Part 34

“The coffer or shrine, which was made for the translation in 1289 (its base being therefore the most ancient monument in the cathedral), was knocked to pieces at the Reformation (1538), and, being of wood, must have entirely perished. But gradually, and from different places, fragments of the base were brought together: first, several pieces of delicately carved marble were discovered in the sides of a square well in the yard south-west of the cathedral; then a part of the plinth on the south side was found to be in use as a step, luckily with the carved portion turned inwards; next a spandrel was detected by Mr. Francis, the head verger, in the wall of the cemetery; and last of all a piece of the plinth was found in a wall in Tom Quad. Though some portions are still wanting, it is not impossible that more may yet be found.

“As the monument stands now, it cannot, of course, impress one as it would have done in its perfect state, with the rich superstructure crowning it: especially as the restored shafts are merely square stone supports of the clumsiest description, so studiously careful has the restorer been not to confuse them with the original work. Still, though the base of St. Frideswide’s shrine is only a collection of fragments, these fragments are of remarkable beauty and interest. It is of Forest marble, measuring seven feet by three and a half; and consists of an arcade of two richly cusped arches at the sides and one at each end. On the top of this was fixed the _feretrum_, containing the jewelled casket that held the relics themselves. The spandrels are filled with wonderfully carved foliage, unusually naturalistic, and preserving still the traces of colour and gilding to remind one of its former glories. On the south side there is maple in the central spandrel, with a wreath of what is probably crow’s-foot in a boss below: the two side spandrels contain columbine and the greater celandine. On the north side the foliage is mostly oak, with acorns and numerous empty cups; sycamore and ivy filling the adjoining spandrels. At the east end one of the spandrels contains vine leaves and grapes, the other fig-leaves, but without the fruit; the cusp under the vine has a leaf which may be that of hog-leaf. At the west end there is hawthorn and bryony. The choice of all this foliage was doubtless made for symbolical reasons, referring first to St. Frideswide’s life in the oak woods near Abingdon, and next to her care for the sick and suffering at Thornberrie (now Binsey). And in this connection it is pleasant to think that the sculptor, with tender fancy, chose plants which were famous for their healing virtue.”--(P. D.)

The =Lady-Chapel= (Thirteenth Century and Early English) is sometimes called the Dormitory, because many canons are buried here. Characteristic curling foliage decorates the capitals. The shafts are filleted. Traces of colouring can be observed here and there and also figures of angels on the roof. The Decorated window (restored) at the east end contains glass designed by Burne-Jones and made by William Morris, a memorial to Frederick Vyner, murdered by brigands at Marathon in 1870.

The figures represent Samuel the Prophet, David, King of Israel, John the Evangelist, and Timothy the Bishop. In the panels beneath are, Eli instructing the young Samuel, David slaying Goliath, St. John at the Last Supper, and Timothy as a little boy learning from his mother.

Here also is the tomb of =Elizabeth Lady Montacute=, who gave Christ Church Meadow to the Priory for the support of two priests for her chantry in this Lady-Chapel. Her effigy lies on the top of the tomb, and portraits of her children appear in the panels below. The whole was originally brilliantly coloured.

Four arches divide the Lady-Chapel. Under the easternmost one is a large tomb known as the =Watching Chamber=.

“Its real nature is still a matter of dispute: some maintaining it to have been used as a chantry chapel for the welfare of those who were buried below; others, that it served as a ‘watching chamber’ to protect the gold and jewels which hung about the shrine of St. Frideswide.

“Most elaborately carved and crocketed, the ‘watching chamber’ is a beautiful example of full-blown Perpendicular workmanship; ‘most lovely English work, both of heart and hand,’ according to Mr. Ruskin. It consists of four stories, the two lower, in stone, forming an altar tomb and canopy, and the two upper in wood. A door from the Latin Chapel leads one up a small and well-worn stone staircase into the interior of the little upper chapel, which is now a rough wooden room. Its extreme roughness suggests that it was once panelled and otherwise adorned, while there are marks at its east end, which may be the site of an altar, or of the _feretrum_ itself.”--(P. D.)

Lastly we come to the =Latin-Chapel= also called =St. Catherine’s=, in honour of the patron of students of theology.

“The Decorated vaulting was built when the chapel was enlarged in the Fourteenth Century. The foliage of its bosses is very beautiful; the water-lilies especially of the third boss, so suggestive of Oxford streams, and the roses a little further east, are a happy combination of naturalistic treatment with decorative restraint. It will be noticed that the vaulting does not run true in the third bay, the Decorated work there having been somewhat awkwardly joined to the Early English of the second bay.

“A prominent feature in the Latin-Chapel is the old oak stalling, which a second inspection proves to be patchwork. The returned stalls at the west end probably belonged to the choir of the conventual church, and in that case would have been fitted in here when Dean Duppa ‘adorned’ the choir by destroying the old wood-work. Near to these is some of the work prepared for Cardinal Wolsey’s new chapel. The poppy-heads are good specimens of wood-carving, and contain a monogram I.H.S., a heart in a crown of thorns, a cardinal’s hat, and other devices. The pulpit, with its delicate canopy, an excellent specimen of Seventeenth Century wood-work, was formerly the Vice-Chancellor’s seat in another part of the church, occupied by him during university sermons. It was then used by the Regius Professor of Divinity for his lectures, but since the altar was restored six years ago, the chapel has been no longer used as a lecture-room.”--(P. D.)

Here we find some of the best glass in the Cathedral. At the east end is the famous =St. Frideswide window= by Burne-Jones; and the three windows on the north are beautiful specimens of the Fourteenth Century, replaced here by Dean Liddell. In the middle of each light is a figure and the rest of the space is covered with the diamond-shaped pieces of glass bearing leaves and flowers, technically called “quarries.” Medallions and borders with various beasts--even monkeys--decorate the spaces in the tracery. The first window depicts St. Catherine, a Virgin and Child, and next a figure, probably St. Frideswide; the second window represents an archbishop and angels; and the third, St. Frideswide with St. Margaret on one side and St. Catherine on the other. It is very interesting to compare these with the Burne-Jones’s St. Frideswide at the east end:

“Though this is one of the first windows that Burne-Jones ever designed it is one of his best. Better suited (as many think) to the purpose of a window, at all events in this enclosed chapel, than the freer method of the other glass, it carries on the best traditions of the craft, in its infinite variety of gem-like colour and complexity of detail; while it attains a degree of perfection in pictorial effect and figure-drawing which was impossible during the great era of mediæval glass-painting. The death of the saint, with its lovely effect of light through the latticed window, for instance, and the picture of her in the pig-sty, would be perfect as finished pictures, and yet do not for an instant outstep the convention which is necessary for their function as part of a window.

“The colour is, in spite (or rather because) of its radiant variety, not so immediately attractive to every one as that of the other Burne-Jones windows; but when one has sat down for five or ten minutes and deciphered the various scenes, its unapproachable beauty becomes apparent, and each succeeding visit deepens the impression of the splendour and poetry of this incomparable work.

“The scenes depicted are, by the artist’s own account, as follows:--

“_First Light_: St. Frideswide and her companions brought up by St. Cecilia and St. Catherine; St. Frideswide founds her first convent; A messenger from the King of Mercia demands her in marriage; The King comes to take her by force, and the first convent is broken up.

“_Second Light_: Flight of St. Frideswide to Abingdon; The King of Mercia and his soldiers in pursuit; The Flight continued; The Pursuit continued; St. Frideswide takes refuge in a pig-sty.

“_Third Light_: Flight of St. Frideswide to Binsey; The King of Mercia in pursuit; St. Frideswide founds a new convent at Binsey; Her merciful deeds.

“_Fourth Light_: Return of St. Frideswide to Oxford; The Siege of Oxford by the King of Mercia; The Siege continued; The King struck blind; The Death of St. Frideswide.

“In the tracery above are the trees of life and of knowledge, and a ship of souls convoyed by angels.”--(P. D.)

Passing into the north transept we note that the eastern aisle has been merged into the Lady-Chapel and Latin-Chapel of which it forms the western bays; but that the western aisle remains.

The north window (modern glass) was restored back to its original design by Sir Gilbert Scott. Beneath it is a panelled tomb of Henry VII.’s period. It is supposed to be that of a monk named =Zouch= (died 1503), probably a scribe, because his ink-horn and pen-case appear on the shields of his tomb. He left a bequest to pay for the vaulting.

The =Tower= is not perfectly square. The nave and choir sides are wider than those of the transepts, and therefore the north and south arches are pointed and the east and west arches are round. Foliage decorates the capitals of the shafts. The lantern is open and is ornamented with arcades and arches. At the south-east pier the break in the masonry indicates, in the opinion of some students, the place where the builders stopped work when Sweyn drove Ethelred out of England.

The fine Jacobean =Pulpit= (1635), elaborately carved with grotesques on the panels, deserves at least a passing glance.

The south transept has no aisles, for the western aisle was cut off by the cloisters and the eastern aisle became =St. Lucy’s Chapel=, in the second bay. Though there are many old royalist tombs the chief interest here is the beautiful =Window= of three lights, the Flamboyant tracery of which frames the most splendid glass in the whole cathedral. It dates from about 1330.

“In the uppermost compartment of the tracery is a figure of our Lord seated in glory; below there are angels with censers, and next two Augustinian monks in blue and white robes, kneeling with outstretched arms; then come coats-of-arms, and various grotesque beasts, all most richly coloured in ruby and blue and green and gold. Below, in the principal spaces, are (1) St. Martin on horseback giving his coat to the beggar; (2) the martyrdom of St. Thomas à Becket: St. Thomas’ head has been knocked out by some fanatic, and replaced with white glass; the armour and shields of the knights should be noticed; (3) St. Augustine, who holds a pastoral staff, is teaching his monks and others. In the next four spaces are:--The head of a king; St. Cuthbert, carrying the head of St. Oswald, and wearing a green chasuble; St. Blaise, in a mulberry-coloured chasuble; the head of a queen. The glass in the three main lights was destroyed, and then replaced by some of Seventeenth Century work, but this too is now gone, all except a portion of the upper part which shows that the design was architectural in character and the colour that of fog-smitten stone-work.”--(P. D.)

The =South-Choir-Aisle= is of earlier date than the nave and transept aisles. Scott rebuilt the southern windows in the Norman style. Heads of men and monkeys decorate the corbels that support the vault. The original half-flower moulding adorns the Decorated east window (restored) which contains one of Burne-Jones’s famous designs. It is a memorial to =Edith Liddell= (1876), whose portrait appears in the central figure as St. Catherine. In the tracery above angels are playing musical instruments and in the panels below are scenes from the life and death of St. Catherine.

The third window in the wall near St. Lucy’s Chapel is of great interest. It is the only one of the original Romanesque windows that remains. The old glass shows a portrait of =Bishop King=, Abbot of Oseney and first Bishop of Oxford. He died in 1557 and was buried in Christ Church Cathedral.

“This window, with some others, was taken down during the Civil War, buried for safety by a member of the family, and put up again at the Restoration. The Bishop is represented standing vested in a jewelled cope of cloth of gold, and mitre, a pastoral staff in his gloved hand. In the background, among the trees, is a picture of Oseney Abbey in its already ruined condition (c. 1630), drawn without much feeling for its architecture, but of great value as almost the only picture of the place we possess. The western tower was the first home of what are now the Christ Church bells. Three coats-of-arms (being those of the Bishop, impaled with the Abbey of Oseney and the See of Oxford) complete the richness of what is a very good example of Seventeenth Century _painted_ glass, in the strict sense of the word.”--(P. D.)

South of the South Transept the slype, a vaulted passage including part of the transept, leads into the Cloisters.

South of the slype lies the =Chapter-House=, deserving a visit because it is a fine example of Early English. The monks’ heads carved on the corbels, the bosses of the roof, and the arcade of five arches at the east end are the chief features of the interior.

ST. PAUL’S, LONDON

DEDICATION: ST. PAUL. A CHURCH FORMERLY SERVED BY SECULAR CANONS.

SPECIAL FEATURES: DOME; CHOIR STALLS; TOMBS AND MONUMENTS.

The present building in the Renaissance style is the third Christian church erected on this site. It is said that a Roman temple to Diana stood here; but the earliest church of which records exist was erected by Ethelbert, King of Kent, in 610, in which he was assisted by Siebert, King of the East Saxons, his nephew, who founded the monastery of St. Peter, called Westminster, on Thorney Island. This Cathedral, which owed much of its prosperity to St. Erkenwald, fourth Bishop of London, to whose memory a golden shrine was erected here, suffered from fire in 961 and was completely destroyed in 1086. On the ruins a Norman church was immediately erected, the architect for which was Bishop Maurice. Though injured by fire in 1193 it was a stately and beautiful building, in the Norman style. It was cruciform, with two western towers for bells and a high tower in the centre with a spire. In addition to the high altar there were seventy or eighty chantries with their own altars, and behind the high altar the golden shrine containing the body of St. Erkenwald. The nave contained twelve bays and also the choir rebuilt in 1221. The Lady-Chapel was added in 1225. It was the largest Cathedral in England. St. Paul’s was rich in relics and in treasure of all kinds--pictures and frescoes, vestments, gold, silver and jewels. In 1312 the nave was paved with marble and in 1315 a new wooden spire 460 feet high was added.

This great Cathedral became the very centre of the life of the citizens. Here men met to defend their liberties, summoned by the great bells of St. Paul’s, from the days of King Stephen until the magnificent Cathedral perished in the Great Fire.

“Again and again the tocsin sounded, as St. Paul’s bell rang clear and loud, and the citizens seized their weapons and formed their battalions beneath the shadow of the great church. Now it was to help Simon de Montfort against the King; now to seize the person of the obnoxious Queen Eleanor, who was trying to escape by water from the Tower to Windsor, and who was rescued from their hands by the Bishop of London, and found refuge in his palace. Now the favourites of Edward II. excited their rage, especially the Bishop of Exeter, the King’s regent, who dared to ask the Lord Mayor for the keys of the city and paid for his temerity with his life.[9]

“The chronicles of the Cathedral tell the story of the troublous times of the Wars of the Roses. We see Henry IV. pretending bitter sorrow for the death of the murdered Richard, and covering with cloth-of-gold the body, which had been exhibited to the people in St. Paul’s. We see Henry V. returning in triumph from the French wars, riding in state to the Cathedral attended by ‘the mayor and brethren of the City companies, wearing red gowns with hoods of red and white, well-mounted and gorgeously horsed with rich collars and great chains, rejoicing at his victorious return.’ Then came Henry VI. attended by bishops, the dean and canons, to make his offering at the altar. Here the false Duke of York took his oath on the Blessed Sacrament to be loyal to the King. Here the rival houses swore to lay aside their differences, and to live at peace. But a few years later saw the new King Edward IV., at St. Paul’s, attended by great Warwick, the king-maker, with his body-guard of 800 men-at-arms. Strange were the changes of fortune in those days. Soon St. Paul’s saw the exhibition of the dead body of the king-maker, and not long afterwards that of the poor dethroned Henry, and Richard came in state here amid the shouts of the populace. After the defeat of the conspiracy of Lambert Simnel, Henry VII. celebrated a joyous thanksgiving in the Cathedral, and here, amid much rejoicing, the youthful marriage of Prince Arthur with Katherine of Aragon took place, when the conduits of Cheapside and on the west of the Cathedral ran with wine, and the bells rang joyfully, and all wished happiness to the Royal children whose wedded life was destined to be so brief.

“St. Paul’s became the gathering-place for lords and courtiers and professional people, who met every day from eleven till twelve and from three till six to discuss the news of the day and to transact business.

“Here lawyers received their clients; here men sought service; here usurers met their victims, and the tombs and font were mightily convenient for counters for the exchange of money and the transaction of bargains, and the rattle of gold and silver was constantly heard amidst the loud talking of the crowd. Gallants enter the Cathedral wearing spurs, having just left their steeds at The Bell and Savage and are immediately besieged by the choristers, who have the right of demanding spur money from any one entering the building wearing spurs. Nor are the fair sex absent, and Paul’s Walk was used as a convenient place for assignations. Old plays are full of references to this practice. Later on the nave was nothing but a public thoroughfare, where men tramped, carrying baskets of bread and fish, flesh and fruit, vessels of ale, sacks of coal, and even dead mules and horses and other beasts. Hucksters and peddlers sold their wares. Duke Humphrey’s tomb was the great meeting-place of all beggars and low rascals, and they euphemistically called their gathering ‘a dining with Duke Humphrey.’ Much more could be written of this assembly of all sorts and conditions of men, but we have said enough to show that the Cathedral had suffered greatly from desecration and abuse. Indeed an old writer in 1561 declared that the burning of the steeple in that year was a judgment for the scenes of profanation which were daily witnessed in old St. Paul’s.”--(P. H. D.)

Cromwell’s army demolished shrines and destroyed all the relics and works of art, and seamstresses and hucksters took up their abode in the western portico, built by Charles I. after designs by Inigo Jones. At the Restoration plans to repair and restore the Cathedral were being made by Wren when the Great Fire destroyed it. Wren had the task of rebuilding it, and produced a masterpiece that takes rank with St. Peter’s in Rome and even surpasses it in some of its details.

“The stones of Paul’s,” wrote Evelyn, “flew like granados, the melting lead running down the streets in a stream and the very pavements glowing with fiery redness, so as no horse or man was able to tread on them, and the demolition had stopped all the passages, so that no help could be applied.”

It took a long time to remove the ruins and to decide upon the plan for the successor of Old St. Paul’s. Wren made numerous designs and drawings and there was great delay. At length the royal warrant was obtained and the first stone was laid June 21, 1675, at the south-east corner of the choir. The Cathedral was building for thirty-five years. The choir was finished and service held in it on December 2, 1697. It is sad to remember that the great architect was a victim of jealousy and intrigue, and pleasant to know that he lived to see the glorious church that had taken form in his mind completed. It was finished in 1710.

“Was there ever known in the history of the world any cathedral which suffered from fire like St. Paul’s? The whole career of the church was an ordeal by fire. It was injured by fire a hundred years before Westminster Hall was built; it was totally destroyed by fire in the Eleventh Century and it took nearly two centuries to restore it to anything like its former magnificence. ‘Away! we lose ourselves in light,’ might have been its motto, for it was all but completely destroyed by fire in the Fifteenth Century, and its spire, which was then claimed to be the highest in the world, was destroyed by fire a century later. Thus we have brought it to the terrible days of 1666, when it went under with so much of London to accompany it--one of the most tremendous conflagrations recorded in the history of great cities. Then came the Commission to rebuild it, of which brave John Evelyn was a member, and then Sir Christopher Wren raised the monument to his fame which those who would question his renown have only to look upon and be satisfied.”--(J. McC.)

Coming along from Ludgate Hill we gain a splendid view of the impressive Dome emerging through the mists in the very heart of the City.