Part 35

“St. Paul’s is often called Classical, or Roman, or Italian; it is not one of these three: it is English Renaissance. It was, too, a distinctly happy thought of Fergusson to suggest that the Cathedral takes a like place in English architecture to that which the immortal ‘Paradise Lost’ does in English literature. The plan is that of a mediæval church; the pilasters and entablature are Roman; the round arch is found in both Roman and Romanesque, and that commanding feature, the Dome, is the common property of many styles and many ages. The general plan resembles the long or Latin Cross, with transepts of greater breadth than length; and the uniformity is broken by an apse at the east, and the two chapels at the west end.”--(A. D.)

Before we begin our tour of the Cathedral let us take a little note of our surroundings.

“In olden times St. Paul’s Churchyard was one of the great business centres of London. About the church men met to discuss the doings of the day, the last piece of news from Flanders, France or Spain, or the rumours from the country. Here the citizens gathered angrily when there was any talk of an invasion of their cherished liberties, grumbled over the benevolence demanded by his Majesty for the pay of the troops engaged in the French war, or jeered at some poor wretch nailed by his ears in the pillory. Here the heralds would proclaim the news of our victories by sea and land; here the public newsmen would read out their budgets; vendors of infallible nostrums would wax eloquent as to the virtues of their wares; and the wives and daughters of the citizens would gather to gossip and flirt. It was at once the exchange, the club, and the meeting-place of London. Paul’s Cross was the heart of the City; here men threw up their bonnets when they heard of Crécy and of Agincourt; here they listened to the preachings of the first followers of Wycliffe; here they erected their choicest pageants when a new sovereign visited the City for the first time, or brought his new-made spouse to show her to his lieges; and gathered with frowning brows beneath iron caps when London threw in its lot with the Parliament, and the train bands marched off to fight the King’s forces. The business mart of the City lies now in front of the Mansion House, but a great deal of business is still done under the shadow of the Cathedral.”--(C. D.)

All the streets bear names that remind us of the vicinity of St. Paul’s--Creed Lane, Ave Maria Lane, Sermon Lane, Canon Alley, Amen Corner and Paternoster Row known throughout the world as the headquarters of the book trade and publishers, while Cheapside, Ludgate Hill, Fleet Street and St. Paul’s Churchyard swarm with ghosts and memories of London’s stirring events.

“The modern passenger through St. Paul’s Churchyard has not only the last home of Nelson and others to venerate as he goes by. In the ground of the old church were buried, and here therefore remains whatever dust may survive them, the gallant Sir Philip Sidney (the _beau idéal_ of the age of Elizabeth), and Vandyke, who immortalised the youth and beauty of the court of Charles the First. One of Elizabeth’s great statesmen also lay there--Walsingham--who died so poor that he was buried by stealth to prevent his body from being arrested. Another, Sir Christopher Hatton, who is supposed to have danced himself into the office of Her Majesty’s Chancellor, had a tomb which his contemporaries thought too magnificent, and which was accused of ‘shouldering the altar.’

“Old St. Paul’s was much larger than now, and the Churchyard was of proportionate dimensions. The wall by which it was bounded ran along by the present streets of Ave Maria Lane, Paternoster Row, Old Change, Carter Lane and Creed Lane; and therefore included a large space and many buildings which are not now considered to be within the precincts of the Cathedral. This spacious area had grass inside, and contained a variety of appendages to the establishment. One of these was the cross of which Stow did not know the antiquity. It was called Paul’s Cross, and stood on the north side of the church, a little to the east of the entrance of Cannon Alley.”--(L. H.)

At first the space around it was used for the meeting of the populace--the Folkmote--when their magistrates were elected, public affairs discussed and criminals tried and sentenced. At a later period =Paul’s Cross= was chiefly used for proclamations, and from the pulpit, which in Stow’s time was an hexagonal piece of wood “covered with lead, elevated upon a flight of stone steps and surmounted by a large cross,” sermons were preached.

In 1879 the foundations of Paul’s Cross were discovered on the north-east side of the present Choir. A monument is now being erected on the spot.

If we wish to examine the north and south fronts more particularly we first go to the former and

“We note the two-storied constructions, the graceful Corinthian pillars, arranged in pairs, with round-headed windows between them; the entablature; and then, in the second story, another row of beautiful pilasters of the Composite order. Between these are niches where one would have expected windows; but this story is simply a screen to hide the flying-buttresses supporting the clerestory, as Wren thought them a disfigurement. The walls are finished with a cornice, which Wren was compelled by hostile critics to add, much against his own judgment. There are some excellently carved festoons of foliage and birds and cherubs, which are well worthy of close observation. The North and South Fronts have Corinthian pillars, which support a semicircular entablature. Figures of the Apostles adorn the triangular-shaped heads and balustrade. The Royal Arms appear on the north side, and a Phœnix is the suitable ornament on the south, signifying the resurrection of the building from its ashes. The south side is almost similar to the north. The east end has an apse.”--(P. H. D.)

On the south-west is the Dean’s yard, leading past the Deanery to the Choir House in Great Carter Lane where the choir-boys are trained. Doctors’ Commons, where marriage licenses used to be issued, only survives in name.

Opposite the north porch of the Cathedral is the Chapter-House and from this side St. Paul’s Bridge, the plan for which was adopted in 1909, will start. It will cost no less than £1,600,000, and will cross the Thames between Blackfriars and Southwark.

Facing Ludgate Hill stands a statue of Queen Anne, a modern replica of the original statue by Bird. At the foot of the 22 marble steps leading up to the doorway is a marble slab commemorating the Diamond Jubilee Thanksgiving (June 22, 1897). From time immemorial national thanksgiving services have been offered at St. Paul’s. The first in this building was a special thanksgiving for the Peace of Ryswick. Queen Anne returned thanks for Marlborough’s victories in the Low Countries and the destruction of the Spanish fleet at Vigo and for the victory of Blenheim (1702 and 1704). Here thanks were also offered for the recovery of the Prince of Wales (Edward VII.) from a serious illness in 1872 and by Queen Victoria for the sixtieth anniversary of her reign (1897); by King Edward and Queen Alexandra for the restoration of peace in South Africa (June 8, 1902); by King Edward on October 18, 1902, for his recovery from the illness that delayed the Coronation; and by King George and Queen Mary.

“The WEST FRONT has a magnificent portico, divided, like the rest of the building, into two stories. The lower consists of twelve coupled and fluted columns; that, above, has only eight, which bear an entablature and pediment of which the tympanum is sculptured in bas-relief, representing the conversion of St. Paul. On the apex of the pediment is a figure of the Saint himself, and at its extremities, on the right and left of St. Paul, are figures of St. Peter and St. James. The transepts are terminated upwards by pediments, over coupled pilasters at the quoins, and two single pilasters in the intermediate space. On each side of the western portico a square pedestal rises over the upper order, and on each pedestal a steeple, or campanile tower, supported upon triangular groups of Corinthian columns finishing in small domes formed by curves of contrary flexure very like bells. Lower down in front of these campaniles, the Four Evangelists are represented with their emblems. In the face of the southern campanile a clock is inserted. A flight of steps extending the whole length of the portico forms the basement. In the southwest tower is the Great Bell of St. Paul’s, cast in 1709 by Richard Phelps and Langley Bradley. It is ten feet in diameter, ten inches thick in metal and weighs 11,474 pounds.”--(M.)

First we will take a general view of the exterior:

“The form of St. Paul’s is that of the long or Latin cross. Its extreme length, including the porch, is 500 feet; the greatest breadth, that is to say across the transept but within the doors of the porticoes, 250 feet; the width of the nave, 118 feet. There are, however, at the foot or western end of the cross, projections northward and southward, which make the breadth 190 feet. One of these, namely, on the north side, is used as a morning chapel, and the other, on the south side, contains the Wellington Monument, but was formerly used as the Consistory Court. At the internal angle of the cross are small square bastion-like adjuncts, whose real use is to strengthen the piers of the dome; but they are inwardly serviceable as vestries and a staircase. The height of the Cathedral on the south side to the top of the cross is 365 feet.

“The exterior consists throughout of two orders, the lower being Corinthian, the upper composite. It is built externally in two stories, in both of which, except at the north and south porticoes and at the west front, the whole of the entablatures rest on coupled pilasters, between which in the lower order a range of circular-headed windows is introduced. But in the order above, the corresponding spaces are occupied by dressed niches, standing on pedestals pierced with openings to light the passages in the roof over the side aisles. The upper order is nothing but a screen to hide the flying-buttresses carried across from the outer walls to resist the thrust of the great vaulting.”--(M.)

The =Dome=, the great feature of the church, is very beautiful when seen from a distance, as from one of the bridges, rising with its graceful curves far above the roofs and other spires.

“The dome, which is by far the most magnificent and elegant feature in the building, rises from the body of the church in great majesty. It is 145 feet in outward and 108 feet in inward diameter. Twenty feet above the roof of the church is a circular range of twenty-two columns, every fourth intercolumniation being filled with masonry, so disposed as to form an ornamental niche or recess, by which arrangement the projecting buttresses of the cupola are concealed. These, which form a peristyle of the Composite Order, with an unbroken entablature, enclose the interior order. They support a handsome gallery adorned with a balustrade. Above these columns is a range of pilasters, with windows between them, forming an attic order, and on these the great dome stands. The general idea of the cupola, as appears from the _Parentalia_, was taken from the Pantheon at Rome. On the summit of the dome, which is covered with lead, is a gilt circular balcony, and from its centre rises the lantern, adorned with Corinthian columns. The whole is terminated by a gilt ball and cross.

“But with the matchless exterior ceases the superiority, and likewise, to a great degree, the responsibility of Wren. His designs for the interior were not only carried out, but he was in every way thwarted, controlled, baffled in his old age to the eternal disgrace of all concerned; the victim of the pitiful jealousy of some, the ignorance of others, the ingratitude of all.”--(M.)

It is singular to note that when Wren laid the corner-stone on June 11, 1675, there was no solemn ceremonial. The King, the Court, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Mayor of London were all notably absent, but when he laid the last stone in the lantern of the cupola in 1710

“all London poured forth for the spectacle, which had been publicly announced, and were looking up in wonder to the old man, or his son, if not the old man himself, who was, on that wondrous height, setting the seal, as it were, to his august labours.

“When one enters the west door one cannot fail to be struck with the vastness of the space enclosed within its massive walls; there is no screen to break the view towards the east, and, as one stands beneath the dome and looks up into its enormous hollow, the sense of overpowering height is felt as in no other church in England.”--(T. P.)

Entering through the western door we are struck with the immensity of the =Nave= and overspreading dome, the effect of the lights, and, if service is being held, the peculiar beauty of the chants of the choristers, whose voices seem to come from the dome and float through the misty light to our ears.

It would be interesting to know if Wagner ever heard the choir-boys of St. Paul’s and sought to reproduce the effect in _Parsifal_, by arranging the voices of knights, squires and youths at various stages in the dome of Montsalvat to sing softly of the “wondrous work of mercy and salvation.”

“The interior of the nave is formed by an arcade resting on massive pillars and dividing the church into a body and two aisles. The eastern piers of the nave serve at the same time for the supports of the cupola. They are wider than the other piers, and are flanked by pilasters at their angles and have shallow oblong recesses in the intercolumniations. The roof over these piers is a boldly coffered waggon-vault, which contrasts very effectively with the rest of the vaulting.

“The nave is separated from the choir by the area over which the cupola rises. From the centre of this area, the transepts, or traverse of the cross, diverge to the north and south, each extending one severy, or arch, in length. The choir, which is vaulted and domed over, like the nave and transepts, from the top of the attic order, is terminated eastward by a semicircular tribune, of which the diameter is, in general terms, the same as the width of the choir itself. The western end of the choir has pillars similar to those at the eastern end of the nave, uniform with which there are at its eastern end piers of the same extent and form, except that they are pierced for a communication with the side aisles. Above the entablature and under the cupola is the Whispering Gallery, and in the concave above are representations of the principal passages of St. Paul’s life in eight compartments, painted by Sir James Thornhill.”--(M.)

We should note that there are three stages--the main arcade, the triforium and the clerestory. The piers are faced with Corinthian pilasters that divide off the bays east and west. The arches spring from an entablature. They are very high. The “triforium belt,” as the “attic” is termed by those critics who have dropped the Classical nomenclature, and clerestory above are easily understood at a glance.

“The great arches overhead divide the vault as the greater pilasters and their continuations do the walls. Between these arches are the small saucer-shaped domes, 26 feet in diameter. The reason for these and their accessories, the pendentives, may best be understood from Wren’s own words. He says that his method of vaulting is the most geometrical, and ‘_is composed of Hemispheres, and their Sections only; and whereas a Sphere may be cut all Manner of Ways, and that still into Circles.... I have for just Reasons followed this way in the Vaulting of the Church of St. Paul’s.... It is the lightest Manner, and requires less Butment than the Cross-vaulting, as well that it is of an agreeable View.... Vaulting by Parts of Hemispheres I have therefore followed in the Vaultings of St. Paul’s, and with good reason preferred it above any other way used by Architects._’ The saucer-shaped domes are sections of spheres, as are both the pendentives, and the sides of the clerestory windows. The wreaths, garlands, and festoons, and the various conventional patterns with which the edges and surfaces of the various parts of the vaulting is adorned cannot be estimated from the pavement.”--(A. D.)

From the Crypt to the dome the space measures 190 feet.

“When Wren planned his dome interior he had the difficulty caused by the four limbs and their side aisles to overcome. He must have turned to his uncle’s cathedral at Ely for enlightenment. In the earlier years of the Fourteenth Century the central tower of Ely collapsed, and the sacrist Alan de Walsingham, who acted as architect, seeing that the breadth of his nave, choir and transepts happened to agree, took for his base this common breadth, and cutting off the angles, obtained a spacious octagon. The four sides terminating the main aisles are longer than the four alternate aisles at the angles of the side aisles; but at Ely this presents no difficulty, owing to the use of the pointed arch. As you stand in the centre of the octagon under the lantern you see eight spacious arches of two different widths, all springing from the same level and rising to the same height of eighty-five feet, the terminal arch of the Norman nave pointed like its opposite neighbour of the choir. Amongst Gothic churches the interior of Ely reigns unique and supreme, certainly in England if not in Europe. Wren was familiar with this cathedral, and even designed some restorations for it; and he adopted the eight arches in preference to any possible scheme of four great arches of sixty feet: but the use of the round arch, as distinct from the pointed, deprived him of Sacrist Alan’s liberty, who without incongruity made his intermediate arches of the shorter sides, springing from the same level, rise to the same height as the others. Wren was compelled to make use of some expedient to reconcile his two different spaces between piers of forty feet and twenty-six feet, and accordingly arched these four smaller intermediate spaces as follows. A smaller arch, rising from the architrave of the great pier, spans each shorter side of the octagon, and has a ceiling or semi-dome in the background, coming down to the terminal arches of the side aisles. A blank wall space above is relieved by a section of an ornamental arch of larger span, resting on the centre of the cornice; and above this a third arch, rising from the level of the triforium cornice, rests more upon the _outer_ side of the great supporting pier, and thereby obtains the required equal span of forty feet, and equal height of eighty-nine feet from the ground. This also has a semi-dome; and the platform beneath on a level with the clerestory is railed.

“The reduction of the octagon to the circle is facilitated by giving the spandrels between the arches the necessary concave surface; and this stage is finished off with a cantilever cornice, the work (at least in part) of one Jonathan Maine. The eight great keystones of the arches by Caius Gabriel Cibber are seven feet by five, and eighteen inches in relief.”--(A. D.)

About a hundred feet from the pavement and the same distance across is the celebrated =Whispering Gallery=, where a curious effect is obtained.

The attendant whispering across the whole area can be distinctly heard, an acoustic property seemingly caused by the nearness of the concave hemisphere above.

The =Cross= is quite 260 feet above us. The gallery projects so that the lectern steps and the pulpit are underneath.

Now we come to the =Drum=. The actual bend inwards now begins, but for this part only in straight lines. First comes the plain band or Podium, panelled and of a height of twenty feet. On this stand thirty-two pilasters, in reality, as well as in appearance, out of the horizontal. Three out of each four

“intervening spaces are pierced with square-headed windows; and from them such light as the dome receives, streams down through the windows of the exterior colonnade. The alternate fourth recesses, apparently nothing more than ornamental niches, conceal the supports which bear the weight above. In the recent scheme of decoration they have been filled with statues of Early Fathers--the four eastern, SS. Chrysostom, Gregory Nazianzen, Basil, and Athanasius; and the four western, SS. Ambrose, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome, and Gregory.

“The straight lines bearing inwards give way to the sphere; and here, too, the three separate coverings, which constitute the dome, begin. The circular opening below the lantern coincides with the lower edge of the fluting of the exterior shell, and is about two hundred and fifteen feet from the pavement.

“These upper regions, hidden in an almost perpetual gloom, were decorated in monochrome by Sir James Thornhill; but his work has failed to resist the chemical action of the surcharged atmosphere. In these compartments are scenes from the life of the patronal saint: (1) The Conversion, (2) Elymas, (3) Cripple at Lystra, (4) Jailer at Philippi, (5) Mars Hill, (6) Burning Books at Ephesus, (7) Before Agrippa, (8) Shipwreck. We have all heard the story of the painter, on a platform at a great height, who stepped back to get a better view of his work. As he did so, an assistant, standing by, brush in hand, observed with alarm that the slightest further backward step would entail his falling headlong and being dashed to pieces. He deliberately daubed the painting; and the artist, stepping instinctively forward to prevent this, saved his life. The painter is said to be Thornhill: the scene, the giddy height under the dome.”--(A. D.)

The beautiful iron-work of the gates is by Tijou, both at the ends of the aisles and doorways of the reredos arch. The =Choir-stalls= are by Grinling Gibbons and are very ornate and handsome. The Lord Mayor’s stall is on the left, or north side, and the Bishop of London’s on the right, or south. The latter’s throne is near the altar. There are thirty-one stalls altogether.