Part 27

“The stalls are in two rows, the upper of 62 seats, and the lower of 46; the former number has now been increased by six and the latter by two. The upper stalls have elaborate trefoiled canopies, surmounted by an intricate maze of buttresses and pinnacles, rising to a height of 24 feet 6 inches above the choir floor. The niches above the canopies have recently been filled with statues of saints in the Anglican Calendar. The stalls in both rows are provided with hinged seats or _misereres_, intended to serve as supports in the long services during which the occupants of the stalls were required to stand. These seats, as well as the elbow-rests and finials, are richly carved with those grotesque subjects in which the Mediæval artist so greatly delighted. The carver has given full scope to a most fertile imagination. Scriptural subjects do certainly occur on some of the _misereres_ in the upper row, but others are of a playful character. The fox is seen preaching to birds and beasts, and then running riot among them; monkeys are at play, or occupied in the more serious business of hanging one of their number and burying him afterwards; we also find men fighting with wild animals; the labours of husbandry; kings, knights, ladies, dragons, griffins, lions, hogs, and wyverns. Whether there is a hidden meaning in any of these quaint subjects, it is perhaps difficult now to say, but the preaching fox is certainly suggestive.”--(A. F. K.)

At the east end of the stalls on the south side rises the =Bishop’s Throne= with tall Gothic canopy. It was designed by James Essex in 1778, and carved by Lumby. Opposite is Sir Gilbert Scott’s =Pulpit= of carved oak (1863-1864).

The brass chandelier of sixteen lights, suspended from the vault, is dated 1698; and the brass eagle lectern, 1667.

The stone =Reredos= is a mixture of work of the Thirteenth Century and that of James Essex in the Eighteenth Century. James Pink carved the central canopy in 1769 after designs by Essex.

The =Eastern Transept= was also the work of St. Hugh. He joined the ends by means of an apse, which extended to the second bay of the Angel Choir. Some historians say that he was buried in the northern of the four chapels that he built along the apse.

St. Hugh died in London in 1200. When his body arrived in Lincoln it was met by King John and carried on the shoulders of archbishops and bishops to the Choir that he had erected. He was buried on November 24; and, according to an old ballad:

“A’ the bells o’ merrie Lincoln Without men’s hands were rung, And a’ the books o’ merrie Lincoln Were read without man’s tongue; And ne’er was such a burial Sin’ Adam’s days begun.”

Pilgrims came in such numbers to his shrine that it was deemed necessary to make his tomb more important, and the apse was removed for the famous =Angel Choir=, which, like the Choir of St. Hugh, marks a new period in the history of architecture.

“Thus the Angel Choir of Lincoln was erected to contain the shrine of one of Lincoln’s noblest bishops and one of England’s greatest saints, whose lowly tomb, placed in a corner at his own desire for fear of its being in the way, had become the resort of such a vast concourse of pilgrims as to require the transformation of the eastern arm of the minster. In 1255, license was obtained from Henry III. for the removal of part of the eastern city wall, which stood in the way, and in the next year the Angel Choir was probably begun. The work was carried on so rapidly that within a quarter of a century the translation took place. The choir was not, however, fully completed till the Fourteenth Century was well on its way.

“The 6th October, 1280, was the proudest day in the

history of the city. Perhaps never, before or since, has such an august assembly gathered within her walls. The body of the Saint of Lincoln was to be translated to the costly shrine in the centre of the Angel Choir. The ceremony was magnificent. Edward himself was present, and supported on his own shoulder the saint’s remains as they were carried to their new resting-place; with him was his beloved queen Eleanor, whose effigy was so soon to be placed beneath the same roof. The king and queen were accompanied by Edmund, Earl of Kent, brother of Edward, and his wife; the Earls of Gloucester and Warwick; the Archbishop of Canterbury; the bishops of Lincoln, Bath, Ely, Norwich, Worcester, Llandaff, Bangor, and St. Asaph; the bishop-elect of Exeter; and two hundred and fifty knights. The shrine, ornamented with gold and silver and precious stones, was raised on a lofty stone pedestal, and about thirty years after was protected by an iron grille, wrought by Simon the Smith. It is recorded that the fastenings of the grille were still to be seen in the pavement at the middle of the last century, but all traces have now entirely disappeared. It must have been soon after the translation that the head was removed from the body, and enclosed in a metal case, enriched with gold and silver and precious stones. A keeper was appointed to guard the precious relic during the day, and two had this charge at night. Yet, in spite of all such precautions, it was stolen from the church in the year 1364; the head was thrown into a field, and the case sold in London for twenty marks. The thieves were robbed of their ill-gotten gains on their way back, and were afterwards convicted of the crime, and hanged at Lincoln. The head was found and restored to the cathedral. The treasurer, John de Welburne (d. 1380), either restored the old shrine or made a new one of the same materials.”--(A. F. K.)

Fergusson called the Angel Choir “the most beautiful presbytery in England.” It dates from 1256 to 1280, when the Early English was merging into the Decorated. The sculptural angels that ornament the spandrels of the triforium account for the name.

“It is in five bays carried eastward at a uniform height and breadth with the choir of St. Hugh. Lincoln stone is used throughout, relieved with shafts and capitals of Purbeck marble. The spandrels of the great arches, which are plain in other parts of the building are here decorated with sunk geometrical forms. Each bay of the triforium is divided, as elsewhere, into two arches, both of which enclose two sub-arches; but the details are richer than in the earlier parts of the minster. The clerestory has one window of four lights in each bay, with an eight-foil and two trefoils in the head. The compartments of the vault were originally coated with plaster, which has been scraped away so as to shew the stone surface underneath. It is a question whether it does not now look better than with the old plaster, and the gaudy colouring which once, most probably, decorated it. The springers of the vaulting are supported by slender shafts, which rest on elaborately foliaged corbels in the spandrels of the great arches. The beautiful foliaged bosses along the ridge rib are best seen from the triforium or the clerestory.”--(A. F. K.)

In olden times the Angel Choir contained the Shrine of St. Hugh and a monument to Queen Eleanor, of which the one now standing in Westminster Abbey is probably a copy. It was an altar-monument of marble with the Queen’s effigy in gilded brass, and was destroyed during the Civil Wars in the Seventeenth Century. Eleanor died not far from Lincoln, from which city the funeral procession started to London. A modern stone monument, with a brass effigy of Queen Eleanor, was placed under the East Window in 1891.

Just behind the reredos there is a row of four table-tombs. The north one was placed there by Bishop Fuller, to mark the resting place of =St. Hugh=; next comes =Bishop Fuller= himself (died 1675); next, =Bishop Gardiner= (died 1705); and next, =Subdean Gardiner= and his daughter, Susanna (died 1731 and 1732). Near the latter stands the alabaster and red marble monument to =Dean Butler= (died 1894). In corresponding position and next to St. Hugh’s tomb we see =Bishop Wordsworth’s= effigy under a tall ornate Gothic canopy. This Bishop of Lincoln (died 1885), was a nephew of William Wordsworth. Nearer the East Window we find a group of Fourteenth Century monuments to the =Burghersh= family, one of whom was Bishop of Lincoln (1320-1340), and another, a hero of Crécy, and Constable of Dover, and Warden of the Cinque Ports. Opposite is the monument to =Nicholas de Cantelupe= (died 1355), a mutilated effigy under a Gothic canopy. Near it lies =Prior Wimbische=. His effigy, also headless, lies under a canopy.

Leland, writing in the time of Henry VIII., mentions two mutilated tombs: =Catherine Swynford=, the third wife of John of Gaunt, made Earl of Lincoln in 1362, and that of her daughter, Joan Beaufort, who married the Earl of Westmoreland.

On the north side of the choir is the =Easter Sepulchre=, a fine piece of Thirteenth Century carving, in the Decorated style. It consists of four canopies with trefoiled arches. Three sleeping soldiers ornament three of the panels.

On a spandrel on the north side, under a corbel above the most easterly pier, sits the =Lincoln Imp=--one of those grotesques that the Mediæval carvers delighted in creating; and here he has been sitting with crossed leg and grinning grimly for centuries. He is of the same family as =The Devil Looking over Lincoln= (see page 309).

In the =South Aisle= of the choir we pause again before another spot, sacred in Mediæval days. Here stood until the Seventeenth Century the =Shrine of= =Little St. Hugh=, a child said to have been crucified by the Jews in 1255. According to the ballads the ball of the eight-year-old boy fell into a Jew’s garden; and when he ran in to get it, the Jews murdered him.

The canons of Lincoln obtained the body and buried it in the Cathedral. Hugh became a local saint; and the Jews of Lincoln were promptly persecuted. When the stone coffin was opened in 1791, the skeleton of a child three feet long, encased in lead, was found.

=Henry of Huntingdon= (died about 1155), the chronicler of Lincoln, was also buried in this aisle.

On the north and south of the Angel Choir is a small chantry. That on the north is the =Fleming Chantry=, built by Richard Fleming, Bishop of Lincoln in 1419-1431, and the corresponding one the =Russell Chantry=, built by John Russell, who held the See from 1480 to 1494. This is similar to the Fleming Chantry, Perpendicular in style. Very similar is the =Longland Chantry=, on the other side of the south door, or Bishop’s Porch. This chantry was built by John Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, in 1521-1547.

There is no Lady-Chapel.

The great =East Window= is the finest specimen of its kind in England. It is formed of eight lights; and the great wheel of the head is composed of a six-foil, surrounded by six quatrefoils.

“Bar-tracery being fully developed, the general appearance of ‘the window is rather Decorated than Early English, but the mouldings still belong to the earlier style.’ ‘This window ... together with the whole of that part of the choir is singularly and beautifully accommodated to the style of the rest of the building.’”--(R.)

The glass is modern and deals with scenes from the life of Christ, and the Old Testament.

“The aisle windows are each of three lights, with three circles in the head, two filled with cinquefoils and one with a quatrefoil. The two east windows of the aisles are similar to the others. The wall below the windows is decorated all round with arcading of a richer design than that in the nave. Two trefoiled arches are included in a larger arch, with a quatrefoil within a circle filling the head. The spandrels have sunk trefoils. The bosses of the stone vaults to the aisles are carved with sacred subjects, foliage, and grotesque figures.

“The east windows of the north and south aisles are filled with beautiful stained glass of the Early English period. The subjects are arranged within medallions, and, though somewhat difficult to decipher, appear to represent scenes in the lives of two saints whose story has many points of resemblance--St. Thomas of Canterbury and St. Hugh of Lincoln. The glass is said to have been moved about the end of the last century from the windows of the nave aisles. The date of the medallions may be placed towards the middle of the Thirteenth Century, about the time of the erection of the nave, and, of course, earlier than the windows which they now occupy. The _grisaille_ into which they are now reglazed, is considered by Westlake to be the earliest in England.”--(A. F. K.)

One of St. Hugh’s characteristics was the peculiar double arcading on his walls. We find it in the choir and transepts.

The =Western Transept= was begun by St. Hugh; and his work is thought to end at the walls of the six chapels that run along the eastern side. These are dedicated to St. Nicholas, St. Denis, St. James, St. Edward the Martyr, St. John the Evangelist and St. Giles, and are separated from the transept by screens placed between the piers. Four of these screens are of carved oak and date from the Fifteenth Century; but the one of carved stone is of the Fourteenth. The western transept is famed for its two large circular windows in each end. As one looked upon the Deanery and the other upon the Bishop’s Palace, they were called respectively the Dean’s Eye and the Bishop’s Eye. These nicknames appear in the _Metrical Life of St. Hugh_, written between 1220 and 1225.

The =Dean’s Eye=, in the north end, dates from about 1220. Here we have not only exquisite tracery, but splendid glass of the Thirteenth Century.

“It represents the Church on Earth and the Church in Heaven. In the centre is our Saviour seated in the midst of the Blessed in Heaven. Around are four large compartments, containing portions of different subjects, which do not appear to have all originally belonged to their present positions. The most interesting is that shewing the translation of the relics of St. Hugh, represented as borne on the shoulders of crowned and mitred personages. Of the sixteen outer circles, the topmost represents our Saviour seated on a rainbow; on either side are angels with the instruments of the Passion; in the next circles St. Peter and other saints are conducting holy persons to heaven; below these is the general Resurrection; the lowest five circles each contain the figure of an archbishop or bishop. The subjects can be best seen from the neighbouring triforium or from the passage which runs just beneath the window; it will be noticed that the glass in some of the compartments is much mutilated, as might naturally be expected, considering its antiquity. From below, the subjects are confused and not easy to distinguish, but the rich and harmonious blending of the colours can be seen to the fullest advantage, and the general effect is much finer. Rickman believes the form of the tracery to be quite unique in England, but states that there is a window exactly similar at Laon.”--(A. F. K.)

An arcade of seven lancet arches runs beneath the window. The wall behind is pierced with windows filled with fragments of old glass. Two larger lancet windows brighten each side of the doorway. They contain fragments of old glass. The western one represents angels playing musical instruments in the midst of foliage. The other window is filled with geometrical patterns. The doorway leads into the Dean’s Porch.

The =Bishop’s Eye=, at the south and opposite end, is about a hundred years later than its companion. It is Fourteenth Century and Decorated.

“It is filled with delicate and beautiful flowing tracery, which has been compared to the fibres of a leaf. Rickman considers it to be the richest remaining example of its period. It is enclosed within a kind of arch formed by two rows of openwork quatrefoils; an open frame-work of a similar nature is often to be seen round circular windows in French cathedrals. The glass consists of fragments from other windows, chiefly of the Early English period. Although the pieces are placed quite at random, forming no subject whatever, yet the effect of the colouring is good, especially when seen from the opposite end of the transept. Of all the modern windows in the minster, with their elaborate subjects, it may safely be said that not one can be compared in effect with this mass of glowing colour.”--(A. F. K.)

The four lancet windows below contain Early English glass, collected from various parts of the Cathedral.

Near the Bishop’s Eye =John de Dalderby’s= shrine was situated. This was of “massey silver” incrusted with diamonds and rubies. John de Dalderby, Bishop of Lincoln from 1300 to 1320, was reverenced as a local saint. Henry VIII. removed his altar-tomb, fragments of which may be seen near the =Galilee Porch=, situated at the corner of the south arm of the western transept, different in position to the Galilees of both Durham and Ely. Lincoln’s was built about 1230 for the bishop’s state entrance. The south and west ends are open; and it may, therefore, be entered from either. Two enormous oak doors open from the east side into the transept. The porch is vaulted and ornamented profusely with the dog-tooth. The Perpendicular parapet running along the top of the porch is, of course, a later addition.

Retracing our steps--no great hardship in a place of such beauty and interest--we walk up the south-choir-aisle to the =Eastern Transept=, where we have two semicircular chapels on the right hand, and on the left the =Dean’s Chapel=. We are now at St. Hugh’s earliest work; and his double arcading is again seen in the north wall leading to the cloisters. Here also we find on two of the columns crockets that were novelties at this period. They occur at Wells, the work of Jocelin. The name of Dean’s Chapel is a misnomer--no one knows what it was used for originally. It has been suggested that it was the original burial-place of St. Hugh.

Two semicircular chapels also border the eastern side of the south end of this transept, and the =Choristers’ Vestry= occupies the corresponding corner to the Dean’s Chapel. A stone screen (Decorated) separates it from the south aisle of St. Hugh’s Choir. The double arcading and sculptured angels are constantly seen. Two other vestries lie beyond, towards the south wall.

By means of an oak doorway, leading from the north wall of the eastern transept, we enter a long, narrow passageway, with stone vaulting and windows filled with tracery and glass. This takes us into the Cloisters, for at Lincoln these secluded

walks lie on the north instead of the usual south side of the Cathedral.

Only three walks remain of the original constructions dating from the end of the Thirteenth Century. The fourth walk (north) was replaced by a colonnade, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, in 1674, whose uncle was Bishop of Lincoln at that time.

From the east walk of the Cloister we enter the =Chapter-House=, which dates from the early Thirteenth Century. It is a decagon, with two lancet windows in each bay. First, on entering, we note the massive central column with its ten Purbeck marble shafts banded together in the middle. The Chapter-House has been restored, but it has not suffered. The glass in the windows is modern. The arcade running below the windows is ornamented with shafts of Purbeck marble, foliaged capitals, and a great display of the dog-tooth. The stone vault is later than the rest of the room and is very graceful.

Many fine views can be had of the East Front. The splendid Decorated window is always the most conspicuous object. The window above it is also Decorated and nearly fills the gable. In the trefoil over the top circle is a figure of the Virgin. The richly crocketed pyramids of the turrets on either side make a beautiful effect. The aisle windows are separated from the big window by bold buttresses. Around the base runs the arcade that we constantly find at Lincoln. The Chapter-House with its sharply-pointed pyramidal roof groups beautifully with the rest of the Cathedral.

Next we look at the =Angel Choir=, with its crocketed gables and pinnacles, its elaborate tracery, and panelled buttresses that divide it into five bays. Grotesque figures project from all of these gables. One represents an =Imp on the back of a Witch=. Large windows with rich tracery fill the wall spaces here.

Next we reach the beautiful =South Doorway= with the =Russell= and =Longland chantries= (Perpendicular) on either side.

“It was probably constructed, like the Galilee doorway, as a state entrance for the bishop. The porch fills the third bay, and projects as far as the buttresses; its sides recede inwards to the pair of doors giving access to the Angel Choir. Although the doorways of our cathedrals, as a rule, cannot in any way be compared with the magnificent portals to be seen in France, yet this single example of Lincoln would be quite enough to prove that English architects were capable of designing a really magnificent doorway. In the tympanum is the subject of the Last Judgment in relief. The archivolt is richly decorated with sculpture. In the inner band is a row of niches with twelve seated figures, apparently kings and queens: next a double band of delicate open-work foliage; outside this a row of sixteen slender standing figures enclosed by interlacing stems, richly decorated with foliage. The doorway is formed of two cinquefoiled arches, separated by a central pillar having the canopy and base for a figure of the Virgin, which has been removed. On either side of the doorway is a triple canopy for statues, and behind this a row of slender columns with foliated capitals.”--(A. F. K.)

Next come St. Hugh’s two semicircular chapels, and then St. Hugh’s transept, slender and filled with so many windows that the wall space is nearly taken up by them. On top of each of the two turrets, surmounted by pyramidal roofs, stands an angel. Next comes the =Canon’s Vestry= and then the western transept with the conspicuous =Bishop’s Eye=. We pause to admire this beautiful window from the outside and then look above it at the horizontal band of seven elaborately carved quatrefoils. Above this again is a Fourteenth Century window with flowing tracery. Around the gable runs a border of open Gothic tracery. The peak bears a cross.

Next comes the =Nave=, the seven bays of which are separated by buttresses. Over the roof of the aisle flying buttresses are thrown. A slender buttress also separates the windows of the aisle. The clerestory windows are in groups of three. Over the clerestory is a wavy parapet of the Fourteenth Century, where stand canopied niches for statues. Grotesque figures project from their bases. Grotesque figures also project from the crocketed roofs of the pinnacles of the great transept.