Part 8

“The stalls which extend from the eastern tower-piers to the first pier of the nave, are of oak, as black as ebony, and probably exhibit the very finest woodwork of their date and style (which is the best) in the Kingdom. They are early Decorated (Geometrical) work and their canopies and gables bear considerable resemblance to those of the tomb of Edmund Crouchback in Westminster Abbey. This would place their date about 1296. The beauty and variety of the carvings are wonderful. There is no repetition; and the grace and elegance, as well as the fidelity, with which the foliage is represented, are nowhere to be surpassed. The human heads are full of expression; and the monkeys and other animals sporting among the branches have all the same exquisite finish. The mode in which the cusps of the circles in the canopies are terminated, is worthy of attention; and in short, at this period of the revival of wood-carving, no better examples could be found for study and imitation. The _misereres_ below are of early character and interesting. Their date is rather later than those (Early English) in Exeter Cathedral--the most ancient in the Kingdom. The desks and stools in front of the upper range bear the initials of Henry VIII., Bishop Stephen Gardiner, and Dean Kingsmill and the date 1540. The rich pulpit on the north side bears the name of its donor ‘Thomas Silkstede, prior’ on different parts of it.”--(R. J. K.)

The =Presbytery= is Early English, the work of Bishop Lucy (1189-1204). It has a central alley of three bays. The arcading is very graceful. The presbytery is closed at the sides by screens of stone tracery, most of them erected by Bishop Fox, and bear his motto, _Est Deo Gratia_. Upon these screens stand six mortuary chests (also the work of Bishop Fox) containing the bones of the West Saxon Kings and bishops removed from the crypt of the old Saxon cathedral into Walkelyn’s church by Bishop Henry de Blois and placed in leaden sarcophagi. The chests are of wood, carved, painted and gilded in the Renaissance Style, which was being introduced into England in Fox’s time.

“The vaulting of the presbytery (of wood) is the work of Bishop Fox (1500-1520), and displays on its bosses, a mass of heraldry besides (at the east end) the various emblems of the Passion together with a number of faces representing Pilate and his wife, Herod, Annas and Caiaphas, Judas, Malchus with the sword of Peter dividing his ear, Peter himself and many others. All are curious and are best seen from the gallery below the east window.

“The east window of the choir is filled with Perpendicular glass, a little earlier than 1525, the work of Bishop Fox, whose arms impaled with those of the sees he held (Exeter, Bath and Wells, Durham and Winchester) and his motto _Est Deo Gratia_ are introduced in it.”--(R. J. K.)

Winston thinks that the only part of the glass in its original position consists of the two figures occupying the two southernmost of the lower lights and all the tracery lights except the top central one and the three immediately below it.

“The top central light is filled principally with some glass of Wykeham’s time and all the rest of the window with glass of Fox’s time, removed from other windows. In point of execution it is as nearly as perfect as painted glass can be. In it the shadows have attained their proper limit. It was at this period that glass painting attained its highest perfection as an art.”--(C. W.)

Beyond the tower-piers in the presbytery a plain tomb of Purbeck marble was once the resting-place of =William Rufus=, killed in the New Forest in 1100 and first buried, as we have seen, under the Tower. His bones were removed in the Twelfth Century by his nephew Bishop Henry de Blois and are now mingled with those of Canute, Queen Emma and two Saxon bishops in one of the mortuary chests on the screen of the Presbytery.

The piers and arches of the Presbytery are Decorated, dating from 1320 and 1350.

At the High Altar of the Choir Queen Mary was married to Philip of Spain in July, 1554, by Bishop Gardiner. In Philip’s train were Alva, the future scourge of the Low Countries, and Egmont, his famous victim. The chair in which the bride sat is preserved in the Chapel of the Guardian Angels.

At the back of the altar rises the magnificent =Reredos=, dating from the latter end of the Fifteenth Century. In 1899 the final restoration of the screen was completed by filling a niche that had been vacant for three centuries. The altar-rails are of the time of Charles I. A representation of the _Incarnation_ hangs over the altar placed there in 1899, when Benjamin West’s _Raising of Lazarus_ was removed to the South Transept.

“The Reredos is said to have been commenced by Cardinal Beaufort and completed by Bishop Fox and Prior Silkstede. It is an excellent specimen of Perpendicular work, executed in a fine, white soft stone; its elaborately canopied niches, pierced and crocketted pinnacles, pilaster buttresses, and centre projecting canopy, are surmounted at a height reaching nearly to the corbels, with a triple frieze of running leaves, Tudor flowers and quatrefoils. This Reredos is of the same type as those at Christ Church Priory and St. Alban’s, but its dimensions are greater and better proportioned. Its restoration is carried out with remarkable fidelity to the original work. The back is closely panelled in the upper part, and the lower part is richly decorated. No description could do justice to the beauty and effect of the whole work. Milner describes its exquisite workmanship as being as magnificent as this or any other nation can exhibit. The central part was restored as a memorial to the late Archdeacon Jacob.”--(G. W. K.)

On either side of the altar a door opens to the space behind the Reredos, which in early days was the =Feretory=, a place for the =feretra=, or shrines of the patron saints.

“The Feretory, or Capitular Chapel, is immediately behind the altar and communicates with the sanctuary. Here the magnificent shrine of St. Swithun, of solid silver gilt and garnished with precious stones, the gift of King Edgar, used to be kept except on the festivals of the saint, when it was exposed to view on the Altar, or before it.

“Many portions of statuary formerly belonging to the Great Screen and other parts of the building are here carefully preserved. From the platform behind the reredos may be observed the admirable connection of Fox’s new with De Lucy’s earlier work.”--(G. W. K.)

The old statue of the bishop, taken from the west front, may also be seen here.

Back of the Reredos again stands the famous Edwardian =Arcade=, with nine canopies (or tabernacles). Beneath it is the ancient entrance, the “=Holy Hole=,” leading into the Crypt.

The presbytery aisles are greatly admired. Here we find beautiful examples of Early English work and many splendid monuments and chantries. Beyond lies the =Lady-Chapel=, with the =Chapel of the Guardian Angels= on the north side and the =Bishop de Langton’s Chantry= on the south.

The Lady-Chapel (1470) was founded by Elizabeth of York, Queen of Henry VII., after the birth of her son, Arthur, as a testimony of her gratitude. The arms of Henry VII., Elizabeth and the Prince of Wales--the feathers divided by roses--are among the ornaments.

A plain slab of grey marble in front of the Lady-Chapel is supposed to mark the =Tomb of Bishop de Lucy=, the builder of all this part of the Cathedral. At the back of the Lady-Chapel a Reredos was placed by Dean Branston in 1876.

Ascending the steps from the transept, we reach the north aisle of the presbytery, and gain a fine view beyond this of the eastern portion of the church, with its splendid chantries and chapels.

With the exception of the extreme east end of the Lady-Chapel, it is all the work of Bishop Godfrey de Lucy (1189-1204), and consequently a very early example of Early English. The design and details are of great beauty. The three aisles or alleys (called procession paths or the _via processionum_) are separated from each other by three arches on each side and terminate eastward in chapels. These aisles were formed in order to facilitate the circulation of processions.

The north chapel (part of De Lucy’s work) is called that of the =Guardian Angels=, from the figures of angels still remaining on the vaulting; the south chapel (De Lucy’s work) was fitted up as a chantry by Bishop Langton, who died in 1500. The woodwork is rich and beautiful and the vault elaborate with carved rebuses on his name.

“The north and south walls, as far as the east walls of the two side chapels, are De Lucy’s work, and retain his rich Early English arcade. The eastern compartment on each side, as well as the east wall, have respectively a large Perpendicular window of seven lights with transom and tracery of a peculiar kind of subordination, or rather interpretation of patterns well worth a careful study. The vault is a complex and beautiful specimen of lierne-work. The capitals and bases of the vaulting-shafts are unusual and very beautiful. The carved panelling of the western half of this chapel, the seats, desk and screen of separation, are all excellent, and should be noticed. All this Perpendicular work is due to Prior Hunton (1470-1498) and his successor, Prior Silkstede (1498-1524). On the vault round the two central keys--one representing the Almighty, the other the Blessed Virgin--are the rebuses of the two priors: the letter T, the syllable Hun, the figure of a ton for Thomas Hunton; the figure 1 and the letters Por for Prior: the letter T, the syllable silk, the word sted with a horse below it, the figure 1 with letters as before, for Thomas Silkstede, prior. The walls of this chapel are covered with the remains of some very curious paintings illustrating the legendary history of the Virgin.

“These are all the work of Prior Silkstede, whose portrait, with an inscription, is still faintly visible over the piscina.”--(R. J. K.)

Between the pillars of the central aisle are the =Chantries= of =Waynflete= and =Beaufort=. Both were much injured by Cromwell’s troops and have been restored. The delicacy and beauty of Waynflete’s canopy should be noted. The lily, his device, constantly appears. His effigy lies here.

Beaufort appears in his Cardinal’s robes. He was half-brother to Henry IV. and was bishop, statesman, soldier and banker to the royal family. He is said to have burst into tears at the burning of Joan of Arc at Rouen and to have left the scene. However, he persecuted the Lollards. Between these two chantries lies the effigy of a =Thirteenth Century Knight= in chain-mail and cross-legged. It is the only ancient military figure in the cathedral. He is either Sir W. de Foix or Sir Arnold de Gavaston.

Beyond the pier which connects De Lucy’s work with the Presbytery on the north side is the =Chantry of Bishop Gardiner= (1531-1555), the “hammer of heretics,” secretary to Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII.’s ambassador to the Pope regarding his marriage. Bishop Gardiner also married “Bloody Mary” to the King of Spain.

Opposite is =Bishop Fox’s Chantry=, built by Fox himself. It is the most elaborate chantry in the Cathedral. The arches were once filled with stained glass. The Bishop’s emblem, the pelican, appears everywhere. Fox was secretary and Lord Privy Seal to Henry VII. and founder of Corpus Christi, Oxford. This college restored the Bishop’s chantry. Blind several years before his death, Fox used to be led every day to the small oratory attached to his Chantry.

The visitor should study these chantries, beginning with Edington’s in the Nave and ending with Gardiner’s, for they form a continuous record of the growth and development of Perpendicular and Tudor architecture from 1366 to 1555.

“In no English church except Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s, lie so many men of name. For just as the features of the Cathedral represent all the successive phases and changes of the art of building, until it has been styled a ‘School of English Architecture,’ so it may be said to be the home and centre of our early history. Long is the roll of kings and statesmen who came hither and whose bones here lie at rest. Cynegils and Cenwalh, West Saxon Kings, founders of the church, are here; Egbert was buried here in 838; Ethelwulf also and Edward the Elder and Edred. The body of Alfred the Great lay a while in the church, then was transferred to the new minster he had built, and finally rested at Hyde Abbey. And, most splendid name of all, the great Cnut was buried here, as was also his son, Harthacnut, as bad and mean as his father was great. The roll of kings was closed when Red William’s blood-dripping corpse came jolting hither in the country cart from New Forest.”--(G. W. K.)

The two =Transepts= are similar. Both have east and west aisles and both are of two periods. The earlier parts are plain rude Norman, massive and grand in effect. The arches, both of triforium and clerestory, are square-edged like the pier-arches below them. They should be compared with Ely Cathedral, the work of Walkelyn’s brother, Simeon. It is interesting to note that the central towers of both fell,--Walkelyn’s in 1107 and Simeon’s in 1321.

The =North Transept= contains five altars. On the south side against the organ screen is the =Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre=, the walls of which are covered with rude wall-paintings illustrative of the passion of our Saviour.

The =South Transept= is similar to the North transept. In its eastern aisles are two chapels formed by screens of stone tracery work. The south chapel is called =Silkstede’s Chapel=, from Prior Silkstede, whose name, Thomas, is carved on the screen with the monogram M. A. of the Virgin and a skein of silk, his rebus. The beautiful iron-work is of a later period. A plain black marble slab in Prior Silkstede’s Chapel marks the =Tomb of Izaak Walton=, “the prince of fishermen,” who died in 1683.

Entrances from both transepts lead to the crypt.

In the west aisle of the south transept is the =Chapter-House= (formerly the sacristy), above which is the Library. The doorway in the south wall led to the domestic buildings of the monastery.

The =Crypt= is entered from the north transept. It is Norman, dark and massive, and suggestive of a remote age. It is frequently flooded; for the level of the river seems to have risen since the Eleventh Century. Like other crypts, it serves to show the original plan of the Norman Church. It is in three parts: the western, consisting of the substructure of the original choir; a long aisleless chapel of three bays beneath the present retro-choir; and the substructure of Courtenay’s Lady-Chapel built between 1486 and 1492. Beneath the

high altar is the sacred well, the centre of Saxon worship before the Cathedral had an existence.

The =Roofs= of this cathedral also deserve a visit.

“In the roof of the nave may be seen the original Norman shafts running up above Wykeham’s vault, and in those of the aisles the Norman arches of the triforium, best developed at the east end of the nave aisle-roof. The transept roofs show to this day what Bishop Walkelyn did with Hempage-wood. From the leads of the tower there is a very striking view over the city and its environs.”--(R. J. K.)

The =Bells= hang in the great central tower: three are dated 1734, the others 1737, 1742, 1772, 1804 and 1814. The tenor bell was recast in 1892.

Within the Precincts stood the Royal Castle at the time of the Norman Conquest. This was pulled down by Henry de Blois in the Twelfth Century.

CHICHESTER

DEDICATION: THE HOLY TRINITY. A CHURCH SERVED BY SECULAR CANONS.

SPECIAL FEATURES: FIVE AISLES; SPIRE; CAMPANILE.

Chichester (the camp of Cissa) stands at the head of an arm of the English Channel. Its Cathedral is the only one in England that can be seen from the sea.

In 1082 the South Saxon See was removed from Selsey to Chichester. The church of the monastery, dedicated to St. Peter, seems to have been used until Bishop Ralph Luffa (about whom little or nothing is known) founded the existing Cathedral. This was completed in 1108, partly destroyed by fire in 1114 and partly restored by the same Ralph, who died in 1123.

“Chichester Cathedral, though one of the smallest, is to the student of Mediæval architecture one of the most interesting and important of our cathedrals. At Salisbury one or two styles of architecture are represented; at Canterbury two or three; at Chichester every single style is to be seen without a break from the Eleventh to the Sixteenth Century. It is an epitome of English architectural history for five hundred years. Early Norman, late Norman, late Transitional, early Lancet, late Lancet, early Geometrical, late Geometrical, Curvilinear, Perpendicular and Tudor work all appear in the structure side by side. We have many other heterogeneous and composite cathedrals, but nowhere, except perhaps at Hereford, can the whole sequence of Mediæval styles be read so well as at Chichester.”--(F. B.)

Chichester was consecrated in 1148, again suffered from fire in 1186-1187 and was restored and enlarged by Bishop Seffrid II. (1180-1204).

“The fire of 1186 was not as serious as that of Canterbury in 1182, so that there was no need of rebuilding. Bishop Seffrid, however, covered the Cathedral with a stone vault and added the necessary buttresses and flying-buttresses. He also built the Choir, making great use of Purbeck marble. He removed the Norman apse and built the aisled retro-choir of two bays.

“This is the architectural gem of the Cathedral. The idea of it probably came from Hereford, where the retro-choir is a few years earlier. At Hereford, however, the retro-choir projects picturesquely and forms an eastern transept. The central piers of the Chichester retro-choir are remarkably beautiful. They consist of a central column surrounded by four shafts very widely detached; columns and shafts are of Purbeck marble. The capitals are Corinthianesque; their height is proportioned to the diameters of the column and shafts. This beautiful capital was reproduced a few years later by St. Hugh at Lincoln. The triforium is of quite exceptional beauty, as indeed is the whole design. Semicircular arches occur in the pier arcade and triforium, and some of the abaci are square; otherwise the design is pure Gothic. Here, as at Abbey Dore, St. Thomas’s, Portsmouth, Boxgrove and Wells, we see the transition to the ‘pure and undefiled Gothic’ of St. Hugh’s choir at Lincoln. In these beautiful churches the ancient Romanesque style breathed its last.

“The aisles of the new retro-choir were continued on either side of the first bay of the Norman Lady-Chapel whose three bays had probably been remodelled before the fire in Transitional fashion. The capitals of the Lady-Chapel are of exceptional interest and importance, as showing experimental foliation which had not yet settled down into the conventional leafage of early Gothic. The apse also of the south transept was replaced by a square chapel, now used as a Library, in the vaulting of which the Norman zigzag occurs.

“A little later in the Lancet period was built (1199-1245) the lovely south porch, with small exquisite mouldings, and the charming foliated capitals and corbels. The difference between early Transitional, late Transitional and Lancet foliation may be well seen by examining successively the capitals of the Lady-Chapel, the triforium of the retro-choir and the south porch. The north porch is almost equally fine. The vaulting ribs, square in section, show that the two porches both belong to the very first years of the Thirteenth Century. Rather later, the sacristy was built on to the south porch, with a massive vault supported by foliated corbels.”--(F. B.)

Chichester’s saint was one of its own bishops--Richard de la Wych--who died in 1253. He was canonized in 1261. In 1276, his remains were removed from their first resting-place to the shrine in the south transept opposite the beautiful Early Decorated window (one of the loveliest examples of this style in England). Edward I., his Queen and the Court were present at the Translation. From that time the shrine received many visits from pilgrims.

The central tower was built during the first half of the Fourteenth Century, and the spire was completed at the end of the Fourteenth Century. The campanile was built by Bishop John de Langton (1305-1336). Bishop Sherborne (1507-1536) added the upper portion of the choir-stalls and the decorations of the south transept. These are the ornamentations referred to by Fuller, who quaintly says Bishop Seffrid “bestowed the cloth and making on the church, while Bishop Sherborne gave the trimming and best lace thereto, in the reign of Henry VII.”

In 1643, the Parliamentarian troops broke the organ, defaced the monuments and hacked the seats and stalls, which, of course, necessitated restorations and repairs. Repairs, restorations and alterations were also made from 1843 to 1856, the most important of which was the reconstruction of the central tower and spire under Sir Gilbert Scott. In 1867 the floor of the Lady-Chapel was lowered to its original level and the Gilbert Chapel restored; and during the last half of the Nineteenth Century, the cloister was restored and the roof of the Lady-Chapel, and a new north-western tower designed by Mr. J. L. Pearson.

“The Cathedral stands on the south of West Street, where a fine view may be had of the whole of the north side of the building and of the detached Campanile. The Close occupies entirely the south-west quadrant of the city, being bounded by South and West Streets and the City Wall. The central tower and spire, rising to a height of 277 feet, are conspicuous for many miles around, but the west front is much shut in. Perhaps the most pleasing view is that seen from the meadows on the south of the city, from which point the Campanile fits in admirably with the general mass of the building.”--(J. C.-B.)

This =Campanile=, in which eight bells hang, stands on the north side of the Cathedral, and was built in the Fourteenth Century. It covers a square of 50 feet and consists of two cubes with an octagonal lantern (8 feet).

The =Central Tower= and its delicate =Spire= have had a peculiar history. Exposed to the south-west gales from the Channel, the authorities in the Seventeenth Century had fears for its safety; and, consequently the upper part was taken down and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren, who placed within it a pendulum-stage of wood and iron to steady it. This ingenious invention lasted until 1861; and it is said that Wren’s contrivance prevented the spire from toppling over when the collapse occurred.