Part 4

_Vestibule._—Now we come to the Lancet or Early Gothic work (1190-1245), including vestibule, chapter-house, fratery, refectory, Lady chapel, and the eastern bays of the choir. Passing through the north transept again, and out through its north door, we enter the vestibule, the architectural gem of the cathedral. The piers have bases, but no capitals—a feature common enough in late Gothic, but very unusual in such early work. Pass into the cloister to see the lovely trefoiled doorway of the vestibule. Then return to the _Chapter-house_, which is of the same date as the vestibule. It is rectangular, as were most of the monastic Chapter-houses originally: _e.g._, Exeter, Durham, Oxford, and Bristol. The windows have an inner arcade. Here is a bust of Canon Kingsley, by Mr. Belt. Returning to the vestibule, and passing out of it by the modern north doorway, we cross the Slype with its elaborate vault, and pass into a vaulted building of two aisles, each of four bays, laboriously restored at considerable expense, and then allowed to relapse into a coal-cellar: this is the so-called fratery. Rooms in similar positions occur at Fountains and Kirkstall; their use is not known. Notice the day-stairs which led to the Monks’ dormitory, which was overhead, on the east side of the cloister, also the curious cusped windows adjacent. Along the whole of the north side of the cloister extended the _Refectory_, the Monks’ dining-hall; now the west end has been lopped off, and a passage driven through the east of it. Towards the west end will be found a fine doorway by which it was originally entered. To the right of the doorway is a recess marking the site of the lavatory. Inside, in the south wall, is the original staircase and pulpit of the refectory. Table talk was forbidden in all monasteries; a good book was read aloud to the monks during meals. Another equally fine pulpit remains in the refectory of Beaulieu, Hampshire; another, in the open air, opposite Shrewsbury Abbey. The upper part of the refectory has Perpendicular tracery inserted in the original windows.

Now we return to the cathedral, to the _Lady chapel_: much restored, of similar date and character to those of Hereford and Bristol. It was a remarkable specimen of mediæval “jerry-building,” built without foundations of any sort or kind. One of the bosses, figured in Dean Howson’s book on “The Dee,” depicts the murder of Thomas Becket. Originally the Lady chapel had three windows, each triplets, on either side.

_Eastern choir._—To the same period belongs the east wall of the choir, and the two eastern bays. The east wall is pierced by but one arch, as at Hereford and Chichester; an inferior ending to the triple eastern arches of the choirs of Wells and Salisbury. The mouldings of the southern arches are a cheap imitation of the better work on the north.

_Western choir._—The remaining bays to the west have piers of altogether different section, and are Early Geometrical in character (1245-1280); and should be compared with Westminster choir and the Angel choir of Lincoln. In digging, the foundations of the east ends of the thirteenth-century aisles have been found. They turn out to have been polygonal. Sir G. G. Scott has been allowed to rebuild this aisle in apsidal form, and to crown his work with a hideous “extinguisher” roof. To put up this sham Gothic, he pulled down the Perpendicular choir-aisle, and expelled the monuments of three ancient county families in favour of an eminent contractor. This is what is called “restoration.”

All the above work stops at the top of the beautiful triforium, a trefoiled arcade. The clerestory is late Geometrical work; the tracery of the windows is thin and uninteresting (1280-1315). The proportions of the choir as thus completed are not at all satisfactory; the tall clerestory, with its big broad windows, is ruinous to the effect of the low pier-arcade and the diminutive triforium: it looks top-heavy. Compare the choir of Lichfield.

We have seen that by the end of the thirteenth century the monks had rebuilt all the work to the east and north of the cloister, as well as the Lady chapel and the whole of the choir. In the fourteenth century they set to work to rebuild the whole of the south transept, the central tower, and the nave. None of the upper parts of these, however, were finished till the following century. The _South Transept_ is so vast that the old church of St. Oswald may have still remained in use while the transept was building around it. It has western as well as eastern aisles: which it is rare to find except in cathedrals of the first rank, such as Ely and York. Some of the aisle windows retain very beautiful Curvilinear tracery. The springers of vaults remain, but no vaulting was executed, except one bay at the south end of the east aisle, till recently, when the remainder of this aisle was vaulted. The vast size of this transept—it is as large as the choir, and nearly as large as the nave—is in striking contrast to the diminutive North Transept, and is the most remarkable feature in the ground plan of the cathedral. Originally there stood here an independent church, belonging to the parish of St. Oswald. But in the fourteenth century, when the abbey was in possession of great wealth, the monks desired to enlarge their church. They could not enlarge it to the north, for on the north were their cloisters, chapter-house, refectory, and dormitory; on the south was the parish church of St. Oswald. They therefore came to terms with the parishioners, in accordance with which they built a new parish church for them, where now stands the Music Hall. But in the fifteenth century the parishioners were able to evade their bargain, and vindicated their claim to the whole of the new south transept, which the monks by this time had completed. “Sic vos non vobis.” And to get into it they cut the fifteenth-century doorway, which is still to be seen through the lower part of the window at the south end of the west aisle of the new transept. And here they remained in possession till the present century, using the transept as their parish church. In 1824 the transept was actually blocked from the cathedral by a solid wall. But in 1874 a new church, St. Thomas, was once more built for the parishioners, and they were again ejected from the site of the old church of St. Oswald. The dividing wall was pulled down, and the transept has been again thrown into the cathedral. Unfortunately, the congregation being gone, there is no one to fill it, and it remains a squalid and desolate solitude. Why not have replaced the dividing-wall by an open screen and have left the parishioners in peace?

_Central Tower._—This was probably commenced in the fourteenth and finished in the fifteenth century. It has been found that the north-west pier rests upon some floriated gravestones of the thirteenth century, which disposes of the idea that the piers of the tower have a Norman core. Notice the variation in the treatment of the tower-arches.

_Nave._—Here also there is Curvilinear tracery in the windows of the south aisle. The piers and arches, also, on the south side are of fourteenth-century work, of simple but good design. The northern pier-arcade differs in some features; it may be a little later. On the other hand the initials of Abbot Simon Ripley (1485-1492) are found on the first pier from the west; and so this arcade may be really later work, assimilated in character to the earlier work on the south side.

_South Transept._—The next thing seems to have been to complete the south transept in the Perpendicular style; and also the easternmost bay of the nave, which was needed to give abutment to the rising tower. To this period, perhaps the fifteenth century, may be assigned all those Perpendicular windows which are cusped, in the transepts, the nave, the refectory, and elsewhere.

_Nave._—The final operations comprised all those windows which are without cusps—_e.g._, the clerestory windows and the north aisle windows of the nave; also the south porch and west front and the commencement of a south-west tower, and the fine wooden roof of the north transept. All this was done early in the sixteenth century. Perhaps piety had waxed cold, and pilgrims’ offertories were less productive. At any rate, all the upper part of the interior of the nave is bare, bald, and poverty-stricken. For the beautiful triforium of the choir we have here a blank wall; unhappy, too, in proportions, the nave of Chester is one of the least satisfactory designs of the Middle Ages. In the south-west tower is the Consistory Court, with good Jacobean woodwork.

One other alteration had to be made. There was no access to the Lady chapel except through the one arch at the east end of the choir. When St. Werburgh’s shrine was placed at the entrance of the Lady chapel in the fourteenth century, it was awkward to have but a single approach to the Lady chapel; so the eastern apses of the two choir aisles were pulled down, and two Perpendicular aisles added, one on each side of the Lady chapel. (The one on the north is still allowed to exist; the one on the south was pulled down by Scott). Thus the west window on either side of the Lady chapel was converted into a doorway, and a convenient processional path was provided round St. Werburgh’s shrine.

To the late Perpendicular or Tudor period belong the eastern, northern, and western walks of the cloister, which should be visited next. In part of the west walk, and in the new south walk, there is a double arcade; dividing the walks into a series of separate compartments or studies for the monks. An analogous arrangement occurs in the cloisters of Gloucester. Notice, also, the _insouciance_ with which these Tudor builders dropped the ribs of their vaults down on earlier doors and arches. Similar reckless disregard of the good work of preceding builders occurs at Canterbury, where the most beautiful doorway in the Cathedral is cut into by later vaulting.

_North Aisle of Nave._—This has been recased, and provided with rich vaulting. It was to provide abutment for this new vault that the south walk of the cloister was rebuilt. The nave and choir have been vaulted in wood; following the precedents of York Minster and Selby Abbey.

The exterior is, to all intents and purposes, nineteenth-century work. The original design had almost wholly disappeared through the decay of the soft sandstone. It is, however, very handsome and effective; especially in contrast with the exterior, equally new, of Worcester.

Of minor work the chief objects of interest are the Byzantine font, perhaps of the eighth century; the remains of the fourteenth-century shrine of St. Werburgh and the contemporary sedilia; the fine misereres and stalls (Perpendicular); the Renaissance gates of Spanish ironwork, and the Renaissance candelabra (Italian); the epitaphs of John Lowe, tobacconist, John Paul, publican, and John Phillips, merchant, in the south transept; those of Mayor Green, and an American loyalist, on the south-west pier of the tower; the tablet of Randolph Caldecott and the pretentious monument of Bishop Pearson in the north transept; the tablet of Dean Arderne in the south aisle of the choir; and in the north aisle those of Subdean Bispham and Bishop Jacobson, and the epitaph on the gravestone of E. P. Gastrell. The new organ rests on five Renaissance columns brought from Italy; the communion table is of wood from the Holy Land. On the wall near the west door is a tablet to Bishop Hall, and another

To the Memory of

JOHN MOORE NAPIER

Captain in Her Majesty’s 62nd Regiment Who died of Asiatic Cholera in Scinde on the 7th of July, 1846, Aged 29 years.

The tomb is no record of high lineage; His may be traced by his name; His race was one of soldiers. Among soldiers he lived; among them he died; A soldier falling, where numbers fell with him, In a barbarous land. Yet there was none died more generous, More daring, more gifted, or more religious. On his early grave Fell the tears of stern and hardy men, As his had fallen on the graves of others.

Surely one hears the trumpet on the dusty field of Meeanee, and the word of command of the stern old general. The inscription can be by none other but Sir Charles Napier. There is not much in verse that rings like these few lines of prose.

The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, Chichester.

Chichester cathedral, though one of the smallest, is to the student of mediæval architecture one of the most interesting and important of our Cathedrals. At Salisbury one or two styles of architectures are represented; at Canterbury two or three; at Chichester every single style is to be seen without a break from the eleventh to the sixteenth century. It is an epitome of English architectural history for 500 years. Early Norman, late Norman, late Transitional, early Lancet, late Lancet, early Geometrical, late Geometrical, Curvilinear, Perpendicular and Tudor work all appear in the structure side by side. We have many other heterogeneous and composite cathedrals, but nowhere, except perhaps at Hereford, can the whole sequence of the mediæval styles be read so well as at Chichester.

The last kingdom, says Canon Bright, that remained outside the Church, was that of the South Saxons, hemmed in by a thick line of well-nigh impenetrable forest, and so barbarous as to be at once ignorant of one of the simplest arts, and furious against the incoming of foreigners. It was reserved for the great Wilfrid, of Hexham, Ripon and York, in one of his exiles (611)—caused originally by the high-handed partition of his overlarge diocese of York—to do what no one as yet had done for these poor rude heathen—what some Irish monks had tried to do and had failed. They were desperate with famine; he taught them to fish in the sea; for he was as ready in homely crafts of this kind as in adorning churches or educating young nobles; and as Bede says, “by this kind act he turned their hearts to love him; and they began the more willingly to hope for heavenly blessings under his preaching, when by his assistance they had received earthly good.”

The first seat of the diocese was on the coast at Selsea; it was transferred to Chichester by Stigand in 1082, when other Norman prelates removed to fortified towns such as Lincoln, Exeter, and Norwich. In the south aisle of the choir are two Saxon slabs representing the meeting of Christ with Mary and Martha and the raising of Lazarus. The figures are the tall, emaciated, but dignified figures of archaic Byzantine art; their stature carefully proportionate to their importance; the slabs may well have come from Selsea. Stigand was followed by Gosfried, who for some unknown sin sought and obtained absolution from the Pope. The original document in lead may be seen in the library. “We, representing St. Peter, the chief of the Apostles, to whom God gave the power of binding and loosing, absolve thee, Bishop Godfrey, so far as thy accusation requests and the right of remission belongs to us. God the Redeemer be thy salvation and graciously forgive thee all thy sins. Amen. On the seventh of the Calends of April, on the festival of St. Firmin, bishop and martyr, died Godfrey, bishop of Chichester; it was then the fifth day of the moon.”

I. NORMAN.—Godfrey was succeeded in 1091 by Ralph, whose stone coffin, marked “Radulphus” may be seen in the Lady chapel. Godfrey built the present Norman cathedral, or at any rate enough of it to allow a consecration in 1108. Before his death in 1123, or soon after, the whole cathedral must have been complete except the west front, where only the two lower stories of the south-west tower are Norman. The voluted capital of eleventh-century Norman work—an attempt at Ionic—which appears also on the east side of Ely transept—occurs in the triforium of the choir. The work in the four eastern bays of the nave is a little later; the four western bays, in which the triforium is treated differently, were possibly not built till after the fire in 1114. The Norman Church had the same ground-plan as that of Norwich, commenced _c._ 1096, and Gloucester, commenced _c._ 1089. It had an aisled nave, aisleless transept with eastern apses, aisled choir, apse and ambulatory, and a chevet of three radiating chapels, of which the side chapels were semicircular, the central or eastern chapel oblong, as at Canterbury and Rochester. Externally, on the south wall of the choir, in the second bay from the east, may be seen traces of the curve of the wall of the ancient apse, and also a triforium window which originally was in the centre of one of the narrowed bays of the apse, but has now ceased to be central. In the chamber above the library the curve of the wall of the apse of the north transept is well seen. The piers, as in most eleventh-century work, are monstrously and unnecessarily heavy, and the arches constricted. It is rather a monotonous interior, with the same design from choir to west end. It is a pity that they did not give us a different and improved design in the nave, as was done at Tewkesbury and Gloucester. Matters have been made worse by the removal of a superb Perpendicular stone rood-screen, crowned, as at Exeter, by a Renaissance organ. The removal of this has impaired the general effect of the interior, much lessening the apparent length of the cathedral. As usual, only the aisles and apses of the Norman cathedral were vaulted; the aisles here, as at Southwell, are vaulted in oblong compartments. It was dedicated to St. Peter, and served by secular Canons, of whom in 1520 there were thirty-one. In the triforium of the choir were semicircular transverse arches, precisely as in the choir of Durham.

II. LATE TRANSITIONAL AND EARLY LANCET, from the fire of 1186 to the consecration of 1199, when the cathedral was re-dedicated to the Holy Trinity. About 1180 some work was going on in the western part of the Lady chapel, but in a great fire in 1186 the roofs and fittings of the whole cathedral were burnt, and the clerestories were no doubt damaged by falling timbers. The destruction, however, was by no means so great as at Canterbury in the fire of 1182, and no such drastic process of rebuilding was necessary. Bishop Siegfried confined himself to four objects: (1) To fireproof the cathedral by covering it with a stone vault, provided with the necessary buttresses and flying-buttresses. And as the clerestory which had to support the vault was much damaged, its inner arcade had to be rebuilt. (2) To replace the apse and ambulatory and chevet by a rectangular retro-choir with square eastern chapels. (3) To replace the transeptal apses by similar chapels. (4) To get rid of some of the rough and heavy appearance of the ground-story of the whole church. He did not touch the triforium.

Siegfried probably commenced with the choir, which was most wanted. The masonry of the ground-story had probably been calcined by the roof-timbers blazing on the floor; the inner face of this was cased with good Caen stone. As at Canterbury, great use was made of Purbeck marble, in which were built angle-shafts and capitals to the piers, hood-moulds for the pier-arches, string-courses below and above the triforium, and arcading to the clerestory. In front of each pier a triple vaulting-shaft was run up, with a marble capital, supporting the new quadripartite vault. Externally, the clerestory wall was supported by flying-buttresses of heavy archaic type, similar to those of the choirs of Canterbury and Boxgrove. Later on, the same treatment was extended by Siegfried and his successors to the nave and transepts.

His next step was to remove the Norman apse and to build an aisled retro-choir of two bays. This is the architectural gem of the cathedral. The idea of it probably came from Hereford, where the retro-choir is a few years earlier. At Hereford, however, the retro-choir projects picturesquely, and forms an eastern transept. The central piers of the Chichester retro-choir are remarkably beautiful. They consist of a central column surrounded by four shafts very widely detached; column and shafts are of Purbeck marble. The capitals are Corinthianesque; their height is proportioned to the diameters of the column and shafts. This beautiful capital was reproduced a few years later by St. Hugh at Lincoln, and the pier at Boxgrove. The triforium is of quite exceptional beauty, as indeed is the whole design. Semicircular arches occur in the pier-arcade and triforium, and some of the abaci are square; otherwise the design is pure Gothic. Here, as at Abbey Dore, St. Thomas’, Portsmouth, Boxgrove, and Wells, we see the transition from the Transition to the “pure and undefiled Gothic” of St. Hugh’s choir at Lincoln. In these beautiful churches the ancient Romanesque style breathed its last.

The aisles of the new retro-choir were continued on either side of the first bay of the Norman Lady chapel, whose three bays had probably been remodelled before the fire in Transitional fashion. The capitals of the Lady chapel are of exceptional interest and importance, as showing experimental foliation which had not yet settled down into the conventional leafage of early Gothic. The apse also of the south transept was replaced by a square chapel; and that of the north transept by a double chapel, now used as a library, in the vaulting of which the Norman zigzag occurs.

III. A little later in the LANCET period was built (1199-1245) the lovely south porch, with small, exquisite mouldings, and charming foliated capitals and corbels. The difference between early Transitional, late Transitional, and Lancet foliation may be well seen by examining successively the capitals of the Lady chapel, the triforium of the retro-choir, and the south porch. The north porch is almost equally fine. The vaulting-ribs, square in section, show that the two porches both belong to the very first years of the thirteenth century. Rather later, the sacristy was built on to the south porch, with a massive vault supported by foliated corbels.

IV. In the EARLY GEOMETRICAL period (1245-1280) building still went on unremittently. The south-west tower was raised to its present height; the low Norman central tower was replaced by a higher one: it is curious that this tower is oblong on plan; the transept, contrary to custom, being wider than nave or choir. A pretty circular window, with cusped circles and tooth ornament, was inserted in the eastern gable of the retro-choir, and a fine Galilee porch was added to the west front, as at Ely.