of which is the tribute of Americans to the distinguished Dean. In like manner the poet Longfellow has been honored by Eng- lish admirers who placed his bust in the Poet's Corner. More inspiring than any other tendencies in the Abbey are the indications of growing religious toleration. The tablet to Isaac Watts, "the Keble of the Nonconformists," recalls the great religious poet whose hymns are known throughout the English-speaking world; and as you read the noble words of John Wesley, "I regard all the world as my parish," sculptured on the memorial of the two brothers, they seem prophetic. Memo- rable was the Abbey's experience when the re- visers of the Bible in our own day met within its walls. Before entering upon their work Dean Stanley administered the Communion in Henry VII's Chapel to those who felt dis- posed to attend. The invitation was accepted by Bishops of the Established Church, dele- gates from cathedral and collegiate churches, the universities and parishes, "and with these intermingled without distinction were minis- 269 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY ters of the Established and of the Free Church of Scotland and of almost every non- conformist church in England — Independent, Baptist, Wesleyan and Unitarian. It is not to be supposed that each one of those present entered with equal agi'cement into every part of the service, but it is not without a hopeful significance that such various representatives of British Christendom partook without diffi- culty on such an occasion in the sacred ordi- nance of the Christian religion." ^ Loyally has the Abbey kept faith with the nation in these later days, allowing no distinc- tion of class, creed, party or occupation to ex- clude those worthy of the nation's recognition. One other grave at which few fail to linger lies in the center of the nave. On a massive gray slab is the inscription: "Brought by faithful hands over land and sea, here rests David Livingstone, missionary, traveller, philanthropist. For thirty years his life was spent in an unwearied effort to evangehze the native races, to explore the undiscovered secrets, to abolish the desolating slave traffic of Central Africa, where with his last words he wrote: 'All I can add in my solitude is, may Heaven's richest blessings come down on ' Stanley's "Memorials." 270 WESTMINSTER ABBEY everyone, American, English, or Turk, who will help to heal this open sore of the world.' " Your last visit to the Abbey is perhaps at one of the summer Sunday evening services held in the nave. Your fellow worshipers are representatives of all nations, and the service is adapted to the Church Universal. The late afternoon sunlight slants through the western door, while numerous twinkling lights under the lofty arches illumine the dim spaces of the nave. Above and beyond the choir screen dividing the nave, darkness en- folds chapel and transept. As the hymns of the ages peal through the aisles or the triumphant notes of the Hallelujah Chorus rise above the arches, you watch the twilight fading from the distant windows of the apse. Your thoughts travel to the royal chapel just beyond, where sleeps Dean Stanley, the great interpreter of Westminster, who looked upon it not merely as a treasure house of the past, but as a spiritual temple of the future, in- viting to its pulpit Churchman and Noncon- formist alike, and cherishing as its ideal that it might "embrace within itself each rising aspiration after all greatness, human and di- vine." 271 PLAn Of Poets' Conier • • ISUilesnien's Aisle N TRANSEPT Lanum S. TRANSEPT ^ "2 • • • f cs " o o 3"E, p- -|P^-i-i^i — CLOISTER ■ r. ■ ■■■■< BROAD SANCTIMRV 272 BRIEF SUMMARY FOR THE TRAVELER The Abbky begun in 1050. The National Church OF England. Chiefly Early Decorated Gothhic, the later portions conforming closely to the original design. Plain: Cruciform, with a clievet or polygonal apse and Lady Chapel eastward. Norman Survivals (1050-65) The bases of pillars and walls on each side of the Sanctuary only remains of the Confessor's Norman church. The Chapel of the Pyx in the east walk of cloister and the covered passage beyond, chief Norman monastic remains. Choir (1245-69) Early Decorated Gothic. Polygonal apse a French feature. Its chapels very large and of beautiful de- sign. South ambulatory chapels of St. Benedict, St. Edmund, and St. Nicholas. North ambulatory, St. Paul, St. John the Baptist, and Abbot Islip (ancient effigies are preserved in upper floor of Islip Chapel). Sanctuary: Roman mosaic floor, laid down in 1268. Reredos of liigh altar a recent restoration. Close to the high altar the much-worn sedilia, erected in time of Edward I. On the left three very remarkable canopied tombs, Aveline of Lancaster, Aymer de Valence, and Edward Crouchback, son of Henry III. Fine example of Early Decorated work, very early 14th century. No- 273 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY tice the beautiful carving and charming design of the tiny weepers on Aymer's tomb_, tlie second. The three form a remarkably effective group, probably once richly colored and gilt. Edward the Confessor's Chapel: The lower part of the Confessor's Shrine is the original by Henry III, of Purbeck marble and Roman mosaics, mutilated in Henry VIII's time. The upper part, a restoration in Queen ]\Iary's reign, when the bones were replaced. Notice the Confessor's Screen (time of Edward IV), formerly reredos of the high altar. Notice surrounding tombs. Queen Philippa's effigy of alabaster, the earliest portrait effigy in the Abbey ; the tiny weepers on Edward Ill's, the fine wrought iron- work of Queen Eleanor's and her gilt effigy, the work of Torel, a famous London goldsmith; the mosaic of Henry Ill's brought to England by Edward I; also the simplicity and inscriptions of Edward I's and the double effigies of Richard II's. Notice diaper work in spandrels of arches, possibly once gilt on a red ground. Windows in eastern end of church consist of two lancets with a large six-foil cir- cle above. Geometrical style. Bar tracery used in the windows, very early examples. Choir extends four bays westward of crossing. Transepts (1245-69) Early Decorated Gothic. Aisles on both sides, but in south transept one forms east walk of cloister. Beau- tiful arcades at end of each transept. In north transept notice carving just above entrance doorway and roses on doorway itself, also "censing 274 WESTMINSTER ABBEY angels" above in spandrels of triforium. On west wall arcade notice ancient sculptures of St. Michael and the Dragon. Notice the four slender shafts surrounding the columns of the great arches. Three chapels in east aisle of the transept. South transept: Chapel of St. Faith, the old reves- try. Notice very rich sculptures and carving and diaper work in the triforium of the end wall. Remains of old wall arcading between the monuments. Exterior: Whole north front restored by Christo- pher Wren in 18th century and by Gilbert Scott in "Gothic Revival" in 19th century. Practically nothing remains of the original except its main design; the triple doorway of French character, and the great rose window, the glass and mullions of which are both mod- ern. The rose window of the south transept has been restored and renewed several times. The originals of these great squared rose windows were unlike any others in England. Chapter House (1250-1260) Early Decorated Gothic. Above the low outer ves- tibule, badly worn with time, was the old monks' dor- mitory. Notice windows very similar to those of Sainte Chapelle in Paris and about the same date. Bar tracery, very early examples. Glass modern. Wall arcading, traces of ancient paintings, and original pavement still remain, also the two ancient figures of the Virgin and Angel of the Annunciation. Nave and Towers (1245-1269 and 1367-1528) Early Decorated Gothic in five eastern bays, with dia- per pattern in spandrels, 1 3th century work. Seven west- 275 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY ern bays in imitation of earlier style. Differences in shapes of base and capitals. Four detached shafts in eastern part of church; eight attached shafts in western. Triforium gallery one of the finest features of the church. Notice vistas of nave aisles. Notice shields in spandrels of wall arcade. On north side^ double-tailed lion of Simon de Montfort, and French lilies of Louis IX. Three doors on south side; easternmost (about 1265). Notice roses on outer jamb of door. Abbot's pew, early l6th century. Choir screen, modern, inclosing 13th century stone- work. Nave pulpit modern, commemorates special services held in nave in 1859- Exterior: North side. A small door marks the end of Henry IH's part of the building. Notice slight dif- ferences in style of lowest range of windows. Triangu- lar windows of triforium. Wall buttresses and double tier of flying buttresses above them. Contrast with south side, where buttresses span roof of cloister. Towers designed by Wren and finished in 1740 after his death. Henry VII's Chapel (1503-1512) Perpendicular Gothic. Magnificent bronze doors. No- tice emblems; the rose, lion, portcullis, fleur-de-lis, let- ters "H. R." crowned, dragon, greyhound and falcon. The tomb, black marble with gilt bronze effigy. Superb fan vaulting, peculiar to Tudor period, perpendicular windows and paneling. In south aisle notice tomb of Margaret Beaufort, one of the finest in the Abbey. Exterior: Much restored. "Only a full-sized copy of itself." It occupies the site of Henry Ill's Chapel, built in 1220. 276 NOTES Cathedral Churches of England The word "Cathedral" (from the Latin cathedra^ signifies simply a seat. It is applied to the particular church in a diocese which is the headquarters of the bishop. His seat or throne in this church makes it a cathedral. The size of the church has no connection with the use of the word, which is often erroneously ap- plied to large churches. There are several classes of cathedrals in England: Thirteen Cathedrals of the Old Foundation: These were never monastic churches. They were originally established with a bishop and secular canons. A few of these churches have cloisters, never, however, used by monks. Salisbury and Lincoln are examples. Thirteen Cathedrals of the New Foundation: These were originally connected with nfonastic establishments of Benedictine or Augustinian monks, whose needs were served by the cloisters and other related buildings, the refectory, dormitories, etc. When Henry VIII dis- solved the monasteries, about 1540, many forms of these religious bodies existed aside from the cathedral foun- dations. In Yorkshire alone there are said to have been twenty abbeys, twenty-six priories, twenty-three nunneries, and thirty friaries, whose organizations were 277 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY broken up and their wealth confiscated by the King. In monasteries connected with cathedrals the King did away with priors and monks, substituting for them a dean and twelve canons, to conduct the services and care for the fabric of the church. Eight Victorian Cathedrals: Founded in modern times out of former monastic, collegiate, or parochial churches. Two Later Cathedrals: Founded in the 20th century. One Ancient Cathedral: Sodor and Man, semi-inde- pendent. Church of England: Titles of the Clergy The Right Honourable and Most Reverend Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England and Metro- politan. The Right Honourable and Most Reverend Archbishop of York, Primate of England and Metropolitan. The Right Honourable and Right Reverend Bishop of London. The Right Reverend Bishop of Winchester. (This title applies to all other bishops.) The Province of Canterbury includes twenty-seven bish- oprics, and that of York nine, with also the semi- independent bishopric of Sodor and Man. 278 NOTES n 09 CO H a u a 1 s S >< eg a & n H •5; Q C3 a S ■< !?; o S H !z! O •< 05 c « 5 cfi a w H >-< O u I-! O U C/: (11 a u a u o 1 a
  • 1) o 3 H 2 ;? , b) 1 O ^ M 1 H M i 2 a S 3 O ^ a W cS a. a o ^'§ g > )2i Iz; w o o o 4 S » p O GO u i m pq o /-^ e *>■..• o o u HH 4^ ;^ s ctf J3 4-' I/: a. !2i o o hH B ■ c/5 o O OJ < Q H a •9! o 1 to u o a t— 1 t^ ^ fc- o 3 X» O O Q W Z « .S o > ^ ^ '^ t2 U O O &H > o o i-t » o H ' CO 1— t fo « E ffi > H H es X a H H u b 1 O <; b: o u 1 o l-t H o CO H T3 2 2 ;3 c o 1 3 -« "^ > .° Cfi ?^ K^ 1— t o bo c CO CO C3 fe EO o 3 o >5 o m 279 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY G O in C T3 ^ o :m O OJ ^ oi +J &B C ^ o o it-. V pfi Gf3 4-1 H «5 S :3 U ti o D > < cc U ri • S !.> 3 C/3 o t/5 w 0) o o a; ^ O o a t^ C C * b- c r^ «; Gi oq cy( s ©1 It G) w en _c .. 4_) (H .si's G^ Igs 4- 4_ 4-J 4- 4- 4- 4-^ 4-J ^- ■4- ^^ c+- «*- 5(- =+. 5»- ^-< £5.» V ,__ o 01 -f -+ l^ to a c c OD OC cc X b- «■ «3 l— ^" c „ 2 C ^^ a O) ^ O tC • =)- ^4- 'Ml 5t- «(- =t- =+- <4- =4-1 C 0) ,^ «^ H rr C^ OD cc lyl cc G^ O^ o c "^l -^l t- CI c b- -i c> f^i ■^ ?-H r— Gl rvi j— y— f^ ^ *♦-* — •• 0-3 o- V. Inter Bread Nave Ais 4_ , • 1 ' "+- -4- <*- c G1 =4- ^4- ;c •44 »o t- C t- t- X X tS CO 1 ■— ..VI nterior sng-th o Nave 4- 01 4-J o 54- cc 4- 4- <4- 4- «4- «4- c ^4-. tr o> c c c: e >* G< -J o< G^ I— G1 r— t— 1 5 r; c C .. bjj *™ '— OJ cc ct «; _l_ . . ^ =+- ^fH «+- ■4- «t- 4— •4- ^ C4-1 C I- 1-1+3 ,» t^ -^" ^ G1 c Iw- C to 13 p. cx: I-H 01 CC «o ^ i- W *^ ^ »o ^ ■^ •^ ■^ ly CO ;.. ^ 03 ^ ;-i s > u < 3 4J c ^1 CO 1) ;- C C OS o > 1 ^ c 280 NOTES m Q O 5 a Oh < H u Ed a u T3 o 1-1 C — 6 ^ S V 0) •l -S 'S r'-' 2 2 a ^« -"■ -^ ^ +j "t^ CO ^ CO S i^ T-H a^ T-H ^^ '^ irt o to o lO CO "-Y" • 3 ^ +J ■<-> C C 11 . ^ . . s > a o CO "c .2 -a c o bo 4J P. -a a) ^ > o ^13 hJ o S ^ g 0) ft 53 U cs C 01 ?% pi ^ ^ Q C S S S S >^ ^5 o ^ -M ^ ? +J J2 .S M ^ C •• Q) 1) C jd _e 43 te rH »-H (M (N 00 X c>i c 2 Pi c 'S X. S ►J O C O c .. u ^ > 0) I. 1> M Si? 2? 3 3 >? •<^ O (M CO Ci O t- 00 00 02 ffJ o O O O O O --I --Y --N^- ^ -■Y-- CO CO "^ "^ "^ "^ ^ "■V" u "! ^ OJ o s "? •« ;= 10 .s ■> ^ CO o ^ T3 r; n' ft u T-i q; CM P W ^ J:; S S "u & 6 c s ^' g a;* m 3 OJ 3 ^ 2 > in P^ ft 2; +3 ft HI ^2 "rt K J ■3 c W c 2 >> eft a . "rt • ■ H U ^ ,5 s en ft 3 en u (1. 3 n S 3 >* w 3 CO P hJ p:; in CO rci S P -> • r-i ^9 lA w . >• 10 rvi f—i CO -* IM Tl r> 'S' n! ^1 S^ OJ iiJ W I-* tH tH 1—1 r-l iH o, O 2 « x: H 3 •a c 3 o 'li CO CIS •2 _ S 6q 281 A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Books on Special Cathedrals Canterbury Bell's Cathedral Series: Canterbury, Hartley With- ers, 60 cents net. Price in England, one shilling six- pence. Memorials of Canterbury, Dean Stanley, 50 cents (in- valuable for the student of Canterbury. Four lectures on Augustine, the Black Prince, and the Shrine of Becket). Canterbury, Canon Danks, an extremely picturesque account of the town and Cathedral. About 50 pages, illustrated in color. Notes on the Cathedrals : Canterbury. S. P. C. K., one penny (on sale in all cathedral towns). Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral, Rob- ert Willis. The work of an expert, whose conclusions have shaped tlie work of later writers. Durham Bell's Cathedral Series: Durham, J. E. Bygate, 60 cents net. Durham Cathedral, William Greenwell (Andrews & Co., Durham, one shilling). An exceptionally valuable work by a local archaeologist who has made an exhaus- tive study of the Cathedral. A Day in Durham, Rev. Henry Gee, of the Univer- sity of Durham, is a very excellent penny guide. Guide to Durham Castle, one penny (published by Thomas Caldcleugh & Son, Durham). 283 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY « Notes on the Cathedrals: Durham. S. P. C. K., one penny (on sale in all cathedral towns). Ely Bell's Cathedral Series: Ely, W, D. Sweeting, 60 cents net. The Cathedral Handbook, Charles W. Stubbs, one shilling. A local guide book, prepared by the late Bishop of Truro, formerly Dean of Ely. Bishop Stubbs's long acquaintance with Ely and his charm as a writer give the book especial value. Herervard the Wake, Charles Kingsley, $1.25, is the story of the last stand of the English against William the Norman. The center of the struggle was the Isle of Ely. The Camp of Refuge, Charles MacFarlane (otit of print). More historically accurate than Kingsley 's novel but without his dramatic quality. The introduc- tion gives the facts and shows how differently the two authors used them. Notes on the Cathedrals: Ely. S. P. C. K., one penny. Lichfield Bell's Cathedral Series: Lichfield. A. B. Clifcon, 60 cents net. Notes on the Cathedrals: Lichfield. S. P. C. K., one penny. The Siege of Lichfield. An English story giving a de- tailed account of the famous struggle. It is exceedingly partisan in its tone but not without interest. A small Hand Guide, giving details of statues, etc., can be secured at the Cathedral for sixpence. Lincoln Bell's Cathedral Series: Lincoln. A. F. Kendrick, 60 cents net. 284 A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Notes on the Cathedrals: Lincoln. S. P. C. K. one penny. In few cathedral towns is it possible to get photo- graphs of architectural details, but in Lincoln there is an architectural photographer who has devoted himself to this important work Avith rare skill and enthusiasm. His beautiful and inexpensive little photographs are works of art. His address is S. Smith, The Minster Book Shop, Steep Hill, Lincoln. The Archcpological Journal, Vol. XXV, page 1 (1868), has an illustrated article on "The Norman Sculpture on the Front of the Cathedral." Rochester Bell's Cathedral Series: Rochester. G. H. Palmer, 60 cents net. The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Charles Dickens, 35 cents. This was Dickens's last work and left unfin- ished. The scene is laid in Rochester in and about the Cathedral. John Jasper's Secret, by Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens, Jr., $1.25. The story is said to have been completed by the two writers from material left by Dick- ens in notes or in conversation with friends. Some doubt exists on this point. Rochester is associated with many of Dickens's works, notably "Pickwick Papers," "Great Expectations," and "The Seven Poor Travellers." Notes on the Cathedrals: Rochester. S. P. C. K., one penny. Salisbury Bell's Cathedral Series: Salisbury. Gleason White, 60 cents net. Under Salisbury Spire, Emma Marshall, sixpence (Seeley & Co., London). A story of Salisbury in the days of George Herbert. Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy, $1.50. 285 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Stonehenge is made the setting for a part of the tragedy with which the book closes. Notes on the Cathedrals: Rochester. S. P. C. K., one penny. Westminster Abbey The Westminster Abbey Guide, M. C. Bradley (Mrs. Henry Birchenough) and E. T. Bradley (Mrs. A. Mur- ray Smith), 40 cents net. Sold at the Abbey for six- pence. This is the official guide to the Abbey. A Walk Through Westminster Abbey, Canon S. A. Barnett. Written for the benefit of the great public who have no time to study the building. A very effective sixteen-page pamphlet, taking the visitor to the most important points of view and showing their significance both in the history of the Abbey and in English His- tory. Sold at the Abbey for a penny. Bell's Cathedral Series: Westminster Abbey. Charles Hiatt, 60 cents net. Memorials of Westminster Abbey, Dean Arthur P. Stanley, 2 vols., $4.80 net. The most famous of all histories of the Abbey, written with all the charm char- acteristic of Dean Stanley's work. Westminster Abbey, Francis Bond. This recent book is the complement of Dean Stanley's historical record, for in Mr. Bond's work we have the Abbey as interpreted by an architect of long experience. Very fully illus- trated. Notes on the Abbey Churches: Westminster. Parts I and II. S. P. C. K., one penny. York Bell's Cathedral Series: York. A. Clutton-Brock, 60 cents net. Handbook of York Minster, George Benson. A local publication especially valuable for its full and minute details, carefully classified. 286 A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Nicholas Nicklehy, Charles Dickens. Chapter VI contains the legend of the "Five Sisters." Notes on the Cathedrals : York. S. P. C. K., one penny. General Works History of Gothic Architecture in England, Francis Bond, $12.00 net (I906). A very important recent work on English Medieval architecture by an eminent English architect. English Cathedrals, Francis Bond, $2.00. Brief de- scriptions of cathedrals of England from the architec- tural point of view — very suggestive. A History of Architectural Development, F. jNI. Simpson, in three volumes. A recent and most delightful and informing work. (See Vol. II, Medieval.) Handbook of Ejiglish Cathedrals, R. J. King (out of print, but to be found in all large libraries). A rec- ognized authority and very readable. Development and Characteristics of Gothic Archi- tecture, Charles H. Moore, $4.50. A valuable book for the serious student of Gothic art. Medieval Art, W. R. Lethaby, $2.00. By a gifted writer of unusual insight and appreciation. Handbook of English Cathedrals, Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer, $2.50 net. Twelve cathedrals. The chap- ters were originally published in the Century Magazine, are of high quality and much literary charm. Illustrated Guide to the Cathedrals of Great Britain, P. H. Ditchfield, $2.00. An excellent guide book to more than forty English churches. English Cathedrals, Helen Marshall Pratt, $2.50. This book possesses special merit for its admirable ar- rangement of material: explanations of architectural styles, and of the character of stained glass, followed by studies of thirty-two cathedrals. A B C of Gothic Architecture; Introduction to Gothic 287 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Architecture and Concise Glossary of Gothic Archi- tecture, J. H. Parker, $1.25. Three useful little books, very compact in form and abundantly illustrated. A Historical Sketch of Architecture in England, E. A. Freeman in Baedeker's Great Britain, should be care- fully studied in connection with the localities referred to. ' The Cathedrals of England and Wales, T. Francis Bumpus, in 3 vols., $6.00. Illustrated, interesting and unusual. Stones of Venice, John Ruskin, Book II, $1.00. Chapter VI consists of his well-known essay on The Nature of Gothic. Notes on the Cathedrals. In every cathedral town the traveler will find on sale for a penny a compact lit- tle booklet with this title published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. History of the Cathedral Church of Wells, E. A. Freeman, $1.25, consists of three lectures illustrating the cathedral churches of the Old Foundation. Students of early English Church history will find this book very illuminating. Bell's Cathedral Series, 60 cents net, well illustrated, furnishes the most convenient and effective guide books for each cathedral town. In England the price of each is one shilling sixpence. A History of the Church of England, William Boyd Carpenter, Canon of Westminster, formerly Bishop of Rijaon. A book written for young people, but interesting to their elders. Stained Glass, Lewis F. Day's volume in the series of South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks. $1.25 net. It supplements, in condensed form, his larger, fully illus- trated work, entitled "Windows." Works by Winston and Westlake are ranked as authoritative. A History of Architecture, by A. D. F. Hamlin (College Histories of Art"), $2.00. A brief general work on Architecture. 288 GLOSSARY Aechitectural Teems Abacus. — The tablet or slab above the capital of a column. Aisle.— The side divisions of a church (or hall), commonly at a lower level. Ambulatory. — An aisle or passage. Apse. — The semicircular or polygonal termination of a choir, or its aisles, sometimes of the nave or transepts. Arcade. — A series of arches supported by piers or columns, either open or backed by masonr)\ Aumbrey or Almery. — A cupboard for containing the sacred vessels." Ball flower. — A globular flower of three petals, inclosing a ball. Bay. — A chief architectural division of a building, from floor to roof. Billet molding. — A pattern made with detached cylindrical or cubical blocks. Blind Arcade. — Arches backed by a flat surface. Boss. — A mass of car\nng at the intersection of the ribs of a vault, etc. Buttress. — An external support to the wall of a building. Flying Buttress, one supporting an upper wall with which it is connected by an arch. Cable molding. — A molding resembling a rope or cable. Canopy. — An ornamented projection over doors, windows, niches, etc. Capital. — The head of a column. Cathedral. — A church wnich contains the seat of a bishop. Chantry. — A small chapel used for chanting masses for the soul of its founder, whose tomb was in or near the chantry. Chapel-of-ease. — A chapel for parishioners residing at a dis- tance from the parish church. 289 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Chapter house. — The Assembly room for transaction of the business of Dean and Chapter in a Cathedral. Chevet (sheh-vay). — The ring of chapels around the east end of a choir or its aisles. Choir. — (1) That part of a church where the clergy and monks sat. (2) The whole eastern limb of the church. Cinque foil (sank-foil). — In window or other tracery an opening consisting of five foils (see Cusp). Clerestory or Clear-story. — The upper story or row of win- dows in a great church; so called to distinguish it from the blind-story, or triforium. Cloister. — A covered court in a monastery or college, com- monly attached to the church. Close (soft s). — The precincts of a cathedral. Column. — A round pillar. Corbel. — An ornamented bracket supporting a weight. Corbel table. — A row of corbels usually with -small arches above them, supporting a cornice. Corinthian capital. — A Greek capital having a bell-shaped core, around the base of which are two rows of conventionalized acanthus leaves. From these rise slender stalks combining to form volutes below the sides and four corners of the abacus. Cornice. — The horizontal molded projection encircling the top of a building. Crocket. — A bunch of projecting flowers or foliage decorat- ing pinnacles, arches, etc. Crossing. — The space at the intersection of nave and tran- septs. Cruciform. — Cross-shaped. Crypt. — A vault beneath a building, wholly or partly under- ground. Cusps (spear point). — The projecting points in Gothic win- dow tracery, panelings, etc., the spaces between being known as foils. Diaper. — A uniform ornamental pattern covering a flat sur- face. Dog-tooth molding. — Ornaments usually consisting of a square four-leaved flower, the center projecting to form a point. Dripstone. — A projecting tablet or molding over heads of archways, windows, doorways, etc. 290 GLOSSARY Faqade (fa-sahd). — The exterior face of a building, usually the chief face. Fan vaulting. — Vaulting in which all the ribs that rise from the springing of the vault have the same curve and diverge equally in every direction, producing a fanlike effect. Feretory. — A portable shrine, in which the relics of a saint were carried, or a fixed shrine for his tomb. Finial. — A leaf-shaped ornament ending a pinnacle or gable, etc. Foil. — See Cusp. Galilee porch. — The name is sometimes traced back to the Jewish porch of the Gentiles. Also to the monks' proces- sions commemorating the successive appearances of Christ after his resurrection, culminating in Galilee. It refers in gen- eral to the least sacred part of a church. Garth. — An enclosure or green. Grisaille (gree-zi) glass.— Glass of a greenish-gray tint, with patterns in a brownish pigment. Hood mold. — An ornamental dripstone used in interiors. Impost. — The point where an arch rises from its piers. Lancet. — Pointed window, suggesting in form a surgeon's lancet. Lantern. — A tower above the roof of a building, usually open to view from the ground and used to admit light. Lierne ribs. — The smaller intermediate ribs of a vault not rising from the impost. Louvre. — An opening in belfries or elsewhere filled with louvre slats. Minster. — A monastery. In England many of these were transformed into cathedrals, hence its wide use. Miserere. — A hinged bracket, forming a seat in the stall of a choir. Molding. — A general term applied to all the varieties of outline or contour given to the angles of the various subordi- nate parts and features of buildings, whether projections or cavities, such as cornices, capitals, bases, etc. Mullion. — The division between lights of windows, screens, etc., in Gothic architecture. Nave. — The western limb of a cruciform church. Ogee (ojee). — A curved line or molding, partly concave and partly convex. 291 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Orders. — In Norman and Gothic architecture the arches were recessed, often in three distinct divisions. These were known as orders, and were enriched with moldings and ornaments. Parvise. — The room above a cliurcli porch. Pier, — The support of an arch. It may be square, cylin- drical, or formed of clusters of columns or masses of masonry ornamented with shafts. Also a solid portion of a wall be- tween window openings. Pillar. — The shaft supporting an arch. Clustered or com- pound pillars are frequently used. Pinnacle. — A tall ornament, usually tapering toward the top, much used as a termination to buttresses, both for decorative eflFect and for its weight. Piscina (pis-see-na). — A basin attached to the wall near the altar of a church, where the priest washed his hands and rinsed the chalice. Plate tracery. — Tracery which is formed by piercing a flat surface with ornamental patterns. Plinth. — A square member, forming the lower division of the base of a column. Portcullis. — A massive grating sliding up and down and forming a door for the defense of gateways. Presbytery. — The part of a church containing the high altar. Pyx. — (1) The box or casket in which the consecrated bread was placed. (2) A box containing the standard pieces of gold and silver used for testing the coinage. Quadripartite vault. — One in which each compartment is di- vided into four cells by diagonal ribs. Quatrefoil (katr-foil). — An opening in windows or other tracery, consisting of four foils. (See Cusp; also Trefoil.) Beredos. — A screen at the back of an altar, often profusely carved and decorated. Retro-choir. — The space between the Presbytery and the Lady Chapel. Rood. — A crucifix. Rood-loft. — A beam carrying the rood, placed above the rood screen. Rood screen. — An enriched screen, usually surmounted by a rood separating nave and choir. When the monks' stalls oc- cupied the crossing, the screen stood across the nave. Sanctuary. — The space within the altar rails. 292 GLOSSARY Scalloped capital. — A form of decoration resembling a shell. Screen. — A low partition. Ttie chief screen in a cathedral is that between the choir and nave, formerly known as the Rood Screen from the cross bearing a crucifix, which often stood upon it. Sedilia. — The seats of the officiating clergy. Shaft. — The body of a column or pillar; but particularly applied to small columns clustered around pillars or used in arcades, etc. Slype (long y). — A narrow passage between a church and its conventual buildings; a passage between two walls. Spandrel. — The triangular space between the curve of an arch and the right angle which encloses it, or between two arches. Splay. — The widening of an embrasure outward or inward. Springer. — The lower stones of the ribs of a vault. ■ Stall. — A fixed seat, enclosed usually at the back and sides. Stoup. — A receptacle for holy water. String course. — A projecting horizontal band or line of moldings in a building. Thrust. — The pressure exerted laterally and downward by an arch or vault. Tracery. — Ornamental stonework in Gothic windows, panels, ceilings, etc. Transept. — Any part of a church projecting at right angles from the body and approaching it in height. Such a projec- tion always contemplates a corresponding one on the opposite side. Transom. — A horizontal mullion or crossbar in a window or unglazed opening. Trefoil. — Window or other tracery suggesting a three-lobed leaf. (See Cusp.) Triforium. — (1) A gallery in a church — "the blind story" — usually the space between the sloping roof of the aisle and the vaulted ceiling beneath. (2) The arcade in front of the gal- lery. It is often dark, but sometimes lighted by windows. Triptych. — A picture, carving or work of art on three panels side by side. Tympanum. — The space above the horizontal opening of a doorway and the arch above. Undercroft. — A subterranean chapel or apartment. 293 AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL JOURNEY Volute. — A spiral scroll, the chief feature of an Ionic capi- tal; used also in the Corinthian. It was frequently retained in Norman capitals. Voussoirs (voo-swahrs). — The stones forming an arch — the chief is the keystone. Ecclesiastical Teems Canon. — A member of the chapter of a cathedral or a col- legiate church. Canon residentiary. — One who, during three months or more of the year, is in residence at the cathedral. Regular canons (under the Roman Catholic Church) were bound to live in a monastery and renounce private property. Secular canons were not bound by monastic rules or vows of poverty. Chasuble. — A long outward vestment worn by a priest. It has a gilt cross on the back. Collegiate church. — One that has a college or chapter, con- sisting of a dean, canons and prebends, but has not a bishop's see. A collegiate church must have daily choir service, and support a dean and canons. Some of the present collegiate churches were formerly ancient abbeys. Consistory court. — A bishop's court for offenses dealt with by ecclesiastical law. Ecclesiastical commission. — A standing commission in Eng- land created by parliament in the early part of the 19th cen- tury, and invested with important powers for the reform of the Established Church. Herb-benet, or Herba Benedicta. — (1) A European herb (Geum i.rbanum, or avens). (2) (a) The poison hemlock; (b) the common valerian. The plants were supposed to be antidotes to poisons and to drive out serpents and vermin from the houses where they were kept. Maniple. — An ornamental band worn on the left arm by the Roman Catholic clergy. Maundy Thursday. — The Thursday just before Good Fri- day. Mazer. — A bowl or goblet of fine materials, usually quite large. Pall. — A y-shaped strip of lamb's wool marked with crosses. A special mark of Metropolitan dignity sent to each primate by the Pope. 294 GLOSSARY Prebend. — (1) The portion of the revenues of a cathedral or collegiate church granted to a canon as his stipend. (2) The separate portion of land or tithe from which the stipend is gathered. Precentor. — One who leads or directs the singing of a choir or congregation. In churches of the Old Foundation the pre- centor ranked next the dean. Sacrist. — An officer of a church who has charge of all ob- jects needed for divine service. Stole. — A narrow band, often embroidered, worn by the clergy of Anglican and other churches while officiating at service. Translation. — The term used for the transfer of a bishop from one see to another. Visitation. — An official or authoritative inspection of an in- stitution. 295 INDEX Abacus, the, in Early English Gothic, 13. Addison, Joseph, quoted, 168; burial-place of, in Westmin- ster Abbey, 266. Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, 113, 193-194, 232. Alan of Walsingham, work of, in Ely Cathedral, 141, 156- 158. Alcuin of York, 225. Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, 170. Aldhun, Bishop, 115-116. Aldred, Archbishop of York, 224; coronation of William the Conqueror by, 248-249. Aldreth, William the Conquer- or's bridge at, 144. Alexander the Magnificent, Bishop of Lincoln, 81, 83, 84. Alphege, Archbishop, 24, 33. Andre, Major, interment of, in Westminster Abbey, 268. Angel Choir, Lincoln, 90, 91, 98-100; exterior view, 102- 104. Angel Steeple, Canterbury Cathedral, 23. Anselm, Archbishop of Canter- bury, 33. Augustine, St., 25, 26, 27, 31, 32. Awdry, patron saint of El}', 142. Ball-flower Orxament, 16; in Salisbury Cathedral, 180. Bar tracery, 14-15; in Salis- bury Cathedral, 187. Beck, Anthony, Bishop of Dur- ham, 130. Becket. See Thomas a Becket. Becket's Crown, Canterbury Cathedral, 29-30, 40. Bede, the Venerable, 124-126. Bell Ringers' Gallery, Durham Cathedral, 134. Bells, Rochester Cathedral, 67; Lincoln Cathedral, 102; York Cathedral, 237. Benson, Archbishop, tomb of, Canterbury Cathedral, 45. Bertha, Qyeen, 25. Bible, meeting of revisers of, in Jerusalem Chamber, West- minster Abbey, 269-270. Biscop, Benedict, 124, 223. Bishop's Eve, Lincoln Cathe- dral, 93-94. Black Prince, Chantry Chapel of the, Canterbury Cathedral, 37; tomb of, 42. Blecca, prefect of Lincoln, 80. Boothby, Sir Brooke, 205. Boy Bishop of Salisbury, 185. Bradford-on-Avon, church at, 4. Brihtnoth, Abbot of Ely, 143. Brihtnoth, Earl, 143. Brooke, Lord, siege of Lich- field by, 210. Burgh, Hubert de, 41. Burns monument, Westminster Abbej^ 266. Bury St. Edmunds, church of, 3.' 297 INDEX Canterbury Cathedral, 8, 10, 11, 58; chapter on, 22 ff. ; plan of,. 48; architectural summary, 49-52. Capitals, Norman, 9; in Early English Gothic, 13; of pil- lars in Canterbury Cathedral, 39-40. Carlyle, Thomas, at Ely Cathe- dral, 160-161. Ceadda (St. Chad), 195-196. Chapter House, York Cathe- dral, 237-238; Westminster Abbey, 256. Chapter House doorway, Roch- ester Cathedral, 67. Chaucer, quoted, 22; monument to, in Westminster Abbey, 265. Choir, the, in cathedral archi- tecture, 8; of York Cathe- dral, 238-239. Clerestory, the, in cathedral architecture, 7. Cluny, church of, 3. Colet, John, 43, 44. Columba, Irish monk, 193, 195, 222. Conrad, Prior, at Canterbury, 34. Conrad's Choir, Canterbury, 34, 38. Consecration crosses, Salisbury Cathedral, 181. Coronation Chair, Westminster Abbey, 258. Coronation of English kings, rules concerning, 249. Cosin, Bishop of Durham, 131. Courtenay, Archbishop, tomb of, Canterbury Cathedral, 43. Coventry, abbey of, 198. Crauden, John, Prior of Ely, 156, 159. Cromwell, Oliver, at Ely Cathe- dral, 161. Crossing, the, 8. Cross-shapeQ cliurches, 5-6. Curvilinear Decorated Gothic architecture, 16-17. Cuthbert, Archbishop, 32. Cuthbert, St., 114, 123, 130. Dark Entry, Canterbury Ca- thedral, 30. Dean's Eye, Lincoln Cathedral, 93-94. Decorated Stvle, at Canterbury, 40-41; at Lichfield Cathedral, 200 fif. De Hoo, William, 53, 59, 64. D'Esthia, Prior, 40. Dickens, Charles, reminders of, at Rochester, 53, 56, 68, 70- 72; tablet to, 68; burial of, in Westminster Abbey, 267. Dog-tooth ornaments, 13; in Canterbury Cathedral, 39; in Lincoln Cathedral, 89-90; in Galilee Porch, Lincoln, 101 ; in Lichfield Cathedral, 202. Doorways, of Lincoln Cathe- dral, 83-84, 104-105; Durham Cathedral, 132; York Cathe- dral, 236-237. Double curve in Curvilinear Decorated Gothic, 17. Douglas, Bishop of Salisbury, 173. Dunstan, Archbishop, 33, 143. Durham Castle, 111, 117, 122, 131, 133. Durham Cathedral, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11; chapter on. 111 ff. ; plan, 136 ; architectural sunmiary, 137-139. Durham, University of, 131, 133. Dykes, John B., 133. Early English Gothic Archi- tecture, 12-14; in Ely Cathe- dral, 150 ff.; in Salisbury Cathedral, 175, 181, 183. 298 INDEX Early Xorman work, 9. Eastgate Museum, Rochester, 72. Edward the Confessor, 1; church built on site of West- minster Abbey by, 246-247; Chapel and tomb of, 256, 259. Edward I, 99. Edwin of Northumbria, 221- 222. Eleanor, Queen, 98, 250; monu- ment to, in Angel Choir, Lin- coln Cathedral, 99; tomb of, 259. Elv Cathedral, 8, 9; chapter on, 140 ff.; plan, 162; archi- tectural summary, 163-166. Erasmus, at Canterbury Cathe- dral, 43, 44, 69. Ernuff, Prior and Bishop, 33- 34, 58. Escomb, church at, 4. Ethelbert, King, 25, 26, 31, 54, 65. Etheldreda, patron saint of Ely, 142, 147; shrine of, 151, 155. Eustace, Bishop of Ely, 151- 152. Exchequer Gate, Lincoln, 82. Fak-vaulted Roof, in Perpen- dicular style of architecture, 18. Farrar, Dean, grave of, Can- terbury Cathedral, 42; tablet to, 45.' Feast of Fools, the, 96. Fisher, Bishop John, 69. Fisher, Cardinal, 65. Fitzherbert, Archbishop of York 231. "Five Sisters," York Cathedral, 227-229. Flambard, Bishop of Durham, 119. Fleming, Bishop of Lincoln, 104. Flying buttresses, 20; Canter- bury Cathedral, 28, 29; Dur- ham Cathedral, 121; West- minster Abbey, 257. Four-centered arch, the, 19. France, development of Gothic architecture in, 19-21. Freeman, E. A., quoted, 31, 151. Gad's Hill^ 56. Galilee Chapel, Durham Cathe- dral, 11, 123-124. Galilee Porch. Lincoln Cathe- dral, 101; Ely Cathedral, 150- 152. Geoffrey de Noyers, architect of Lincoln Cathedral, 87. Geometrical Decorated Gothic architecture, 14-16. Glass in Lincoln Cathedral, 93- 94. See Stained Glass. Gordon, General, memorial win- dows and statue to, 68. Gothic style of architecture, Early English, 12-14; Geo- metrical Decorated, 14-16; Curvilinear Decorated, 16-17; Perpendicular, 17-19; English and French, contrasted, 19- 21 ; Romanesque architecture contrasted with, 21. Great Peter, bell at York Ca- thedral, 237. Green Court, Canterbury Cathe- dral, 30. Grosseteste, Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, 95-97. Gundulph, Bishop, 53, 57-58, 62, 63, 64, 65. Hacket, Bishop, 211. Harbledown village, 22. Hatfield, Bishop of Durham, 130. Headbourne Worthy church, 4. 299 INDEX Head of St. Chad, Chapel of the, 209. Hedda, Bishop, 196. Henrv II, Canterbury pilgrim- age of, 23, 37, 38; Bishop Hugh of Lincohi appointed by, 85-86. Henry III, 41 ; work of, in connection with Westminster Abbey, 250-251 ; Lady Chapel of, Westminster Abbey, 251. Henrv IV, tomb of, Canterbury Cathedral, 42. Henry V, tomb of, Westmin- ster Abbey, 259-260. Henry VII," Chapel of, West- minster Abbey, 18, 19, 251- 252, 256, 260-262. Henry VIII, 27, 43-44. Herbert, George, 187. Hereward the Wake, 143. Herman, Bishop of Old Sarum, 170. Hole, Dean, 57. Hotham, John, Bishop of Ely, 156, 159. Hugh, Little St., 97-98. Hugh of Avalon, Bishop of Lincoln, 85-93, 105. Hugh de Northwold, Bishop of Ely, 152. Hythe, Bishop Hamo de, 67. loNA, monastery of, 193, 222. Isle of Ely, the, 140-141, 142. Jarrow, monastery and school at, 124, 125. Jerusalem Chamber, Westmin- ster Abbey, 255. Jews, massacre of, at Lincoln, 97. Jew's House, Lincoln, 97. Jocelin de Bohun, Bishop of Old Sarum, 171. John, King, spoliation of Roch- ester by, 60-61. John II of France at Roches- ter, 66. John of Thoresby, Archbishop of York, 232, 238. Johnson, Samuel, 212; grave of, in Westminster Abbey, 266. Jonson, Ben, verse by, 186; grave of, in Westminster Ab- bey, 265. Joseph Window, Durham Cathe- dral, 127. King's College Chapel, Cam- bridge, 18. King's School, Canterbury, SC- SI. King's School, Ely, 159. Kingsley, Charles, quoted in connection with Ely, 140, 143, 144-145. Kits Coty House, 56. Lady Chapel, Durham Cathe- dral, 122-123; Ely Cathedral, 157-158; Salisbury Cathedral, 181, 182; Lichfield Cathedral, 204-206; Henry Ill's, West- minster Abbey, 251 ; of Henry VII, Westminster Abbey, 251-252. Lancet windows, 13-14; at Ely Cathedral, 150, 154-155; at Salisbury Cathedral, 176-177; at Lichfield Cathedral, 202- 204; in Westminster Abbey, 254. Lanfranc, Archbishop, 33, 58, 63. Langton, Simon, 231, Langton, Stephen, 41 ; tomb of, Canterbury Cathedral, 45. Langton, Bishop Walter de, 204. Later Norman work, 9-10. La Zouche, Archbishop of York, 232. 'Liberties of Etheldreda," 147. 300 INDEX Library of Durham Cathedral, 133-134. Lichfield Cathedral, 113; chap- ter on, 193 flF.; plan, 214; architectural summarv, SIS- SIS. Lincoln Castle, 80-81, 82. Lincoln Cathedral, 10, 12, 15; chapter on, 79 ff. ; plan, 106; architectural summary, 107- 110. Lincoln Devil, the, 102. Lindisfarne monastery, 113 ff., 193. Livingstone, David, grave of, in Westminster Abbey, 270. "Martyrdom, The," transept called, at Canterbury, 35. Melton, Archbishop of York, 232, 236. Merton, Walter de. Bishop of Rochester, 61. Miners' strike, settled by Bish- op Westcott, 135. Minor Canon Row, Rochester Cathedral, 70. Monks' Door, Durham Cathe- dral, 132. More, Sir Thomas, 69. Morton, John, Bishop of Ely, 159. Nave, the, 6-7. Neville Screen, Durham Cathe- dral, 129. Neville's Cross, battle of, 130, 232. Nine Altars, Chapel of the, Durham Cathedral, 126-129. Norbury, Bishop of Lichfield, 204. Octagon, Ely Cathedral, 156- 157. Odo, Bishop, 55. OSfa, King of Mercia, 197. Ogee curve in Curvilinear Dec- orated Gothic, 17, 19. Old Sarum, origins of Salisbury Cathedral at, 169-172. Osmund, Bishop of Old Sarum, 170-171; tomb of, 183. Oswald, King of Northumbria, 113-114, 193-194, 222; skull of, 129, Our Lady, Chapel of, West- minster Abbey, 250. Pandulph, papal legate, 41. Parker, Archbishop, 131. Parry, Mr., 157. Paulinus, Bishop of Rochester, 53, 54, 66. Paulinus, Bishop of York, 80, 231-222. Peart, Original, Mayor of Lin- coln, 100. Peckham, Archbishop, 44. Pembroke, tombs of Earls of, Salisbury, 186. Penda, King of Mercia, 113, 193-194. Perpendicular Gothic architec- ture, 17-19. Pier arcade, the, 7. Plate tracery, 14. Poets' Corner, Westminster Ab- bey, 265-267. Pointed arch, the, 10, 11; in Early English Gothic, 13-14; first appearance of, in nave vault of Durham, 120-121. Pole, Cardinal, tomb of, Can- terbury Cathedral, 42. Poore, Bishop Richard le, 126. Poore, Bishop of Salisbury, 171-172, 181. Prebends' Bridge, Durham Ca- thedral, 134. Prior's Gateway, Rochester Ca- thedral, 69, 70, 71. Pudsev, Hueh, Bishop of Dur- ham', 121-122, 125. 301 INDEX Pugin, architect, at Ely Cathe- dral, 158. Recessed Arches, 10. Remigius, Bishop, 81, 83; font of, 95. Richard, Abbot of Ely, 147. Richard, Archbishop of Can- terbury, 226, 255. Ridell, Bishop of Ely, 148. Ridley, Nicholas, Bishop of Rochester and of London, 69- 70. Ripon Cathedral, 94. Rochester Castle, 55, 57-58, 60. Rochester Cathedral, 10, 34; chapter on, 53 if.; plan, 74; architectural summary, 75- 78. Roger, Bishop at Old Sarum, 170, 171. Roger de Clinton, Bishop of Lichfield, 198-199. Roger, Archbishop of York, 226, 231, 255. Roman camp, York, 219. Romanesque architecture, 4 ff. ; immaturity of, 21. Roman walls, Lincoln, 79. Romeyn, John, Archbishop of York, 233, 236-237. Roof of Norman churches, 7. Rose window, Lincoln, 236. Ruskin, John, quoted, 105. Sacheverel, Dr., 212. St. Anselm's Chapel, Canter- bury Cathedral, 29, 34, 42. St. Catharine's Chapel, Ely, 149-150. St. Chad, 195-196; shrine of, 208, 209. St. Chad's Gospels, 208-209. St. Cuthbert, shrine of, Dur- ham Cathedral, 128. St. George, chapel of, Windsor, 18. St. Martin, church of, Canter- bury, 25. St. Mary, church of, at Stow, 80. St. Pancras, church of, Canter- bury, 26, 27. St. Peter, legend of, connected with Westminster Abbey, 246. St. Peter's Grammar School, York, 225. St. Stephen's Church, Caen, 63. Salisbury Cathedral, 83, 87, 90, 94, 126; chapter on, 167 ff.; plan, 188; architectural sum- mary, 189-192. Saxon churches, 1, 2, 3, 4. Scott, Dean, memorial to, Roch- ester Cathedral, 65. Scott, Sir Gilbert, 213. Scott, Sir Walter, quoted, 128, 134. Screen work, stone, in Canter- bury Cathedral, 40. Scrope, Richard, Archbishop of York, 233. Sebert, tomb of, Westminster Abbey, 245. Shakespeare monument, West- minster Abbey, 266. Simeon, Abbot of Ely, 146-147. Simon de Montfort, 55, 61. Sleeping Children, monument of the, Lichfield, 209. Spenser, Edmund, grave of, Westminster Abbey, 265. Spire of Salisbury Cathedral, 177-179. Spires of Lichfield Cathedral, 199. Stained glass, Lincoln Cathe- dral, 93-94; at Salisbury, 184; at Lichfield Cathedral, 204-206; at York Cathedral, 228, 238, 239. Stanley, Dean, quoted, 266, 268, 270; memorial windows to, in Westminster Abbey, 269. 302 INDEX Statesmen's Transept, West- minster Abbey, 267. Stephen, King, at Lincoln, 81- 83. Stonehenge, 167-168. Stone of Scone, the, 258. Swineherd of Stow, statue of, Lincoln Cathedral, 102. Temple, Archbishop, statue of, Canterbury Cathedral, 42. Tennyson, statue of, at Lin- coln, 105. Thomas a Becket, 23, 31-32; account of murder and can- onization of, 34-37; shrine of, 41-42, 43-44. Thomas of Bayeux, Archbishop of York, 22*5. Thurstan, Abbot of Ely, 143. Tower, fall of, at Ely, 156. Transepts, 8. Transitional period in cathe- dral architecture, 10-12. Triforium, the, 7. Trinity Chapel, Canterbury Ca- thedral, 40. Tudor rose used in Perpendicu- lar Gothic style of architec- ture, 19. Tunstall, Cuthbert, Bishop of Durham, 131. Tyler, Wat, 55. Van Mildert, Bishop of Dur- ham, 133. Victoria Tower, Westminster Abbey, 101. ^ iolette ornaments, 13. Viollet le Due, E. E., cited, 88. Walcher, Bishop of Durham, 117. Walter, Hubert, coffin of, in Canterbury Cathedral, 43. Walter de Gray, Archbishop of York, 227, 230-231. Warham, Archbishop, 44. Warrior's Chapel, Canterbury Catliedral, 45. Watching Chambers, Durham Cathedral, 132. Watts, Isaac, tablet to, in Westminster Abbey, 269. Wesleys, memorial to, in West- minster Abbey, 269. Westcott, Bishop of Durham, 135. West Gate, Canterbury, 24. Westminster Abbey, 1, 8, 15, 18, 20, 29, 86, 94, 181-182, 200 ; chapter on, 245 ff. ; plan, 272; architectural summary, 273-276. Wheel of fortune, fresco of, Rochester Cathedral, 66. Whitby, Council of, 195, 223. Wiclif, John, 47, 104. Wilfred, Bishop of York, 223- 234. William de Corbeuil, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, 56. William of Perth, patron of Rochester Cathedral, 60. William Rufus, 55. William of St. Carileph, builder of Durham Cathedral, 118- 119. William of Sens, architect, 39. William the Conqueror, corona- tion of, in Westminster Ab- bey, 248-249. Winchester Cathedral, 3, 9. Windows, Rochester Cathedral, 67; Lincoln Cathedral, 93-95, 103-104; Salisbury Cathedral, 184; Lichfield Cathedral, 202; York Cathedral, 227-229, 235- 236, 238, 239; Westminster Abbey, 256. Winwoed, battle of, 194. Wren, Sir Christopher, work of, in Westminster Abbey, 253. 303 INDEX Wyatt, "the restorer," 133; York, Alcuin's school at, 125. work of, at Salisbury, 184- York Cathedral, 10,94; chapter 185; Roman cement intro- on, i219 ff. ; plan, 240; archi- duced by, 213. tectural summary, 241-244. i 304 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. URL APR 30 197J VIAV2 81973 Form L9-Series 4939 NA5461. K!)64E UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 284 290 4 J-