Part 25

“Mr. Winston has pointed out that the earliest Perpendicular glass in the choir is contained in the third window from the east in the south aisle; in the third and fourth windows from the east in the north clerestory; and in the fourth clerestory window from the east on the opposite side. These windows date from the close of the Fourteenth Century. There is also an early Perpendicular Jesse in the third window from the west in the south aisle of the choir. The other windows of the choir aisles east of the small eastern transepts, as well as the glass in the lancet windows on the east side of the great western transepts, appears, he says, to be of the time of Henry IV.; the rest of the glass in the choir is of the reigns of Henry V. and VI., chiefly of the latter. He notices also, that the white glass in the windows is generally less green in tint than usual, and that he has learnt from Mr. Browne that it is all of English manufacture.”--(A. C.-B.)

We now come to the smaller transepts situated between the four eastern and four western bays of the choir. They are practically one bay of the choir with the triforium and clerestory removed. At each end are immense windows. Each is 73 feet long by 16 feet wide. Both have been restored; but the glass is original and very splendid. The north window contains scenes from the life of =St.= =William=; the south window depicts the history of =St. Cuthbert=, and is thought to date from about 1437. In it are members of the house of Lancaster.

The east end of the choir is almost entirely filled with the great =East Window=.

The space behind the altar is sometimes called the =Lady-Chapel=. This occupies four bays. It was built in 1361-1405, and is Perpendicular in style. The Altar of the Virgin stood under the great east window and here also was a chantry founded by the Percys.

“The great east window was glazed by John Thornton of Coventry. The terms of the contract for this work, dated 1405, are extant. They provide that Thornton shall ‘portray the said window with his own hands, and the histories, images, and other things to be painted on it.’ It was to be finished within three years. Glass, lead and workmen were to be provided at the expense of the chapter, and Thornton was to receive 4s. a week, £5 a year and £10 at completion for his trouble.

“The window is 78 feet high and 32 feet wide, and contains nine lights. It is entirely filled with old glass, except for certain pitches of modern glass, rather crude in colour, and inserted, it is said, after the fire of 1829. It contains 200 panels of figures. The subjects in the upper part are from the Old Testament, reaching from the creation of the world to the death of Absalom. The lower part contains illustrations from the Book of Revelations. In the loftiest row of all are representations of kings and archbishops.

“In the top lights are figures of prophets, saints and kings. At the apex of the window is a representation of the Saviour in Judgment.

“This window is probably the finest example of Perpendicular glass in England.

“The great east window, like the windows of the transepts, has a double plane of tracery reaching to about half the height of the whole. Between the two planes a passage runs at the base of the window, between two doors which lead to staircases in the turrets on each side of the windows. These staircases, in their turn, lead to a gallery across the window on the top of the inner plane of tracery. The view from this gallery is very fine.”--(A. C.-B.)

Of the numerous tombs and monuments in the east end below the windows in the retro-choir and choir-aisles, we note only two. That of =Archbishop Bowet= (died 1423), in the retro-choir (south side), is one of the finest Perpendicular monuments in existence, much mutilated, it is true; but still exhibiting its clusters of tabernacles and pinnacles joined to the arch beneath with fan-tracery. Bowet was still alive when this monument was erected in 1415. The other is =William of Hatfield= (died 1344), second son of Edward III., aged eight. The Plantagenista ornaments the canopy. Unfortunately the effigy of the little prince is much damaged.

The =Nave= is also superb and all the decoration most elaborate.

“The first impression on viewing this nave is a sense of its magnitude. Archbishop Romeyn and his builders determined to build a vast church which would eclipse all other rivals. They would have large windows, high, towering piers, a huge, vaulted roof, and everything that was grand and impressive. Edward I. was then fighting with the Scots and made York his chief city. It was immensely prosperous and the ecclesiastical treasury was replete with the offerings of knights and nobles, kings and pilgrims. Nowhere should there be so mighty a church as York Minster. In order to have space for large windows they made the triforium unusually small, which is formed only by a continuation of the arches of the clerestory windows. The design for the stone vaulted roof was never carried out. The builders feared that the great weight of a roof with so large a span would be too much for the walls, so a wooden vault was substituted. The piers have octagonal bases and consist of various sized shafts closely connected. The capitals are beautifully enriched with foliage of oak and thorn, and sometimes a figure is seen amidst the foliage. We notice thirty-two sculptured busts at the intersection of the hood-moulding with the vaulting shafts. Coats-of-arms of the benefactors of York appear on each side of the main arches. The clerestory windows have each five lights. The old roof was destroyed by fire in 1840. The present one has a vast number of bosses representing the Annunciation, Nativity, Magi, Resurrection, besides a quantity of smaller ones.”--(P. H. D.)

Looking up at the west end of the nave we have a double study in the splendid =West Window= (only surpassed by the famous window of Carlisle Cathedral); for the tracery of the Curvilinear, or flowing Decorated style has been carefully restored, and the window, which measures 56 × 25 feet, is almost entirely filled with the original glass given by Archbishop Melton in 1338.

“This is remarkable not only for the purity and boldness of its scheme of colours, but for the admirable way in which the design of the glass fits the elaborate pattern of the tracery. It will be noticed that both the figures and the architectural ornaments are in bolder relief than in the earlier glass of the Five Sisters, or the later of the choir. Some of the faces of the figures have been restored by Peckett, but not so as to interfere with the decorative effect of the whole. The window contains three rows of figures, the lowest a row of eight archbishops, the next a row of eight saints, including St. Peter, St. Paul, St. James and St. Katharine, and above this a row of smaller figures unidentified.

“The window contains eight lights. These lights are coupled in pairs by four arches with a quatrefoil in the head of each, and again formed in groups of four by an ogee arch above the other arches. The flowing curves of these ogee arches are most ingeniously and beautifully worked into the pattern of the upper part of the window, which contains five main divisions of stonework, each like the skeleton of a leaf in shape and in the delicacy of its pattern. Of these five divisions the top one is made by splitting up the central mullion; two diverge from it at the top of the lower lights; and two others curve inwards from the outside arch. The central mullion runs up almost to the top of the arch. The mullions are alike in moulding and size. Below the window is the west door, the head of which is filled with ancient stained glass. There is a gable above it, running up to the bottom of the window and containing three niches. There are kneeling figures on each side of the gable, so that the top of it may have held a figure of Christ. All that portion of the west end not occupied by the window and the porch is filled with stories of niches and arcading.”--(A. C.-B.)

The windows of the aisles of the nave are Decorated.

The =Nave= contains eight bays. Each bay consists of two main divisions: the upper half containing the triforium and clerestory; and the lower half, the main arches. A slender moulding runs between the two divisions. The piers consist of a group of separate shafts and the capitals are very delicate in design. The triforium is little more than an extension of the clerestory window-lights; but a band of stone ornamented with quatrefoils separates triforium and clerestory. The clerestory windows are geometrical Decorated. The design is much admired.

“It consists of five lights, the two outer of which are grouped in a single arch, with a quatrefoil piercing in its head. Between these two arches and on the top of the arch of the central light is a circle fitting into the arch of the window, and ornamented with four quatrefoils, four trefoil piercings, and other smaller lights. There are capitals to the outside shafts of the windows, and to the main shafts of the two inner mullions. All these mullions are very delicately moulded.

“The first window from the west end is plain. The glass in the other windows is rather finer and less fragmentary than in the north aisle.

“The second window appears to have been largely restored. The tabernacle work is very crude in colour. It contains figures of St. Laurence, St. Christopher, another saint, and three coats-of-arms below. The top lights are fine, and perhaps of Perpendicular date.

“The third window is one of the richest in colour in the minster, with its gorgeous arrangement of crimsons, greens and blues. There are inscriptions by Peckett, with the date at the bottom, 1789. His deep blues on the top lights are particularly unfortunate.

“The sixth window is also very bright. It probably contains Norman fragments. All the windows except the fifth contain insertions by Peckett.

“The clerestory window contains fragments and coats-of-arms.

“In the westernmost light of the second window from the west, on the north side, are portions of an Early English Jesse window. The wheel of this window, and those of the next five, also contain fragments of Early English glass. And in the lower lights of the fifth and seventh windows from the west are remains of the same date.

“The wheels in the clerestory windows on the south side of the nave all contain Early English glass, except the third from the west. There is also some Early English glass in their lower lights.

“The aisles of the nave are bolder in design and altogether more satisfactory than the nave itself. Like the nave they are unusually wide and lofty. In the two farthest bays to the west, above which are the western towers, the rough wooden roof, which has never been covered with a vault, may be seen. The vault of the aisles is of stone, with only structural ribs, finely moulded and with carved bosses. The aisle windows are, like those of the clerestory, of the geometrical Decorated Style, but of an earlier and simpler, uniform design. They each contain three lights. Above the three lights are three quatrefoils, pyramidally arranged.”--(A. C.-B.)

The second window from the east in the north aisle of the nave is said to have been given by a guild of bell-founders, or by Richard Tunnoc (died 1330), Lord Mayor of York. Tunnoc appears in the design kneeling before the Archbishop and around the picture of the casting of a bell is the legend “_Richard Tunnoc me fist_.” Above Tunnoc is a window. Bells appear in the border of the glass.

The window at the west end of the north-aisle of the nave is also very fine. It represents the Virgin and Child and St. Catherine with her wheel. In the west window of the south-aisle of the nave the subject is the Crucifixion. The head of Christ is supposed to be of the Eighteenth Century.

The choir-aisles are very similar to those of the nave. They have stone vaults and their windows are very beautiful. They have been described as representing “a design of which the tracery is arrested half-way in its process of stiffening from the curved lines of the Decorated style to the straight of the Perpendicular.” Each window is divided into three lights, each ending in an obtuse arch. Above these are three other arches and above them again two quatrefoils, and above them a sexfoiled opening.

For a description of the glass in these aisles we turn to A. Clutton-Brock:

“In the north aisle the east window is also very fine. It contains a representation of the Crucifixion, with St. John, St. James and the Virgin.

“The first window from the east is very fragmentary. The windows in the south aisle are rather fragmentary. In the first two from the west the top lights are empty.

“The second window is remarkable for the delicate modelling and drawing of the heads. The head of the Virgin reminds one of one of Lippo Lippi’s Madonnas. That of an old man with a beard in the central light is German in character. If these are compared with the crude

and simple design of the heads in the other windows, it will be obvious that they are of a different origin. Nothing, however, is known of their history.

“The third window has borders by Peckett. It contains the Jesse noted before.

“The fourth window is very fragmentary. It contains a beautiful figure of a saint in one of the top lights; the other top lights are by Peckett. In the central division, at the bottom, is the name of Archbishop Lamplugh, with a coat-of-arms. (Lamplugh’s tomb is close to this window.)

“The last of those windows contains painted glass given by Lord Carlisle in 1804, and bought from a church at Rouen. It is a representation of the Visitation, Mr. Winton says, taken from a picture by Baroccio, and dates from the end of the Sixteenth Century. The upper lights contain the original glass.

“The east window of this aisle is very fine in colouring, and fairly coherent in design. The subject is not clear.”

In the westernmost bay of the north-choir-aisle the eight-year-old son of Edward III.--=William of Hatfield=--was buried (see page 274). West of the tomb of =Archbishop Sterne= (died 1683), which has been called “an example of almost everything that a monument should not be,” we find the tomb of =Archbishop Scrope=, beheaded by Henry IV. (see page 265), interesting because it was a place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages.

From the north-choir-aisle we enter the =Crypt=. This was discovered after the fire of 1829. Here we find Norman work and some authorities go so far as to say some portions of the wall are of the Saxon church, built by Edwin in the Seventh Century. The capitals of the pillars (time of Roger Pont l’Évêque) are varied and very interesting.

“Entering the vestibule we notice the exact place where the Early English builders finished their work and the Decorated style begins. The difference between the styles in the Chapter-House and vestibule shows that the former was erected first. It has a wall arcade, and above are windows of curious tracery, filled with beautiful old glass. The shafts of the arcade support trefoiled arches, with a cinquefoil ornamented with a sculptured boss. Each boss and capital is beautifully carved with foliage, amidst which the heads of men and dragons appear. The glass is Early Decorated, and contains representations of Royal personages.

“The Chapter-House is one of the most beautiful in England. The entrance is an arch, divided into two arches by a canopied pier, which bears a mutilated statue of the Virgin and Child. Clustered shafts, with capitals, are on each side of the doors, which have remarkably good scrolled iron-work. The chamber itself is very magnificent. It is octagonal and in each bay there are six canopied stalls under a five-light window. The window tracery is superb. Clustered shafts support the vaulted roof. Everywhere we see richly carved stone-work, the finest in any cathedral, the foliage of maple, oak, vine and other trees. Here are pigs and squirrels feeding on acorns, men gathering grapes, birds, and coiled dragons and reptiles. The grotesques are most curious and interesting. In 1845, unfortunately, the building was restored and the painted figures of kings and bishops were destroyed, a poor tiled floor laid down; but, in spite of all, it can still maintain its proud boast:

‘_Ut Rosa flos florum_ _Sic est Domus ista Domorum._’

[‘As the Rose is the flower of flowers, so is this House the chief of Houses.’]”

The date of this building is generally given as 1320.

A curious doorway at the north-east end of the north transept opens into the vestibule that takes us into the Chapter-House. This is a narrow passage running north for three bays, then turning at right angles and running east for two bays. It is Decorated in style. Traces of ancient painting may be observed, and the windows display their original glass, chiefly Decorated. In the upper lights there are some fragments of Norman and Early English glass.

The =Chapter-House= differs from most chapter-houses in having no central pillar. It is octagonal and is divided into eight bays. An acutely-arched window, with geometrical Decorated tracery, fills each of the seven bays. The space over the entrance is occupied with blank tracery like that of the windows. The windows contain five lights, each light terminating in a trefoiled arch. The glass, chiefly medallions and shields, dates from the time of Edward II. and Edward III. The one modern window declares itself.

Passing to the =East Front= we find that it is square, and, like the West Front, it is almost entirely filled with an enormous window. The great =East Window= contains nine lights, beautifully divided by mullions and crossed by three transoms. The arch of the head is filled with a great number of small divisions. Over the window is an ogee gable, surmounted by a pinnacle. Panelling forms a kind of background for it. Buttresses, tall and narrow, and containing six tiers of niches, flank the window on either side. Each is finished with a spire. The two aisle windows also have ogee gables, surmounted with finials. Above them runs a band of panelling. At each corner rises a tall buttress, finished with a lofty spire.

“The Choir and Lady-Chapel are Perpendicular work. The four eastern bays constituting the Lady-Chapel, are earlier than the later ones of the choir and vary in detail. The triforium passage in the former is outside the building, and the windows are recessed. Strange gargoyles, with figures of apes and demons, adorn the buttresses. The east end is mainly filled with the huge window, the largest in England, which does not leave much space for architectural detail. Above it is the figure of Archbishop Thoresby, the builder of this part of the Cathedral. Panelling covers the surface of the stone, and below the window is a row of seventeen busts, representing our Lord and his Apostles, Edward III. and Archbishop Thoresby. There are two aisle windows; buttresses adorned with niches separate the aisles from the central portion, and others, capped with spires, stand on the north and south of this front.”--(P. H. D.)

From the south-east we gain a very satisfactory view of the central tower and the ornate and elegant =South Transept= (Early English), dating from 1216-1241. The gable, with its large rose-window, cusped lights, turrets, buttresses, and lancet windows, all make a harmonious architectural picture. The south porch is considered rather small and has been much restored. Dog-tooth moulding is plentiful along the arches. It also occurs on the windows and gable.

Pinnacles and weird gargoyles decorate the =Nave=, divided into seven bays by tall buttresses.

The north side of the Minster is far less ornate than the south. Of course, the chief features here are the =Chapter-House=, with its curious roof and lovely windows, and the =North Transept=, very fine Early English of 1241-1260. Here we have the famous group of lancets, the Five Sisters (see page 270), and seven beautifully arranged lancets in the gable above--a very fine contrast to the gable of the south transept, with its rose-window. A vestibule leads from the North Transept to the Chapter-House, that splendid octagonal building, perhaps the finest example of Early Decorated in existence. Buttresses, topped with pinnacles, project at each of the eight corners. The strange pyramidal roof is surrounded by a battlement and curious gargoyles; among them bears peer out into space.

LINCOLN

DEDICATION: ST. MARY. A CHURCH SERVED BY SECULAR CANONS.

SPECIAL FEATURES: ST. HUGH’S CHOIR; ANGEL CHOIR; EAST WINDOW; CENTRAL TOWER.

Lincoln Cathedral possesses a commanding site and three splendid towers that form a beautiful picture. Distance lends enchantment to the view at all times of the day and seasons of the year.

“Throughout a vast district around the city, the one great feature of the landscape is the mighty minster, which, almost like that of Laon, crowns the edge of the ridge, rising, with a steepness well-nigh unknown in the streets of English towns, above the lower city and the plain at its feet. Next in importance to the minster is the castle, which, marred as it is by modern changes, still crowns the height as no unworthy yoke-fellow of its ecclesiastical neighbour. The proud polygonal keep of the fortress still groups well with the soaring towers, the sharp-pointed gables, the long continuous line of roof, of the church of Remigius and Saint Hugh.”--(E. A. F.)

Lincoln Cathedral is also a landmark in the history of architecture, for here was developed the first complete and pure form of the third great form of architecture--the architecture of the Pointed Arch.

“The best informed French antiquaries acknowledge that they have nothing like it in France for thirty years afterwards; they thought it was copied from Notre-Dame at Dijon, to which there is a considerable resemblance, but that church was not consecrated till 1230, so that the Dijon architect might have copied from the Lincoln one, but the Lincoln could not have copied from Dijon.”--(J. H. P.)

To the historian, as well as to the student of architecture, Lincoln makes a strong appeal for many visits. Those whose time is limited will be impatient to inspect St. Hugh’s Choir, and the more beautiful Angel Choir beyond it. We must, however, pause a moment to recapitulate its history before we begin our walk through the Cathedral.