Part 16

“existed for more than eight centuries under different forms, in poverty and in wealth, in meanness and in magnificence, in misfortune and success, finally succumbed to the royal will. The day came, and that a drear winter day, when its last Mass was sung, its last censer waved, its last congregation bent in rapt and lowly adoration before the altar there; and, doubtless, as the last tones of that day’s evensong died away in the vaulted roof, there were not wanting those who lingered in the solemn stillness of the old massive pile, and who, as the lights disappeared one by one, felt that there was a void which could never be filled, because their old abbey, with its beautiful services, its frequent means of grace, its hospitality to strangers, and its loving care for God’s poor, had passed away like a morning dream, and was gone for ever.”--(W. H. H.)

Gloucester has suffered from the hands of restorers. In 1847, Mr. F. S. Waller made extensive repairs. At this time the gardens were added.

The exterior presents a great variety of battlements and pinnacles and another interesting feature in the exterior is the construction of the two passages which make up the greater part of the so-called Whispering Gallery. This connects the north and south triforium of the choir.

The =West Front= of Gloucester, restored in 1874, is comparatively uninteresting. The buttresses of the great window are pieced, as are also the parapets. Plain transoms cross the lights of the great west window, the tracery of which is very elaborate when looked at from within. The old towers have disappeared.

The =South Porch= is the principal entrance. It is the work of Morwent (1421-1437). Over the doorway stand St. Peter and St. Paul and the four Evangelists, and below them are King Osric and Abbot Serlo, the founders of the Abbey church. In the niches of the buttress stand St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine and St. Gregory. The windows of this porch have been formed by piercing the tracery of the inside. Over the porch is an unfinished parvis. The doors date from the Fifteenth Century.

We now enter the =Nave=.

“The first impression of the nave changes all earlier thoughts of the age of the building. It is unmistakably Norman, grand beyond expression, but cold, severe and deathly white. The stained glass (mostly modern) of the Norman and Decorated windows fails to supply the evident lack of colour.

“There was a time when lines of blue and scarlet and gold relieved the white vaulted roof, when altars agleam with colour and pale flickering lights gave light and brightness to the chill whiteness of this vast and mighty colonnade. On Sunday evenings, when the nave is filled with worshippers and the bright searching daylight is replaced by the yellow gleam of the little tongues of fire above the great and massive arches, the want of colour is little felt, and the noble and severe beauty of the matchless Norman work in the great nave strikes the beholder. The nave of Gloucester, to be loved and admired as it deserves, and as it appeared to men in the days of the Plantagenet Kings, must be seen in one of the many crowded evening services.

“Save that the altars with their wealth of colour and light are gone, and the lines of colouring and the glint of gold of the Norman wooden ceiling no longer are visible on the stone-vaulted roof above and the south aisle Norman windows are replaced with exquisite Decorated work of the time of the second Edward, there is no great structural change since the day at the close of the Eleventh Century when Abbot Fulda from Shrewsbury preached his famous sermon to the Gloucester folk, the sermon in which he foretold the death of the imperious and cruel Rufus in words so plain, so unmistakable, that Abbot Serlo of Gloucester, who loved the great wicked King, in spite of his many sins, was alarmed and at once sent to warn his master, but in vain. Rufus disregarded the Gloucester note of alarm, and a few hours later the news of the King of England’s bloody death, in the leafy glades of the New Forest, rang through Normandy and England.

“Yes, it is the same nave, only colder and whiter, on which Anselm, the saintly archbishop, and Rufus gazed; the same avenue of massy pillars--then scarcely finished--through which Maud the Empress often went to her prayers with her chivalrous half-brother, Earl Robert. Beauclerc, her father, too, and some grey-haired survivors of Hastings must have looked on these huge columns crowned with their round arches which excite our wonder to-day. They were a curious fancy of the architect of Serlo; or was it not probably a design of a yet older artist of Edward the Confessor? These enormous round shafts, which are the peculiar feature of the nave of our storied abbey, have only once been repeated, probably by the same architect, in the neighbouring abbey of Tewkesbury, a few years later. There is nothing like them on either side of the silver streak of sea. The Tewkesbury copies are slightly smaller; otherwise they are exact reproductions of Gloucester.”--(S.)

The Nave differs from other Norman naves like those of Peterborough, Ely and Norwich.

“The unique features here are the great height of the massive circular columns, fourteen in number, and the consequently dwarfed triforium or gallery running over the main arches. There are traces to be seen of the original Norman clerestory under the Perpendicular windows, and, judging from this, the height of the clerestory, as originally constructed, must have been but little less than that of the piers in the nave.

“This Norman clerestory was altered at the same time that the roof of the nave was vaulted--viz. in 1242, in the time of Henry Foliot. This work was done by the monks themselves, who thought, as Professor Willis suggests, that they could do it better than common workmen. Their work is made of a light and porous kind of stone, treated with plaster on the under-side, and it was rendered necessary by the previous roof, which was of wood, having been destroyed by fire in 1190. Of this fire the piers certainly show the traces to this day, all having become reddened and slightly calcined. To make the new clerestory the whole of the original Norman work over the arcade of the triforium was removed, with the exception of the jambs of the side-lights (which extended beyond the arches of the triforium) and the wall between them.”--(H. J. L. J. M.)

All the stone-work was originally painted.

“The painting may be thus generally described. The hollow of the abacus of the capitals was red, the lower member of the same, green; the whole of the bell red, the leaves alternately green and yellow, with the stalks, running down, of the same colours, into the red bell of the capital. The vertical mouldings between the marble shafts were red and blue alternately; the lower shafts green and blue, with red in the hollows, and the foliage on these also is green and yellow. Some of the horizontal mouldings are partly coloured also. The bosses in the groining are yellow and green, as in the capitals. All the colouring, which was very rich, was effected with water colours; in one instance only has any gold been discerned, and that was upon one of the bosses in the roof.”--(F. S. W.)

Abbot Morwent pulled down the west end of the Nave in 1421-1437 and reconstructed it in the Perpendicular style. It is supposed that the original =west front= was like that of the Abbey at Tewkesbury.

The west window contains nine lights, filled with modern glass.

The =South aisle=, originally Norman, was remodelled about 1318. The tracery of the windows is unusual. The ball-flower is seen in great profusion in this part of the Cathedral.

In this aisle there is a monument to Dr. Jenner of vaccination fame, to whom the five-light west window here is also a memorial.

The tracery of the windows of the clerestory is attributed to Abbot Morwent.

The =North aisle= retains its original Norman vaulting, and the Norman piers, which correspond to the piers in the Nave, are divided into several members. Some of their capitals are richly carved. In each bay there is some Perpendicular tracing. A stone bench along the wall is also Perpendicular.

The door into the Cloister at the west end of the aisle is very fine, and the side niches and canopy work over it deserve study.

The door at the eastern end of the aisle leading to the Cloisters is also Perpendicular. Both doors have fan-vaulted recesses, like the great west door of the Nave.

The west end of the aisle is the work of Abbot Morwent (1421-1437).

A heavy stone screen, dating from 1820, closes the east end of the nave. We pass through a small arch in this screen, and beneath the broad platform on which the great organ stands.

This was originally built in 1663-1665 by Thomas Harris, and was painted and gilded in 1666. The oak case is in the Renaissance Style.

Little idea of the beauty of the =Choir= can be obtained from the Nave. We enter from the north aisle. It is 140 feet long; 33 feet 7 inches broad; and 86 feet high.

“Looking upwards, the visitor will note the beauty of the vaulting and the bosses placed at the intersection of the ribs. These bosses at the east end of the choir chiefly represent a choir of angels playing on various kinds of musical instruments, and a figure of Our Lord in the attitude of blessing. All the roof was originally probably painted and decorated, but the existing colour and gilding is recent work, having been done by Clayton & Bell. At first sight the groining of the roof looks most complicated, but, if analysed and dotted down on paper, it will be seen to be in reality a simple geometrical pattern. The bosses will repay careful examination with a glass.

“Viewed from the door in the screen, the choir looks in very truth a piece of Perpendicular work, as the Norman substructure is then for the most part concealed. A closer examination, however, will prove that the Norman work is all there--that it has been veiled over with tracery from the floor level to the vaulting with open screen-work, fixed on to the Norman masonry, which was pared down to receive it.”--(H. J. L. J. M.)

The general impression is striking:

“The choir on which you are now looking is very long--not too long, however, for its great height--for the fretted roof, a delicate mosaic of tender colours set in pale gold, soars high above the vaulting of the nave. The proportions are simply admirable. From the lofty traceried roof down to the elaborately tiled floor, the walls are covered with richly carved panelled work, broken here and there with delicate screens of stone. The eastern end, hard by the high altar, is the home of several shrines. There is happily no lack of colour in this part of our cathedral. The western end is furnished with sixty richly-carved canopied stalls of dark oak, mostly the handiwork of the Fourteenth Century. The curiously and elaborately fretted work of the roof we have already spoken of as a rich mosaic of gold and colours. The floor, if one dare breathe a criticism in this charmed building, is too bright and glistening, but it is in its way varied and beautiful. The carving of the reredos, a work of our own day, is, to the writer’s mind, open to criticism, but is still very fair, telling in every detail of loving work and true reverence.”--(S.)

The =High Altar= occupies the same site as the ancient one. The sixty =Choir-stalls= have been restored in part; the sub-stalls date from Sir Gilbert Scott’s restoration (1873). On the south side of the High Altar there are four =Sedilia= also restored. Redfern’s figures in the niches are Abbot Edric, Bishop Wulstan, and Abbots Aldred, Serlo, Foliot, Thokey, Wygmore, Horton, Froucester, Morwent, Seabroke and Hanley. The three angels over the canopies, playing on a tambour and trumpets, deserve notice.

On the north side of the =Presbytery= we pause to look at the chantry =Tomb of Abbot Parker=, where the carving of vine and grapes on the stone screen is fine. The curious cross in the form of a growing tree at the foot of the tomb is also striking. Parker, who died in 1539, was buried elsewhere. Then we pass to the more famous =Tomb of Edward II.=, erected by Edward III. The alabaster figure is probably the earliest of its kind in England. The tomb was opened in 1855 to satisfy curiosity as to whether the king was really buried there after his murder in Berkeley Castle nearby.

“Though it awakens our recollection of a feeble-minded king, and his barbarously brutal murder, it also compels our admiration at the beauty of the work. It has been restored, renovated or re-edified, but in spite of that, appeals to us from the wealth of very highly ornate tabernacle work, the richness, and at the same time the lightness and elegance of the whole. The details too are well worth careful examination. It may be, judging from the expression of the face, that there has been some attempt at portraiture, but repair and restoration have practically made it impossible to settle what would otherwise be an interesting question. The superb canopy has suffered much at the hands of restorers--e.g. in 1737, 1789, 1798 and in 1876.”--(H. J. L. J. M.)

The next monument is to =King Osric=, erected in “late dayes,” _i.e._ in the time of Abbot Parker, whose arms are in the spandrels of the canopy (1514-1539).

The Norman piers, cut away to receive the tomb, are decorated on their capitals with the white hart chained and gorged, with a ducal coronet, the device of Richard II. Osric is represented as clad in tunic, laced mantle and a fur hood or collar, bearing the model of a church in his left hand.

The next tomb westwards is, as Leland says, that of “=King Edward of Caernarvon= (who) lyeth under a fayre tombe, in an arch at the head of King Osric tombe.”

The transepts and ambulatory of the choir are usually entered through the iron gateway in the south aisle of the nave.

These =Ambulatories=, or aisles, have nothing uncommon in their form or arrangement below, but above occurs the great peculiarity of this church. The upper range of chapels surrounding the Choir is perhaps not to be met with in any other church in Europe.

Another peculiarity of the Choir is its six-light west window. This was rendered necessary by the difference in height of the Nave and Choir; for the vaulting of the choir is about twenty feet higher than that of the Nave. The glass consists chiefly of patchwork from other windows in the Cathedral. It represents a figure of our Lord, with angels on either side. Below angels play musical instruments.

The =Triforium= of the Choir is considered by some critics the finest in existence.

“It occupies the space over the ground floors of the aisles or ambulatory of the choir, and originally extended of a like width round the east end of the Norman Church, but at the time when the Fourteenth-Century work of the present choir was executed, the whole of the east end of the old Norman choir, with the corresponding part of the triforium, was removed in order to make room for the existing large window, the small east chapel being allowed to remain.”--(F. S. W.)

The =Triforium= is reached by the staircases in the western turrets of the two transepts and by arcaded passages passing under the great windows of the transepts.

“The first chapel in the triforium contains two brackets with rich canopies, and there is a very well preserved double piscina. Ball-flowers in two rows will be found in the mouldings of the east window. Remains of two canopies in the jambs of the windows are also to be traced.

“The massive Norman piers should be carefully studied, as the way in which the later casing work has been applied can be more easily seen in the triforium than elsewhere.

“The picture on the west side of this part of the triforium was discovered in 1718, against the then eastern end of the nave, underneath the panelled wainscot at the back of the seats occupied by the clergy when the nave was used for service.”--(H. J. L. J. M.)

This painting of _The Last Judgment_ is supposed to date from the reign of Henry VIII., or Edward VI. It was suggested by the great altar-piece at Dantzig (1467).

As an entrance to the east chapel of the triforium, the narrow gallery, called the =Whispering Gallery=, was made. It is a passage of Norman work, very much altered and re-used. It is 74 feet long, 3 feet wide, 6⅛ feet high, and is carried on segmental arches from the east end of the south triforium to the west wall of the Lady Chapel, and thence in the same way to the north triforium.

On the way towards the Whispering Gallery, the flying-buttresses inserted in 1347-1350 to support the walls of the clerestory, which were weakened by the insertion of the great east window of the Choir, should be noticed.

Visitors are always interested in the Whispering Gallery, where the lightest whisper can be easily and distinctly heard at the other end of the gallery. It inspired the following lines, by Maurice Wheeler (head-master of the King’s School, 1684-1712):

“Doubt not but God, who sits on high, Thy secret prayers can hear, When a dead wall thus cunningly Conveys soft whispers to the ear.”

The =East Window= is larger than the East Window of York Minster. It measures 78 × 38 feet; that at York is 78 × 33.

Though it has suffered much mutilation, restorers have done little harm, and it is possible to get some idea of its original splendour.

“It is worthy of remark that the tracery, heads and cusps, as seen from the inside of this window, are not repeated on the outside, a plain transom only crossing the lights. This peculiarity is repeated in the great west

window and in many other windows in the cathedral.”--(F. S. W.)

The stone-work of the window was restored in 1862 and the glass cleaned and re-leaded. The window consists of fourteen lights--six on the centre with four on either side. The subjects are the Coronation of the Virgin Mary with Christ and the Apostles, saints and kings. The heraldic shields fix the date of the glass between 1347 and 1350. The canopies and nearly all the figures are of white glass enriched with yellow. The tones of red and blue are particularly rich. The drawing of the figures has been much criticised.

“The whole of this, the loveliest choir in England, is lit by a mighty wall of jewelled glass behind the great golden reredos.

“This vast east window which floods the choir of Gloucester, beautiful as a dream with its soft, silvery light faintly coloured with jewelled shafts of the richest blue and red, and here and there a vein of pale gold--this vast window could not have been seen out of England, or, at least, one of the grey and misty northern countries, where gleams of light or shafts of sunshine are exceedingly precious. In south or central Europe the effect of such a mighty window would be simply dazzling to the eye, would be painful from its excess of light.

“This great east window is the largest painted window in England--the largest, the writer believes, in Europe. Its stonework exceeds in size the magnificent east window of York, which stands next to it. The respective measurements are Gloucester, seventy-two feet high by thirty-eight wide; York, seventy-eight by thirty-three feet. The lower parts of the centre compartments at Gloucester are not completely glazed, owing to the opening into the Lady-chapel. The glass of Gloucester is, on the whole, light-coloured, the designers being evidently anxious that the beautiful stone panels and screen-work should be seen in all their exquisite details. The glass has suffered marvellously little from the ravages of weather and the fanaticism of revolutionary times; the busy restorer, too, has dealt gently with it. There are forty-nine figures, and of these thirty-seven are pronounced by our lynx-eyed experts to be absolutely genuine. Of the eighteen armorial shields in the lower lights thirteen are certainly the identical shields inserted by the survivors of Cressy. The whole of the gorgeous canopy-work has been untouched. The subject of the paintings is the _Coronation of the Virgin_ and the figures consist of winged angels, apostles, saints, kings and abbots. The coats-of-arms are those borne by King Edward III., the Black Prince, and their knightly companions, such as the Lords of Berkeley, Arundel, Pembroke, Warwick, Northampton, Talbot and others who took part in the famous campaign in which occurred the battle of Cressy, and who in some degree were connected with Gloucestershire. The window was, in fact, a memorial of the great English victory, and may fairly be termed the Cressy window.”--(S.)

The =Vestibule= to the Lady-Chapel is a beautiful work. The lower portions of the west wall, parts of the old Norman apsidal chapel, are pierced by the opening for the door and by two perpendicular windows.

The lierne vaulting is very delicate (the ribs are run differently in the four quarters of the roof), and the pendants form a cross. Over the vestibule is the small chapel which is entered from the Whispering Gallery.

The beautiful =Lady-Chapel= was built between 1457 and 1499 on the site of a smaller one.

The Lady-Chapel, 91 feet 6 inches long, 25 feet 6 inches high, and 46 feet 6 inches high, consists of four bays, which, as the wall of the chapel is so low, are chiefly composed of fine tracery and glass.

“All the wall below the windows is arcaded with foiled arches, with quatrefoils above them. The wall between the windows is panelled with delicate tracery like that in the windows, and in its three chief tiers contains brackets for figures, with richly carved canopies overhead. Many of these canopies (like the walls) show traces of colour.

“Vaulting shafts of great beauty support one of the grandest Perpendicular roofs that has ever been made. Each boss in the roof is worth minute inspection, and since the restoration (1896) it is possible to see the bosses in practically the same condition as they were when they left the masons’ hands in the Fifteenth Century. With three exceptions they are all representations of foliage.

“It has been said above that the chapel is cruciform. The arms of the cross are represented by the two side chapels, like diminutive transepts on the north and south sides, with oratories above them, to which access is given by small staircases in the angles of the wall. Both these side chapels contain some exquisite fan-tracery vaulting, which is supported upon flying arches, fashioned in imitation of the graceful flying arches in the choir.

“On the north side the chapel contains a full-length effigy of Bishop Goldsborough (who died in 1604) robed in his white rochet, black chimere, with lawn sleeves, scarf, ruff and skull-cap.