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diff --git a/32280-h/32280-h.htm b/32280-h/32280-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f2af3b --- /dev/null +++ b/32280-h/32280-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6756 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> +The Project Gutenberg etext of BELL'S CATHEDRALS: WELLS +by the Rev. Percy Dearmer, M.A. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + body {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; } + p { margin-top: 0.5em; + text-align: justify; + text-indent: 1em;} + h1, h2 , h3, h4 {text-align: center;} + HR { width:45%; margin-top: 1em;} + HR.major { width:75%; } /* eg, above chapter head */ + + .ctr { text-align: center; } + .ctr table { margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } + .ctr img { margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } + img { border: none; padding: 6px; vertical-align: middle;} + img.plain { padding: 0; } + .floatr { + float: right; + text-align: center; /* img, caption centered in box */ + border: /*1px solid black; thin border */ none; + margin-left: 4px; /* keep body text away from border */ + padding: 3px; /* keep caption text away border */ + } + .floatl { + float: left; + text-align: center; /* img, caption centered in box */ + border: none; + margin-right: 4px; /* keep body text away from border */ + padding: 3px; /* keep caption text away border */ + } + div.poem { + text-align: left; + margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; + position: relative; /* basis of .linenum positions */ + } + div.poem .stanza {margin-top: 1em; /* vertical break between stanzas */ } + div.poem span { /* default line */ + display: block; /* each stanza a new line in CSS browsers */ + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em; + } + div.poem br { /* poem br's in CSS browsers? */ + display: none; /* ...invisible! */ + } + div.poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} /* indents */ + .fnanchor {text-decoration: none; font-size: smaller; /* discreet [X] */ + position: relative; /* bumped up a trace from baseline */ + bottom: 2px;} + .footnotes { font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%; } + .footnotes a { text-decoration: none; } + .footnotes p { text-indent: -2em;} + /* special style for three unique characters in text */ + .monument { font-family:sans-serif;font-size:125%;font-weight:bold; /**/} + + .pagenum { position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: gray; background-color: white; + } /* page numbers */ + .right { text-align: right;} + .tocch {text-align: left; } /* cell defs for TOC, illustration lists */ + .tocpn {text-align: right; } + .tocsb {text-align: left; text-indent: 2em;} + .tocsb2 {text-align: left; text-indent: 4em;} + .big {font-size: 150%;} + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of +Wells, by Percy Dearmer + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Wells + A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See + +Author: Percy Dearmer + +Release Date: May 7, 2010 [EBook #32280] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BELL'S CATHEDRALS *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, David Cortesi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="ctr"> +<a id="Frontispiece" name="Frontispiece"></a> +<a href="images/image01h.jpg"> + <img src="images/image01.jpg" + alt="Wells Cathedral From St. Andrews Spring" + title="Wells Cathedral From St. Andrews Spring" /> +</a> +</div> + +<hr class="major" /> +<h1> +<a id="Title_Page" name="Title_Page"></a> +THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF<br /> +<span class="big">WELLS</span></h1> + +<h2>A DESCRIPTION OF ITS FABRIC<br /> +AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE<br /> +EPISCOPAL SEE +</h2> + +<h3>BY THE REV. PERCY DEARMER, M.A.</h3> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a id="image02" name="image02"></a> +<p class="ctr">WITH FORTY-SIX +<img class="plain" alt="Arms of the See" title="Arms of the See" + src="images/image02.jpg" /> +ILLUSTRATIONS</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1899<br /> + +<i>First Published October 1898</i><br /> + +<i>Second Edition revised October 1899</i><br /> + +W.H. WHITE AND CO. LTD.<br /> + +RIVERSIDE PRESS, EDINBURGH</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="major" /> +<h2> +<a name="GENERAL_PREFACE" id="GENERAL_PREFACE"></a> +GENERAL PREFACE</h2> + +<p>This series of monographs has been planned to supply visitors +to the great English Cathedrals with accurate and well illustrated +guide-books at a popular price. The aim of each writer +has been to produce a work compiled with sufficient knowledge +and scholarship to be of value to the student of Archæology +and History, and yet not too technical in language for the use +of an ordinary visitor or tourist.</p> + +<p>To specify all the authorities which have been made use of +in each case would be difficult and tedious in this place. But +amongst the general sources of information which have been +almost invariably found useful are:—(1) the great county +histories, the value of which, especially in questions of genealogy +and local records, is generally recognised; (2) the +numerous papers by experts which appear from time to +time in the Transactions of the Antiquarian and Archæological +Societies; (3) the important documents made accessible in +the series issued by the Master of the Rolls; (4) the well-known +works of Britton and Willis on the English Cathedrals; +and (5) the very excellent series of Handbooks to the +Cathedrals originated by the late Mr John Murray; to which +the reader may in most cases be referred for fuller detail, +especially in reference to the histories of the respective sees.</p> + +<p class="right"> +GLEESON WHITE,<br /> +E.F. STRANGE,<br /> +<br /> +<i>Editors of the Series</i> +</p> + + + +<hr class="major" /> +<h2> +<a name="AUTHORS_PREFACE" id="AUTHORS_PREFACE"></a> +AUTHOR'S PREFACE</h2> + +<p>The writer about cathedrals nowadays is one who, reaping +where he has not sown, and gathering where he has not +strawed, is indebted for most that he says to the patient +labours of other and wiser men. Nowhere does one feel this +more than at Wells. The admirable Somerset Archæological +Society has gone on accumulating information about the +cathedral for more years than the present writer has lived. +Professor Freeman produced twenty-eight years ago, in his +"History of the Cathedral Church of Wells," a little book +which has since been a model for all works of the kind, and +of which one can still say that no one can understand all that +is contained in the word "cathedral" unless he has read it. +Yet since that book was written much fresh material has been +discovered, and the theories then held as to the building of +the cathedral have been in great measure disproved. To +Canon C.M. Church, in his "Chapters in the Early History +of Wells," and his papers read before the Somerset Society, we +are indebted for most valuable statements of the new historical +discoveries, and to his untiring kindness I am myself beholden +to a greater extent than I can express.</p> + +<p>Wells so abounds in interesting detail, that the exigencies of +space have made it necessary to curtail the last chapter, which +contains the history of the diocese; a good deal of interesting +matter has thus been cut from my original MS. of this chapter, +and many bishops have been dismissed more summarily than +they deserve. The need of dealing properly with the cathedral +itself must be my apology for the baldness of this last chapter +as it now stands. Those who desire a further acquaintance +with the history of the diocese cannot do better than consult +Mr Hunt's "Bath and Wells," in the excellent Diocesan +Histories series of the Society for the Promotion of Christian +Knowledge.</p> + +<p>To many other writers on the Cathedral Church of Wells, +acknowledgments and references will be found scattered +throughout the present volume. I must also express my +thanks to Mr Philips, and Messrs Dawkes & Partridge of +Wells, for permission to reproduce their photographs, and +to Mr W. Heywood and Mr H.P. Clifford for their +drawings.</p> + +<p class="right">P.D.</p> + + + +<hr class="major" /> +<h2> +<a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a> +CONTENTS</h2> +<div class="ctr"> +<table summary="TOC"> +<tr><td> </td><td class="tocpn">PAGE</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.—History of the Church</a></td><td class="tocpn">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.—Exterior</a></td><td class="tocpn">20</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#II_1">West Front</a></td><td class="tocpn">21</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#II_2">Statuary, Central Doorway, the Tiers</a></td><td class="tocpn">30</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#II_3">Western Towers</a></td><td class="tocpn">44</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#II_4">Central Tower</a></td><td class="tocpn">47</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#II_5">North Porch</a></td><td class="tocpn">47</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#II_6">North Transept</a></td><td class="tocpn">51</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#II_7">Walls, Parapet</a></td><td class="tocpn">52</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#II_8">Chain Gate</a></td><td class="tocpn">52</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#II_9">Chapter-House</a></td><td class="tocpn">54</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#II_10">From the South-East</a></td><td class="tocpn">55</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#II_11">Cloister</a></td><td class="tocpn">58</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#II_12">Library</a></td><td class="tocpn">63</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#II_13">Museum</a></td><td class="tocpn">64</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#II_14">Vicar's Close</a></td><td class="tocpn">66</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#II_15">Bishop's Palace, Great Hall, Barn</a></td><td class="tocpn">67</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#II_16">Deanery, Archdeaconry, etc., St. Cuthbert's</a></td><td class="tocpn">70</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.—Interior</a></td><td class="tocpn">73</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_1">Nave, etc.</a></td><td class="tocpn">77</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb2"><a href="#III_1_1">Capitals</a></td><td class="tocpn">79</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb2"><a href="#III_1_2">Glass</a></td><td class="tocpn">84</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_2">Bubwith's Chapel</a></td><td class="tocpn">85</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_3">Sugar's Chapel</a></td><td class="tocpn">86</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_4">Pulpit, Lectern</a></td><td class="tocpn">87</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_5">Transepts</a></td><td class="tocpn">89</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb2"><a href="#III_5">Capitals</a></td><td class="tocpn">89</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb2"><a href="#III_5_2">Font, Monuments</a></td><td class="tocpn">95</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_6">Transepts Chapels—St. Martin, St. Calixtus, St. David, Holy Cross</a></td><td class="tocpn">98</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_7">Clock</a></td><td class="tocpn">105</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_8">Inverted Arches</a></td><td class="tocpn">107</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_9">Tower, Screen, Organ</a></td><td class="tocpn">110</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_10">Choir</a></td><td class="tocpn">113</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb2"><a href="#III_10_1">Misericords, Glass</a></td><td class="tocpn">120</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_11">Choir Aisles, Monuments</a></td><td class="tocpn">123</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_12">Eastern Transepts, Monuments</a></td><td class="tocpn">124</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_13">Procession Path</a></td><td class="tocpn">128</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_14">Glass in Choir Aisles and Chapels</a></td><td class="tocpn">130</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_15">Lady Chapel, Glass</a></td><td class="tocpn">133</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_16">Chapter-House Staircase</a></td><td class="tocpn">134</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_17">Chapter-House</a></td><td class="tocpn">137</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocsb"><a href="#III_18">Undercroft</a></td><td class="tocpn">141</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.—History of the Diocese and Foundation</a></td><td class="tocpn">147</td></tr> +</table> +</div> + + + +<hr class="major" /> +<h2> +<a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a> +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<div class="ctr"> +<table summary="Illustrations"> +<tr><td> </td><td class="tocpn">PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Frontispiece">Wells Cathedral from St. Andrew's Spring</a></td><td class="tocpn"><i>Frontispiece</i></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image02">Arms of the See</a></td><td class="tocpn"><i>Title</i></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image03">The Cathedral from the South-East </a></td><td class="tocpn">2</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image04">The Cathedral in the Seventeenth Century</a></td><td class="tocpn">15</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image05">South Aisle of Nave</a></td><td class="tocpn">19</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image06">West Front—Bishop of Aethelhelm</a></td><td class="tocpn">22</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image07">The West Front</a></td><td class="tocpn">23</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image08">Ornaments in the West Front</a></td><td class="tocpn">28, <a href="#image09">29</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image10">West Front—Christina</a></td><td class="tocpn">31</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image11">The Central Tower from the South-East</a></td><td class="tocpn">45</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image12">The North Porch</a></td><td class="tocpn">49</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image13">The Bishop's Eye</a></td><td class="tocpn">53</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image14">Doorway, South-East of Cloister</a></td><td class="tocpn">58</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image15">East Walk of Cloister</a></td><td class="tocpn">59</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image16">The Chain Gate, Entrance to Close, 1824</a></td><td class="tocpn">65</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image17">The Bishop's Palace</a></td><td class="tocpn">68</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image18">The Nave</a></td><td class="tocpn">75</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image19">A Capital—The Fruit-stealer's Punishment</a></td><td class="tocpn">79</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image20">A Capital—Toothache</a></td><td class="tocpn">81</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">Specimens of Capitals</td><td class="tocpn"><a href="#image21">82</a>, <a href="#image22">83</a>, <a href="#image23">84</a>, <a href="#image44">148</a>, <a href="#image45">149</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image24">View across Nave, showing Sugar's and Bubwith's Chapels</a></td><td class="tocpn">85</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image25">Sugar's Chapel—The Lectern and Pulpit</a></td><td class="tocpn">88</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image26">Section of North Transept, and Elevation of South Transept</a></td><td class="tocpn">90</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image27">Capitals in Transept</a></td><td class="tocpn">92</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image28">The South Transept, from North Side of Nave</a></td><td class="tocpn">93</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image29">The Font</a></td><td class="tocpn">95</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image30">The Annunciation—Husse's Tomb</a></td><td class="tocpn">101</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image31">Priest in Surplice—Husse's Tomb</a></td><td class="tocpn">102</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image32">The East End in 1823</a></td><td class="tocpn">103</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image33">The Inverted Arches</a></td><td class="tocpn">109</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image34">Choir, looking West</a></td><td class="tocpn">111</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image35">Choir, looking East</a></td><td class="tocpn">115</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image36">Procession Path and Lady Chapel</a></td><td class="tocpn">129</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image37">Steps Of Chapter-house Vestibule And Passage Over Chain Gate</a></td><td class="tocpn">135</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image38">Chapter-House—Doorway</a></td><td class="tocpn">138</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image39">Chapter-House—Interior</a></td><td class="tocpn">139</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image40">Chapter-House—Vault</a></td><td class="tocpn">141</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image41">Chapter-House—Undercroft</a></td><td class="tocpn">142, <a href="#image42">143</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image43">Section of Chapter-House</a></td><td class="tocpn">145</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#image46">PLAN</a></td><td class="tocpn">160</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image03" id="image03"></a> +<a href="images/image03h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image03.jpg" + alt=" Wells From The South-East." + title=" Wells From The South-East." /> +</a></div> + +<hr class="major" /> +<h1> +WELLS CATHEDRAL<br /> +<br /> +</h1> + +<h2> +<a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a> +CHAPTER I</h2> +<h3>HISTORY OF THE CHURCH</h3> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span> +"The Gothic Cathedral," wrote Froude, an author who held +no brief for the Gothic period, "is perhaps, on the whole, the +most magnificent creation which the mind of man has as yet +thrown out." The Cathedral Church of Wells, wrote Froude's +predecessor in the same historical chair, is "the best example +to be found in the whole world of a secular church, with its +subordinate buildings." "There is no other place," Professor +Freeman went on to say, "where you can see so many of the +ancient buildings still standing, and still put to their own use." +And surely there is no place better fitted to be their home +than this beautiful old city of Wells, set in the midst of the +fair western country, the land of Avalon and Camelot, of +Athelney and Wedmore.</p> + +<p>This unique group of buildings does not, however, take us +back earlier than the close of the Norman period. Of what +existed before, we have but scant evidence. Tradition says +that King Ina had, about the year 705, founded at Wells a +college of secular priests, and therefore a church of some sort. +And when King Eadward the Elder, taking advantage of the +peace which his father Alfred had secured, fixed, in 909, the +new Somersetshire see by the fountain of St. Andrew at Wells, +he seems to have chosen that little city because there already +existed therein a church, large enough to serve as a cathedral +in those times, and tended already by a body of secular canons. +Now that the ancient church of St. Andrew was raised to this +new dignity, it was probably in the tenth century rebuilt in +stone, with plain round-headed windows, and perhaps a small +unbuttressed tower to hold the bells; for, when Giso became +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span> +bishop in the next century (1061-1088), he erected a whole +cluster of quasi-conventual buildings, but we are not told that +he found it necessary to rebuild the church, although he complained +that he found it mean and its revenues small. Indeed, +the fact that Giso was buried under an arch in the wall on the +north side of the high altar, as his predecessor Duduc had been +buried on the south side, shows that he had not rebuilt the +church.</p> + +<p>On Giso's death, John de Villula at once swept away his +buildings, and set up a bishop's house on their site. John, +however, made Bath his cathedral church, and suffered the +church of Wells to fall into the decay from which it was rescued +by the first "Maker of Wells," Bishop Robert of Lewes.</p> + +<p>The active episcopate of Robert of Lewes (1136-66) was +as important an era in the history of the church as in that +of the chapter. In spite of the anarchy of Stephen's reign, +Robert set steadily to work; and, while the neighbouring +barons were battering each other's castles, the bishop reared +the first great cathedral church of Wells. How much of +the old Saxon building he left we cannot tell; but it was in +a ruinous condition, and he may have pulled it completely +down, or he may have left one part for later builders to +deal with. In 1148 his new Norman church was consecrated, +a massive round-arched building, its nave perhaps as large +as the present one, and its choir under the tower with a small +presbytery beyond. This date may be taken as the beginning +of the present cathedral; for all the succeeding reconstructions +followed the lines of Bishop Robert's church. Yet the Norman +work has disappeared almost as completely as the Saxon, and +the font is the only object which can be claimed as undoubtedly +Romanesque. Of distinctly Norman mouldings there are none +in the church, and only a few fragments in other places. +Seldom has one of those strong Norman buildings so utterly +vanished from sight. But many stones dressed in the Norman +fashion can still be traced by the expert in the eastern part +of the church (p. <a href="#Page_74">74</a>), having been no doubt used up again by +the later workmen; and there may be masses of undisturbed +masonry hidden in the walls.</p> + +<p>Bishop Robert, as we know from one of his charters, did +something also for the order of his church. Mammon had +gradually encroached upon the sacred precincts, and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span> +markets had come to be held in the "vestibule," and in the +church itself; the busy hum of the buyers and sellers marred +the quiet of God's house, and disturbed the people at their +devotions. Strong measures were necessary, and the bishop +ordered the market to be held at some distance from the +church, while at the same time, as an act of grace, he remitted +the tolls that were due to him as lord of the manor. Thus +did he lay the foundation of the liberties of Wells city while +securing the sanctity of Wells Cathedral.</p> + +<p>According to Bishop Godwin (1616), and the anonymous +fifteenth century MSS., called in Wharton's <i>Anglia Sacra</i> the +"Canon of Wells," there was a blank in the history of the +church between Bishop Robert, who consecrated the Norman +building in 1148, and Bishop Jocelin, whose episcopate lasted +from 1206 to 1242. Godwin, who exaggerated a passage +from the "Canon of Wells" (which that writer had produced +by exaggerating a single sentence of a preamble of Jocelin, p. 7), +declared that Jocelin found the church "as ready to fall," +and "pulled down the greatest part of it, to witte, the west +ende, and built it anew from the very foundation." This +became the accepted view. But the documents recently +brought to light through the labours of those who unearthed +and deciphered the MSS. in possession of the chapter, have +proved that the energetic Bishop Reginald, so far from letting +the church go into ruin during his episcopate (1174-1191), did +in reality rebuild it himself. Much travelled, conversant +with all kinds of churches and cities in an age of great +building operations, he was not the sort of man to neglect his +cathedral. And, as a matter of fact, he is proved to have +begun the present church by a charter recently found, which +is of a date prior to 1180, and therefore belongs to the early +years of his episcopate. In this important document, recognising +his duty to provide "that the honour due to God +should not be tarnished by the squalor of His house," he +arranges in full chapter for a munificent grant in support of +the fabric, until the work be +finished<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">1</a>. +Another charter of +Reginald's time, which conveys a private gift to the church, +alludes to "the admirable structure of the rising church," thus +testifying to the successful progress of the bishop's plan during +his own lifetime. The part which he built, there can be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span> +little doubt, included the three western bays of the choir +(which then formed the presbytery), the transepts, north porch, +and the eastern bays of the nave. That is to say, on entering +the church one is looking upon Reginald's work, and not +Jocelin's; for, although the rest of the nave was completed +by Jocelin, it was done in accordance with Reginald's original +plan.</p> + +<p>It is of great importance to remember this fact, since until +recently the nave, with the other parts just mentioned, was +attributed by Professor Willis, Professor Freeman, and most +authorities to Jocelin. Willis, indeed, bowed to what was +then thought to be documentary evidence against his own +judgment; for he declared the work to be of a style much +earlier than that of Jocelin's time (p. <a href="#Page_73">73</a>). Now we know +almost to a certainty that the bulk of the cathedral belongs +neither to the late Norman period of Robert, nor to the +Early English of Jocelin, but to the period just between the +two, that of Reginald de Bohun.</p> + +<p>During the episcopate of Reginald's immediate successor +Savaric (1192-1205), something further may have been done +to the nave. But there was small opportunity for church +building during this bishop's wandering and litigious life; +and all we know for certain is that, owing no doubt to the +civil war, the intolerable exactions of papal legates, and the +quarrel with Glastonbury, the cathedral church of Wells had +fallen into a state of dilapidation when Jocelin became bishop +in 1206; and that it remained in this condition till King John +was dead: for Jocelin was an exile abroad, the property of +the see was confiscated, and its income paid yearly into the +king's purse.</p> + +<p>From the year 1218, when the land was again at peace, +and a profitable arrangement had been come to with the +monks of Glastonbury, Jocelin devoted himself to the fabric +and chapter of Wells, up to the year of his death in 1242. +Grants of money and of timber, which are extant, show that +by 1220 the work was recommenced, and that it was in +progress in 1225. By 1239 the church was sufficiently advanced +to be dedicated.</p> + +<p>Jocelin and his brother Hugh (afterwards Bishop of +Lincoln) were natives of the city they loved so well. They +had both lived through Reginald's episcopate—Jocelin as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span>canon and Hugh as archdeacon of Wells. After, when they +rose to high positions as judges, and became honourably rich, +Hugh, who built much in Lincoln Cathedral, gave largely +of his great wealth to Jocelin for Wells, and Jocelin himself +spent all that he had upon the place where he had been +brought up from infancy.</p> + +<p>Thus Jocelin was in a real sense a "maker of Wells." +But he was not the only maker, for he must share the honour +with two other master builders—Robert, whose work is entirely +gone, and Reginald, whose work remains. He did not, as +Godwin led us to suppose, pull down and rebuild the whole +church. But he loyally carried on the work of his predecessor, +and he executed the great work which has been always rightly +attributed to him, the present west front; this he joined +to Reginald's unfinished nave by building the three western +bays in strict accordance with the earlier style. The front +belongs to the fully-developed Early English style in which +Salisbury is built, agreeing exactly with the date of the consecration +of the church by Jocelin in 1239,—as was pointed out +by Professor Willis, who was puzzled by the great difference +in its style from that of the nave, which was then thought to +belong to the same period. We know that Jocelin was a +frequent visitor to Salisbury while Bishop Poore was building +it; and thus all the lines of evidence combine to support +the unshaken tradition that Jocelin was the author of the +west front.</p> + +<p>A month before his death in 1242, Jocelin de Wells put forth +a charter for the increased endowment of the cathedral staff; +and it was because of a few chance words in the preamble that +he came to be credited with the construction of the whole. +Having found the church in danger of ruin, runs the passage, +by reason of its age <i>aedificare coepimus et ampliare—in qua adeo +profecimus—quod ipsam consecravimus</i>. This, which need mean +nothing more than extensive building operations, is the sole +foundation for the tradition that Jocelin pulled down the old +church and built a new one.</p> + +<p>The condition of the church at the end of the thirteenth +century is thus described by Professor Freeman<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">2</a>:</p> + +<p>"By the end of the thirteenth century we may look upon +the church of Wells as at last finished. It still lacked much +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span>of that perfection of outline which now belongs to it, and which +the next age was finally to give to it. Many among that matchless +group of surrounding buildings which give Wells its chief +charm, had not yet arisen. The church itself, with its unfinished +towers, must have had a dwarfed and stunted look from +every point. The Lady Chapel had not yet been reared, with +its apse alike to contrast with the great window of the square +presbytery above it, and to group in harmony with the more +lofty chapter-house of its own form. The cloister was still of +wood. The palace was still undefended by wall or moat. The +Vicars' Close and its chain-bridge had not yet been dreamt of. +Still, the church, alike in its fabric and its constitution, may +be looked on as having by this time been brought to perfection ... The +nave, recast in forms of art such as Ina and +Eadward, such as Gisa and Robert, had never dreamed of, with +the long range of its arcades and the soaring sweep of its newly-vaulted +roof, stood, perfect from western door to rood-loft, ever +ready, ever open, to welcome worshippers from city and village, +from hill and combe and moor, in every corner of the land +which looked to Saint Andrew's as its mother church. The +choir, the stalls of the canons, the throne of the Bishop, were +still confined within the narrow space of the crossing; but that +narrow space itself gave them a dignity which they lost in later +arrangements. For the central lantern, not yet driven to lean +on ungainly props, with the rich arcades of its upper stages +still open to view, still rose, in all the simple majesty of its four +mighty arches, as the noblest of canopies over the choir below."</p> + +<p>"The eastern ending of the presbytery was," Mr Freeman +proceeds, "rich with the best detail of the thirteenth century, as +can be learnt from the fragments built up in the chapel of the +Vicars' Close, and lying about in the undercroft of the chapter-house, +which are in the full Early English style of the west +front. The existing choir aisle walls prove that a procession-path +ran behind the high altar, with most likely a chapel +beyond it."</p> + +<p>"The thirteenth century," he concludes, "had done its great +creative work, and had left to future ages only to improve and +develop according to the principles which the thirteenth +century had laid down. That is to say, the thirteenth century +had done for the local church of Wells what it did for England, +what it did for Europe, and for the world."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span>The choir, however, was not so cramped as Mr Freeman +thought, for it included one bay of the nave, as we now know +from a notice of the making of Haselshaw's tomb, which was +dug at the entrance to the choir; and, indeed, the marks where +the screen was fixed are still visible on the piers at this point. +From the top of the screen the great rood looked down the +nave, and on each side of the doorway stood an altar, that on +the north dedicated to Our Lady, that on the south to St. +Andrew. The aisles of the choir were also screened off from +the nave, and outside their gates were two more altars—St. +Saviour's on the north, and St. Edmund's on the south. Thus +the nave, where men were ever coming and going, walking and +talking, and in laxer times buying and selling as well, was quite +shut off from the more sacred places. Yet here, too, were +altars and shrines, and here came the processions on Sundays +and holidays.</p> + +<p>Within the choir the chapter said their offices, the dean and +precentor facing east in their returned stalls, and the other +dignitaries in their allotted places, with the junior canons, +vicars, and those in minor orders below them, and the boys +on the lowest forms of all. Just beyond these stalls was the +bishop's throne; and east of the tower the presbytery stood +open, with the tombs of the early bishops, on either side, +under the arches. The rest of the space enclosed within the +screen belonged more especially to the clergy; the north +transept was probably used as a chapter-house, when the +undercroft was yet unfinished, and its western aisle was used +as the chapter library. The chamber leading to the undercroft +was the vestry, and the stout walls of the octagon, when it was +finished, protected the vestments and treasures of the cathedral.</p> + +<p>It is worth while to call to mind the kind of service for +which the church was built, with its aisles and chapels and +screen. The usual Sunday procession started from the north +door of the presbytery, preceded by two thurifers with censers, +went round behind the presbytery, the priest in his cope +asperging the altars on his way, then down the south choir +aisle, and through the south transept into the cloister. In the +cloister-cemetery, the priest, with his ministers, said the prayers +for the dead, and then rejoined the procession in the cloister +Lady Chapel, where the first station was made. Thence the +procession returned to the great rood in the nave, and there +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span>made the second station, the bidding-prayer being given out +to the people from the rood-screen, after which it re-entered +the choir. But on special occasions the ritual was increased; +as, for instance, at the procession of palms on Palm Sunday, or +the Corpus Christi Day procession, which is thus described by +Mr J.D. Chambers<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">3</a>: "The procession, some time before the +mass, should assemble in order at the step of the Choir (<i>i.e.</i> in +the Presbytery), a priest in Albe and silk Cope carrying the +Corpus Christi in a tabernacle or feretory under a canopy of +silk raised over him and it on four staves, borne by four +clerks in Albes and Tunicles, with lighted tapers. It should go +out of the Choir down the Nave, and out at the West Door of +the Church, round the Church and Cloisters as on Ascension +Day"—<i>i.e.</i> round the outside of the whole church, beginning +with the north side and returning round the east end, and +through the cloister to the west door again, and thus back into +the nave. The colours of the vestments at Wells followed +in the main the custom of the neighbouring diocese of Sarum, +but with some local variations, such as are set down in the +<i>Consuetudinary</i> which Archbishop Laud had copied from the +late thirteenth-century MS. Indigo and white were used on +St. John's Day and on the Dedication Festival; in Advent, +indigo; at Passiontide, red, and on Palm Sunday, "except one +cope of black for the part of Caiaphas" at the singing of the +Passion; red, too, on Maunday Thursday, but with a banner +of white. Red was also used for Easter, Pentecost, and +throughout the Sundays after Trinity; while for Virgin Martyrs, +red was mixed with white. This mixture of colours was probably +effected by the cantors wearing different coloured copes; +thus for confessors saffron <i>(croceus)</i> was mixed with green, +<i>sicut honestius et magis proprie possunt adaptari festo</i>; +but St. Julian +and some others had all saffron, while a few, like St. Benedict, +had all indigo. White is comparatively little in evidence, but +it was used at Christmas, and for commemorations of the +Blessed Virgin. Black was used for the commemoration of +the dead.</p> + +<p>To this vision of stately pomp, and changing colour, we +must add in our mind's eye the many chapels with their woven +tapestries of flowers and beasts and birds, their rich ornaments +and sacred associations; the majestic rood upon the screen, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span>and the rich altars that stood before it; the almost constant +succession of services that went on behind it, where the canons +(each with his own book and candle) and their vicars sat, and +the pyx hung over the high altar; the sound of a little bell +from one of the chapels where mass was being said, the +glimmer of a hanging lamp, the gleam of a silver image, the +shrines here and there, with their frequent visitors; and, as +years went on, the subdued light from the gorgeous painted +windows (that over the high altar glowed then from east to +west without obstructing organ), the frescoes on some of the +walls, the green and red and gold of the later monuments; and +over all the trail of incense and the sound of prayer.</p> + +<p>After Jocelin's death the works came to a standstill, for the +sufficient reason that the chapter was "overburdened with an +intolerable debt," owing to the enormous expense of the +litigation with Bath Abbey over Bishop Roger's election +(p. <a href="#Page_153">153</a>). This, however, was the last attempt of the rival +cathedral of St. Peter; and the debt, which was at its worst in +1248 (the year after Roger's death), was bravely met by a +contribution of a fifth of the income of each prebend, as well +as by gifts and obits; so that towards the end of William +Bytton's episcopate the debt was nearly cleared, and in 1263 +Bytton made over the sequestrations of vacant benefices to the +fabric fund.</p> + +<p>In 1248 an earthquake had done much damage, shaking +down the <i>tholus</i> (either the vault, or the stone capping) of the +central tower, as we learn from Matthew Paris <i>(Hist. Angl.</i> +iii. 42). Accordingly, in 1263, preparations were made for +further building; and in 1286 we hear of a chapter meeting, +summoned by Dean Thomas Bytton, whereat the canons bind +themselves to give one-tenth of their prebends for five years, +"to the finishing of the works now a long time begun (<i>jam +diu incepta</i>), and to repair what needed reparation in the old +works."</p> + +<p>The reparation here mentioned refers in all probability to +the roof and piers of the transepts and eastern part of nave, +damaged by the fall of the <i>tholus</i>. The famous western +capitals of the transepts, with their frequent representations of +the miseries of toothache, must refer to the second William +Bytton, who had died in 1274, and whose tomb became famous +for its dental cures (p. <a href="#Page_125">125</a>). No doubt, the offerings at the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span>shrine of this local saint helped considerably to swell the funds +for the building operations.</p> + +<p>The works "now a long time begun" can hardly be anything +else than the chapter-house undercroft, the outer walls of which +may have been built some forty years before. Professor Willis, +who had access to the document, decided, on architectural +evidence, that the undercroft must have been already completed +at this time, and his view may be safely accepted (<i>Arch. +Inst</i>., "Bristol" vol., p. 28). The passage to the undercroft +would seem to be the first result of the chapter's undertaking; +its ornament is of a more advanced type than that of the +undercroft itself, and one of its carved heads is swollen as by +the toothache, and tied in a handkerchief. There can be little +or no doubt that the "finishing" of the old works included +also the building of the chapter-house staircase, and, when +that was finished, the raising of the chapter-house itself (the +<i>nova structura</i> of the old documents) upon the undercroft. +The full Decorated style of the chapter-house is separated by +a considerable interval from the late Early English of the +undercroft, while that of the staircase, which is geometrical +Decorated of a character not very far removed from Early +English, must have been built before the chapter-house itself +was begun.</p> + +<p>The self-sacrificing spirit of the chapter was supplemented +by the offerings which flowed in from the growing practice of +endowing altars for requiem services, as well as from the shrine +of St. William Bytton; and the building activity continued for +the next fifty years till the church had been brought, in all save +its western towers, to its final state of perfection. After the +staircase to the chapter-house had been completed, about the +year 1292, the walls of the chapter-house itself were built, +probably by Bishop William de Marchia (1293-1302) who +seems to have covered it in with a temporary roof.</p> + +<p>Dean John de Godelee (1306-1333) was the last great +builder of the church of Wells. The power of the bishop in +his own church is already declining, as that of the chapter +rises, and it is the dean now who organises the works. In +1315 the central tower was raised, and by 1321 it was being +roofed in. By 1319 the chapter-house was finished; Godelee, +with William Joy, the master-mason, had probably worked +out the old drawings and built the windows and vaulted roof. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span>Next the Lady Chapel must have been begun, for by 1326 it +was finished. Somewhere about this time the parapet, which +adds so much to the external beauty of the church, was also +made.</p> + +<p>But the raising of the central tower had, ere this, brought +disaster. In 1321 there was a grant from the clergy of the +Deanery of Taunton in aid of the roofing of the "new +<i>campanile</i>"; in 1338 a convocation was summoned because +the church of Wells was so <i>totaliter confracte et enormiter +deformate</i> that the instant and united action of its members +was required to save it (<i>cf.</i> Willis in <i>Som. Proc</i>. 1863). The +adding of the Decorated portion to the tower increased the +weight so much that the four great piers sank into the ground, +dragging the masonry with them and causing rents to appear +at the apex of the arches. The situation was most dangerous: +it was met by the careful repairing of the torn masonry and the +construction of those inverted arches which are so familiar a +feature of the church.</p> + +<p>Yet the work proceeded very rapidly under a great bishop, +who for the time eclipsed the rising power of the deans. +Ralph of Shrewsbury (1329-63) carried on the work of Dean +Godelee, and in the early years of his episcopate entirely +reconstructed the choir. The scheme seems to have been +contemplated as early as 1325; for in that year each dignitary +arranged to pay for his own stall in the refitting of the choir, +because the old stalls had become "ruinous and misshapen." +In any case, it was Ralph who added the three new bays of +the presbytery which are so curiously joined to the old +presbytery of Reginald, and with it form the present eastern +limb of the church. He then constructed the beautiful retro-choir +which connects the presbytery with the Lady Chapel. The +vaulting of the choir and the construction of the great east +window would appear to have been undertaken at a later +period of his episcopate; for the ceiling is of a more advanced +style than the lower work, and the tracery of the window is +half Perpendicular. When Bishop Ralph died, in 1363, he was +buried in the place of honour in front of the high altar, as the +founder of the choir which he had finished.</p> + +<p>The finishing touches were given to the cathedral when +Bishop Harewell (<i>ob.</i> 1386) gave two-thirds of the cost of the +south-western or Harewell Tower, and when the executors of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span>Bishop Bubwith (<i>ob.</i> 1424) finished the companion tower on +the north-west.</p> + +<p>The other efforts of the fourteenth and fifteenth century +builders were given to those subordinate buildings which are +the peculiar glory of Wells. Even so magnificent a prelate +as Beckington did nothing to the actual fabric of the +Cathedral (unless his tomb be so considered), for the simple +reason that there was really nothing for him to do. Ralph of +Shrewsbury had, besides his work in the church, finished the +palace (which Jocelin had begun and Burnell had enriched with +the hall and chapel) by the moat, walls, and gate-house. He +had also begun the Vicars' Close, of which the chapel was +built by Bubwith, but the executors of Beckington recast it in +its present form. After Beckington had employed his energies +in erecting the beautiful gateways with which his name is +always associated, Dean Gunthorpe (<i>ob.</i> 1498) built the +deanery.</p> + +<p>The following interesting eulogy of Bishop Beckington and +his church was written in the form of a Latin dialogue by +Chaundler, who was Chancellor of Wells in 1454:—</p> + +<p>"You might more properly call it a city than a town, as you +would yourself understand more clearly than day if you could +behold all its intrinsic splendour and beauty. For that most +lovely church which we see at a distance, dedicated to the +most blessed Apostle of the Almighty God, St. Andrew, +contains the episcopal chair of the worthy Bishop. Adjoining +it is the vast palace, adorned with wonderful splendour, girt on +all sides by flowing waters, crowned by a delectable succession +of walls and turrets, in which the most worthy and learned +Bishop Thomas, the first of that name, bears rule. He has +indeed at his own proper pains and charges conferred such a +splendour on this city, as well by strongly fortifying the church +with gates and towers and walls, as by constructing on the +grandest scale the palace in which he resides and the other +surrounding buildings, that he deserves to be called, not the +founder merely, but rather the splendour and ornament of the +church."</p> + +<p>The Reformation period left the cathedral cold and barren +within, but interfered little with its fabric; the only serious +piece of destruction (p. <a href="#Page_57">57</a>) being that of the magnificent +Lady Chapel by the Cloister, in 1552, by Sir John Gates, "a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16" />greate puritan, Episcopacie's common Enemy." In other +respects it was what Freeman calls a period of systematic +picking and stealing; as witness this passage from Nathaniel +Chyles:—"The Great Duke of Somersett, Unkle to Edward +the Sixt (whose title proved very fatall to this place and +Bishopwrick) was not only contented to get most of the mannours +Lands and possessions belonging to this Bishopwrick +settled upon him and his posteritie, but at last even the +palace itselfe also." But the palace and some of the property +were recovered after Somerset's execution.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image04" id="image04"></a> +<a href="images/image04h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image04.jpg" + alt=" The Cathedral. (From a Seventeenth Century Print.)" + title=" The Cathedral. (From a Seventeenth Century Print.)" /> +</a></div> + +<p>The bishop's palace suffered the ruin of Burnell's magnificent +hall through the prevalent lust for gain. Sir John +Harrington writes in terms of pardonable indignation:—"I +speak now only of the spoil made under this Bishop [Barlow]; +scarce were five years past after Bath's ruins, but as fast went +the axes and hammers to work at Wells. The goodly hall +covered with lead ... was uncovered, and now this roof +reaches to the sky. The Chapel of Our Lady, late repaired by +Stillington, a place of reverence and antiquity, was likewise +defaced, and such was their thirst after lead (I would they had +drunk it scalding) that they took the dead bodies of bishops +out of their leaden coffins, and cast abroad the carcases scarce +thoroughly putrified."</p> + +<p>During the Commonwealth the choir was closed, and Dr +Cornelius Burges, who was appointed "Preacher" at the +cathedral, bought the bishop's palace and deanery for his +private property. He, of course, despoiled the palace, "pulling +off not only the Lead thereoff," says Chyles,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">4</a> "but taking +away also the Timber, and making what money he could of +them, and what remained unsold he removed to the Deanery +improving that out of the Ruins of the palace, leaving only +bare Walls." At the Restoration Burges was ejected, after a +good deal of litigation, and Bishop Piers returned to the ruins +of his palace. Burges' sermons had never been popular with +the people of Wells, who annoyed him by walking up and down +the cloisters "all sermon time." When the trial for his ejectment +came on he published his "Case," in which he justified +his buying Church lands by alleging that he had lent the State +£3490, and, having a wife and ten children to provide for, he +took such land, etc. as the only means of repayment. Five of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span>the canons' houses were also obtained from Cromwell's Commissioners +by the Corporation of Wells, one or two of which +were pulled down and sold for old stone.</p> + +<p>At the Restoration, the canons were at great expense to +restore the church from the ruinous condition into which it +had fallen in Puritan times, and they were liberally helped +in their extremity by the clergy and laity of the diocese. +Says Chyles (<i>c.</i> 1680): "Since his Majestie's and Churche's +happy and blessed Restoration, what betweene the Bishopp, +the Deane, and Deane and Chapter, our Church and Quire +is once more in a beautifull and comely habitt (which God +continue) such as neither the Church of Rome has reason to +upbraid us with a slovenly or clownish Service, nor the Puritan +and Nonconformist with a gaudy or Superstitious. The good +old Bishopp [W. Piers], who weather'd out that Storme, and +was restored to what was his Owne, gave those silk Hangings +which beautifie the Altar within the Railes." Dean Creyghton +gave the glass in the west window, the organ and the brass +lectern, and Dr Busby, who was treasurer of Wells as well +as head-master of Westminster, gave the silver-gilt alms dish +and restored the library, lengthening it by the addition of the +southern part.</p> + +<p>Chyles tells us, too, that there was morning and evening +prayer in the "Vicars' Chapell in Close Hall," at six, forenoon +and afternoon, in winter, and seven in summer, in addition to +the cathedral services at the "canonical howers." Before his +time there had been only a morning sermon on Sundays, and, +in the afternoon, "the whole Cathedrall" had been in the +habit of going to St. Cuthbert's, returning with the mayor and +his brethren for the cathedral prayers at four; "but since his +Majesty's Restoracion one likewise in the Afternoones here is +preached by the said prebends <i>in theire turns</i>. Soe that here +the Sermonizing people may have their Bellyfull of preaching +and forbeare crying out, <i>They are starved for want of the Word</i> +and calling our clergy <i>Dumb Doggs</i>."</p> + +<p>This time of peace did not last long, for in 1685 the whole +of Somerset was up in Monmouth's rebellion. The duke's +followers came to Wells, turned the cathedral into a stable, tore +the lead off the roof for bullets, pulled down several of the +statues, broached a barrel of beer on the high altar, and +would have destroyed the altar itself, had not Lord Grey, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span>one of their leaders, defended it with his sword. Dr Conan +Doyle's description of the scene in his novel, <i>Micah Clarke</i> +(p. 292), is so vivid that it is well worth referring to.</p> + +<p>The long and heavy peace which followed was marked by +the gradual pewing up of the choir and presbytery, and the +intrusion of pretentious monuments. Then, in our own times, +came the revival, bringing evil as well as good in its train. In +1842 the restoration of the nave, transepts, and Lady Chapel +was commenced at the instance of Dean Goodenough, by Mr +Benjamin Ferrey. He removed the thick layers of whitewash +which had been ingeniously applied to conceal the sculpture; +and the long rows of marble tablets which had disfigured the +aisles were shifted to the cloisters, whence, it may be hoped, +they will one day make a further journey towards oblivion.</p> + +<p>The restoration of the choir by Mr Salvin, which lasted from +1848 to 1854, was unfortunately of a less blameless character. +It was the period of the Great Exhibition, when art reached the +lowest depths to which it has sunk in the history of the world.</p> + +<p>We need not dwell upon the result; few restorations are +more marked with the complacent ignorance of that strange +time. The old pews and galleries in the choir, which had +hidden the very capitals of the piers, were indeed removed, +but with them the medieval stalls were destroyed and replaced +by work of indescribable imbecility. No real improvement in +the choir of Wells is now possible till every trace of Dean +Jenkyns' restoration is swept away; but, alas! what he +destroyed can never be recovered.</p> + +<p>In 1868 the report of Mr Ferrey<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">5</a> upon the west front was +presented, and shortly afterwards the work of repair was begun +under his direction. The report showed how extensive was the +decay, and how great the danger of complete ruin unless steps +were taken to protect the old work; and the work of repair was +carried out with care and reverence; though even here irreparable +harm was done by the substitution of the modern "slate +pencils" for the old blue lias shafts. Since then, many small +matters have been attended to with varying success. The +Lady Chapel has been decently furnished and the east end +slightly improved. Much still remains to be done; but the +best motto at the present day is <i>festina lente</i>, and the safest +rule is to be progressive in all enrichment by removable +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span>furniture, and conservative, very conservative, in all structural +alteration. If the hand of the restorer can now be stayed, the +words will still be true of Wells, which M. Huysmans used of +another church:—<i>Ces siècles s'étaient reunis pour apporter aux +pieds du Christ l'effort surhumain de leur art, et les dons de +chacun étaient visibles encore</i>.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image05" id="image05"></a> +<a href="images/image05h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image05.jpg" + alt=" South Aisle Of Nave." + title=" South Aisle Of Nave." /> +</a></div> +<hr class="major" /> +<h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> +<div class="footnotes"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_1_1">[1]</a> +<i>Somerset Proceedings</i>, 1888, ii. 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_2_2">[2]</a> <i>History of the Cathedral</i>, p. 98.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_3_3">[3]</a> <i>Divine Worship in England</i>, p. 195.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_4_4">[4]</a> Book ii. c. 2.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_5_5">[5]</a> <i>Inst. Arch</i>. 1870.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="major" /> +<h2> +<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20" /> +CHAPTER II</h2> +<h3>THE EXTERIOR</h3> + + +<p>"In England," wrote Mr J.H. Parker, in his <i>Glossary</i>, +"Wells affords the most perfect example of a cathedral with +all its parts and appurtenances. It was," he continues, after +an enumeration of the parts of the church, "a cathedral +proper, and independent of any monastic foundation, but +with a separate house for each of its officers, either in the +Close or in the Liberty adjoining to it. The bishop's palace +was enclosed by a separate moat and fortified, being on the +south side of the cloister, from which it is separated by the +moat; the houses for the dean and for the archdeacon are +on the north side of the Close, with some of the canons' +houses; the organist's house is at the west end, adjoining to +the singing-school and the cloister; the precentor's house +is at the east end, near the Lady Chapel. The vicars-choral +have a close of their own adjoining to the north-east corner +of the canons' close, with a bridge across through the gate-house +into the north transept; they were a collegiate body, +with their own chapel, library, and hall." One need only +add that all these sentences can still, with one exception, +be read in the present tense to show that Wells possesses a +beauty and interest which gives it an unique place among +cathedral foundations. There is no other cathedral city in +which so many of the old ecclesiastical buildings remain, +or on which the modern world has made so little impression. +The church itself, in Fergusson's opinion perhaps the most +beautiful, though one of the smallest in England, is but +one part of a "group of buildings, which," wrote Professor +Freeman, "as far as I know, has no rival, either in our own +island or beyond the sea." The little city to which these +buildings belong is itself worthy of them, almost a part of +them, so quiet and venerable is it, so picturesque in its +lovely setting of green hills.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span>Were size the main distinction of a church, Wells would +sink comfortably into the second class; even in some of its +best features it has many rivals, but the peculiar charm and +glory of Wells lies (to quote again from Freeman's <i>History</i>) +"in the union and harmonious grouping of all. The church +does not stand alone; it is neither crowded by incongruous +buildings, nor yet isolated from those buildings which are +its natural and necessary complement. Palace, cloister, Lady +Chapel, choir, chapter-house, all join to form one indivisible +whole. The series goes on uninterruptedly along that unique +bridge, which, by a marvel of ingenuity, connects the church +itself with the most perfect of buildings of its own class, +the matchless vicars' close. Scattered around we see here +and there an ancient house, its gable, its windows, or its +turret, falling in with the style and group of greater buildings, +and bearing its part in producing the general harmony of all." +Thus, in the first place, the group of buildings must be +looked at as a whole from the north, from the east, from +the south-east; then the superb, unrivalled picture from the +rising ground on the Shepton Mallet road,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">1</a> outside the city, +must be seen, and, when this little journey has been made, +the most hurried visitor must find time at least to peep into +the vicars' close, and walk round the moat of the palace. +After some such general impression has been gained, the +study of the exterior of the church will naturally begin with +that part which is a peculiar distinction of Wells Cathedral—the +west front.</p> + +<p><a name="II_1" id="II_1"></a>The <b>West Front</b> of Wells has been universally admired. +Long ago, old Fuller wrote—"The west front of Wells is +a masterpiece of art indeed, made of imagery in just proportion, +so that we may call them <i>vera et spirantia signa</i>. England +affordeth not the like." This verdict is but repeated +by modern writers; the front is "quite unrivalled," says +Fergusson, and comparable only to Rheims and Chartres. +Mr Hughes, in Traill's <i>Social England</i>, goes farther and says<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">2</a> +that "nothing fit to rank with it was then being done in +Northern Europe—for the monumental porches of France, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span>formerly supposed to be contemporary, are now recognised +as of a later date."</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image06" id="image06"></a> +<a href="images/image06h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image06.jpg" + alt=" West Front. Bishop Aethelhelm (103)." + title=" West Front. Bishop Aethelhelm (103)." /> +</a></div> + +<p>But there has been a discordant note in the general chorus +of praise. Professor Freeman, whose admiration for nearly +everything in Wells was so intense, could find little to praise +in the west front of +the cathedral.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">3</a> "It is +doubtless," he wrote, +"the finest display of +sculpture in England; +but it is thoroughly +bad as a piece of architecture. +I am always +glad when I get round +the corner, and can +rest my eye on the +massive and simple +majesty of the nave +and transepts. The +west front is bad because +it is a sham—because +it is not the +real ending of the nave +and aisles, but a mere +mask, devised, in order +to gain greater room +for the display of +statues ... The +front is not the natural +finish of the nave and +aisles; it is a blank +wall built up in a shape +which is not the shape +which their endings +would naturally assume. It is therefore a sham; it is +a sin against the first law of architectural design, the law +that enrichment should be sought in ornamenting the construction ... not +in building up anything simply for the +sake of effect." He then proceeds to criticise the way in which +the windows and doorways "are stowed away as they best may +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24" /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span>be," as if they were felt to be mere interruptions to the lines of +sculpture.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image07" id="image07"></a> +<a href="images/image07h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image07.jpg" + alt=" The West Front." + title=" The West Front." /> +</a></div> + +<p>This latter objection to the doorways had often been made +before, only that the "rabbit-holes on a mountain side" of +earlier critics became "mouse-holes" with Mr Freeman. Mr +E.W. Godwin, in a lecture in 1862, had also found fault with +the crowding in of the niches over the central doorway, which +he declared to be in the highest degree clumsy; with the bald +appearance given by the shallowness of the reveals in the principal +windows; and with the way in which "the solid work of +the base suddenly crops up at the very summit of the two +central buttresses, not altogether unlike the dog-kennel of +modern Gothic."</p> + +<p>Of these criticisms the most serious is Mr Freeman's general +charge of unreality. But why should not a stone screen be +erected for the display of statuary before the west end of a +church, just as lawfully as behind the high altar? And, if +a screen may be allowed as an end in itself, standing simply +as a thing of beauty to glorify a building of which it is not +a structural part, then the front of Wells may stand, like +the reredos of Winchester, as the noblest example of its kind. +It has no need to simulate lofty aisles which do not exist, +for it covers, not the aisles, but the faces of the great towers +themselves; and, as a consequence, the portion of really blank +wall which stretches from them to the central gable is so +small as to be more than justified by the cohesion it gives to +the whole. The whole effect is singularly broad, but so is +the space it covers within; for this breadth is legitimately +attained by the happy device of planting the western towers +beyond the aisles.</p> + +<p>The massive front of Wells stands, therefore, on its own +merits as a west front, and not merely a west end—a great +stone screen that, so far from pretending to be a regular +termination of the nave and aisles, is actually carried, in all its +sculptured magnificence, round the sides of the two towers +upon which it so frankly depends. It is a screen built at a +period different from, and, we may now safely assume, later +than, that of the nave, and built for the exhibition of a noble +legend in stone, which has ever since been the glory of a +county famed for its splendid churches.</p> + +<p>Taking it then for what it is, and remembering that the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span>lower tiers were once filled with statuary, can we regret that +the doorways themselves were subordinated to the one grand +design of accommodating this great multitude of silent teachers? +The great doorways of French churches are magnificent in +themselves, but that is surely no reason why we should make it +an axiom that a front cannot be fine unless it have a great +doorway. Striking as the effect of these foreign entrances may +be, there is no structural reason why a door should be of an +unwieldy size out of all proportion to the stature of the people +who use it, so that a smaller door has to be cut for ordinary +use out of the real door. It certainly, as even at Amiens, +limits the sculptor's opportunities; and in a country like +England, where doors can only be kept open for a few weeks +in the year, great doorways would be as inappropriate as closed +doors are forbidding. As a matter of fact, the usual entrance +to Wells Cathedral in Jocelin's time was not from the west, but +through the cloister and the south porch. And the central +entrance of the west was made impressive, not by its size, but +by the exquisite nature of its carving, and the blue and scarlet +and gold with which it was coloured. It was not insignificant +then. It had the prominence of a jewel. Moreover, in French +churches, where the exterior is sacrificed to the internal effect, +there is some wisdom in concentrating attention upon the +doorway. But in English churches—and in Wells, perhaps, +more than any other English church—the exteriors are perfect +in themselves, and the visitor need not be tempted to hurry to +their portals. After all, if the rabbit-holes on a mountain-side +looked as large as quarries, the mountain would not look like +a mountain.</p> + +<p>There are, moreover, three faults in the front as it now stands +which cannot be attributed to its maker. In the first place, it +is undoubtedly a little formal, a little square, and this defect +is particularly marked in the photographs which one sees +everywhere. Unfortunately this picture, which is too small +to show the detail, gives no idea whatever of the general +external effect of the church. It gives the impression that +Wells Cathedral is a glorified wall, because the photograph +cannot show the other parts upon which the front depends. +The architect, no doubt, intended the towers to be carried +higher or surmounted with spires, and though no trace of any +stone erection has been found on the tops of the present towers, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span>they may once have been crowned with wooden spires covered +with lead or shingle. One need hardly say how vast a difference +such lofty towers as exist at Laon Cathedral, or spires like +those of Lichfield, would make in the effect of the front. +They would also account for the great size of the buttresses, +which seem to have been built with a view to sustaining a great +weight.</p> + +<p>A disagreeable impression is also caused by the row of +hip-knobs along the coping of the central gable, and the +pinnacle in their midst. This collection of curiosities was +probably added in the seventeenth century, and the pinnacle +may have been taken from one of the denuded buttresses of +the Lady Chapel to replace the gable cross which must have +originally stood here: at all events it is a later addition, as was +proved by an examination of the masonry. It would be an +act of justice to the memory of Jocelin if these trivial excrescences +were removed.</p> + +<p>Perhaps one is even more distressed on first seeing the +front by a third fault—the weak and stringy effect of the long, +thin, dark, marble shafts. For this the restorer, Mr Benjamin +Ferrey, must bear the blame. He complained with justice that +the original blue lias shafts, when they were decayed, had +been replaced by the ordinary Doulting stone.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">4</a> But, unhappily, +he did not go back to the original material, but +fitted the whole front with a complete set of shafts of Kilkenny +marble, which is at once dark and cold. They absolutely +refuse to blend with the old, warm, grey stone, and stand out, +stark and stiff, like an array of gigantic slate pencils. Mr +Ferrey was possessed with the idea that the blue lias shafts +(having only lasted for a paltry half-dozen centuries) were not +durable enough for the work. He therefore used this marble, +which, doubtless, will stand in increased obtrusiveness when +every stone of the cathedral has decayed. He further was +impressed with the strange notion that the hideous Kilkenny +marble is of the same colour as the exquisitely delicate grey +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span>of the blue lias. The result is a sad warning to all restorers +not to be more clever than the original architect.</p> + +<p>Let us, then, try to imagine the west front with its empty +lowest tier filled with graceful figures, its gable in its first +simplicity and surmounted by a cross, its towers of Early +English form crowned with lofty spires, its delicate shafts of +their original material, and its ranges of figures "all gorgeous +in their freshly-painted hues of blue and scarlet and purple +and gold." Then we shall have some idea of the front of +Wells as Jocelin meant it to be and to remain.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image08" id="image08"></a> +<a href="images/image08h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image08.jpg" + alt="Ornaments In The West Front." + title="Ornaments In The West Front." /> +</a></div> + +<p>As for the colour, its effect can be gathered from the +traces which survive. There is ultramarine, gold, and scarlet +in the tympanum of the central doorway, where there are also +the marks of metal fittings. Ferrey found a deep maroon +colour on the figures of the Apostles, and a dark colour painted +with stars in the Resurrection tier. One of the chief glories of +the front is the faithful care which is given throughout to the +smaller features. The mouldings (a succession of rounds and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span>hollows) are most bold and effective; the carving of the +foliage in caps and canopies, tympana, pedestals, and terminals +is singularly beautiful and free. This impression +is deepened by a minute examination; indeed, it is almost +a matter of regret that some of the finest work is at such +a height as to be almost impossible to see; for in all the +earlier work at Wells the Lamp of Sacrifice burns brightly. +Mr Ferry pointed out an instance, which may be given here, +of the care with which minor matters were thought out:—In +order that the lowest tier might not look weak and yet might +provide a sufficient shadow for the statues, the backs of the +niches are set at a slightly recessed angle in the centre, +and thus an effect of strength is given to the angular jambs. +Indeed, there may be differences of opinion as to the general +design of the west front, but there can be none as to the +supreme excellence of its detail. It is beyond doubt the most +rich example of Early English work to be found anywhere. +The crown of its glories, the justification of its form, did it need +justification, are the frail statues which line it, tier upon tier.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image09" id="image09"></a> +<a href="images/image09h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image09.jpg" + alt="Ornaments In The West Front." + title="Ornaments In The West Front." /> +</a></div> + +<p>Vertically the west front is divided into three main parts—the +centre, containing the three lancet windows of the nave +and the main doorway, is surmounted by a gable receding in +stages with a pinnacle at either angle; and the two lateral +towers, the lower portion of which form one continuous screen +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span>with the centre, broken only by the boldly projecting buttresses, +of which each division possesses two. Horizontally the front +divides itself naturally into four parts—the plain base, which is +high enough to contain the full height of the small north and +south doorways. One of the stones in this division, about the +level of the eye, and near the middle, which has evidently been +moved from some other place, bears the inscription, <i>Pur lalme +Johan de Putenie priez et trieze jurs de</i> ... Next is an arcade +of niches interspersed with windows, the space above being +pierced by quatrefoils. The third division contains the three +lancet windows, the forms of which are repeated on the north +and south, breaking the line of the two historical tiers of +niches which, with the Resurrection tier, adorn this main +division of the front. A bold string course marks it off firmly +and decisively from the fourth and upper division, in which +the three parts of the front become separate, the towers at +each side and the stepped gable, flanked by two graceful Early +English pinnacles, in the middle. The statuary is mainly confined +to the arcading of the second division, to the buttresses +of the third, with its continuous cornice of the Resurrection +tier, and to the gable front of the fourth; but the amount of it is +largely increased by the fact that the work is carried round +three sides of the north-western tower, which only touches the +church on one side. The niches on the sides of the south-western +tower are almost empty.</p> + +<p><a name="II_2" id="II_2"></a><b>The Statuary.</b>—The statuary is not only the finest collection +of medieval sculpture to be found in England; but, +separately, the figures are with few exceptions finer than any +others in this country, while some of them are almost as beautiful +as the greatest masterpieces in Italy or France. It is strange +that here, at the outset of the Gothic period, the chief characteristics +of the old Greek spirit should be so apparent, the +same restraint, the same simplicity, the same exquisite appreciation +of light and flowing drapery: in other things there is +difference enough, the form is less perfect, the action is less +free, though there is a deeper sentiment and a higher power of +spiritual expression; but in the essentials of sublime statuary +there is a singular agreement.</p> + +<p>And, strange though it seems, it may well be that in these +statues one must look for the first signs of the influence of the +Renaissance in England. Romanesque work has but just died +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span>out, and already the old spirit, destined in time to supplant +the architecture which sprung from it, is at work again. While +the statues were being cut at Wells, Niccola Pisano was +reviving sculpture in Italy under the inspiration of classical +examples; and there can be little doubt but +that it was Italian sculptors who +produced the statuary at Wells. Some +of the figures on the northern part +of the front have been found to be +marked with Arabic numerals (<i>Somerset +Proceedings</i> 1888, i. 57, 62), and +these numerals, which did not become +common in England till the sixteenth +century, were used in Italy long before, +having been introduced by Bonacci of +Pisa (a fellow-citizen of Niccola) in +1202. That they are found here before +the middle of the century is a fairly +conclusive proof that the workers were +Italians, and very likely from Pisa itself. +Jocelin, indeed, was English, but he +had been in exile from 1208 to 1213, +when he had ample opportunity of +studying the work of the Italian artists. +Pleasant as it would be to our national +pride, we can hardly believe that Englishmen +produced what seems to be the +earliest example of such magnificent +and varied sculpture in north-western +Europe. At Jocelin's death, in 1242, +when the work had been going on for +some thirty years, Niccola Pisano was +in his prime, Cimabue was two years +old, and forty years had yet to elapse before the rival sculpture +of Amiens Cathedral was executed.</p> + +<div class="floatr"> +<a name="image10" id="image10"></a> +<a href="images/image10h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image10.jpg" alt="West Front: Christina (185)" +title="West Front: Christina (185)" /> +</a></div> + +<p>Mr Ruskin, whose admiration of the work at Amiens is +so intense, has given almost as high praise to the sculpture +at Wells, and has presented sets of photographs of the +statuary to various art schools. The verdict of enthusiastic +approval is, in fact, unanimous. Flaxman, to his credit, in +spite of his classicalism, was one of the first to draw attention +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span>to the work. Whoever was the general designer of the whole +arrangement, he deserves as great praise as the sculptors themselves. +There must have been several sculptors, both because +no one man could have carved three hundred and fifty +subjects (of which one hundred and fifty-two are life-size or +colossal), and because a certain number of the figures in the +fourth and fifth tiers are of obviously inferior design. But +one master-mind must have conceived and directed the work. +The height and lightness which is given to the gable by the +tall row of the Apostles, the solemn prominence of the figure +of our Lord above, the rich cornice-like effect of the small +Resurrection tier, the difference in height between the fourth +and fifth tiers, the concentration of the three lower tiers, the +breadth which the seated figures give to the face of the +buttresses, the arrangement of the statues and groups round +the buttresses, which makes it impossible for them all to be +seen at once, all show that one mind was busy, carefully +subordinating the parts to the whole.</p> + +<p>It may well have been Jocelin himself who planned the +subject-matter of the statuary with such admirable breadth +and balance of mind. It is easy to produce sermons in +stones, easy to sermonise in very many ways; but Jocelin did +not preach. He just tried to embody the Christian spirit +at work in the world: God made manifest in man, the great +truth of the Incarnation; and this he did in what we should +call the most modern manner, though in truth it is medieval +as well as modern. He did not conceive of Christianity as +confined within the covers of the Bible, but he took all +history, as he knew it, the patient education of man in the +Old Testament, the fulfilment of man's aspirations and God's +purpose in the New, from the birth of our Lord to the +founding of the Church, and the continuation of this church +up to his own time, with especial regard to the heroes, saints +and rulers of the Church of England. He made a "kalendar +for unlearned men," which is both a <i>Biblia Pauperum</i> and +<i>Annales Angliae</i>, because the annals of England were to him +a new Bible. "Slowly the Bible of the race is writ," a +modern writer has said, "each age, each kindred, adds a word +to it." That was the spirit of Jocelin's design; only that, +through the pomp of mighty kings and fair women and +honoured bishops, he looked to the naked truth of the judg<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span>ment +time, when mitres and crowns would remain but as +signs of an awful responsibility, and the divine justice, so +tried, so obscured on earth, would be vindicated before the +angels who are quick to do God's will, and the twelve plain +men who turned the mighty currents of the world. Such was +the spirit of a man who lived in the days of St. Francis and +St. Louis, Stephen Langton and Roger Bacon.</p> + +<p>Before commencing a detailed description of the statuary, +one must refer to Professor Cockerell, R.A., whose enthusiastic +love of the work led him to construct a theory which he +published in 1851, as an <i>Iconography of the West Front</i>. +There can be little doubt that he was right in his general +idea; there can be equally little doubt that he was wrong +in nearly every application of it. Everyone now, for instance, +takes it for granted that the south side of the front is mainly +"spiritual," devoted to ecclesiastics, while the north is +"temporal"; and that the whole of the fourth and fifth tiers +do represent certain leading historical figures. But when we +read Cockerell's reasons for identifying these figures we recoil +in dismay. His knowledge of history is superficial, of costume +he knows practically nothing; his drawings are as inaccurate +as his imagination is fertile, and he states as obvious facts the +wildest conjectures. Further reference will be found to his +book in our description of the fourth and fifth tiers. It was +at least an honest labour of love, and Cockerell deserves the +honour, as he had to endure the disadvantages, of being the +first in the field.</p> + +<p>The <b>central doorway</b> may be taken before the lowest +tier. Its soffit contains an evident addition, as if the architect +felt that it needed emphasising by some enrichment. In the +first of its four deeply-wrought mouldings a series of niches, +five on each side, with small delicately-carved figures, has +been inserted, evidently after the arch was made; they are +cut from a different stone (white lias), and are skilfully fitted +and grooved into the back of the large sunk moulding. They +add considerably to the effect of the arch, although all the +heads of the figures have been destroyed. It is characteristic +of Cockerell's random method of conjecture, that he declared +these figures to be representations of the Ten Commandments.</p> + +<p>1. The tympanum under the arch and above the double opening of the +doorway contains a quatrefoil, in which is a noble sculpture of the Madonna +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span>and Child. The head of the Mother and the upper half of the Child are +gone, but the drapery that remains is of quite perfect grace and dignity. +A serpent is under the feet of the Madonna, who is sitting on a throne; +angels censing are on either side without the quatrefoil. A good deal +of the old colour which once gave this central group a peculiar brilliancy +can still be traced on this protected sculpture; the background was +ultramarine, the mouldings red and gold. The figures were also gilded in +part, and there are marks on the wall to show that a metal nimbus was +once attached to it.</p> + +<p>2. In a canopy above the arch is another sculpture of equal beauty, +though, owing to its more exposed position, the treatment is a little +broader. It represents the coronation of Our Lady; both the heads and +all the hands are gone. The two figures are both seated on one long +bench, and our Lord leans forward to place the crown upon his Mother's +head.</p> + + +<h3>THE TIERS.</h3> + +<p>In order to avoid any possible mistake I have taken each tier from +right to left, specifying the gaps, windows, and buttresses, to facilitate +identification, and commencing with the lowest tier. I have also numbered +the figures afresh, because of the confusion which has hitherto +caused great waste of time to every one who has attempted to identify +them. Cockerell's numbers are the only ones that are at all accurate +(and he omits the two figures on the extreme south of the fourth and fifth +tiers); but, as he recommenced his enumeration with each series, they are +not much use for purposes of identification. There are mistakes and +omissions in the enumeration of the photographs, there are mistakes in the +album in the cathedral library, the photographs in the South Kensington +Museum are hopelessly muddled, and even the descriptions of the restorer, +Mr Ferrey, are so arranged that it takes days to identify them, while some +of them elude one's efforts altogether. I have, therefore, numbered the +statues and groups in a continuous order from bottom to top, so that comparison +with photographs will in the future be easy. In the case of work +most of which can only be seen from a distance, the study of photographs is +absolutely necessary for a full appreciation of their beauty, more especially +as in very many cases the photographs reveal the form which the accidents +of discoloration have partly concealed. Mr Phillips of 10 Market Place +has an almost complete set of admirable photographs, which he was enabled +to take when the scaffolding was up for the restoration of 1870-73: it is +these which Mr Ruskin has so much admired.</p> + +<p>As there are so many statues, some of inferior interest and beauty, I +have ventured to put an asterisk (*) to those which I think no one should +fail to see; and, in almost every case, I have but echoed the general +verdict.</p> + +<p><b>The Lowest Tier.</b>—This tier contains sixty-two niches, forty-three of +which are empty, so fatally convenient has their position been for the +iconoclast. Of those which remain nearly all are on the north side of the +tower, so that at first sight the tier seems to be quite empty. The loss +here has been the greater because the figures were of the finest kind, as +well as the most easily seen: those remaining are certainly of the most +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span>exquisite loveliness. Cockerell's theory that this tier represents the heralds +of the gospel, prophets and missionaries, has nothing to support it.</p> + +<p>It seems to me not unlikely that the tier was devoted to some of the most +popular saints in the calendar; the position, so near the passer-by, would +have suited this arrangement, and the front must have been singularly +deficient in saints if it were otherwise. The figures which remain, a group +of deacons, a group of bearded figures holding books, and of women bearing +religious attributes, might well stand for saints.</p> + +<p>3. <i>South Tower</i>. Male figure, much decayed, held by metal clamps.</p> + +<p>4. Male figure, much decayed, held by metal clamps.</p> + +<p><i>Rest of figures missing along west front up to</i>—</p> + +<p>5. <i>North Tower</i>. Male figure, much decayed, holds book.</p> + +<p>6. A similar figure.</p> + +<p><i>Missing</i>.</p> + +<p>7. <i>North Buttress</i>. Male figure, which held some drapery in front.</p> + +<p>8. <i>North Buttress</i>. Male figure, holding a vessel in right hand +covered with a cloth, the end of which was in left hand. [Cockerell +calls this St. Augustine, erroneously supposing this cloth to be the +pallium.]</p> + +<p>9. Beautiful female figure,* drapery resembling a chasuble; hands gone.</p> + +<p>10. Female figure with flowing hair; hands gone.</p> + +<p>11. Female figure, wimple round head, in left hand holds a vessel, +right hand is on the edge of the vessel, the fingers dipping in.</p> + +<p>12. Female figure,* hood over head, holds in right hand the foot of +a chalice, and with her left the fold of her dress in front.</p> + +<p>13. Tall male figure, bearded, holding closed book; in good preservation.</p> + +<p>14. Male figure, bearded; hands gone.</p> + +<p>15. <i>Buttress</i>. Male figure, bearded, with flowing hair; hands gone.</p> + +<p>16. <i>Buttress</i>. Male figure, bearded, holding open book in left hand; +upper part moulding away.</p> + +<p>17. Deacon* in dalmatic, alb, amice, holding open book in left +hand, right hand gone; drapery is wonderfully fine. (This +and the remaining figures are tonsured and shaven.)</p> + +<p>18. Deacon,* a beautiful figure, (apparently in dalmatic), amice; +left hand gone.</p> + +<p>19. Deacon, in girded alb, ends of girdle hanging down, wears +the folded chasuble (very rare in art) over left shoulder, +maniple; holds book with both hands.</p> + +<p><i>Missing</i>.</p> + +<p>20. <i>Buttress</i>. Deacon, in girded alb, amice, stole over left +shoulder, book in left hand. Besides ends of girdle, end of +a stole is visible on left side, as if a crossed stole had first +been carved and this end forgotten.</p> + +<p>21. <i>Buttress</i>. Deacon,* stole worn over left shoulder, maniple, +but no amice and no girdle; wears instead of alb a surplice with +full sleeves—an unusual combination.</p> + +<p><b>Second Tier</b>.—The next tier (22-53) consists of thirty-two quatrefoils, +some of which are now empty. The rest contain half-length figures of +angels, holding crowns, mitres, scrolls, or drapery in their hands.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span><b>Third Tier.</b>—This, which we may call the Bible Tier, consists of forty-eight +quatrefoils, ranged close above the quatrefoils of the second tier, and +broken in the centre by the larger sculpture of the Coronation of the +Virgin (2). The subjects are all from the Bible, those on the south from +the Old Testament, dealing with the first things, while those on the north +and on the north and east sides of the northern tower are from the New +Testament, and represent the life and mission of our Lord. The iconoclasts +seem to have concentrated their attention on those earlier New Testament +groups, which would contain the figure of our Lady, and they have made +the Crucifixion almost unrecognisable. The figures are about two feet +high.</p> + +<p><i>Empty</i>.</p> + +<p>54. The Death of Jacob.</p> + +<p>55. Isaac blessing Jacob, who leans over him.</p> + +<p>56. Meeting of Isaac and Rebecca, probably.</p> + +<p>57. Noah sacrificing on Ararat. Very fine.</p> + +<p>58. The Ark. A curious structure, raised pyramidally in four tiers, with +open arcades, in which birds and beasts are seen. Below is the Flood.</p> + +<p>59. Noah building the Ark.* He is in workman's dress, and wears a cap; +he is working at a bench, beneath which are his tools. Behind is the +ark, and an "Early English" tree.</p> + +<p>60. God decreeing the Deluge.* In great wrath Jehovah approaches a man +who sits pensively on a hill-side: from behind the man's head springs a +demon. The figure of Jehovah is admirably expressed.</p> + +<p><i>Empty</i>.</p> + +<p>61. Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac, who is bound on a bundle of wood. +Cockerell called this the Sacrifice of Cain, which certainly suits its +position better.</p> + +<p>62. Adam delves and Eve spins. Fine.</p> + +<p><i>Empty</i>.</p> + +<p>63. Jehovah in the Garden. A draped figure, addressing two figures naked +and ashamed.</p> + +<p>64. The Temptation. The serpent's body is coiled round the tree near +Adam, and his head hovers above with an apple in the mouth. Adam is +already eating the fruit.</p> + +<p>65. God placing Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.</p> + +<p>66. The Creation of Eve.</p> + +<p>67. The Creation of Adam. The figure of the Almighty in each of these +three is magnificent, especially in the last.</p> + +<p><i>Empty</i>.</p> + +<p><b>Over central doorway.</b> 2. Coronation of the Virgin (p. <a href="#Page_34">34</a>).</p> + +<p><i>Here follow eighteen New Testament subjects.</i></p> + +<p>68. St. John the Evangelist*; he is winged. A book rests on the back of +an eagle. The idea of inspiration could not be more finely expressed.</p> + +<p><i>Empty</i>. (Perhaps the Annunciation was here.)</p> + +<p><i>Empty</i>. (Perhaps the Visitation.)</p> + +<p>69. The Nativity. Mutilated.</p> + +<p><i>Empty</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Empty</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Empty</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Empty</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Empty</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Empty</i>.</p> + +<p>70. Christ among the Doctors: the Holy Child is a very small figure on a +pedestal. A most expressive group.</p> + +<p>71. St. John Baptist, clothed in camels' hair, in the wilder<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span>ness. +(An angel appearing from the clouds, broken off since 1862. The +fragment is now in No. 72).</p> + +<p>72. Figures in critical attitudes. Perhaps the Sermon on the Mount.</p> + +<p><i>Empty</i>.</p> + +<p>73. Christ in the Wilderness, probably.</p> + +<p>74. Figures in intent attitudes. Perhaps the Mission of the Apostles.</p> + +<p>75. Five figures seated at a table. Perhaps the Anointing of Christ's +feet.</p> + +<p>76. Figure on a Mount surrounded by many figures. Perhaps the Feeding of +the Five Thousand. <b>North side of Tower.</b></p> + +<p>77. Christ, sitting, with other figures. Perhaps the Feeding of the Four +Thousand.</p> + +<p>78. The Transfiguration.* A fine composition, two of the Apostles +crouching in the foreground.</p> + +<p>79. The Entry into Jerusalem. Under the city gate two men strew clothes +and branches: from the walls and tower many people are looking.</p> + +<p>80. The Betrayal. Chief priest with mitred head-dress in centre: winged +devil holds up the train of right figure. On left a figure holds open a +money-box.</p> + +<p>81. The Last Supper.* The Virgin kneels to receive the Communion from +her Son: St. John's head rests on His bosom. The drapery is very fine. +Underneath are a bottle and a basket.</p> + +<p><i>Empty</i>.</p> + +<p>82. Christ before Pilate.</p> + +<p>83. Christ bearing the Cross. Mutilated.</p> + +<p>84. The Elevation of the Cross. Much mutilated.</p> + +<p>85. The Deposition. Much mutilated.</p> + +<p><i>Empty</i>.</p> + +<p>86. The Resurrection. An angel on either side, guards below.</p> + +<p>87. Pentecost: the Birthday of Holy Church. A dignified group of +figures.</p> + +<p><b>Fourth and Fifth Tiers.</b>—The fourth and fifth tiers contained at +least 120 figures (about a dozen of which are gone), varying in height +from 7 ft. 10 in. to 8 ft. 1 in., a few running as high as 8 ft. 10 in. +They no doubt represent the kings, bishops, and heroes of English +history from Egbert to Henry II. Cockerell was probably right in +his general interpretation of the series, but it is easy to prove that he is +wrong in many of the names he gives. It is not so easy to suggest any +better, and therefore his names have stuck to the figures, since people +naturally like to know them by something more interesting than a number. +I shall therefore adopt his nomenclature, with the admission that equally +good grounds could be given in almost every case for some other theory. +Besides Mr Ferrey's account (<i>Inst. Brit. Arch</i>., 1870), quoted in inverted +commas, Cockerell's descriptions, inaccurate as they are, have been consulted, +and also Mr Planché's criticism of Cockerell.</p> + +<p>The word <i>Buttress</i> means that the figure (generally a sitting one) is +on the west face of the buttress in question. Bishops ("Bp."), unless +otherwise stated, wear the usual vestments—mitre, chasuble, dalmatic, +tunicle, stole, maniple, alb, and apparelled amice. Kings ("K.") and +Queens ("Q.") wear crowns. A favourite attitude is described as "holding +cord"; this cord being the lace or cord of the mantle, which crossed the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span>chest and prevented that garment from falling off the shoulders. The +mantle seems to have had an uncomfortable tendency to slip down, and +thus it became a habit constantly to pull the cord forward, whence the +frequency of this attitude. This cord was wrongly described by Cockerell +as a necklace, with which it has, of course, no connection. The word +"trampling" refers to another common feature in these tiers; kings are +generally represented as trampling on a small figure under their feet, +to signify their success over their enemies. The figures of the fifth +tier are rather taller than those of the fourth. The first twenty +figures on our list, those of the fourth tier up to King Ina, may +represent the twenty bishops of the diocese from Athelm to Jocelin, in +direct order, since the corresponding series of the fifth tier contains +figures which cannot be those of bishops. I have, however, kept to +Cockerell's names to avoid confusion.</p> + +<p><b>Fourth Tier.</b>—88. <i>South Tower</i>—<i>Buttress</i>—Sitting Bp.; much +decayed, supported by metal clamps.</p> + +<p>89. Bp. Savaric. Much defaced, head grotesquely so.</p> + +<p>90. Bp. Robert. Much defaced, head grotesquely.</p> + +<p><i>Missing</i>.</p> + +<p>91. <i>Buttress</i>. Bp. Reginald de Bohun, sitting; somewhat decayed.</p> + +<p>92. Bp. Ethelweard, good drapery, well—preserved; no hair or beard.</p> + +<p>93. Sighelm, good drapery, well-preserved; ring of curly hair and beard.</p> + +<p>94. Alfry, in hood; large curly beard.</p> + +<p>95. Etheleage, monastic dress, cowl and scapular; large curly beard.</p> + +<p>96. Bp. Asser. Short and stout figure, in attitude of benediction.</p> + +<p>97. Bp. Heahmund. Short and stout figure, in attitude of benediction.</p> + +<p>98. <i>Buttress</i>. Bp. Wolfhelm. Fine seated figure, in attitude of +benediction.</p> + +<p>99. Bp. Ealhstan. Stout common-place figure; rather mutilated.</p> + +<p>100. Bp. Wilbert. Stout common-place figure; rather mutilated.</p> + +<p>101. Bp. Denefrith. Stout common-place figure; better preserved.</p> + +<p>102. Bp. Ethelnod. Stout common-place figure; better preserved.</p> + +<p>103. <i>Buttress</i>. Bp. Aethelhelm, first Bishop of Wells* (reproduced on +p. <a href="#Page_22">22</a>). Noble figure, sitting in attitude of benediction.</p> + +<p>104. Bp. Herewald, in attitude of benediction.</p> + +<p>105. Bp. Forthere, head bent slightly forward.</p> + +<p>106. Bp. Ealdhelm. A fine figure. <i>Central Window (South).</i></p> + +<p>107. K. Ina, looking over right shoulder, hand gone. (These central +figures, Ina and Ethelburga, are supposed to be of later date than the +rest.) <i>Central Window</i>.</p> + +<p>108. Q. Ethelburga. Wears the long kirtle with girdle, from which are +hung an ink-bottle and aulmoniere. <i>Central Window (North).</i></p> + +<p>109. K. Egbert, trampling, bearded; cloak falls in a graceful sweep from +right to left.</p> + +<p>110. K. Ethelwulf, bearded. A very short figure, but raised on high +stone (crouching figure?) higher than the others.</p> + +<p>111. K. Ethelbald; decayed.</p> + +<p>112. <i>Buttress</i>. K. Edgar, sitting, flat cap on head.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span> +113. K. Ethelbert, smooth face, trampling; apparently holds fragment of +sceptre in right hand, cord of mantle with left.</p> + +<p>114. K. Ethelred I., smooth face, trampling, gracefully draped cloak, +holds fragment of sceptre apparently in right, and something indistinct +in left hand.</p> + +<p>115. K. Edwy, left arm raised, holding cloak, which is over right +shoulder.</p> + +<p>116. K. Edward the Martyr, bearded, holding cup (his usual symbol) in +left hand, trampling. This is one of the most likely ascriptions.</p> + +<p>117. <i>Buttress</i>. K. Edmund, sitting, right arm uplifted, left resting on +knee. Fast decaying.</p> + +<p>118. K. Ethelred the Unready, bearded, short figure, trampling, but the +trampled figure leans easily on its elbow.</p> + +<p>119. K. Cnut, bearded, short figure, trampling, but the trampled figure +is apparently still struggling.</p> + +<p>120. Q. Osburga,* in long supertunic, with ample sleeves, falling in +folds over the feet. The tight sleeve of her kirtle appears on left arm, +which holds cord of mantle. Head and neck in the wimple which was not in +thirteenth century distinctive of nun's dress. Book in right hand.</p> + +<p>121. Q. Emma, in flowing supertunic with ample sleeves, and wimple; +hands gone.</p> + +<p>122. Harold I., no head covering, trampling; hands touching girdle.</p> + +<p>123. Harthacnut, like II old, but hands and part of face gone.</p> + +<p>124. <i>Buttress</i>. K. Edred, sitting, right hand on knee, left raised to +cord, drapery crossed.</p> + +<p>125. Q. Edgitha, mantle falls round over left foot.</p> + +<p>126. Edmund Ironside.* Knight in surcoat over chain armour, hauberk but +no helmet; right arm and left hand gone, but head turned to left and +attitude is that of drawing or sheathing his sword.</p> + +<p>127. Harold. Knight, hauberk and surcoat of mail, cylindrical helmet, +shield on left side; delapidated.</p> + +<p>128. <i>North Side of Tower. Buttress.</i> Edward the Confessor, in cap; +sitting in attitude of judgment (Planché), left hand resting on right +ankle, this leg being crossed over left knee.</p> + +<p>129. Prince Richard.* Crowned figure of great beauty, bearded, head +slightly bent to left with a melancholy expression; hands gone.</p> + +<p>130. Robert Curthouse,* bearded, the right hand draws aside part of the +surcoat, exposing right leg in curious hose; left leg covered by +surcoat.</p> + +<p>131. K. Rufus,* bearded, right hand holds cord of mantle, left holds +border of mantle across his body.</p> + +<p>132. Q. Matilda, flowing hair, holds mantle in left hand.</p> + +<p>133. Emperor Henry, crowned, holds cord of mantle, with right hand +fingering end of his girdle.</p> + +<p>134. K. Stephen, right hand holds cord of mantle, left on girdle.</p> + +<p>135. K. Henry II., end of cloak thrown over shoulder, holds the fold +with both hands; in good preservation.</p> + +<p>136. <i>Buttress</i>. K. William the Conqueror, sitting in menacing +attitude, elbows projecting, and hands upon knees.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span>137. Prince Henry. A dignified figure; hands gone.</p> + +<p>138. Prince Geoffrey. Beautiful figure, head gone, holds cord of mantle, +loose sleeves, and good drapery. (Ferrey is wrong in calling this a +female figure.)</p> + +<p>139. Q. Maude the Good, flowing hair, left hand on girdle of supertunic, +dress fastened at neck with "a beautiful jewel" (Ferrey).</p> + +<p>140. Adelais. Graceful figure, with flowing hair.</p> + +<p>141. <i>Buttress</i>. K. Henry I., sitting in defiant attitude, right arm +akimbo, left knee raised, foot on pedestal.</p> + +<p><i>Missing</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Missing</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Missing</i>.</p> + +<p>142. K. John.* A beautiful figure.</p> + +<p>143. Henry III., no crown, standing, but right knee raised to suit the +weathering of aisle roof.</p> + +<p><b>Fifth Tier</b>.—144. <i>South Tower. Buttress on the south side</i>. Sitting +Bp., supported by metal clamps.</p> + +<p>145. Bp. J. de Villula; hands gone, much decayed, clamped.</p> + +<p>146. Bp. Gisa; hands gone.</p> + +<p>147. Bp. Duduc*; right hand gone, book in left.</p> + +<p>148. <i>Buttress</i>. Bp. Lyfing; decayed.</p> + +<p>149. Bp. Merewit; hands gone.</p> + +<p>150. Bp. Brihtwine; hands gone.</p> + +<p>151. Aethelwine. Fine figure with long wavy beard spreading at end, hood +and mantle, aulmoniere at girdle.</p> + +<p>152. Burwold, tall bearded figure in hood, satchel (?) hanging from +girdle.</p> + +<p>153. Bp. Aelfwine.* Beautiful figure in cowl, curly hair and beard, +finely draped habit with loose sleeves.</p> + +<p>154. Bp. Sigegar, book in left hand.</p> + +<p>155. <i>Buttress</i>. Bp. Brithelm, head turned to right; decayed.</p> + +<p>156. Bp. Cyneward.</p> + +<p>157. Bp. Wulfhelm. A fine figure.</p> + +<p>158. Bp. Elfege. A fine figure.</p> + +<p>159. Edfleda, flowing hair, in supertunic or surcoat with long and wide +sleeves, head covered with veil, which hangs behind, no wimple. Nothing +conventual to suggest Edfleda.</p> + +<p>160. <i>Buttress</i>. K. Edward the Elder. Fine figure, right hand on knees, +left on cord of mantle.</p> + +<p><i>Missing</i>.</p> + +<p>161. Edgitha. Very tall figure, right hand on cord, left holds end of +veil.</p> + +<p><i>Missing</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Central Window</i> (<i>South</i>).</p> + +<p>162. Q. Edgiva, kirtle only, with crown and veil, no wimple.</p> + +<p><i>Central Window.</i></p> + +<p>163. Ethilda. Wears supertunic over her kirtle, veil and wimple.</p> + +<p><i>Central Window</i> (<i>North</i>).</p> + +<p>164. Hugh. A sword hangs from his girdle on left side.</p> + +<p>165. Elgiva.</p> + +<p>166. Q. Edgiva; hands gone.</p> + +<p>167. <i>Buttress</i>. K. Ethelstan, defiant attitude, right foot on stool, +wears brooch.</p> + +<p>168. K. Charles the Simple. A squat figure with very big head, +trampling.</p> + +<p>169. Otho, close-fitting tunic, over which is mantle with handsome +fastening.</p> + +<p><i>Missing</i>.</p> + +<p>170. Guthrum. Knight in surcoat, mail hauberk and chausses, shield on +left side.</p> + +<p>171. <i>Buttress</i>. K. Alfred, seated; both hands gone, front decayed, and +clamped.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span></p> + +<p>172. Earl of Mercia.* Knight in +helmet with cross-slit, holding right hand up and shield upon left arm; +the surcoat turned over below the waist shows a suit of mail. Well +preserved.</p> + +<p>173. St. Neot (more probably St. Decuman, as St. Neot was not beheaded). +Bp. holding with both hands the upper part of his head, which has been +cut off across the brows.</p> + +<p>174. Ethelfleda,* the Lady of the Mercians. A striking and beautiful +figure with flowing hair, long veil hanging below the waist, supertunic +held by brooch, but without sleeves, the tight sleeves of her kirtle +being visible to the shoulders.</p> + +<p>175. Ethelward. Woman with flowing hair, veil; hands gone.</p> + +<p>176. Grimbald. Priest; hands gone.</p> + +<p>177. St. Elfege, Archb.; hands gone; a noble figure.</p> + +<p>178. <i>Buttress</i>. St. Dunstan, upper part decayed.</p> + +<p>179. Turketul. Short figure, trampling, in very pointed cloak, big head +in cap.</p> + +<p>180. John Scotus.* A beautiful figure, with exquisitively fine drapery +that looks as thin as gauze.</p> + +<p><i>Missing</i>.</p> + +<p>181. <i>North Side of Tower.—Buttress</i>. Robert, Archbishop of Canterbury, +standing, holding book in right hand, left hand gone; no mitre.</p> + +<p>182. Q. Elgiva, drapery falls from left shoulder, is folded over right +arm; book in left hand.</p> + +<p>183. Q. Edgitha. Tall, gaunt figure; veil falls in long folds to knee, +right arm close to side, left hand holds cord.</p> + +<p>184. Q. Edburga, circlet round head, brooch on her breast, holds drapery +in right hand.</p> + +<p><i>Missing</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Missing</i>.</p> + +<p>185. Christina, Abbess of Romsey.* Beautiful female figure, holding +box in left hand: "her dress is peculiar": one end of veil is caught +over right shoulder, the other falls down in front on right side (p. <a href="#Page_31">31</a>).</p> + +<p>186. Wulston of Winchester, bearded, "with distended ears"; right hand +gone.</p> + +<p>187. <i>Buttress</i>. Archb. Aldred of York, sitting; "mitre modern," it is +conical in shape.</p> + +<p>188. Edgar Atheling. Knight, spurred, in surcoat only, with sword girded +outside, no mail, but close-fitting cap and fillet on head: the fillet +was used for the large cylindrical helmet to rest on. He carries what +may be a palmer's hat (Cockerell points out that Edgar went on a +pilgrimage); but Planché says it must be a small Saxon buckler, as +pilgrims did not carry swords. It certainly looks like a hat.</p> + +<p>189. Robert the Saxon. Knight in hauberk, without mail, but feet +spurred, cap on head, shield and sword.</p> + +<p>190. Falk of Anjou. Knight in hauberk and chausses of mail, hood of +hauberk enclosing whole head except a portion of the face: on head is +the thick fillet. He covers his body with a shield. His surcoat is +deeply jagged.</p> + +<p>191. Robert of Normandy. Knight, in hauberk and complete suit of mail, +in good preservation, shield with boss on it held down: he wears +cyclindrical helmet, his eyes and nose being visible through the slit.</p> + +<p>192. <i>Buttress</i>. B. Roger of Salisbury, sitting, without mitre.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span><i>Missing</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Missing</i>.</p> + +<p>193. Female figure, holding drapery with right arm, left hand on side.</p> + +<p>194. St. Nicholas, the patron saint of baptism, stands in water up to +knees, holding a child in each arm. This ascription is approved by +Planché. (He is commonly called by children "the pancake man," the +conventional water suggesting round cakes).</p> + +<p>195. Female figure, in good preservation, but clamped in a sloping +position, drapery good.</p> + +<p><b>The Resurrection Tier</b>.—The sixth tier (195-283) consists of a series +of small canopies which run continuously under the cornice that finishes +the main division of the front. Above and around, the spandrels are +filled with beautiful foliage most boldly undercut. Each of the +eighty-eight canopies (of which thirty are on the north side) contains a +figure, or group of figures, representing the Resurrection of the dead. +In spite of a rather defective anatomy, these figures are singularly +impressive, "startling in significance, pathos, and expression," are +Cockerell's words. They are naked—crowns, mitres, and tonsures alone +remaining to distinguish their office. They awaken by degrees, heave up +the lids of their tombs, and draw themselves up slowly, as if scarcely +yet awake. Some sit in a strange dreamy posture with folded arms, some +seem expectant, others are in attitudes of fear, hope, defiance, and +despair. There are none of the grotesque accessories which are too +common in ancient representations of this subject, but the awful feeling +of a great awakening shivers along this range of naked, grey, stone +figures. It is probably the earliest representation of the subject in +art; it is certainly the most profound and spiritual.</p> + +<p><b>The Angels' Tier</b>.—This is immediately above the Resurrection Tier, +and occupies the lower part of the gable only. The angelic figures stand +in nine low niches with well-moulded trefoil heads that rested on blue +lias shafts; the two niches on the returns of the buttresses also +contain angels, which are represented as blowing trumpets. In all +probability the nine figures symbolise the nine orders of the heavenly +hierarchy, and I have ventured to give the names which the attributes +and position suggest to my mind as the most likely. Mr Ferrey's account +is quoted in inverted commas: it must be remembered that he had the +advantage of a close inspection from the scaffolding.</p> + +<p>284. Thrones. "Angel holding an open book," two wings, long robe, facing +to his right.</p> + +<p>285. Cherubim. "Seraph," with four wings, "apparently holding a banner," +decayed.</p> + +<p>286. Seraphim. "Seraph," with four wings, "entirely feathered, with bare +legs and feet," face gone.</p> + +<p>287. Dominations. "Angel wearing a helmet," in vigorous attitude, two +wings, "too dilapidated to make out what its attributes are."</p> + +<p>288. (<i>Central Figure</i>). Powers. "Beautifully robed, holding a sceptre," +two wings: the dress is very ample and majestic.</p> + +<p>289. Virtues. "Robed in a short tunic, with an ornamental border, the +legs are encased in armour," wears "a jewelled cap," two wings.</p> + +<p>290. Principalities. "A Seraph, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span>entirely feathered, holding a vessel shaped like a bowl," with flames +issuing out of it, the legs and feet being also enveloped in "wavy lines +of flames: probably the avenging angel"; four wings.</p> + +<p>291. Archangels. "Apparently holding a crown in the right and left +hands, close to his breast," long robe covering the feet; two wings.</p> + +<p>292. Angels. "Carrying a regal or small hand organ," in left hand, four +wings, decayed; apparently bearing a wand in right hand.</p> + +<p><b>The Apostles' Tier</b>.—The next tier, that of the Apostles, who are thus +raised above the angels, contains twelve figures of imposing design, +later in style than the rest of the statuary. The figures are hollowed +out at the back so as to press less heavily on the tier beneath. The +arrangement of these niches is very happily managed, so as to avoid any +monotony in the range of twelve similar niches; for, besides the natural +division formed by the small attached shafts between the figures, an +additional projecting shaft in every third division forms the tier into +four large bays with three figures in each. The capitals of these niches +are remarkable, the graceful foliage being disposed in a very free +manner, in some cases growing upwards, in others bent down, but always +true to the outline of the capital. Of the figures themselves the +central one, in the place of honour, and taller than the rest, is St. +Andrew. The others are not all so easy to name, the attributes of some +having disappeared; and, although Cockerell gave names to them all (some +of which were certainly wrong), we may content ourselves with the +following list, which at least is accurate so far as it goes:—</p> + +<p>293. No symbol in hand, which is covered with drapery. (Carter's drawing +represents a staff or spear, but he is quite unreliable, though it is +occasionally possible that the attributes he draws did exist when he saw +the figures a century ago.)</p> + +<p>294. Book (?) in right hand, a vessel or bag of cylindrical form is +apparently suspended from the left arm. Perhaps St. Matthew with his +purse.</p> + +<p>295. Holds something, which may be the fuller's club, in which case the +figure is that of St. James the Less; forked beard.</p> + +<p>296. Club (?) in hand, long curly hair and beard. There is something +near the knee, which may be a palmer's hat. (Carter drew this figure as +St. Bartholomew with knife and skin.)</p> + +<p>297. Carter drew this figure as St. Peter with the keys.</p> + +<p>298. St. Andrew with his cross; he is so tall that his head fills the +upper portion of the canopy.</p> + +<p>299. St. John holding the chalice, which has large bowl and short stem; +wavy hair. This is the only figure not bearded.</p> + +<p>300. St. James the Greater. Staff in right hand, large satchel on left +side hung from hand over right shoulder, book in left hand (the book of +the Gospels with which St. James is always represented, in addition to +the pilgrim's stiff and scrip). He wears a high cap.</p> + +<p>301. Perhaps St. Paul (who is often represented among the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span>Twelve), with sword and book.</p> + +<p>302. St. Philip holds drapery in right hand. Ferrey says the five loaves +can be distinguished.</p> + +<p>303. Long hair and head-dress like a veil bound by a fillet round the +brows, forked beard, book in left hand, girdle.</p> + +<p>304. This figure occasioned much controversy, owing to Carter having +drawn it with a crown. Cockerell therefore attributed it to St. Peter, +and said that the crown showed Bishop Jocelin's papistical tendencies! +Planché scoffed at this, remarking with truth that none of the Apostles +are ever represented with crowns, but he caused even greater confusion +by suggesting that the figure stood for a Saxon king, and that the tier, +in spite of the Apostolic number, did not represent the twelve Apostles. +If he had looked at the actual figures instead of Carter's drawings he +would have seen that there is no crown at all. In the photographs this +is still clearer, the Apostle's head being evidently covered by nothing +more imposing than his own long hair or a veil like that of the +preceding figure.</p> + +<p><b>The Uppermost Tier</b>.—The whole magnificent series was fitly crowned by +this group (305), of which only the lower part of the central figure +remains. That, however, sufficiently attests the noble character of the +rest: it represents our Lord seated in glory within a vesica-shaped +niche. The feet are pierced. It seems to have been mutilated by +Monmouth's followers, for it still bears the marks of their bullets. The +two figures in the niches on either side must also have been destroyed +at this time, for they are shown in a print in Dugdale's <i>Monasticon</i>. +Ferrey cannot have seen this print when he suggested that the figures +were of angels censing, for they are there given as representing Our +Lady (new covenant) and John Baptist (old covenant).</p> + +<p><a name="II_3" id="II_3"></a><b>The Western Towers</b>.—The projection of these towers +beyond the aisles of the nave gives its great breadth to the +west front, which is 147 feet across, as against the 116 feet of +the almost contemporary cathedral of Amiens, which is twice +its height. It is an unusual arrangement, of which there is no +exactly similar example except at Rouen. Above the screen +the towers are Perpendicular, the southern tower having been +completed towards the end of the fourteenth, and the northern +at the beginning of the fifteenth century. They are thus later +additions to the original design of the front, and make it more +difficult for us to realise the effect that was first intended.</p> + +<p>These two towers are very nearly alike, but the southern, or +Harewell, tower is some forty years the earlier of the two, and +belongs to the earliest days of the Perpendicular style, Bishop +Harewell having died in 1386. The northern tower was built +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46" /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span>with a sum of money left for the purpose by Bishop Bubwith, +who died in 1424, and his arms are carved high up on a +buttress upon the north side, those on the west being a modern +copy. In one of its two western niches is a figure of the +bishop in prayer. Both the towers have two belfry windows on +each side, tiny battlements, and a stair-turret on the outer western +angle; in both the buttresses are carried up, with but slight reduction +in bulk, two-thirds of their height and then finished +with small pinnacles. There are, however, certain slight differences +between the two towers; their height is not exactly equal, +and there are no niches on the earlier one. The south tower +contains a peal of eight bells; that on the north is traditionally +considered "rotten," but to all appearance it is sound enough.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image11" id="image11"></a> +<a href="images/image11h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image11.jpg" + alt="The Central Tower From The South-east." + title="The Central Tower From The South-east." /> +</a></div> + +<p><a name="II_4" id="II_4"></a><b>The Central Tower</b> is Early English to the level of the +roof. The two upper stages are Decorated, but there is a +curious inter-mixture of styles in them, owing to the repairs +that were made after the settlements of 1321. The chapter +seemed determined to allow no possibility of another accident, +for besides the inverted arches and buttresses of the interior, the +original high narrow windows of the upper part of the tower +have been fortified by later insertions, by way of bonding and +stiffening the structure, which had been so endangered by +the sinking of its piers below. There are, however, no signs +of any rents in the Decorated part. The tower has square +angular turrets, and is divided vertically into three main compartments, +each division being marked by a small pinnacle, +and the turrets by large compound pinnacles. It is an interesting +tower to ascend, the rents in the wall being plainly +discernible; and from the summit there is a fine view of Wells +and of the valley in which the city stands.</p> + +<p>The<a name="II_5" id="II_5"></a> <b>North Porch</b> is perhaps the finest piece of architecture +at Wells, though it generally receives far less attention than it +deserves. It is certainly the oldest part of the church, and +must have been the first work which Bishop Reginald undertook, +about 1185; in style it retains much of the Norman +influence. The mouldings of the noble entrance arch are +numerous and bold, and twice the Norman zig-zag occurs, +though enriched with leaves in a manner that suggests the +coming Gothic. A weather moulding, exquisitely carved with +deeply undercut foliage, covers the arch. Its capitals on the +east side contain figures among their leaves representing the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span>martyrdom of St. Edmund the King: the first three of the +caps have the saint in the midst, crowned, and transfixed with +a number of conventionally-arranged arrows, and his enemies, +two on either side, drawing their bows; the fourth cap shows +an executioner cutting off the saint's head; in the fifth +the head is found by the wolf; the sixth has been partly cut +away, but the body of the wolf and the heads of two figures +remain.</p> + +<p>In the spandrels above are two square panels containing a +cockatrice, and another strange beast. The gable is filled with +an arcade, the central member of which is corbelled off to +make room underneath for three little lancet windows which +light the parvise chamber within. The buttresses of the porch +have slender shafts at the angles, which are finished off with +foliage of a remarkably free and graceful kind; it should be +noticed as an example of those subtle touches that are so +abundant in this porch. On the buttresses are pinnacles with +an arcade, at the top of which little openings cast a shadow +that gives a lightness to the whole effect. A smaller pinnacle +is at the apex of the gable, and underneath it an ornament of +twisted foliage.</p> + +<p>Nothing could well surpass the interior of this porch; the +delicacy, and refinement which are shown in every detail are +the more amazing when we consider that the architect and his +masons had only just emerged from the large methods of Norman +building. A range of three arcades on either side is divided +in the midst by three shafts boldly detached from the pear-shaped +moulding round which they are grouped. These shafts +carry the ribs of the groined vault, and divide the porch into +two square bays. Their capitals are very boldly undercut, and +bear distinct traces of Romanesque influence; indeed, the +volutes of the cap on the west side give it almost the appearance +of a very freely-carved Corinthian capital. Those at the +angles are of like fashion, except that on the north-east, which +has fuller and freer foliage, wherein stands a man shooting with +his bow at a bird, the whole most vigorously conceived.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image12" id="image12"></a> +<a href="images/image12h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image12.jpg" + alt="The North Porch." + title="The North Porch." /> +</a></div> + +<p>In the uppermost arcade the little touch of foliage that is +worked on to the junction of the mullions (which are made up +of four pear-shaped mouldings) illustrates the love of delicate +things that is so characteristic of this architect. Below is a +projecting double arcade, behind which, against the wall, is a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50" /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span>third row of arches: the outer mouldings intersect and the +abaci of the outer caps are finished off in a carefully restrained +curl of foliage; those on the soffit are deeply undercut, by +means of which a very black shadow is secured. All the +capitals are carved with the stiff-leafed foliage; and in the +spandrels are grotesque beasts, full of character. The string-course +below is finished with dragons who bend round and +swallow the end of the string, their tails (on the west side) +twisting right along the moulding. It is significant of the free +way in which the masons were employed, that the carving varies +very much on the two sides. The grotesques in the spandrels +above mentioned are finest on the east side, but the dragons of +the string course are best on the west side, where their +expressions, as they bite the moulding, are full of life and +humour. On this western side, too, the foliage which fills the +spandrels of the lowest arcade is at its best; it is indeed the +purest and truest piece of decorative work in the whole +cathedral. Each moulding in this beautiful porch, from the +filleted ribs of the groins to the bands round the shafts, and +the moulded edge of the stone bench, is most carefully thought +out, and adapted to its position, in a way that every architect +will appreciate. The double doorway which leads into the +church has an unusual and most effective moulding on its +jambs, very large and simple, with slight projections worked +upon it: the inner moulding of the enclosing arch, however, +is a boldly projecting zig-zag, the supporting capitals of which +have two figures, one in a cope, the other a bishop in a very +pointed chasuble. The central pillar is of much later date. +Above is a square recess filled with later masonry, where +perhaps a figure was once inserted.</p> + +<p>Most happily, the North Porch has been spared from the +restorer's hand. It is a unique and most beautiful example of +early work; any restoration of it would practically destroy it, +and would be an unpardonable crime. The hungry eye of +the modern vandal is sure to seize on this piece of virgin work, +sooner or later; for its very purity will tempt him. We only +hope that when that day comes the Chapter will be faithful to +their trust.</p> + +<p>The <a name="II_6" id="II_6"></a><b>gable end</b> of the <b>north transept</b>, which must be very +near to the north porch in date, is a very similar example of the +early work. It is flanked by turrets which are capped with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span>pinnacles; both turrets, pinnacles and wall are rich with +arcading, the effect of which is especially charming in the +gable, where, by a happy device, the weather moulding is made +to curve suddenly over the two topmost arches, filling the angle +at the apex of the coping, and leaving a little space between +it and the two arches to be occupied by foliage.</p> + +<p><a name="II_7" id="II_7"></a>The general character of the <b>walls</b> is distinctly Transitional; +the buttresses are almost as low, broad, shallow and massive +as in Norman work; and the windows, though now filled with +Perpendicular tracery, are so broad that, were they but round-headed, +they would look more Norman than much real Norman +work.</p> + +<p>The richness of exterior effect is much increased by a most +graceful Decorated <b>parapet</b>, which is carried all round the +church on the wall of both nave and aisles. As for the masonry +as a whole, with the exception of the west front nothing could +be sounder and more skilfully executed. Mr Britton's opinion +was that "perhaps there is not a church in the kingdom of the +same age where the stone has been so well chosen, better put +together, and where it remains in so perfect a state: this +deserves the particular notice and study of architects."<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">5</a></p> + +<p>The <a name="II_8" id="II_8"></a><b>Chain Gate</b>, one of the peculiar glories of Wells, +is really a bridge over the roadway, built by Bishop +Beckington and his executors, to connect the chapter-house +staircase with the vicars' close. Freeman spoke of it as +a "marvel of ingenuity," yet perhaps its excellence consists +rather in its simplicity. A covered way was needed to the +close, but the road lay between, and so a bridge was built; +the bridge had to rest on something: three arches were +therefore made, one large for carts, and two small for +foot-passengers; a further space had to be spanned between +the road and the staircase: the bridge was therefore +continued on the same level, but, as the ground here was +lower, the arch on this side was built on a lower level. +Furthermore, the two ends of the bridge not being exactly +opposite to one another, the bridge had to turn at a slight +angle where it reaches the road. It is just such simple +adaptation of means to an end that gave his chance to a +medieval architect; it is this that gives what is called its +picturesqueness to an ancient town, it is this that makes +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span>nature so picturesque. A modern architect would have +built his bridge in a straight line across the road, and have +pulled down something to avoid the irregularity; he would +not have had the sense of proportion which alone was +needed to make utility supremely beautiful. The builder +of the Chain Gate just used his opportunities to their very +best. He saw that but a small thing was wanted, that the +close must not be dwarfed; so he kept the work little and +delicate, rich and light: he made its chief beauty to +lie in its <i>bijou</i> character. Yet he preserved its dignity by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span>the wide opening of the central arch, the height of which +is emphasised by the smallness of the two arches on either +side. But although the two small arches effect so much +by their contrast with the large one, the harmony of the gateway +is preserved by the panelling above them which marks this +part of the bridge off from the rest. On the south of the +gate is a blank wall, supported by a buttress which was +wanted here, and so here was put. On the south of the +buttress is the lower arch which is so admirable a foil both +to the height of the main gateway and the delicacy of the +windows. A correctly-minded architect would not have +tolerated this blank wall and irregularly-placed arch; but +substitute what you will for the wall, or alter the height +of the arch, or replace both by an arcade, and the dignity +of the little gateway is gone. It may further be noticed +that the builder kept the upper and lower stages very +distinct, and made the upper storey as clearly a bridge as +the lower is a gateway: the charming little windows run +in a continuous range over blank wall, gate, and all, but +they are grouped closer together over the gate. A battlemented +parapet finishes the top of the bridge. Niches are +placed in the midst of the two windows over the gate; +they contain graceful statues of St. Andrew and other saints. +In the wide moulding of the string course there are angels, +curiously placed in a horizontal position, as well as the +stags' heads of Beckington's arms.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image13" id="image13"></a> +<a href="images/image13h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image13.jpg" + alt="The Bishop's Eye." + title="The Bishop's Eye." /> +</a></div> + +<p>Passing under the Chain Bridge a good view of the +<a name="II_9" id="II_9"></a><b>chapter-house</b> is obtained. It is a massive, buttressed octagon, +the lower stage marked by the small broad barred windows +of the undercroft, the next by the rather squat traceried +windows of the house itself, while under the cornice is an +open arcade. The gargoyles are interesting. A parapet, +different in design and inferior to that of the church itself, +finishes the building. From this part of the road, there +is a good view of the cathedral in one of its most characteristic +aspects;—the Lady Chapel, the low buildings of the +north-eastern transept and retro-choir, the chapter-house in +the foreground, all lying on ground below the level of the +road, and over the Chain Bridge a glimpse of the north +transept gable and the north-west tower.</p> + +<p>A queer corner, hidden by a thick tree, is formed between the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span> +chapter-house and the choir aisle; in spite of the obscure +position, a fine gargoyle of the head and shoulders of a man, +carved in unusually colossal proportions, is placed here at a +low altitude, to carry off the water that must gather at the +junction of aisle with undercroft passage. Through the walls +that rise high on either side a capital glimpse of the tower can +be had.</p> + +<p>From the same road, opposite the prebendal house (now +allotted to the Principal of the Theological College), which has +a picturesque Perpendicular doorway with a window above, +the grouping of the Lady Chapel with the rest of the church +can be well seen.</p> + +<p>The rich and light appearance of the <b>east end</b> is due not only +to the charm of its tracery, which contrasts so well with the +network of the Lady Chapel windows, and to the parapet which +rises slightly in the centre, but also to the three lights which +pierce the gable; of these the upper is diamond-shaped, and +thus the masonry that is left has the appearance of a stout +<span class="monument">Y</span> cross.</p> + +<p><a name="II_10" id="II_10"></a><b>From the South-East</b>.—One of the most interesting +views of the exterior is from the lovely grass-plot on the east +of the cloisters, where once stood the cloister Lady Chapel, +and where the vicars were formerly buried. It is being again +used as a cemetery, which is unfortunate, since there are few +things more irreligiously dismal than a modern burial-ground, +and already a cluster of marble and granite monuments has +arisen to spoil one of the most peaceful and unspoilt places in +Wells. If monuments there must be (and why need we so +advertise the dead?), let them at least be quiet and humble and +beautiful: those ostentatious erections of hard and polished +stone ruin the grey walls before which they stand; their frigid +materials are too obtrusive for Christian modesty, too enduring +for human memory. May we not yet hope that this spot will +be spared the fate of the cloister garth?</p> + +<p>From here the Lady Chapel is well seen as quite a separate +building, joined to the rest of the church only in its lower part, +and with its own parapet round all its eight sides; its form +harmonises most charmingly with the square presbytery behind +it, and with the lofty chapter-house, like itself octagonal. A +further beauty is added by the solitary flying buttress which +stands out at the south-eastern corner; though certain rents in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span>the southern wall show that the buttress was built for reasons +of the gravest utility. On the south side of the chapel there is +a little door, covered by what looks at first like a kind of porch, +but it is really the passage of a small vestry (p. <a href="#Page_132">132</a>) which was +built up against the wall; the roof of the vestry was a little +higher than that of the passage, and must have leant against +the wall just under the window, as is proved by its gargoyle +near the passage door. This vestry was fatuously destroyed in +the early part of this century by an official who did not even +know that it was medieval work till the soundness of the +masonry proved almost too much for his workmen.</p> + +<p>The junction between the earlier and the later presbytery is +well seen from here—too well seen, in fact, for it is awkwardly +managed. The later choir windows, with their crocketed ogee +hood-moulds, are a good feature, and so are the flying buttresses; +but the high-pitched roof of the earlier aisle is discontinued at +the break in order to give room for these windows and +buttresses; and the effect of this sudden termination of an +aisle roof half-way along a building is not pleasant. In the +earlier part, too, the later windows have been clumsily inserted +some distance below the Early English dripstone, as if only the +internal effect had been considered. The same may also be +said of the window in the south transept gable: the gable, by +the way, is a much plainer affair than that of the north +transept.</p> + +<p>Here stood the two <b>Cloister Lady Chapels</b>, but unfortunately +their sites were not marked on the grass after the +excavations were finished three years ago. Thus nothing can +be seen from here of the earlier chapel, and, of the later, only +the doorway and the Perpendicular panelling against the +cloister which marks its western end, and the commencement +of the walls. A small quatrefoiled hagioscope may be noticed +in the library above the cloister; it, no doubt, commanded +a view of the high altar of the chapel.</p> + +<p>The earlier <i>Capella B.M.V. juxta claustrum</i> is often referred +to in the chapter documents, and was a favourite centre of +devotion. It became a kind of family chapel for the numerous +clan of Byttons, after the first bishop of that name was buried +there; it was also sometimes used as a chapter-house. The +Early English doorway which led to it can still be seen in the +cloister wall, on the right of the present doorway; it is partly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span>covered by an I.H.S. of later date, made with the instruments +of the Passion. The excavations of 1894, when the foundations +were laid bare under Mr Buckle's direction, showed that +this chapel consisted originally of a plain oblong building, +earlier even than the north porch in date (<i>i.e.</i> before 1185), +which was afterwards (c. 1275) enlarged by the addition of an +aisle on either side. The excavations showed that arches were +used at this time to replace the western part of the older walls, +and thus to throw the ancient chapel open to its new aisles. +The original chapel, then, if it was not actually part of Bishop +Gisa's buildings, spared when John de Villula destroyed Gisa's +cloister, seems to have been built not long after Gisa's time, +and at least on the site of Gisa's chapel. This would account +for its orientation, which was in a more northerly direction +than that of the cathedral, and probably was the same as that +of the pre-Norman church. Excellent plans of the foundations +both of this and the later chapel are to be found in the +<i>Somerset Proceedings</i> for 1894, where the whole matter is discussed +in detail by Canon Church and Mr Edmund Buckle.</p> + +<p>The later chapel on this site was built by <i>Bishop Stillington</i> +(1466-91): it followed the orientation of the cathedral, and was +of much larger size than the former building, being about +107 ft. in length. It consisted of a nave, transepts and choir, +with fan-tracery vault, of which some fragments have been +lately fixed in the cloister wall. Most profusely ornamented +and panelled within, as can be seen by the west end against +the cloister wall, it is considered to have been the <i>chef d'oeuvre</i> +of the Somerset Perpendicular, surpassing even Sherborne and +St. Mary, Redcliffe.</p> + +<p>But its glory was not to be for long. Stillington was buried +in this "goodly Lady Chapell in the Cloysters," says Godwin, +"but rested not long there; for it is reported that divers olde +men, who in their youth had not onely scene the celebration of +his funeral, but also the building of his tombe, chapell, and +all did also see tombe and chapell destroyed, and the bones of +the Bishop that built them turned out of the lead in which +they were interred." This was in 1552, when Bishop Barlow +and the chapter made a grant to that barbarous scoundrel, +Sir John Gates, of "the chappie, sett, lyinge and beynge by +the cloyster on the south syde of the said Cathedral Church of +Wells, commonly called the Ladye Chapple, with all the stones +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span>and stonework, ledde, glasse, tymbre, and iron ... the soyle +that the sayd chappie standeth upon only excepted." The +condition was that the rubble should be all cleared away, and +the ground made "fayre and playn," within four years; but +before this period had elapsed, Sir John's head had gone the +way of the Lady Chapel.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image14" id="image14"></a> +<a href="images/image14h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image14.jpg" + alt="Doorway, South-east Of Cloister." + title="Doorway, South-east Of Cloister." /> +</a></div> + +<p>The <a name="II_11" id="II_11"></a><b>Cloister</b> in its more prominent features is Perpendicular, +having been rebuilt in the fifteenth century. Nevertheless +the outer walls are of Jocelin's date, together with the doorway +leading into the palace (see illustration on this page); and the +lower part of the east cloister wall, including the two small +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60" /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span>doorways therein, is said by Mr Buckle to be undoubtedly +earlier than Jocelin's time, and contemporary with the north +porch, <i>c</i>. 1185. Thus we have still the original plan at least +of the thirteenth-century cloisters. This plan is characteristic +of a non-monastic church, where the cloister is not the centre +of a common life, but merely an ornamental convenience which +might or might not be added, and when added might be of +any fashion that was desired. There is no walk on the north +side, no refectory or dormitory, and the plan is not square, as +would be the case with a conventual building, but an irregular +parallelogram, while the eastern walk is built up against the +south end of the transept instead of against its western wall.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image15" id="image15"></a> +<a href="images/image15h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image15.jpg" + alt="East Walk Of Cloister." + title="East Walk Of Cloister." /> +</a></div> + +<p>The inner part of Jocelin's cloister was probably a wooden +penthouse like that of Glastonbury. At all events, it has +entirely disappeared. The eastern alley was built by the +executors of Bishop Bubwith, who died in 1424. That on the +west, with its rooms, was built by Beckington (1443-65) and his +executors. That on the south was completed soon after by +Thomas Henry, the treasurer. Beckington, by the way, showed +a reckless disregard of the earlier work by carrying his cloister +right up against the south-west tower, and completely concealing +the beautiful arcading of that part. Beckington's executors, +in the time of Bishop Stillington, also built the singing +school over the western cloister. Bubwith's executors built +the northern part of the library over the eastern cloister; but +the southern part was added at a later date. The square +windows were inserted later still by the famous Dr Busby, +about 1670. The fourteen bays of lierned vaulting over the +east alley, and one on the south, were executed in 1457-8 by +John Turpyn Lathamo, at the cost, we find from the fabric +roll, of ¾d. per foot, or £6, 11s. 3d. for the whole, though an +additional ten shillings was presented to him for his diligence.</p> + +<p>Each alley consists of thirteen bays in the Perpendicular +style; the windows are now all unglazed, of six lights, with +transoms and tracery; between the windows are buttresses to +support the rooms above, which extend, however, only over the +east and west alleys. Turpyn's vaulting is of a curiously +decadent character, which reminds one of the Jacobean Gothic +of Oxford and Cambridge. The ribs spread at the start to +enclose a trefoiled panel, and they curve into one another +when they meet at the bosses. In the rest of the south walk, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span>however, the bosses are square, and receive the ribs in the +usual manner; in the west walk they are still square, and +more varied in their ornament, bearing Beckington's initials, +arms, and rebus, arranged in several different ways. Beckington's +arms, which occur also on the gateways, are argent on +a fess azure, between in chief three bucks' heads caboshed +gules, and in base as many pheons sable, a bishop's mitre or. +His rebus is a fire <i>beacon</i> lighted, a <i>tun</i> holding the fire.</p> + +<p>Two small stone pent-houses, of which the purpose is uncertain, +are built up against the windows of the fourth and +sixth bays of the eastern alley. The vault of this alley was +built without reference to the fine Early English doorway into +the transept, one side of which it hides, the weather moulding +being cut away. This doorway is mentioned in an Act of the +Chapter of 1297, but it was probably made by Jocelin before +he built the cloister wall, which comes uncomfortably near to +the door, as if it were an afterthought. The companion doorway +from the western alley, which was the usual entrance to +the cathedral in the thirteenth century, has been similarly +defaced by the vault. Three annual fairs used to be held in +the cemetery, till Bishop Reginald set apart for the purpose +the new ground which is still the market-place. The +traditional entrance to the church by this south-western porch +may have been due to the fact that the citizens gathered for +secular business on the south-western side. At the south end +of the eastern alley is the Early English bishop's doorway, +which no doubt led straight to the palace in the days when +there was no moat to obstruct this route. The door was +originally hung to open inwards; a beautiful moulding was +destroyed to hang it in its present position. There is a bracket +of later date over this doorway.</p> + +<p>The cloister-garth, which is hideous with modern tombstones, +is traditionally called the <i>Palm Churchyard</i>, no doubt +because of the yew which grows there. Yew trees, so common +in churchyards, are still commonly called palms, because their +branches were used for the procession on Palm Sunday. This +churchyard was anciently the burial-place of the canons, the +ground east of the cloister (now used again as a cemetery) +being reserved for the vicars, while the space before the west +front was the lay burial-ground.</p> + +<p>An admirably contrived <i>dipping-place</i> was still standing in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span>the Palm churchyard, near the second bay of the east cloister, +within the memory of living persons, but now no trace of it +remains above ground. A water-course, held within a channel +of carefully-worked masonry, runs under the eastern cloister +from St. Andrew's well, and passes on to fall ultimately into +the old mill-stream. The oblong building over it that formed +the dipping-place was entered at the south end, and a few +steps (with aumbries for the linen at either side) led to +the washing-place at the little stream. An arch covered this +spot, where the water ran through two low arches on either +side and was bridged in the midst by a pavement. The place +was used for washing linen, and the water required for the +cathedral was drawn here before the modern supply pipes +were introduced.</p> + +<p><a name="II_12" id="II_12"></a><b>The Library</b> is over the east walk of the cloister, and is +entered from the south transept. It is a charming old-world +place, full of ancient volumes, many of which are of great +interest. A passage runs from end to end, along the east side +of the long room, the other side being mainly occupied by the +old desks, benches and bookcases, which project at right angles +to the wall, many of the book-chains still hanging on them. +There are said to be over three thousand volumes, including +the bulk of Bishop Ken's library, a collection of early editions +of his works, and his copy of Bishop Andrewe's "Devotions." +There are also several books (including one Aldine "Aristotle") +with MS. notes and autograph of Erasmus. The collection of +old charters, which have recently been made to throw so much +light on the history of the cathedral, is also preserved here. +Some of the most interesting charters are displayed in glass +cases; one of them, Edgar's grant to Ealhstane, is specially +venerable for the signature of St. Dunstan—<i>Ego Dunitan Ep</i>.—which +occurs third among the witnesses to the document.</p> + +<p>Two precious relics of medieval times are also kept here. +One, which is generally called a lantern, was till lately hung in +the undercroft. There is no trace of its ever having been used +as a lantern, and it is probably the wooden <i>canopy of the +pyx</i> which hung before the high altar. The Blessed +Sacrament was in medieval times reserved, not in a tabernacle, +but in a hanging pyx of precious metal; and this +graceful wooden canopy probably contained the pyx. There +are only two other possible examples of the pyx-canopy (at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span>Milton Abbas and Tewkesbury), and both are of later date +than this, which is thirteenth century. Woodwork of this +period is so rare that, even were it not a pyx-canopy, it would +be of extreme interest. It is cylindrical in form, divided into +three storeys of open tracery, and crowned with a cresting of +three-lobed leaves. Its height is 3 ft. 11¼ in., its internal +diameter 14½ inches. It is made of oak, certain parts of +a later restoration being of deal. Mr St. John Hope (<i>Proc. +of Soc. of Antiquaries</i>, 1897), thus enumerates the traces +of colour: "The whole of the body and its upper and lower +rings have been painted red, with gold flowers or other devices +upon the transverse bands. The slender dividing shafts seem +to have been coloured blue. The leaves of the cresting have +apparently been painted white, but the circular boss in the +middle of each leaf was entirely red." Two pairs of iron rods, +with a ring and swivel hook, serve to suspend it in a steady +position.</p> + +<p>The other relic is the thirteenth-century <i>crozier</i> which +was recently found in a tomb in the cathedral, and probably +belongs to the time of Savaric, though there is no evidence, +beyond its style, for describing it as his crozier. It was dug up +in a stone coffin in the western burial-ground of the cathedral +in the time of Dean Lukin (1799-1812). It is thus described +in the <i>Catalogue</i> of the Burlington Fine Arts Club exhibition +of enamels, June 1897: "A complete crozier, [the staff] +wooden (modern), with enamelled head one foot in length. +Limoges, thirteenth century. The volute is a serpent with +blue scales and serrated crest, enclosing a winged figure of +St. Michael and a dragon studded with turquoises. The knop +is encased in pierced repoussé open work formed of dragons, +and the socket ornamented with thirteenth-century foliated +scrolls in these slightly spiral bands, separated by jewelled +dragons whose tails form three rings under the knop." St. +Michael is represented in the act of attacking the dragon +with his spear.</p> + +<p>A little <a name="II_13" id="II_13"></a><b>Museum</b> has been formed in one of the rooms over +the western cloister. It contains a collection of seals, Mr +Buckle's plans of the cloisters and the Cloister Lady Chapel +excavations, and many other objects of interest.</p> + +<p>The principal buildings in connection with the cathedral +are the vicars' close, the bishop's palace, the deanery, the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span>archdeaconry, and the canon's houses. There are also Beckington's +fine gates,—the Chain Gate by the vicars' close, +Brown's, or the Dean's Gate, near the deanery, the Penniless +Porch, leading from the Market Place to the cathedral; +and the Bishop's Eye, leading from the Market Place to +the palace.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image16" id="image16"></a> +<a href="images/image16h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image16.jpg" + alt="The Chain Gate, Entrance To Close, 1824" + title="The Chain Gate, Entrance To Close, 1824" /> +</a></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span>Most deservedly famous is the unrivalled <a name="II_14" id="II_14"></a><b>Vicars' Close</b>, +which contains the houses built by Bishop Ralph and his +successors for the vicars-choral. Passing through the gate, +one sees the two long ranges of quiet and lovely houses, +fronted by their little gardens, with a roadway betwixt them. +Nothing can surpass this arrangement for its peaceful seclusion +and constant charm, not even the square quadrangles and +cloisters of Oxford, and yet, so convenient is it, that no better +model could be chosen should there ever come any general +return to the old collegiate life; for a settlement, for a model +factory, one can imagine nothing better even now. There +are forty-two houses, twenty-one on either side: each consisted +originally of two rooms, one above the other, with a +staircase; for the vicars were single men. Now that the +vicars-choral are married, many of them live in the town, +but all the theological students are lodged here, and there +are always a few rooms to be let to those visitors who are wise +enough to stay in this charming place.</p> + +<p>The tall chimneys rise up through the eaves of the little +houses; octagonal at the top, they are perforated like a +lantern, with two openings on each side. On them are shields +bearing the arms of the see, of Bishop Beckington and his +executors, Swan, Sugar, and Pope, sugar-loaves and swans +abounding in the decoration.</p> + +<p>At the farther end of the close is the tiny chapel (finished +by Bubwith, and finally consecrated in 1489, after Beckington +had added the wooden ceiling and the chamber above), where +compline is still said by the theological students. It is +one of the most beautiful things in Wells—a jewel, like +so much of its period—and it has been well decorated in +sgraffitto and colour by Mr Heywood Sumner. An interesting +feature of its exterior is that some of the old Early English +carving was worked in with the masonry of the wall, by way of +decoration, and very effective it is. A passage at the side +leads to the Liberty, where are some of the prebendal houses.</p> + +<p>Over the entrance, and leading into the bridge of the Chain +Gate, are the hall and its offices, which are approached by a +fine staircase. In the hall is a painting of much interest, which +represents Bishop Ralph seated on his throne, the vicars +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span>kneeling before him; the petition which he holds runs—<i>Per +vicos positi villae, Pater alme rogamus, Ut simul uniti, te, Dante +domos maneamus</i>; and the answer, which has the episcopal +seal, is—<i>Vestra petunt merita, Quod sint concessu petita: +Ut maneatis ita, Loca fecimus hic stabilita</i>. On the right are +seventeen figures with ruffles, evidently added in Elizabethan +times; corresponding inscription has also been added—<i>Quas +primus struxit</i>, etc.</p> + +<p>There is also a pulpit over the fireplace, which is large, +with good mouldings and an inscription, <i>In vestris precī +habeat^s comedatū do[=m] Ricardū Pomroy quem salvet Ihs. Amen</i>. +On the hearth are a pair of fine fire-dogs.</p> + +<p>Just outside the entrance to the vicars' close is a beautiful +<b>oriel window</b>, which has been much copied in modern times. +It springs from a corbelled head, from which foliate four +cinquefoiled panels. The window now has only three square-headed +lights, the centre one being large. Under its sills +are rich panels, and it is capped by a slight crenelated cornice +with a boldly-carved drip, from which springs a conical roof +surmounted by a fleur-de-lys.</p> + +<p>The beautiful <a name="II_15" id="II_15"></a><b>Bishop's Palace</b> was mainly built by +Jocelin, who died in 1242. It consists of three sides of +a quadrangle, the bishop's house being on the east, the chapel +on the south, the kitchen and offices running alongside the +moat on the north: on the west side there was formerly a +gate-tower and a wall having a cloister within which led to +chapel and hall. In addition to these buildings the great +hall, now in ruins—forming, with the walls and outhouses, an +outer court—was built to the south-west of the chapel. The +whole group of buildings stands on a piece of ground, rich +with trees, surrounded by a lovely old wall and moat, the +single approach being by the bridge and the gate-house, +which has Renaissance windows and retains the slit for the +portcullis and the drawbridge-chains. Bishop Ralph of +Shrewsbury constructed the gate-house and fortifications, +which form an irregular pentagon, with a bastion at each +angle, and an extra one in the south-east side. The bastion +in the western angle (on the south of the gate-house) contains +two storeys, of which the lower, called the cow-house or +stock-house, was used as a prison for criminous clerks. The +moat is fed by a stream from St. Andrew's well hard by.</p> + +<div class="ctr"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span> +<a name="image17" id="image17"></a> +<a href="images/image17h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image17.jpg" + alt="The Bishop's Palace." + title="The Bishop's Palace." /> +</a></div> + +<p>The palace itself is a most interesting example of medieval +architecture, and remains very much in its original condition. +It is oblong in plan, and divided lengthwise by a solid wall, +running through both storeys from end to end, at about one +third of its width; the long outer chamber formed by this wall +on the ground floor is divided into the entrance hall of three +bays (containing a fireplace, <i>temp</i>. Henry VIII.), and the +passages to staircase and to chapel at either end. The wider +chamber within the wall is lighted by plain lancet windows, +and has a row of slender Purbeck pillars down the middle, +which, with the corbels on the wall, carry a groined vault: +this, the "crypt," or undercroft, was probably used as a +storage-room; it is now the dining-room. To the north of this +hall is a square chamber with a pillar in the centre; and to +the east of the chamber a small room projects beyond the +ground plan of the building, with a space at one end (probably +a closet) now walled up.</p> + +<p>On the first floor the great chamber (68 by 28 feet) +stood over the undercroft, while on its north was the bishop's +private room, both open to the roof, and to the east +of this, his private chapel. The gallery above the entrance +hall was formerly divided into three chambers, the two larger +of which Mr Buckle thinks were used as a lobby and a wardrobe. +The windows in the gallery were restored by Mr Ferrey +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span>in 1846, but nothing is new except the marble shafts and bases. +The two windows at the north end of the great chamber are +evidently later additions, as they have fully developed bar-tracery, +while the other windows in the chamber consist of +pairs of trefoil-headed windows with a quatrefoil in plate +tracery above them.</p> + +<p>The <b>Great Hall</b>, which is now but a beautiful ruin, +was built by Bishop Burnell, who died 1292. It was a +magnificent chamber, 115 feet by 59½, with high traceried +windows. It was divided into nave and aisles by rows +of pillars to carry the roof and the passage at the west +end led between buttery and pantry to the kitchen; over +these rooms was a large solar, and on the north side a porch +with staircase at the side leading to the solar. Both hall +and palace are well and fully described by Mr Buckle in the +<i>Somerset Proceedings</i> for 1888. Bishop Barlow had the hall +dismantled, employing Sir John Gates for the purpose; the +walls, however, were left standing until Bishop Law's time, +when they were partly demolished in order to make the ruin +more "picturesque."</p> + +<p>The chapel is very similar in style to the hall, and was +built very shortly afterwards; it is at present defaced by bad +decoration and fittings. The carving is very fine and varied; +some of the capitals retain the old stiff-leaf foliage, while in +some the leaves grow freely round the bell in the Decorated +manner. The vaulted ceiling is also an excellent example of +the transitional work of the period. The west window is of +later date, and has been twice restored—once by Bishop +Montague (1608-16), and again in the present century. On the +north side, at some height from the ground, are the indications +of what may have been a gallery used as a private pew.</p> + +<p>Bishop Beckington (1443-66) added the northern block of +buildings, now considerably altered, the kitchen and various +offices, <i>le botrye, cellarium, le bakehous, ad lez stues ad nutriendos +pisces</i>, in William of Worcester's words, as well as the gate now +called the Bishop's Eye, <i>aliam portam ad introitum de le palays</i>, +and the parlour (<i>parlurum</i>) and guest-chambers adjoining the +kitchen. This block lies very prettily alongside the moat.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately the palace, which had so wonderfully escaped +the brutal adaptations of the eighteenth-century architect, was +restored in 1846 by Mr Ferrey, and its west front completely +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span>altered. The upper storey, the porch, the buttresses were all +added by Mr Ferrey; not to mention the tower at the north +and the turret at the south, and the conservatory. Bishop +Bagot, at whose order the work was done, also rebuilt the +kitchen and offices; in fact, he did what he could to destroy +the unique character and beauty of a block of buildings +without parallel anywhere.</p> + +<p><b>The Bishop's Barn</b>, which stands in a field near the +palace is remarkable for its length (110 ft. by 25½) and the +number of its buttresses. Simple in character, stately in proportions, +it is a striking instance of the perfect sense of fitness +which marked the medieval builders: in fact, it is the exact +opposite to what a modern builder would erect if asked to +provide a barn in the Gothic style.</p> + +<p><a name="II_16" id="II_16"></a><b>The Deanery</b>, rebuilt by Dean Gunthorpe (1472-98), is +an almost perfect specimen of a fifteenth-century house, in +spite of the modern sash windows and other alterations which +deface it. As at the palace, the principal apartments were +on the first floor; and of these the chief is the hall, an +excellent example of the more comfortable late medieval +arrangement. Two handsome oriel windows with vaults of +fan-tracery are at the upper end, not quite opposite to each +other, where the sideboards used to stand; and at the +lower end a stone arch carries a small music-gallery, with +three small windows opening to the hall. Under this arch +is the lavatory, a stone niche, in which a small cistern was +suspended, with a drain at the bottom; so that the diners +could put their hands under the tap of the little cistern as +they passed into dinner.</p> + +<p>Over the hall are guest chambers with fine windows; and +behind the partition at the back of the dais is another chamber +with a large window, which Mr J.H. Parker thought to have +been the chapel.</p> + +<p>Fuller description of the various ecclesiastical buildings +can be found in Mr Parker's paper in the <i>Somerset Proceedings</i> +for 1863.</p> + +<p><b>The Archdeaconry</b> was built in the time of Edward I., +but the front of the house has been entirely modernised. +The hall is larger than that of the deanery, and occupies the +whole height of the building, having a very fine early fifteenth-century +open timber roof.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span><b>The Choirmaster's House</b>, at the east end of the cathedral, +is a fairly perfect example of a fifteenth-century house, +retaining its beautiful porch unspoiled. The roof and upper +part of the windows of the hall remain, but are disguised +and concealed by modern partitions. It is now the residence +of the Principal of the Theological College.</p> + +<p>An organist's house once communicated with the singing-school, +which is over the western cloister; it was much +defaced in the eighteenth century, and entirely removed a +few years ago.</p> + +<p><b>The Canons' Houses</b>, which lie in the Liberty to the +north of the cathedral, have been either entirely rebuilt, or +much spoilt by alterations.</p> + +<p><b>The Schoolhouse</b> is partly of the fourteenth century, with +wings added in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; it retains +some features of interest.</p> + +<p><b>Bishop Bubwith's Almshouse</b> is near St. Cuthbert's +Church. It was much spoilt in the fifties: the original plan +was a great hall, with a chapel at the end of it, and cells along +the side for the almsmen. These cells were open at the top +so that there was plenty of fresh air, and if an almsman +became ill or infirm, he could hear the service chanted daily +in the chapel without leaving his bed. At the west end of +the hall is a building of two storeys built by the bishop's +executors, given to the citizens of Wells as a Guildhall, and +used for that purpose till about 1779. Here is preserved a +very fine money chest of the fifteenth century, painted with +a scroll pattern, and resting on a stand inscribed with curious +doggerel of the date 1615.</p> + +<p><b>St. Cuthbert's Church</b>, which is kept open during the +daytime, is thus described by Mr J.H. Parker in the <i>Builder</i> +for 1862 (p. 655):—</p> + +<p>"It was originally a cruciform church of the thirteenth +century with a central tower, and with aisles to the nave; but +of the church all that remains in the original state is a part +of the north aisle. The central tower has been removed, +the church entirely rebuilt in the fifteenth century. The +pillars and arches of the nave have been rebuilt in the fifteenth +century also, and the pillars lengthened considerably. The +arches, with their dripstones, preserved and used again on +the taller pillars, and most of the capitals have had the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span>foliage cut off. The aisle walls, the clerestory, and roof, are +all Late Perpendicular, about the time of Henry VII.; but +the beautiful west tower is evidently earlier than the clerestory +and roof, and has the mark of the old roof on the east side +of it, coming below the present clerestory. This fine tower, +which is certainly one of the finest of its class, and which +Mr Freeman considers, I believe, to rank only second to one +other [Wrington], is said to have been built in the time of +Bishop Bubwith, or about 1430; and this appears to me +probable. The character of the work is rather Early Perpendicular, +and the groined vault under the belfry appears +to be an imitation of the Decorated vault of the cathedral."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> +<div class="footnotes"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_6_6">[1]</a> The road should be followed for about a quarter of a +mile out of the town; at this point a path leads over a +stile and through a coppice to the best point of view.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_7_7">[2]</a> Vol. i. 421.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_8_8">[3]</a> <i>History of the Cathedral</i>, 125.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_9_9">[4]</a> The Doulting stone, of which the cathedral is built, +comes from the St. Andrew's quarry at the little village of +Doulting, where Bishop Ealdhelm died. It is inferior oolite, +and very like Bath stone, which is the greater oolite. The +exterior shafts were blue lias, and those within either blue +lias or Purbeck marble, though there are one or two shafts +of red Draycot stone in the western responds of the nave.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_10_10">[5]</a> <i>Cathedrals</i>, iv. 98.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="major" /> +<h2> +<a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a> +CHAPTER III</h2> +<h3>THE INTERIOR</h3> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span>The earlier architecture of Wells Cathedral presents so many +puzzles, that the most skilled experts have differed widely both +from each other, and, as we know now, from the truth. There +are four distinct varieties of Early English work, covering a +period of about a century from the time of Bishop Reginald, +whose episcopate began in 1174; and yet, until Mr Bennett +deciphered the old charters, which have at length settled the +problem, all the work was attributed to Jocelin, for nothing was +known of Reginald's building, and some of the best judges +were even convinced that the west front was built before the +nave. The difficulty was mainly caused by the unusual character +of the architecture of the nave; "unlike that of any +ordinary English building, and belonging to a style on the whole +fifty years earlier" than the west front, as Professor Willis said, +who gave it a name of its own, and called it the Somerset style. +Thus the theory came to be that two bodies of masons had +been employed—an ordinary English company for the front, and +a local Somerset company for the nave, transepts and choir, who +worked in a local variation of the prevalent Early English style. +In this way, an attempt was made to overcome the difficulty of +attributing to Jocelin work which Mr Willis had himself pronounced +to be "only a little removed from the early Norman +style." Mr Freeman, too, had allowed that the north porch +might be earlier than Jocelin; and, long before, Britton had +said that there would be little hesitation in ascribing the church +to the transitional period of Henry II. (1154-89) on architectural +evidence, were it not for Godwin's assertion, that Jocelin +had entirely pulled down the old church and built a +fresh one.</p> + +<p>But now we have got behind Godwin, and have found from +contemporary evidence that Bishop Reginald commenced the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span>present church. Thus we are able to divide the Early English +work into no less than four periods, (1) The three western +arches of the choir, with the four western bays of its aisles, the +transepts, and the four eastern bays of the nave, which are +Reginald's work (1174-1191), and so early as to be still in a +state of transition from the Norman. It is a unique example +of transitional building, and Willis calls it "an improved +Norman, worked with considerable lightness and richness, but +distinguished from the Early English by greater massiveness +and severity." The characteristics of this late twelfth-century +work are bold round mouldings, square abaci, capitals, some +with traces of the classical volute, others interwoven with fanciful +imagery that reminds us of the Norman work of Glastonbury; +while in the north porch, which must be the earliest of +all, we even find the zig-zag Norman moulding. (2) The rest +of the nave, which was finished in Jocelin's time—that is to say, +in the first half of the thirteenth century—preserves the main +characteristics of the earlier work, though the flowing sculptured +foliage becomes more naturalistic, and lacks the quaint intermingling +of figure subjects. (3) The west front, which is +Jocelin's work, and alone can claim to be of pure Early English +style. (4) The chapter-house crypt, which is so late as to be +almost Transitional, though, curiously enough, it contains the +characteristic Early English dog-tooth moulding which is found +nowhere else except in the west window. From this, we reach +the Early Decorated of the staircase, the full Decorated of the +chapter-house itself, the later Decorated of the Lady Chapel, +the transitional Decorated of the presbytery, and the full Perpendicular +of the western towers.</p> + +<p>Much of the masonry in the transepts, choir, choir aisles, and +even in the eastern transepts, bears the peculiar diagonal lines +which are the marks of Norman tooling. This does not, of +course, prove that any part of Bishop Robert's church is +standing, for medieval builders were notoriously economical in +using up old masonry, but it does show that there are more +remains of his work in the building than was generally supposed. +A characteristic feature in this Norman tooling is that +if a rule be laid along its lines, they will be found to be very +slightly curved, a feature which is due to the fact that Norman +masons dressed their stones with the broad curved blade of an +axe.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span> +<a name="image18" id="image18"></a> +<a href="images/image18h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image18.jpg" + alt="The Nave." + title="The Nave." /> +</a></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span> +The plan of the church is remarkably complete, symmetrical, +and well-proportioned. Nave, transepts, choir, each flanked +with its aisles, combine to form with the Lady Chapel and +chapter-house a cathedral church which, though not of the first +magnitude, is the most complete and typical in England. The +ground plan itself, as set out in all technical severity on page 160, +possesses an unusual attraction for the eye. It is free both +from mutilation and excrescences; and yet all the picturesque +external grouping, and internal mystery, which the afterthoughts +of Gothic architects so often lend to a building, are secured, in +the case of Wells, by the carefully-placed chapter-house and +the beautiful arrangement of the Lady Chapel. The transepts +of the choir are very happily carried far enough east to be +internally subordinate to this chapel, which arrangement, with +the apsidal form of the chapel itself, adds much to the beautiful +proportions of the church. A third transept is given to the +west end of the nave by the two towers.</p> + +<p>The length of Wells Cathedral from east to west is 383 feet +within the walls, and 415 without. The length of the nave +is 161 feet, its breadth 82 feet, and its height 67 feet. The +length of the choir is 117 feet, and its height 73 feet. The +transepts are 135 feet within and 150 feet without.</p> + +<p><a name="III_1" id="III_1"></a><b>The Nave</b>.—The general effect of the nave is that of length +rather than height, and this is mainly due to the continuous +arcade of the triforium which leads the eye from end to end of +the building instead of from floor to roof. If this be compared +with the older work in the transepts, it will be seen at +once by how simple a device this radical change in the effect +has been produced. Instead of being carried down right across +the triforium, as in the transepts, the triple vaulting shafts are +cut off above the arcade so as to be little more than corbels, +and the space thus gained is used to give one additional opening +to each bay of the triforium. In the transepts the triforium +is composed of pairs of lancet arches separated by vaulting +shafts, the triforium of each bay being a distinct composition +over its pier arch; but by the time the architect had come +to the nave, a new idea had occurred to him, and he made the +triforium in one continuous arcade, unbroken from east to +west, evidently with the deliberate intention of producing a +horizontal rather than a vertical effect. The arrangement has +undoubtedly a character of its own, and "there is no nave in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span>which the eye is so irresistibly carried eastward as in that of +Wells."</p> + +<p>In spite of this method of securing an effect of length, the +builders managed to make the most of the small height of their +church. The manner in which this was done forms an +interesting example of the subtle feeling of proportion which +early architects possessed. The clerestory was made unusually +lofty, and the comparative lowness of the triforium both adds +to the soaring effect and prevents the horizontal appearance +being overmastering. This is increased by the bold vaulting +of the ceiling, and the way in which the lantern arches fit into +the vault.</p> + +<p>But, homogeneous as the nave appears, a little examination +will clearly reveal the break which marks the separation +between the late twelfth-century work of Reginald de Bohun +and the thirteenth-century continuation of Jocelin. The +earlier work, as we have seen, consisted of the four eastern +bays, which, with the present ritual choir and transepts, formed +Reginald's church; and, as a matter of fact, at the fifth bay +(the next bay westward of the north porch) the marks of change +are so evident that all writers upon the cathedral have based +their theories upon it. The earlier masonry in the spandrels +on the east of this point consists of small stones indifferently +set: the later masonry is made up of larger blocks more +carefully laid together; in the earlier part there are small +heads at the angles of the pier arches, in the later there are +none, while the small heads in the angles of the earlier +triforium arcade give place to larger heads in the later; the +tympana, which fill the heads of the lancets in this arcade, also +are mainly ornamented in the earlier part with grotesque +beasts, while in the later they contain foliage, with two +exceptions. Again, the medallions which decorate the spaces +above the triforium are sunk in the earlier masonry, but, +in the later, they are flush with the surface and not so deeply +carved. Even more noticeable is the difference in the capitals, +those of the western bays being lighter, freer, and more undercut, +though less interesting and hardly as beautiful as those of +the earlier part. With the exception of these differences, +however, which are doubtless due to the freedom enjoyed +by medieval workmen, the original design of the nave was +faithfully adhered to, the square abaci, even, being retained, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span>though the circular abacus had become a leading characteristic +of the true Early English of Jocelin's period. Certainly it is +an unusual instance of an architect deliberately setting himself +to complete the works of an earlier period in faithful accordance +with the original plan; and we may well be grateful to +him for his modesty.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image19" id="image19"></a> +<a href="images/image19h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image19.jpg" + alt="A Capital—the Fruit-stealer's Punishment." + title="A Capital—the Fruit-stealer's Punishment." /> +</a></div> + +<p>All the carving is most interesting and beautiful: the caps +and corbels of the vaulting-shafts; the little heads at the +angles of the arches, which are vivid sketches of every type of +contemporary character; and the carvings in the tympana, +above referred to, which are best in the seventh, eighth, and +ninth bays (counting from the west end), those on the north +excelling in design and execution, while those on the south +are more grotesque. But the <a name="III_1_1" id="III_1_1"></a><b>capitals</b> of the piers are the +best of all, and the most hurried visitor should spare some +time for the study of these remarkable specimens of sculpture, +vigorous and life-like, yet always subordinated to their architectural +purpose. Those in the transepts are perhaps the best +(p. <a href="#Page_89">89</a>), but the following in the nave should not be missed:—</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span> +<i>North Side, sixth Pier</i>.—(By north porch) Birds pluming +their wings: Beast licking himself: Ram: Bird with human +head, holding knife (?).</p> + +<p><i>Eighth Pier</i>.—Fox stealing goose, peasant following with +stick: Birds pruning their feathers: (Within Bubwith's chapel) +Human monster with fish's tail, holding a fish: Bird holding +frog in his beak, which is extremely long and delicate.</p> + +<p><i>Ninth Pier</i>.—Pedlar carrying his pack on his shoulders, +a string of large beads in one hand.</p> + +<p>Toothless monster, with hands on knees.</p> + +<p><i>South side, seventh Pier</i>.—Birds with human heads, one +wearing a mitre.</p> + +<p><i>Eighth Pier</i>.—Peasant, with club, seized by a lion: Bird +with curious foliated tail: (Within St. Edmund's chapel) +Owl: Peasant with mallet (?).</p> + +<p>The lofty clerestory windows are divided into two lights by +Perpendicular tracery of late fourteenth or early fifteenth +century date, which extends to the level of the passage, the +lower part being filled with masonry. The windows were not, +however, altered in shape when the tracery was inserted. In +the tracery are very slight traces of the old glass.</p> + +<p>The triforium passage is capacious enough to form a large +tunnel, which gives a good effect to its lancet openings. The +small iron rings, which are prominent enough to be rather +tiresome to the eye, were recently inserted for the use of +those engaged in cleaning the walls. Within the passage +additional arches may be seen, inserted to strengthen the +arcade at the commencement of the later work and in other +places.</p> + +<p>The groined ceiling has carved bosses at the intersection +of its ribs. The red pattern is a restoration of the old design +which was found on the removal of the whitewash, but the +restorer seems to have missed the right tints.</p> + +<p>There is a music-gallery in the clerestory of the sixth bay +on the south side; it is composed of three panels with +quatrefoils containing plain shields, and is finished with an +embattled cornice. Another gallery, perhaps for an organ, +must have been supported by the two noticeable brackets on +the spandrels of the fourth bay of the same side. One may +conjecture that it was of wood, and was reached from the +triforium. The brackets are carved in the shape of very large +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span>heads of a bishop and a king, both supported by smaller +heads, and of an extremely benevolent expression. The +hair of the king has that curious formal twist with which we +are familiar on playing-cards. As some of the small heads +in the chapter-house have the same style of hair, these two +brackets probably belong to the end of the thirteenth century.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image20" id="image20"></a> +<a href="images/image20h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image20.jpg" + alt="A Capital—toothache." + title="A Capital—toothache." /> +</a></div> + +<p>Sir John Harrington in the <i>Nugae Antiquae</i> (ii. 148) says +of these two heads that "the old men of Wells had a tradition, +that, when there should be such a king and such a +bishop, then the church should be in danger of ruin." At +the time of the Reformation it was noticed that the head +of the king bore a certain resemblance to Henry VIII., and +that the king held in his hands a child falling, who, it was +said, could be none other than Edward VI. The peculiarity +of the bishop's figure is that he has women and children +about him. "This fruitful bishop, they affirmed, was Dr +Barlow (p. <a href="#Page_156">156</a>), the first married bishop of Wells, and perhaps +of England. This talk being rife in Wells in Queen +Mary's time, made him rather affect Chichester at his return +than Wells, where not only the things that were ruined but +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span>those that remained, served for records and remembrances of +his sacrilege."</p> + +<p>The west end of the nave is covered in its lower portion by +an arcade of five arches with Purbeck shafts, the middle one +being wider than the rest, to contain the two smaller arches +of the doorway. The three lancet windows were re-modelled +in Perpendicular times by the insertion of the triple shafts, +which have the casement mouldings and angular caps of the +period; but the dog-tooth moulding of the arches, the +medallions in the spandrels, and the little corbel heads of the +Early English work remain. A Perpendicular parapet along +the sill of the window marks the gallery which, pierced through +the splays, carries the triforium passage round the end of the +nave. A string course runs along the bottom of this gallery +and forms the bases of the triple shafts; the bases are supported +on corbels which die off upon the sloping wall below. +This wall conceals a curious gallery, the purpose of which is +not known; it is entered by steps from the triforium, and +lighted by round openings which can be seen in the central +quatrefoils of the west front; when these quatrefoils were +filled with sculpture it would have been difficult to detect the +existence of the dark gallery.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image21" id="image21"></a> +<a href="images/image21h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image21.jpg" + alt="Specimens Of Capitals." + title="Specimens Of Capitals." /> +</a></div> + +<p>Two small transepts at the west end of the nave are formed +by the western towers, which project in this church beyond the +aisles. These transepts are connected with the aisles by an +arch, the lower part of which is closed by wooden doors. +That on the north was used as a chapel of the Holy Cross, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span>and of late years as the consistory court: it is now the choir-boys' +vestry; that on the south served as a porch in the days +when the usual entrance to the church was by the Early +English doorway which leads into it from the cloister; it is +now appropriated to the bell-ringers. They are both of +strikingly different style to the rest of the interior, as they +were built in pure Early English style, at the same time as the +west front, of which the towers form, of course, an integral +part. Their shafts are of blue lias, the capitals richly carved; +their groined vaults have a circular opening to admit to the +upper storey of the tower, which has its corbels ornamented +with foliage, although they cannot be seen. Over the doorway +in the south chapel an arcade is curiously fitted into the +available space beneath the vault.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image22" id="image22"></a> +<a href="images/image22h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image22.jpg" + alt="A Capital." + title="A Capital." /> +</a></div> + +<p><b>The Aisles of the Nave</b> (see p. <a href="#Page_19">19</a>) are of the same +character as the nave itself, the later part having been resumed +at about the same time, and at the same place. Among the +capitals the following in the north aisle may be specially +mentioned:—</p> + +<p><i>Fifth Shaft</i>.—Peasants carrying sheep, etc., a dog in the midst.</p> + +<p><i>Ninth Shaft</i>.—Man in rough coat, which falls before and +behind rather like a chasuble, carrying foliage on his back. A +very good figure.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span><i>Tenth Shaft</i>.—(By arch of vestry) Man carrying what seems +to be a hod of mortar and a mason's mallet.</p> + +<p><i>Opposite side of arch</i>, at end of the string course: Peasant in +hood carrying a staff. On the caps opposite are two heads +with tongues on their teeth (see p. <a href="#Page_92">92</a>).</p> + +<p>The windows, both of these aisles and those of the transepts, +were filled with Perpendicular tracery at about the same time +as the clerestory windows. The date of this addition must +have been before Bishop's Bubwith's time, for the library which +that prelate built over the cloister blocks the south window of +the west aisle of the south transept. A stone bench runs +along all the aisles.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image23" id="image23"></a> +<a href="images/image23h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image23.jpg" + alt="Specimens Of Capitals." + title="Specimens Of Capitals." /> +</a></div> + +<p><a name="III_1_2" id="III_1_2"></a><b>Glass of the Nave, Transepts, and Aisles</b>.—Most of +the glass of the west window was collected abroad, during his +exile, by Bishop Creyghton, while he was yet dean (1660-70). +The main part of it is devoted to the life and death of St. +John Baptist, and is of excellent early sixteenth-century work, +for under the fantastic figure of the executioner is the inscription +<i>Sancti Johannis Decollatio</i> 1507. The two other +lights containing the large figures of King Ina and Bishop +Ralph are, however, of later date, and to judge by their +costume they should belong to Creyghton's own time; moreover, +on the southern one are Creyghton's arms. Apparently +the compositions at the extreme top and bottom of the middle +light are much later; a little handbook on the cathedral by Mr +John Davies, the verger in 1814, states that the then dean and +chapter re-arranged and restored the window in 1813; these +additions must belong to that time, and according to him they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span>were brought from Rouen. Their ugly reds and blues certainly +do not blend with the earlier glass, as do the figures of Ina +and Ralph, but considerably mar the mellow and delicate +effect of the whole. There are only a few slight fragments of +old glass in the other windows. There are also two modern +windows at the west end of the aisles.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image24" id="image24"></a> +<a href="images/image24h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image24.jpg" + alt="View Across Nave, Shewing Sugar's And Bubwith's Chapels." + title="View Across Nave, Shewing Sugar's And Bubwith's Chapels." /> +</a></div> + +<p><a name="III_2" id="III_2"></a><b>Bishop Bubwith's Chantry Chapel.</b>—Two chantry +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span>chapels stand opposite each other under the ninth pier-arches +of the nave. They are alike in general characteristics, though +there is an interval of sixty years between them. The chantry +of Bishop Bubwith (<i>ob.</i> 1424), who built the north-west tower, +is formed by a hexagonal screen between the piers, the three +eastern sides being filled with a reredos that gives the chapel +a square appearance within. The screen is composed of the +most light and elaborate tracery, its corners surmounted by +a crest; it is open above, but has a rather coarsely-carved +canopy over where the altar stood. Doorways, whose jambs +are too delicately carved to have ever carried doors, give free +access and a clear view of the interior from either side. +Altogether it was an ideal place for votive Celebrations, when +but few worshippers were present. The niches over the altar +have been hacked level with the wall, and the little pillar +piscina is also defaced. The triple shafts of the pier at the +western end are corbelled off, the corbel being carved with +Bubwith's arms (argent, a fess engrailed sable between twelve +holly leaves vert, 4, 4, 4, and 4, arranged in quadrangles) +impaled with those of the see. The altar here was formerly +dedicated to St. Saviour.</p> + +<p><a name="III_3" id="III_3"></a><b>Sugar's Chantry</b>.—In the ninth bay of the nave, on the +south side, is the chantry of Treasurer Hugh Sugar. Before +its erection, the altar of St. Edmund of Canterbury, who was +canonised in 1246, stood here; and perhaps, when it comes +to be used again, it will be maintained in honour of that most +attractive scholar saint. Speaking of these chantries, which +were endowed in such profusion in the later Middle Ages, +Canon Church (<i>Somerset Proceedings</i>, 1888, ii. 103) says: +"The belief in the communion of saints, living and dead, and +the desire for continued remembrance after death, and for the +intercessions of the living, led practically to the endowment of +chantries and obits, whereby not only was the church enriched, +and the services of many priests provided for, but also attachment +to the church of their fathers was greatly strengthened, +as being the common home of the dead and the living." +That attachment, one would think, is hardly likely to be +revived by this beautiful chapel and its fellow being put +to base uses. At present it serves as a kind of booking-office, +where visitors deposit their sixpences and sign their +names, while the other is stored with hassocks, and becomes +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span>the resting-place of any brooms, pails, and dustpans that are +in use.</p> + +<p>St. Edmund's (or Sugar's) chapel is hexagonal, like that of +Bishop Bubwith, but its tracery, frieze, and reredos are more +elaborate. The canopy over the altar is vaulted with lace-like +fan-tracery. Five niches, now empty of their figures, form the +reredos; their sumptuous pedestals and canopies are in excellent +condition. Attached to the frieze without, on either side, are +six demi-angels, with delicate wings and extremely curly hair, +bearing shields, with representations of the Five Wounds, the +Lily of the Annunciation, between angels' wings; the arms of +the see (a plain saltire surmounting a pastoral staff in pale +between two keys addorsed, the bows interlaced on the dexter, +and a sword erect on the sinister); the arms of Glastonbury +Abbey (a cross flory, in dexter chief a demi-virgin with child +proper), the arms of the vicars (a saltire), the initials H.S., +and Sugar's arms, originally a "canting coat," three sugar-loaves, +and in chief a doctor's cap. Sugar's initials and arms +also occur under the canopy. It is the fashion to consider +this chapel inferior to its fellow, merely because it is later in +date, but a little impartial study will show that it is much the +better of the two. The tracery, though less uncommon, is +more graceful, that over the doorway especially being far better +contrived; the cornice is better proportioned, and is not spoilt +by the untidy trail of foliage which runs round that of Bubwith's +chapel; the canopy, too, fits in with the curve of the tracery, +while that of the others projects clumsily across it.</p> + +<p><a name="III_4" id="III_4"></a><b>The Pulpit</b>.—From the west end of this chapel steps lead +into the stone pulpit which adjoins it. This pulpit was built +in Henry VIII.'s reign, by Bishop Knight, who died in 1547. +It is a low, but well-proportioned, structure, resting on a +basement, and fronted with panelled pilasters; it is surmounted +by an entablature. In front are the bishop's curious arms, +which occur more distinctly in the glass of the north choir +aisle—Per fess, in chief a demi-eagle with two heads and sans +wings issuing from a demi-rose conjoined to a demi-sun in +splendour in base. On the frieze is the inscription—<i>preache. +thov. the. worde. be. fervent. in. season. and. ovt. of. +season. reprove. rebvke. exhorte. w^t. all. longe. svfferyng. +&. doctryne. 2. Timō</i>. A board along the top, covered with +red baize, impairs its beauty at present.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span> +<a name="image25" id="image25"></a> +<a href="images/image25h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image25.jpg" + alt="Sugar's Chapel—the Lectern And Pulpit." + title="Sugar's Chapel—the Lectern And Pulpit." /> +</a></div> + +<p><b>The Lectern</b>, which stands near, is composed of a massive +double desk, surmounted by ornamental work, containing the +arms of the see. It rests upon a ball and turned stem and base, +and is entirely of brass. Bishop Creyghton, who had it made +when he was yet dean, inscribed it on both desks with his +arms and this legend:—<i>Dr. Rob^t.^ Creyghton upon his returne +from fifteen years Exile, w^th^ o^r Soveraigne Lord Kinge Charles +y^e 2^d.^ made Deane of wells, in y^e yeare 1660, gave this Brazen +Deske, w^th^ God's holy worde thereon to the saide Cathedrall +Church.</i> The Bible referred to still rests upon it, bearing the +same date; it is bound up with the Prayer Book, and contains +initial letters and a frontispiece, but it stops at the book of Job.</p> + +<p>Opposite the lectern are two sixteenth-century panelled +wooden stalls, with round finials, all bearing the same device +on both sides—a Tudor rose with <i>I.H.S.</i> in the centre, and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span>letters <i>m.d.l.i.i.</i> (1552) on the five petals. These excellent +examples of simple and effective woodwork were found amongst +some lumber in 1846, and now form part of the temporary +choir stalls that are used for the nave services.</p> + +<p>On the south side of Bubwith's chapel, and partly covered by +it, is a slab, 10 ft. long, covering the grave of Bishop Haselshaw, +with the inscription, <i>Walterus de Haselshaw Ep</i>. 1308. On +the west of Sugar's chapel, another slab bears the inscription, +<i>Radulphus Erghum Ep</i>. 1401. In a slab near the entrance to +the choir there is the matrix for a brass of a lady, with mitred +head-dress of the period, <i>c</i>. 1460, beneath a canopy. The +style suggests that it may belong to Lady Lisle, whose tomb +possibly stood here.</p> + +<p><a name="III_5" id="III_5"></a><b>The Transepts</b> are both of the same architectural character, +and were evidently built before the nave. They have +less ornament, the medallions and the carved tympana of the +nave being alike absent, although there are the same small +heads at the angles of the pier arches. The triforium, too, is +different; each bay consists of two large openings, devoid of +ornament, instead of three narrower ones, and is separated +from the next bay by the vaulting-shaft which reaches down to +the string-course of the pier arch (see p. <a href="#Page_77">77</a>). Some of the +carved work, however, of the capitals and corbels is of a later +date than that of the nave, which may be due to the capitals +having been left uncut till after the nave was finished, or to +damage done by the fall of the <i>tholus</i> in 1248. Apparently +the corbels of the vaulting shafts are later than those of the +nave, they are certainly more elaborate. Of the capitals those +on the west side of both transepts are of one style and abound +in representations of the toothache. The capitals on the east +side are different from those on the west of the third pier on +this side of the south transept, and that is of a style that +suggests the Decorated period. Those on the west are certainly +the best, and some of the following are the finest in the +church, and perhaps in England:—</p> + +<p><b>North Transept,</b> <i>first Pier</i>.—(Inside the Priest Vicars' +vestry) A prophet (?) with scroll on which there is no name: +Man carrying goose. (Outside) Head with tongue on teeth.</p> + +<p><i>Second Pier</i>.—Aaron, writing his name on a scroll: Moses +with the tables of stone.</p> + +<p><i>Third Pier</i>.—Woman with a bandage across her face.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span>Above this cap the corbel consists of a seated figure, naked, +with distorted mouth and an agonised expression.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image26" id="image26"></a> +<a href="images/image26h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image26.jpg" + alt="Section of North Transept, and Elevation of South Transept." + title="Section of North Transept, and Elevation of South Transept." /> +</a></div> + +<p><b>South Transept,</b> <i>second Pier</i> (from the south end).— +Two men are stealing grapes, one holds the basket full, the +other plucks grapes, holding a knife in his other hand: The +farmers in pursuit, one carries a spade and the other a pitch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span>fork: +The man with the fork, a vigorous figure, catches one +thief: The man with the spade hits the other (whose face is +most woe-begone) on the head (illust. p. <a href="#Page_79">79</a>).</p> + +<p><i>Third Pier</i>.—Woman pulling thorn out of her foot: Man +with one eye, finger in his mouth: Baboon head: Cobbler; +this figure shows very plainly the method of shoemaking at this +time; the cobbler, in his apron, sits with the shoe on one knee, +his strap passes over the knee and round the other foot, his +foot is turned over so as to present the side and not the sole to +the strap: Woman's head with long hair.</p> + +<p><i>Fourth Pier</i>.—Head perfectly hairless: "Elias P." (the +prophet) with hand on cheek as if he too has the toothache: +Head in hood, with tongue on the one remaining tooth.</p> + +<p>It may be well here to say a word about the general classification +of these earlier capitals, since their date is a matter of +great architectural interest. I would venture to divide them +into five groups—</p> + +<p>1. Those of the three western bays of the choir: simple +carved foliage of distinctly Norman character, as in the north +porch: these belong to the time of Reginald (1174-1191).</p> + +<p>2. The four eastern bays of the nave and its aisles. Some +of these may belong to the first period, though later than the +choir: they are more advanced in the foliage, and teem with +grotesque birds and beasts. Some, however, of the caps in these +bays are of quite different character (p. <a href="#Page_80">80</a>); they contain +<i>genre</i> subjects of perfectly naturalistic treatment, very different +to the St. Edmund of the north porch capital, but exactly +similar to the figure caps of the transepts. They must therefore +have been carved later than the death of Saint William +Bytton.</p> + +<p>3. The western bays of the nave. These, which are of +much less interest, belong to the period of Jocelin's reconstruction +(1220-1242). They are characteristic examples of rich +stiff-leaf foliage, freer than that of the earlier work, but much +less varied and without either human figures or grotesques.</p> + +<p>4. On the eastern range of transept piers. These would +seem also to come within Jocelin's period, with the exception +of the third pier of the south transept.</p> + +<p>5. On the western range of transept piers (p. <a href="#Page_89">89</a>), with +which must be classed those later caps already referred to +in the nave under group 2. Their date is settled by the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span>fact that they abound in unmistakable representations of +the toothache. Now Saint William Bytton died in 1274, +and his tomb became immediately famous for cures of +this malady. In 1286 the chapter decided to repair the +old work, no doubt because the offerings at his tomb had +brought money to the church; this part of the church had +been damaged ever since the fall of the <i>tholus</i> in 1248. +The caps must therefore have been carved during the +episcopate of Burnell (1275-1292). Mr Irvine, indeed, +suggests that the figure of the woman taking a thorn ("bur") +from her foot may contain a reference to Bishop Burnell. +The undercroft passage, with its curious corbels and bosses, +was probably also a part of the old work then completed, +as it contains one "toothache" head. Although the introduction +of such finished figure-subjects into the capitals +suggests this lateness of date, they are still completely Early +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94" /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span>English in style, and a great gulf is fixed between them +and the Decorated caps of the chapter-house begun by +Burnell's successor, William de Marchia (1293-1302).</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image27" id="image27"></a> +<a href="images/image27h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image27.jpg" + alt="Capitals In Transept" + title="Capitals In Transept" /> +</a></div> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image28" id="image28"></a> +<a href="images/image28h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image28.jpg" + alt="The South Transept From North Side Of Nave." + title="The South Transept From North Side Of Nave." /> +</a></div> + +<p><a name="III_5_2" id="III_5_2"></a><b>The Font</b> is of peculiar interest as the one surviving +relic of Bishop Robert's Norman church. Whether it also +stood in the still earlier Saxon church is still an open +question: it is as likely +to be of pre-Norman as +of Norman date, and +the fact that whatever +ornament there may have +been in the spandrels of +its shallow arcades has +been hacked off, makes +conjecture unsafe. Its +unusual position in the +south transept may be +due to the Bishop Giso's +quasi-conventual buildings +on the south of the +church, which would +have made this transept +the most common entrance +to the cathedral +at the time of the Conquest. +A Jacobean +cover rests upon the +font, and with it forms +a charming combination +of pre-Gothic and post-Gothic +Romanesque +design.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image29" id="image29"></a> +<a href="images/image29h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image29.jpg" + alt="The Font. (Drawn by W. Heywood.)" + title="The Font. (Drawn by W. Heywood.)" /> +</a></div> + +<p>At the south end of +the south transept is +the tomb of Bishop <i>de +Marchia</i> (<i>ob.</i> 1302). The effigy lies in a recess, and is +covered with a canopy of three bays, the ogival arches, +finished in sumptuous crockets and finials, painted red +and gold, the spandrels being alternately green and red, +powdered with a little pattern, the cusps and mouldings +scarlet and crimson and green and gold, with a dark colour +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span>in the shadows. The effigy of the bishop is one of the best +in the cathedral, but even more lovely are the three little +figures so charmingly supported on foliage at the back of +the tomb—two angels and a bishop between them. The +heads of these three figures have been wickedly destroyed, +but parts of the chains of the angels' censers remain. Of +the two beautiful angels which hold the cushion the heads +fortunately remain. Along the plinth of the tomb are six heads +which are quite unique in their treatment; three are bearded +(one of these is bald); one is shaven, tonsured, and turned +half round in a strangely naturalistic manner; another is +also shaven, and the remaining head is that of a woman in +a veil. Two large faces are carved on the east and west +ends of the tomb, both with long wavy hair—one of a woman, +the other with a wavy beard. The central boss of the +vaulting is carved with five roses, which are coloured green, +their foliage, like all the foliage in this tomb, being gilt on +a red ground with the red edges showing. The little angels +at the back had gilded robes with red lining, and blue +wings; the little bishop wore a red chasuble with green +(or blue) dalmatic, and red tunicle over his white alb; the +lappets of his mitre, which have survived, were red, and +traces of dark blue are on his shoes: there seem to have +been patterns on the various vestments, and the colours can +still be seen where their sleeves overlapped. Modern +lettering has been cut across the back of the tomb and +coloured, by way of contrast to the ancient work.</p> + +<p>Under the battlemented cornice of the curtain-wall to +the west a row of heads is painted in fresco on a red ground, +which seems to be part of the same scheme with the curious +heads on the plinth of de Marchia's tomb: one of these, +a woman in a dark-coloured hood, is especially distinct. +No doubt, the whole wall was originally painted. The +sill of the window over the tomb seems to have been used +for some special purpose: there is a passage cut through +the splay of the window, through which the sill may be +reached, which is not the case with the corresponding window +of the north transept. The passage is reached from a staircase +concealed behind the curtain-wall, which is reached +by an ogee-headed doorway (with cusps in the head, finial, +and two small heads to its very beautiful mouldings). This +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span>staircase also leads to a chamber on the level of the passage, +but on the west side: the interior of the chamber can be +seen from the ground, as its old wooden door is kept open. +It is supposed by some to have been a watching chamber +in connection with the tomb. There can, indeed, be little +doubt that these arrangements had something to do with +de Marchia's tomb, or that the ornamented doorway in the +curtain wall of the same date as the tomb, together with +the frescoes on the wall, were connected with the strong +efforts that were made at this time for his canonisation. +Perhaps the sill was used for the display of his relics, and +the chamber was the ordinary resting-place of the reliquary, +for which purpose the door and the absence of windows +would have fitted it.</p> + +<p>Next to de Marchia's tomb on the other side, the monument +of Joan Viscountess <i>Lisle</i> (<i>ob.</i> 1463) gives a good illustration +of the change of architecture in a hundred and fifty years. +The crockets are less free, and straight lines and square +members abound; the fine ogee curve of its single arch +is weakened by the rather weedy cusps, its shafts have +become tiny mouldings, and their capitals mere knops. It +is coloured, too, all over, in green and red and yellow, +but heavily in comparison with its neighbour. The colour +has been unusually well preserved, owing to the fact that +the tomb was plastered over, and not discovered till 1809. +There is no effigy, but a brass of apparently recent date +bears this inscription:—<i>Hic jacet Joanna Vicecomitilla de +Lisle una filiarum et haeredum Thomae Chedder, armiger +quae fuit uxor Joannis Vicecomitis de Lisle, filii et haeredis +Joannis Comitis Salopiæ et Margaretæ u[=x] ejus unius filiarum +et haeredum Ricardi comitis Warwici et Elizabethae uxoris +ejus filiæ et haeredis Thomæ de Berkley militis, domini de +Berkeley, quæ obiit xv^mo^ die mensis Julii A[=n][=n] D^i MCCCCLXIII.</i> +Lady Lisle's husband was killed at the battle of Chastillon +(1453), when he was serving under his father, the famous +Earl of Shrewsbury. The painted designs above the three +niches should be noticed, and also those of the moulding +and fleurs-de-lys at the side. The monument was evidently +used as a chantry chapel; but it did not originally stand +here. The brass by the north side of the screen (p. <a href="#Page_89">89</a>) +may mark the site.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span>The eastern aisles of the transepts are divided off into +chapels by two Perpendicular stone screens, that of the south +transept having a doorway in it for each chapel. These +chapels are thus dedicated, beginning from the south—St. +Martin, St. Calixtus, St. David, Holy Cross. From the last-named +chapel the chapter-house is reached through an Early +English doorway, and a similar doorway (now partly blocked +by Biconyll's tomb) led from St. Martin's to a small building, +supposed to have been a vestry, which once stood outside. +In the south transept there are also—a small door to the tower, +a small door with ogee head (p. <a href="#Page_96">96</a>), a rather larger doorway +with modern lintel leading to the library (two shafts just above +this door have been cut off, and faces very roughly cut on +their extremities by way of corbel), and the large doorway +leading to the cloister. The principal windows belong to the +original work, having been merely filled with Perpendicular +tracery. The windows of the south-east aisle contain Decorated +tracery, but the tracery of the north-east aisle is not good.</p> + +<p>The western aisle of the south transept is open; that of the +north transept is cut off by a Perpendicular stone screen, which +is solid in the southern bay, and through carved in the +northern. The latter is, however, boarded up, and used as +the vestry of the priest-vicars, the other being the vestry of the +vicars-choral. From the priest-vicars' vestry a door leads into +a small chamber now used for the water supply, and over the +doorway there is a small and pretty figure of a woman under +a little niche.</p> + +<p>There are a very few fragments of Early Perpendicular glass +in some of the upper lights of the nave and transept windows. +There are also two modern windows at the west end of the +nave, and one in the south transept, of which I have been +unable to discover the actual designers' names.</p> + +<p><a name="III_6" id="III_6"></a><b>Transept Chapels</b>.—<b>St. Martin's</b>, where the obits of +Savaric and Jocelin were celebrated, is separated by a solid +Perpendicular screen from the adjoining chapel of St. Calixtus. +It is now used as the canons' vestry. Partly blocking the +old Early English doorway is the tomb of <i>Biconyll</i>, who was +chancellor in 1454. His will, with a good deal of information +about him, is given in the <i>Somerset Proceedings</i> for 1894, by Mr +A.S. Bicknell, a descendant. The name was originally Bykenhulle +(A.S. for Beacon Hill), and has been spelt in forty-seven +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span>different ways. His effigy lies on the tomb, dressed in cassock, +long surplice, and <i>cappa nigra</i> or choral cope. The ends of +the almuce can be seen in the opening of the cope, and its +hood hangs over the shoulders.</p> + +<p><b>St. Calixtus'</b> chapel is enclosed on the side of the choir +aisle by part of the beautiful ironwork from Beckington's +tomb. The doors of this and St. Martin's chapel are also +made from the same iron screen. Within the chapel, and +near the screen, in strange contrast to it, stands one of those +indescribable stoves which disfigure the church, its chimney, +as usual, driven through the vault. The east end of the chapel +is occupied by the canopy which formed part of Bishop +<i>Beckington's</i> tomb till the restoration of 1850, when it was, +by an inexcusable act of vandalism, taken down and fixed up +in this place (p. <a href="#Page_125">125</a>). This canopy did not cover the tomb, +but stood at its foot so as to form the eastern part of a chantry +chapel, the tomb being on its south side and the iron screen +enclosing it where it jutted into the choir on the north side. +It will be noticed that its northern angle was sloped off so as +not to present an awkward corner on the side of the choir. +The reredos, for such it really is, is a most elaborate and +charming piece of work; "pretty" is perhaps the word that +describes it best, if "pretty" be taken in its very best sense. +Here there is nothing of the suave grace of de Marchia's +tomb, nothing of the vigour and truth of the transept capitals, +nothing of the noble delicacy of the north porch, which was +a delicacy of intellect, while this is a delicacy of execution. +It is certainly decadent; even by the side of Sugar's chapel it +is over-refined and a thought effeminate, but, with the colour +that still covers it fresh and bright, it must have had all the +fascination of a splendid piece of jewellery, where profusion of +ornament is more desired than structural grace. The cornice +is particularly rich with a finely-carved vine ornament, and +with two angels, their long outstretched wings minutely +feathered, who bear shields having representations of the +sacred wounds. The tabernacle work behind the altar is gone, +like the altar itself, with the exception of the small niches +which formed the sides of the central composition, but the +little canopy of the central niche remains to give us a slight +idea of its workmanship. The short wings of the reredos have +panels and traceried openings, and, on the south, a piscina +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span>which looks almost too tiny to be real. The top has a toy-like +vault of fan-tracery with little pendants.</p> + +<p>On the south side of St. Calixtus' chapel is <i>Dean Husse's</i> +alabaster tomb (<i>ob</i>. 1305), which bears some of the best +carved work in the cathedral. The effigy itself is good: it +represents the Dean clad in the same choir vestments as the +figures on the panels below. These panels should on no +account be missed. The first on the left represents the +Annunciation with a grace that is not less delightful for the +strain of exaggeration which pervades it. The Blessed Virgin +(see illustration on p. <a href="#Page_101">101</a>), a lovely figure in long, close-fitting +kirtle and mantle thrown gracefully over her shoulders, turns +round from the desk at which she is kneeling, and throws out +her arms with a quaint gesture of surprise; her crown and +nimbus are both of enormous size. A very small Gabriel +dashes down from the top corner, bearing a scroll which takes +up the whole of the panel; he is preceded by a Dove with +very long rays. The next three panels (passing over these +with shields) contain three figures of clergy, two of which hold +books, and all their short staves. They wear the cassock, long +surplice, and a long, graceful choral cope, somewhat like the +modern academic gown in shape, the rounded ends of the +hooded almuce reach to the knee and are held at the chest +by a cord with tassels. There is no better representation of +medieval choir vestments in existence than these three figures. +The last panel is a curious representation of the Eternal +Father holding the crucifix; this remarkable figure has a <i>very</i> +long face, great masses of curly hair, a huge crown, and +<i>very</i> long hands.</p> + +<p>The two chapels of the north transept can only be reached +through the choir aisle, no doubt because the way to the +chapter-house was through them. The first was probably +<b>St David's</b> chapel. Here should be noticed the capital of +the easternmost shaft of the second transept pier—a head +with curly hair and handsome smiling face. This shaft is +corbelled off, and the corbel through carved in the shape of +a lizard eating the leaves of a plant with berries thereon; it +is a charming study. The tomb of Bishop <i>Still</i> (1543-1607) +in this chapel is under a handsome canopy of warm-coloured +marbles, with black columns and red, blue, and gold decoration. +The effigy is dressed in rochet and chimere, over which is a red +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span>robe lined with white fur; a ruff is round the neck, a close-fitting +black cap covers the head and part of the ears, and the +rochet is finished at the wrists with a plain black band.</p> + +<div class="floatr"> +<a name="image30" id="image30"></a> +<a href="images/image30h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image30.jpg" + alt="The Annunciation—Husse's Tomb." + title="The Annunciation—Husse's Tomb." /> +</a></div> + +<p>In the chapel of the <b>Holy +Cross</b> the monument of the +intruding Bishop <i>Kidder</i>, +Ken's successor (p. 158, <i>ob.</i> +1703), stands on the site of +the altar, whither it has been +removed from its original +position on the south side +of the choir. Standing in +all its chilly pretentiousness +so near to Still's tomb, it well +illustrates the immense decline +in monumental art +which took place during the +seventeenth century. The +bishop's daughter, who +erected the monument, is +represented reclining, as, with +one arm outstretched, she +looks at two urns which are +supposed to contain the ashes +of her father and mother; +underneath is a very long +Latin inscription.</p> + +<p>Against the north wall and +close to the entrance to the +chapter-house stands the +tomb of Bishop <i>Cornish</i> +(<i>ob</i>. 1513). He was chancellor +and precentor of Wells, +and suffragan bishop under +Bishop Fox of Bath and +Wells and Bishop Oldham +of Exeter, his title being Bishop of Tenos. Part of the +inscription remains:—<i>Obiit supradictus dŭs Thomas Tinensis +Epŭs tercio die mensis Julii anno ... MCCCCCXIII Cujus +Anime p</i>[<i>ropitietur Deus A</i>]<i>men</i>. The three panels on the +front bear shields—<span class="monument">T</span> +with a sheaf of corn, Cornish's arms (on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span> +a chevron between three birds' heads erased a mitre) and +<span class="monument">C</span> +with +a sheaf of corn; on the side panel are the arms of the chapter, +the arms, that is, of the see without the pastoral staff. Against +the wall within the +canopy are some matrices +of small brasses, +in which the kneeling +figure of a bishop, a +scroll, and two plates +for inscriptions can be +traced.</p> + +<div class="floatl"> +<a name="image31" id="image31"></a> +<a href="images/image31h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image31.jpg" + alt="Priest In Surplice—Husse's Tomb." + title="Priest In Surplice—Husse's Tomb." /> +</a></div> + +<p>From several peculiarities +in Cornish's +tomb, I am convinced +that it was also used as +the <i>Easter Sepulchre</i>, +where the Host was +laid during the concluding +days of Holy +Week. These sepulchres +were often made +in connection with a +tomb, and the usual +place for them was +somewhere on the +north side of the +choir. The position +here in the chapel of +the Holy Cross (which +is an appropriate dedication) +would be +particularly convenient +for the purpose. +The chapel +was easily reached by +the clergy without +their having to go +into the public part of the church; it was thus as safe a place +as the choir itself, and at the same time was much more open +to the people, who could pay their devotions from the transept, +and through the open stone screen could see the candles +burning round the sepulchre.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span></p> + +<p>Just where it could be best seen from the transept, on the +eastern end of the upper storey of the tomb under the canopy, +is a carving of the Resurrection. A wide arch is cut in the +stone; within this is carved a square opening, not through-cut, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span>but farther recessed, to represent the mouth of the sepulchre; +in front of the square recess is the figure of Christ, issuing from +the tomb, clad only in a long mantle, which He holds across +His body; the hair is long, the face mutilated, and the hands +gone. At the left is the kneeling figure of a bishop, the head +gone, but part of the staff remaining in the hands. There is a +great crack (now filled with mortar) round these two figures, as +if the attack of the iconoclasts had been made with heavy tools. +A pedestal at the right-hand corner of the square recess seems +a later insertion, as it is loose and does not exactly fit; probably +it was added soon after the tomb was made, to hold a small +silver figure of an angel, or of a soldier, as there is a little hole +(now filled with mortar) at a height above it convenient for +rivetting a metal figure.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image32" id="image32"></a> +<a href="images/image32h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image32.jpg" + alt="The East End In 1823." + title="The East End In 1823." /> +</a></div> + +<p>The Sepulchre proper would have consisted of a small +coped chest, in shape like a reliquary, round which would be +painted the incidents of the Passion. The slab of the tomb, +being without the usual recumbent effigy, would have formed +the place on which this "coffer" rested, this being the usual +method when a tomb was used for the purpose. On Good +Friday, the Host, often in a specially-made pyx, was with +much ceremony laid in the coffer, together with the altar-cross, +and there was kept, surrounded by candles and guarded by +watchers, till Easter Day. We know that there was a special +provision at Wells for one candle to burn continuously within +the Sepulchre "<i>I cereus in sepulchro cum corpori Dominico qui +continue ardebit donec Matutinae cantentur in die Paschae</i>" +(<i>MS. Harl</i>. 1682, <i>fo</i>. 5). There is a small hole in the east wall of +this chapel, close to the tomb and a little below the level of +of the slab whereon the coffer would have rested; this may +have held a sconce or some ornament. But the <i>cereus in +sepulchro</i> was probably a large candle within the chapel, and in +accordance with general usage, there would have been other +candles burning upon cressets. There are two other holes in +the north wall, a few inches to the east of the top of the tomb, +which may have held rods for the curtains that were used +in much profusion for the adornment of Easter sepulchres. +While the coffer stood on the slab it would have hidden the +carving of the Resurrection; but on its removal on Easter Day, +the carving would have stood in full view of the people, bright, +no doubt, with colour and surrounded by lights. It will +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span>further be noticed that the tomb stands eighteen inches away +from the east wall, the space being now filled with modern +masonry; this was probably in order to leave ample room +for the sacred ministers in their vestments; had it stood +close against the wall the ceremonial could not have been +conveniently carried out.</p> + +<p>Near the tomb is the doorway, with a fine old oak door, +which leads into the chapter-house; and above the tomb is a +window which was blocked up when the vestibule was built, +and a bracket set in the masonry.</p> + +<p><a name="III_7" id="III_7"></a><b>The Clock</b> is a great favourite with visitors, who generally +congregate in the north transept at the striking of the hour +and laugh gently to one another when the quaint performance +is over. "Jack Blandiver" (this is the name given him by the +country people for some undiscovered reason) kicks his bell at +each quarter in the most life-like manner, his feet trembling +afterwards with the exertion; but at the hour, after Jack has +sounded his four quarters, as the big bell begins to toll, the +four "knights" above the clock rush round in contrary +directions, and charge each other with so much ferocity that +one unfortunate is felled at each encounter, and has barely +time to recover his upright position before he is again and +again knocked down with resounding clatter upon his horse's +back. The other three fight twenty-four times a day unscathed.</p> + +<p>The clock was thus described by Mr Octavius Morgan, +F.R.S., in the <i>Archæological Journal</i> for 1883:</p> + +<p>"In the Cathedral of Wells is what remains of the ancient +clock which once belonged to Glastonbury Abbey. This very +curious timepiece is said to have been originally executed by +Peter Lightfoot, a monk of the abbey, but at the cost of Adam +de Sodbury, who was promoted to the abbacy in 1322. It +appears to have been originally placed in the south transept +of Glastonbury Abbey Church, where it continued till the +Dissolution, when, tradition says, it was carried to Wells and +placed in the north transept of the cathedral with all its +belongings—viz. the figure which strikes the quarters with his +heels on two little bells within the church, and the two +"knights" which perform the same service with their battle +axes on the outside. The inside figure strikes the hour on +a bell before him with a battle-axe in his hands. The face of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span>the dial is 6 feet in diameter, contained in a square frame, the +spandrels of which are filled with angels holding in their hands +the head of a man; the outer circle is painted blue, with gilt +stars scattered over it, and is divided into twenty-four parts, +corresponding with the twenty-four hours; the horary numbers +are in black-letter characters on circular tablets, and mark +the hours from twelve at noon to midnight, and from thence +to midnight again (noon and midnight being marked by a +cross instead of a numeral). The hour index, a large gilt +star or sun, is attached to the machinery behind a second +circle which conceals all except the index. On the second +circle are marked the minutes, indicated by a smaller star; +a third and lesser circle contains the numbers of the days of +the month, which is marked by a point attached to a small +circular opening in the plate, through which the phases of the +moon are shown. On the opposite side is a female figure, +with the motto <i>Semper peragrat Phoebe</i>.</p> + +<p>"An arched pediment surmounts the whole, with an +octagonal projection from its base like a gallery, capped with +a row of battlements, forming a cornice to the face of the +clock. A panelled and battlemented turret is fixed in the +centre, round which four figures mounted on horses revolve +in opposite directions, as if charging at a tournament, when +set in motion by a communication with the clockwork, to be +made at pleasure; these are commonly called <i>knights</i>, but +their costume is only that of ordinary persons. The movement +is at a distance from the dial, and connected with it by +a long horizontal rod; the dial work was close at the back of +the dial. The revolving figures on horseback are moved by +a separate weight, and are set in motion by the freeing of a +detent. The old boarding at the back [in the vestry of the +vicars-choral] is painted black, with a diaper scroll of foliage +with red and white roses. The female figure on the dial, +representing the moon, is always kept upright by a balance +weight; the quarter-boys inside, who strike the quarters, are +much later, having <i>knee-breeches</i>.</p> + +<p>"The outside dial has now two hands; it was once like a +star with only one hand. The bells outside are struck by +two figures in armour, <i>temp</i>. Henry VIII., probably put up +when it was removed from Glastonbury.</p> + +<p>"The clock seems to have remained without alteration +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span>after it was then put up, till the present modern movement, +made by Thwaites & Reed of Clerkenwell, was, in the time of +Dean Goodenough, substituted for it, and the old original +movement was taken and deposited in the crypt under the +chapter-house, where it remained uncared for, for many years, +during which time, 1853, I visited and examined it, made +notes of it, and took drawings of it. The great wheel has +ninety teeth, and the pinion, a lantern-pinion, had nine +leaves, or rather bars; the second wheel had sixty teeth; the +remainder of the works were all disjointed and bent, and +remained unheeded." The whole is now fitted together, and +in a going condition, in the mechanical museum at South +Kensington.</p> + +<p>The <i>Antiquary</i> for August 1897 ("Some Mediaeval +Mechanicians") reminds us that, as the clock was in constant +use at Glastonbury for about 250 years, and then at +Wells for another 250 years, and as the old movement is +now still working at the South Kensington, "as though its +life were interminable"—it is probably the oldest piece of +working mechanism extant.</p> + +<p>The same article says of these old works: "It will give +an idea of the labour involved, when it is stated the +mechanism of the clock occupies a space of about 5 feet cube +(125 cubic feet), that the structure is wholly of forged iron; +that the numerous wrought-iron wheels, some of which are +nearly 2 feet in diameter and about ½ inch thick, besides +having to be made truly circular and concentric, had all their +teeth cut out and trimmed to workable shape by hand; and +that the heavy wrought-iron frames, etc., are fastened entirely +by means of mortise, tenon, and colter, no screws being +used in the whole structure. The pinions are of the lantern +form, with octagonal cheek-plates on square spindles, and the +pendulum of modern form beats seconds."</p> + +<p><a name="III_8" id="III_8"></a><b>The Inverted Arches</b>.—Undoubtedly the first thing that +the stranger notices in Wells Cathedral, and the last that he is +likely to forget, is the curious contrivance by which the central +tower is supported. Of the three pairs of arches (the upper +arch resting inverted upon the lower) which stretch across the +nave and each of the transepts, that in the nave is seen at once, +and lends a unique character to the whole church. At first +these arches give one something of a shock, so unnecessarily +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span>frank are they, so excessively sturdy, so very English, we may +think. They carry their burden as a great-limbed labourer will +carry a child in a crowd, to the great advantage of the burden, +and the natural dissatisfaction of the crowd. In fact, they seem +to block up the view, and to deform what they do not hide.</p> + +<p>That is the first impression, but it does not last for long. +Familiarity breeds respect for this simple, strong device, which +arrested the fall of the tower in the fourteenth century, and +has kept its walls ever since in perfect security, so that the +great structure has stood like a rock upon the watery soil of +Wells for nearly seven centuries, with its rents and breaks just +as they were when the damage was first repaired. The ingenuity, +too, of these strange flying buttresses becomes more and +more evident; the "ungainly props" are seen to be so worked +into the tower they support, that they almost seem like part of +the original design of the first builders. One discovers that it +is the organ, and not the arches, that really blocks the view, and +one marvels that so huge a mass of masonry can look so light +as to present, with the great circles in the spandrels where the +arches meet, "a kind of pattern of gigantic geometrical tracery." +Indeed, I think no one who has been in Wells a week could +wish to see the inverted arches removed.</p> + +<p>Professor Willis, who had made a most careful investigation +of the masonry, thus describes the cause and the construction +of the inverted arches (<i>Somerset Proceedings, 1863, i. 21</i>):</p> + +<p>"It is evident that the weight of the upper storey of the tower +completed in 1321 had produced fearful settlements, the effects +of which may still be seen in the triforium arches of the nave, +and transepts next to the tower, which are dragged downwards and +deformed, partly rebuilt, filled up, and otherwise exhibiting the +signs so often seen under central towers, of a thorough repair. +The great piers of the tower are cased and connected by a +stone framework, which is placed under the north, south, and +west tower-arches, but not under the east. This framework +consists of a low pointed arch, upon which rests an inverted +arch of the same form, so as to produce a figure somewhat +resembling a St. Andrew's cross, to use the happy phrase applied +by Leland to a similar contrivance introduced for a similar +reason [but at a later date] into the central tower arches of +Glastonbury." To this description there only needs to be added +a mention of the circles which occupy the spandrels, and help +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span>to prevent the whole structure from seeming a mere inert mass +of masonry. To appreciate the work fully, it should be looked +at from some spot, such as the north-east corner of the north +transept, whence the three great pairs of arches can be seen +together. The effect from here is very fine, especially when +the nave is lighted up, and strong shadows are cast. The +extreme boldness of +the mouldings, the +absence of shafts +and capitals and of +all ornament, give +them a primitive +vigour, and their +great intermingling +curves, which contrast +so magnificently +with the +little shafts of the +piers beyond, seem +more like a part +of some great +mountain cavern +than a mere device +of architectural +utility.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image33" id="image33"></a> +<a href="images/image33h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image33.jpg" + alt="The Inverted Arches, From The North Transept." + title="The Inverted Arches, From The North Transept." /> +</a></div> + +<p>At the same time +as the arches were +built, flying buttresses +were inserted +further to +secure the tower, +and they can be +seen blocking up +the triforium and clerestory of those bays, in nave, choir, and +transepts, which adjoin it. Other repairs were necessary, for the +pier-arches of the same bays in nave and transepts were completely +shattered, and had to be replaced by the present ones, +the queer-looking capitals of which contrast so oddly with the +earlier work. It is instructive, also, to compare the lightness of +these fourteenth-century mouldings with the boldness of those, +wrought at exactly the same time, of the great inverted arches.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span><a name="III_9" id="III_9"></a><b>The Tower</b>.—Besides its inverted arches and other signs +of repair, the tower is mainly noticeable for its Perpendicular +fan-tracery vault of fifteenth-century date. This vault hides +the lantern with its arcades, and thus destroys one of the +elements of distance and mystery which, before the advent of +the more prosaic Perpendicular period, had been a characteristic +of Gothic architecture. Nothing else but the desire for +uniformity can account for this unjustifiable addition; for there +can have been no intention of hanging bells in the lantern +when there were already two western bell-towers. The lantern, +with its cracked masonry, can be seen during the ascent of the +tower (p. <a href="#Page_47">47</a>).</p> + +<p>The shafts of the eastern tower arches were corbelled off at +some height from the ground, in order to allow the stalls of the +first ritual choir to be set flat against the wall. This shows that +Bishop Reginald, when he rebuilt the church, kept to the old +Romanesque arrangement and made his choir under the tower, +reserving his three bays of what is now the choir for the +presbytery—a very dignified arrangement. The square holes +for fixing the wooden screen of this earlier choir can still be +traced on the aisle walls in a line with the ninth piers of the +nave.</p> + +<p><b>The Screen</b> was built in the fourteenth century; but +Salvin altered and spoilt it by bringing forward the middle +portion to carry the unsightly organ. Mr Freeman objected +very strongly to the choir being shut off from the nave by +this screen, and urged the authorities to pull it down and +throw the whole church open from end to end. The remedy +suggested by Mr St. John Hope, on the other hand, is that a +second screen should be erected under the western arch of the +tower, against which the nave or rood altar should stand, with +seats for the choir on either side. Such a screen as this was +certainly used in conventual churches, and would be more in +accord with the spirit of medieval architecture, which was +content to sacrifice the grandeur of great space in order to +gain the qualities of seclusion and mystery, and inexhaustible +variety.</p> + +<p>Two things, at least, are certain. The long-established +custom of crowding the Sunday congregation into the choir +should be abolished, and the organ should be modified or +removed. Magnificent Sunday services could be held in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112" /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span>nave, either with a second screen and altar or without a screen +at all; but, as the former plan could be tried without any +destruction of old work, it should be tried first.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image34" id="image34"></a> +<a href="images/image34h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image34.jpg" + alt="Choir, Looking West." + title="Choir, Looking West." /> +</a></div> + +<p>As for the organ, the cathedral will always be defaced while +it remains as a whole in the midst of the screen. Musical +experts could no doubt distribute it so that it would no longer +be an offence to the eye, and yet would sound more effectively +than at present. Perhaps galleries for the swell, pedal, and +great organs might be built above the pier-arches in the western +bay of the choir on either side, and the consol, with the choir +organ, might remain on the screen. Some fragments of tabernacle +work on the triforium level would thus be hidden, but it is +unremarkable work, exactly similar to that of the adjoining bays, +and, moreover, it was so blocked and patched when the tower +was strengthened that it would not be a disadvantage to hide it. +As it is, the organ, unsightly in shape, and garishly painted, +blocks up the view of the splendid east window, and makes +the nave a mere vestibule to the choir. The inverted arches +are generally thought to block up the church, but were the +organ removed it would be found that they do not.</p> + +<p><b>The Organ</b> is a modern instrument by Willis. Dean +Creyghton, a musician whose services are still sung in the +cathedral, built the old organ in 1664, and S. Green of London +repaired it in 1786, but only one diapason remains of the old +stops. The case also disappeared, the present one being +among the ugliest in England. There are three manuals; +thirteen speaking stops on the great organ, ten on the swell, +nine on the choir, and eight on the pedal organ. The swell +organ is rather small, but has been recently improved; the +pedal organ is the best feature of the instrument. The wind +is supplied by hydraulic machinery. There are four pneumatic +pistons, six couplers, and seven composition pedals. The +organist now sits on the south side, so that he can see his +choristers, whether they sing in the choir or the nave.</p> + +<p><a name="III_10" id="III_10"></a><b>The Choir</b>.—The western part of the choir should be +particularly noticed. For, while the three eastern bays which +form the presbytery are Late Decorated, the three western bays +of the choir are twelfth-century work of Bishop Reginald's +time, being, in fact, the oldest part of the interior. That they +were finished before Reginald's other work in the transepts and +nave is not only likely from the general custom of medieval +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span>architects, but is made probable by the carving of the capitals, +which is less advanced than that in any other part of the +church.</p> + +<p>It will be noticed, however, that, though the three arches +remain of the earlier bays, the two easternmost <i>piers</i> of the old +part are Decorated, like those in the three later bays; and +some of their arch mouldings have been cut away in order to +fit the new capitals. The reason for this peculiar combination +of a new pier with an old arch is an interesting one. The +original pier marked the east end of Reginald's church, and it +was taken from under its arch because, being at the junction of +the east wall with the side walls, it was a large compound pier +quite unfitted to stand as one of an arcade. The three bays +then formed the presbytery of the church, and the choir was +placed, Norman fashion, under the tower. A further evidence +of this being the original east end of the church is presented +by the two early buttresses outside at this point, which are +much wider than any of the others. But there must have been +an ambulatory beyond the east end of the old church, since +Reginald's work is carried a bay farther east in the choir aisles. +There may, too, have been a small chapel beyond.</p> + +<p>Speaking of the contrast between the three early bays and the +later work, Freeman says: "The new work, though exceedingly +graceful, is perhaps too graceful; it has a refinement and +minuteness of detail which is thoroughly in place in a small +building like the Lady Chapel, but which gives a sort of feeling +of weakness when it is transferred to a principal part of the +church of the full height of the building. The three elder +arches are all masculine vigour; the three newer arches are +all feminine elegance; but it strikes me that feminine elegance, +thoroughly in its place in the small chapels, is hardly in its +place in the presbytery."</p> + +<p>Certainly, the mouldings of the later arches will not bear +comparison with those of the earlier. The suave strength of +the transitional mouldings forms a most instructive contrast to +the less effective minuteness of the decadent work. The same +is true of the capitals: those of the later period have little +architectural significance, and many of them are further +weakened by the fact that not the capital only, but the adjoining +part of the shaft as well, is cut out of white stone.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span></p> + + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image35" id="image35"></a> +<a href="images/image35h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image35.jpg" + alt="CHOIR, LOOKING EAST. PROCESSION PATH AND LADY PATH BEYOND." + title="CHOIR, LOOKING EAST. PROCESSION PATH AND LADY PATH BEYOND." /> +</a></div> + +<p>With the exception, however, of the three pier-arches them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span>selves, +there are few signs of the twelfth-century work. For, +when the new presbytery was finished, the clerestory over +the old arches was altered, and the triforium cased with +tabernacle work (though not in quite so rich a style), so as to +bring them into harmony with the fourteenth-century work, +and to fit them to carry the new vault. The tabernacle work +of the presbytery must have been completed first; for no attempt +was made to keep it at the same level with the old part, which, +when the builders determined to adapt it to the new, caused a +very marked break at the juncture.</p> + + +<p>There is, strictly speaking, no triforium, the space being +occupied by the rather florid tabernacle work, the effect of +which is, of course, considerably impaired by the absence of +statuary. The niches in the presbytery are deeper than those +in the choir; they spring direct from the pier-arches, having no +spandrel, and they contain richly-foliated brackets, which rest +on triple shafts. This part is also marked by triple vaulting +shafts of Purbeck, which are carried down to the floor.</p> + +<p>The clerestory windows contain flowing tracery of an advanced +and not very good type. In some the plain mullions +are carried on through the head of the window and intersect +each other.</p> + +<p>Above the tabernacle work of the east end is the east +window of seven lights, the last bit of the fourteenth-century +reconstruction, the last flicker of Decorated freedom. Its +curious tracery is still beautiful, doubly so for the +glass it enshrines, but the rule and square of Perpendicular +domination have already set their mark upon it; the two +principal mullions run straight up to the window-head, and +part of the tracery between them is rectangular.</p> + +<p>The inhabitants of Wells are, or were, exceedingly proud of +the "vista" into the procession-path and Lady Chapel, which +is afforded by the three dainty pointed arches of the east end. +So proud were they that they would suffer nothing to stand +behind the high altar but a low stone wall, barely higher than +the altar itself, an arrangement which, it is hardly necessary to +point out, defeated its own end by reducing the whole effect +to absolute baldness. Mr Freeman wisely pointed out the +need of a respectable reredos, remarking that the original +founders never dreamed of the Lady Chapel acting as a "peep-show +to the choir." A Lady Chapel, he added, was built +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span>specially not to be peeped into, but to be a thing apart from +the great whole of the church, from the high altar westward. +After a while, a reredos was offered to the church, and approved +by Mr J.D. Sedding, who was then the cathedral architect; +but there was much opposition, and the scheme was dropped. +Dean Plumptre, with characteristic temerity, went so far as to +appeal to the witness of the <i>vox populi</i> that the open view was +the best. Since then, wiser counsels have prevailed, and a +curtain (small and dingy, it is true, but still a curtain) now +hangs behind the altar. While giving a measure of dignity to +the east end, it, of course, emphasises, as every architect must +have known that it would, the charm of the "peep" into the +chapels beyond.</p> + +<p>A larger reredos would further enhance the peculiar charm +of the east end. There can, indeed, be little doubt that the +ancient reredos was of tabernacle work, so as to carry on the +effect of niches of the triforium storey. Their present disconnectedness +can be no part of the original plan, and a +reredos full of statues, which was high enough to group +adequately with the rich canopies above could have been the +only way to secure dignity and unity of effect. Till an architect +is found capable of mastering so delicate a problem of proportion +as such a reredos must present, we may well be content +with a larger and brighter curtain. The low east wall, with its +ugly cresting, warns us not to embark too rashly upon modern +stonework.</p> + +<p>The lierned stone vault, with its heavy, angular ribs, is of a +very unusual kind. Mr Freeman described it as "a coved roof, +such as we are used to in woodwork in this part of England, +only with cells cut in it for the clerestory windows." The +restorers have gilded the bosses, but the space between the +ribs is smoothed in a way that gives the appearance of there +being no masonry in the construction. One can hardly judge +the ceiling, therefore, by its present appearance, which is not +further improved by the green wash with which some of the +clerestory windows are covered.</p> + +<p>The general appearance of the choir suffers pitiably from +the ill-advised restoration of 1848 and the following years. +Before that time its aspect must have been curious and encumbered; +but the judicious removal of the pews and galleries, +and the restoration of the truncated oak canopies of the stalls, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span>would have made matters right at a small cost, and without +the destruction of any old woodwork. As it was, everything +was ruthlessly swept away. The tabernacled stalls, which +eighteenth-century vandalism had respected, vanished utterly +before the restoring mania of the Gothic revivalist, even their +traditional position and order being changed.</p> + +<p>The result is just what might have been expected. The +place has been completely modernised. Chilly stone canopies +cover the stalls; they are of the kind of workmanship which +forty years ago was considered excellent. That is to say, they +are covered with frigid, ungainly, and pompous ornament, cut +with mechanical regularity, and without one trace of feeling or +one line of beauty from beginning to end. Below, and between +them, the choir is encumbered, much as it was before 1848, +with rows of stalls, which are continued in the presbytery +almost up to the tawdry brass altar-rails. Two more pale +ghosts of medieval art front each other in complacent parody +of the work their makers could not even copy—the pulpit and +the bishop's throne. The former is Early Victorian; the latter +is worse, it is a restoration of Perpendicular work so relentless +that not a sign of the original conception remains. Plate-glass +fills the tracery at the sides, and the door is a piece of solid +swinging stone. On the completion of this terrible work, +the restorers seem to have felt dimly the want of colour, +which previously had been so abundant. They therefore +proceeded to furnish with that peculiar musty red which used +to cast a gloom over our childhood—red cushions on the +seats, red cushions on the desks, red hassocks on the floor, +red edges to the books, hot red in the bishop's throne, dull +red on the altar, before the altar, and behind the altar, it is +all red but the chilly white stone, and the all-pervading woodwork +of the seats, which adds the muddy gloom of oak that +has been stained and varnished to the miserable poverty of the +whole.</p> + +<p>The cause of all this desolation was just the ignorance of its +promoters as to the functions of a cathedral. The choir was +looked upon as a select church for the leading families of the +town, and the seats in it were appropriated; the nave was a +vast empty space that was never used for worship at all. +Hence the organ on the screen, hence the setting back of the +stalls, so that the choir might be widened, and more seats +"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span>rammed, jammed, crammed," to use Freeman's indignant +words, into the space. Instead of the long continuous range +of stalls which formerly existed, there are now groups of five +under each arch, with the result that ten of the prebendaries +are without accommodation. Such is the heavy legacy of blunders +with which the dean and chapter are burdened. It will take +many a year before the choir can be redeemed from its +unfortunate state; but the present arrangement of the altar +is a great improvement on its position only a few years ago, +and no doubt similar measures will in time completely efface +the traces of 1850.</p> + +<p>Of the old woodwork the <a name="III_10_1" id="III_10_1"></a><b>Misericords</b> have alone escaped +destruction. Sixty-four of these remain, fifty of which belonged +to the prebendal stalls of the upper row, though they were +removed from their proper position at the restoration. Sixty +of the seats are now in the lower rows of the stalls, the other +four are preserved in the library. It is enough to say of them +that no finer examples of wood-carving can be seen in England. +The following description of the wonderfully fresh and varied +subjects was supplied by Mr St. John Hope for a paper read +by Canon Church before the <i>Society of Antiquaries</i> in March +1896:—</p> + +<blockquote><p><i>South side, first row</i>.—1, a goat (broken); 2, a griffin fighting with +a lion(?); 3, a man in hood and drawers riding with his face to the +tail of a barebacked horse; 4, a hawk preying on a rabbit; 5, a mermaid +(unfinished); 6, two popinjays in a fruit tree; 7, an ape carrying a basket +of fruit on his back (broken); 8, a double-bodied monster; 9, a dog-headed +griffin; 10, two goats butting (unfinished); 11, a monkey holding +an owl (unfinished); 12, two dragons interlocked and biting each other's +tails; 13, an ewe suckling a lamb (unfinished); 14, a wyvern and a horse +fighting. <i>South side, second row</i>.—15, a mermaid suckling a lion; 16, a +man holding a cup? (broken), sitting on the ground, and disputing with +another man holding a pouch; 17, a cat preying on a mouse (unfinished); +18, a monster with bat's wings; 19, a griffin devouring a lamb; 20, a +puppy biting a cat; 21, a man in a contorted position upholding the seat; +22, a serious-looking dog; 23, a cat playing a fiddle; 24, a man seated on +the ground and thrusting a dagger through the head of a dragon with +feathered wings; 25, bust of a bishop, in amice, chasuble, and mitre +(unfinished); 26, a peacock in his pride; 27, a fox preaching to four geese, +one of which has fallen asleep (broken); 28, a cock crowing. <i>North side, +first row</i>.—29, a lion dormant; 30, a dragon with expanded wings, asleep; +31, a man with his left eye closed, wearing a cloak and squatting on the +ground with his hands on his knees; 32, a fox running off with a goose in +his mouth; 33, head of a man with donkey's ears; 34, two monsters with +male and female human heads, caressing (unfinished); 35, a man on his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span>back upholding the seat with his right hand and right foot; 36, a lion with +the ears of an ass; 37, a hawk scratching its head; 38, a sleeping cat +(unfinished); 39, a woman with dishevelled hair and agonised expression, +crouching on the ground with the right hand on her shoulder, the other +extended; 40, a dragon with hairy belly biting his back; 41, two ducks +addorsed, one with his beak open; 42, two dragons fighting (unfinished); +43, a bat's head (unfinished). <i>North side, second row</i>.—44, head of a man +with bushy hair and beard, with a lion's leg growing out of each side; +45, a man in tunic and hood, lying on his side and clasping his hands; +46, a man in girded tunic, with his head downwards, upholding the seat +with his back and left hand; 47, head of a lady with hair in a caul on each +side, covered with a veil confined by an ornate fillet; 48, a gentle-looking +lion; 49, a bat displayed; 50, head of an angel, with amice round neck and +expanded wings; 51, a lion; 52, two doves about to drink from a ewer +standing in a basin (unfinished); 53, a squirrel with a collar round his +neck, trying to escape from a monkey who holds him by a cord; 54, a +wood-pigeon feeding; 55, a man riding on a lion, to whose buttocks he is +applying a whip; 56, a boar and a cat with cloven feet, walking in opposite +directions; 57, an eagle displayed (unfinished); 58, head and shoulders of +a man who upholds the seat with his hands; 59, a rabbit regardant; 60, a +two-legged beast regarding its tail, which is formed of three oak-leaves on +one stem. <i>In the Library</i>.—61, a man in hood and loose tunic, kneeling +on the ground and thrusting a spear down the throat of a dragon; 62, a +boy in gown, with long, wavy hair, lying on his side and drawing a thorn +out of his left foot (of coarse late seventeenth-century work); 63, a dove +or pigeon feeding her young; 64, a sorrowful-looking king sitting cross-legged +on a cushion between two rampant griffins, who are secured by +straps buckled round their necks.</p></blockquote> + +<p><b>Glass in the Choir.</b>—Over the high altar is a superb +specimen of the Jesse window. It is so intricate, that at first +nothing can be distinguished in the glow of jewelled colour +but the twining branches of the vine, and a little time is needed +to enter into the spirit of a window that is all the more enduring +for not being very obvious. The following excellent +description by Canon Church (in a sermon preached in the +cathedral on May Day 1890) will make the legend easy to +decipher:—</p> + +<p>"In the central light are the foremost figures of the Bible +story. At the base is the recumbent figure of Jesse with +name inscribed, with head resting on hand as in meditation. +From that figure, as from the vine stem, issues upward the +leading shoot, bearing upon it the figures of the Virgin Mother +crowned with ruby nimbus, and the Holy Child with gold +nimbus, both under a golden canopy. Above, in line, is the +Crucifixion. On either side, the waving tendrils of the vine +shoots intertwine themselves in rings of light round figures of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span>those who prepared the way for the advent of the Word +Incarnate. On the lower tier, in line with Jesse, are, we +may believe, the ancestors of Jesse. Amminadab and Obed +are inscribed on two of the pedestals—others are nameless. +Stately figures they are in face and form, in flowing mantles of +green, and ruby and gold, like Arab chiefs, some with the +Arab head-covering such as is worn to-day—figures such as +some artist in the last crusading host might have seen and designed, +so different from the conventional portraiture of Bible +characters.</p> + +<p>"In the second tier are the Kings and Prophets chosen to +represent the heralds of the Babe of Bethlehem, the Word +Incarnate. Three kings—David with his 'immortal harp of +golden wires'; Solomon, with Temple model in his hand, in +robes of emerald, and ruby, and gold, are on either side of the +central Figures; and Jechonias, the link in the pedigree +between the royal David and the captive exile. Three Prophets—Abraham, +misplaced indeed in order of time, but most fitly +in place as 'the father of the faithful, unto whom and through +whom the gospel was before preached to the Gentiles' (Gal. +iii. 8); Hosea, and Daniel. All these are clad in the magnificence +of Oriental drapery, the colours of each pair on either +side of the central light answering like to like. Some are +looking upward, some are pointing with outstretched hand +towards The Child, towards the Crucified One.</p> + +<p>"There in central light in the mid-panel of the window is +the Virgin Mother and the Holy Child, The Child born in +Bethlehem the home of Jesse, not in David's royal Palace, the +flowering shoot of the stem of Jesse. Now from His throne +on His Mother's knee He looks out over the world and as +with outstretched arms to embrace. A ray of white light on +the Mother's head gives a natural halo of purity to Her 'the +highly favoured' 'with grace replete,' whom all generations +have called 'blessed,' as she looks down wondering on the +Holy Child.</p> + +<p>"A subdued and sadder colour seems to veil the subject of +the highest panel in the central light. There is the green Cross +in the background, and upon it are affixed the attenuated arms +and the bent form of the Crucified—the head drooping on the +breast. On either side of the Cross stand, the sorrowing +Mother on the right, in attitude of calm resignation, very +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span>different from the conventional garb of mourning, and the +exaggerated expression of grief in so many paintings; on the +other hand St. John, in sadder colours and the gloom of grief. +Again above, in two of the smaller six-cusped lights, are figures +rising from the tomb, and in the two at the side are angels +blowing trumpets calling to judgment. At the head and apex +of the window are outstretched wings as of the Holy Spirit like +the Dove brooding over the world re-created by the Word made +Flesh, giving Himself for our redemption."</p> + +<p>The clerestory windows contained a figure under a canopy +in each of the lower lights. Four of these old windows remain. +One light in the north-east window contains a St. George, thus +described by Mr C. Winston (<i>Arch. Soc., Bristol vol</i>.): "He is +clad in a surcoat which reaches to the knee. He wears a +helmet, avant and rerebras, shin-pieces and sollerets of plate, +or rather cuir boulli; the rest of his person is defended with +mail, on his shoulders are aiglettes." In the next window are +St. Egidias with very distended ears, and St. Gregory in a tiara. +There are also two modern windows; a glaring one by Willement +has St. Dunstan and St. Benignus, who were both +abbots of Glastonbury and St. Honorius; another, by Bell, +has Augustine, Ambrose, and Athanasius.</p> + +<p><a name="III_11" id="III_11"></a><b>The Aisles of the Choir</b> are entered from the transepts +by ogee arches, which have crockets and finials, and are flanked +by a pair of pinnacles on either side. The aisles are of the same +character as the choir itself, as they were vaulted when the +choir vault was made, and new windows of the Decorated style +were inserted in the western bays as well as in the newer part. +There is a stone bench along the aisles on both sides, and on +the north side some very fine specimens of Early English +carving lie on the bench. The vaulting is lierned with four +bosses at each intersection. The foliage of the third group of +capitals on the north side consists of a single leaf which runs +horizontally round the caps.</p> + +<p>Two old wooden doors, with fine hinges, close the entrance +to the presbytery on the north and south sides.</p> + +<p>The body of Bishop Jocelin lies buried in the midst of the +choir, where he was laid in the place of honour as a founder. +Bishop Godwin relates that the tomb was "monstrously +defaced" in his time, and all traces of the burying-place were +lost until, in 1874, an ancient freestone coffin was found under +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span>the pavement in the midst of the choir. Its covering stone +had been broken, and the bones within disturbed; but on its +discovery the stone was renewed, and the inscription <i>Jocelinus +de Welles, Ep</i>. 1242 cut on it.</p> + +<p><a name="III_12" id="III_12"></a><b>The South-East Transept</b> is the chapel of St. John the +Evangelist, but it is mainly occupied by a stove, one of those +characterised by Mr Freeman as "the most hideous stoves +with which human perversity ever disfigured an ancient building." +Odds and ends are also kept here, in accordance with +the extraordinary idea, not yet quite extinct, that a chapel is a +place where rubbish may be shot. There is, nevertheless, a +decorated piscina in the east wall to remind one of its former +purpose. Against the south wall is the tomb of the learned +<i>Dean Gunthorpe</i> (1472-98), who built the present Deanery, and +gave to the cathedral a silver image of our Lady, 158 oz. in +weight. His initials occur on the panels, I.G. on a blue +ground, and also his arms, which include guns, in allusion to +his name. There are traces of colour, especially a strong light +blue on the panels. Unless one has good nerves, it is +advisable not to look at the window, which was given by the +students of the Theological College under Canon Pindar, its +first Principal. The middle of this unfortunate chapel is +encumbered with a monument to <i>Dean Jenkyns (ob.</i> 1854), +the ornamentation of which may be taken as marking the +lowest point to which the debasement of Gothic design has +descended. A row of tiles round it serves to make it more +conspicuous, and its unhappy prominence is further secured by +a low brass railing of unutterably bad workmanship. It was +Dean Jenkyns who restored the choir, and Professor Freeman +remarks that on his tomb "is written, with an unconscious +sarcasm, <i>Multum ei debet ecclesia Wellensis</i>," words which, he +slily points out, seem to be borrowed from Lucan's address to +Nero, the destroyer of Rome, <i>Multum Roma tamen debet</i>, etc.</p> + +<p><b>Monuments in the South Choir Aisle.</b>—Besides two +of the thirteenth-century effigies of earlier bishops, there are in +this aisle two ancient monuments of great interest. In the +second bay is the tomb of <i>Saint William Bytton</i> (1267-1274), +a low slab of Purbeck marble, with the figure of a bearded +and fully-vested bishop, in the act of benediction, cut upon +it. This is the oldest incised slab in England; and it was at +this tomb that the offerings were made which helped to finish +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span>the church. Godwin says that "many superstitious people +(especially such as were troubled with the tooth-ake) were +wont (even of late yeeres) to frequent much the place of his +buriall, being without the North [a mistake for south] side +of the Quier, where we see a Marble stone, having a pontificall +image graven upon it."</p> + +<p>It may have once been more raised than now, and four +small plugged holes in the masonry of the wall opposite suggest +the existence of some arrangement in connection with the +devotions here. In the restoration of 1848 the tomb was +discovered between the second and third piers of the south +choir aisle. It is thus described by Mr J.R. Clayton, an eye-witness +on the occasion:</p> + +<p>"On the coffin being opened in the presence of Dean +Jenkyns, it contained a skeleton laid out in perfect order, +every bone in its right place; an iron ring, and a small wooden +pastoral staff in two fragments; a leaden tablet, 10 in. by 3-1/3, +with inscription most beautifully rendered in Lombardic +characters.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span><i>Hic jacet Willelmus de Button secundus Bathoniensis</i><br /></span> +<span><i>et Wellensis episcopus sepultus XII.</i><br /></span> +<span><i>die Decembris anno domini MCCLXXIIII</i>."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It was noted at the same time that "the teeth were absolutely +perfect in number, shape, and order, and without a trace of +decay, and hardly any discoloration." From this one would +infer that the saint was famous in his lifetime for his beautiful +teeth, and that it was for this reason that his aid came to be +invoked after his death by those suffering from toothache. It +is certainly curious that men now living should have discovered +his teeth to be still in such perfect preservation. His contemporaries +would, no doubt, have called it a miracle.</p> + +<p>A little farther east is the remarkable tomb of <i>Bishop +Beckington</i>, surrounded by an exquisite iron screen of the same +period. Its canopy formerly projected into the choir, being +large enough to form a small chantry; but, when the choir was +so stupidly restored, the canopy was dragged from its place, and +set up in St. Calixtus' chapel, where it still is (p. 99,) a hard-looking +stone screen being built between the tomb and the +choir in its stead. The tomb is divided into two parts, the +arcade which forms the canopy of the lower effigy supporting +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span>the slab on which rests the figure of the bishop. The carving +is very beautiful, and the delicately-wrought wings of the angels, +which spread over the arches so as to fill the spandrels, are +especially fine. Traces of colour are strong on the tomb, +as they are on the canopy from which it has been divorced, so +that one can form some little idea of what the whole must have +been like in its first magnificence.</p> + +<p>The effigy of the bishop rests upon it, the old and wrinkled +face (best seen from within the choir) bearing deep traces +of that active public life which did so much for the city +and the church. Below, in strange contrast to the gorgeous +vestments, which have still the remnants of the painted +pattern on them, lies a corpse, almost a skeleton, in its open +shroud. At first one's feeling is that of repulsion, but it is +lessened when we remember that Beckington himself had the +tomb made, and consecrated it before a vast concourse of +people, saying mass for his own soul, for those of his parents, +and of all the faithful departed in the January of 1452. Thus +for thirteen years did this great and famous prelate live with his +tomb standing as a witness to all that, under those sumptuous +robes of office which we are told he wore at its consecration, +he knew himself to be but as other men, and could wait +humbly for his end.</p> + +<p>A little farther east is a large and rather clumsy effigy of <i>Bishop +Harewell (ob.</i> 1386), whose name and arms are suggested, in +the playful fashion of the time, by two hares at his feet. +Harewell is known to have been a portly man.</p> + +<p>To the west of Beckington's monument an altar tomb in +reddish alabaster has been placed in memory of <i>Lord Arthur +Hervey,</i> the late bishop, with an effigy by Mr Brock. It may +be hoped that it is the last of its kind, since there is little room +for more tombs, and great need of other and more useful forms +of memorial.</p> + +<p><i>Bishop Drokensford's</i> tomb, at the entrance to the south-east +transept, is of unusual design, the ogee heads of its panels +being through-cut from side to side. Only the bases remain of +its canopy, which was taken down in 1758, as it was thought +to be in danger of falling. There is a good deal of colour on +the tomb; the chasuble is red with green lining, its orphreys are +painted on the stone. The apparel is also painted on the alb, +the orphreys and ornaments on the mitre, and a lozenge-shaped +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span>pattern on the cushion. Two shields are emblazoned over and +over again on the spandrels, the ground being alternately red +and green with white sprays of foliage; the coat with four +swans' heads, couped and addorsed, is Drokensford's. He +was bishop when Dean Godelee's great works were going on, +and he gave money towards building the central tower.</p> + +<p><b>Monuments of the North Choir Aisle</b>.—One of the +Early English effigies, which were made probably by Bishop +Jocelin, lies here, with a modern inscription, to <i>Bishop Giso</i>. +There are four others, to <i>Æthelwyn, Leofric, Duduc</i>, and +<i>Burwold</i>, all having the same characteristics, in the ambulatory +chapels and opposite aisle. Graceful and solemn as +they are, they seem rough in outline, as if they were carved by +a hand used to calculating for the distant views of the west +front, and almost weather-worn, by the side of the more highly-finished +effigies in marble and alabaster which are near them. +In the year 1848, when these monuments were set back and +placed on their present ugly bases, they were found to contain +boxes with bones therein, and leaden tablets with the name of +each bishop inscribed upon them.</p> + +<p>A different monument is that of <i>Ralph of Shrewsbury</i> +(<i>ob</i>. 1363), whose marble effigy, scored by the names of long-departed +vandals, affords a good example of the episcopal +ornaments, the mitre, gloves, maniple, the apparel round the +neck, and the vexillum round the crozier. The tomb formerly +stood surrounded by a grating, in the midst of the presbytery, +for Ralph was the "finisher" of the church. But it was afterwards +moved, and, says Godwin, it "lost his grates by the +way." At the entrance to the little transept is the tomb of +<i>Dean Forrest</i> (<i>ob</i>. 1446), similar to that of Drokensford in +the opposite aisle, but more mutilated. The canopy is gone, +but fragments of it are in the undercroft of the chapter-house.</p> + +<p><b>The North-East Transept</b> is the chapel of St. John +Baptist, and contains a Decorated piscina. On its east wall is +a sculpture of the Ascension, which formerly was fixed in the +east cloister above the I.H.S. in the fourth bay. St. Andrew +with his cross may be noticed among the Apostles. There are +traces of blue in the background, and of red in one of the +cloaks. Most noticeable among its monuments is the handsome +marble sarcophagus and effigy <i>of Bishop Creyghton</i>, who +gave the lectern. The figure is vested in cope, mitre, and alb, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span>a fact which is worth noting, as the bishop lived in the reign +of Charles II. There is also an effigy of <i>John de Myddleton</i> +or Milton, who, after being chancellor for a very short time, +became a friar and died in 1337. The plain tomb of <i>Bishop +Berkele</i> (<i>ob.</i> 1581) bears a curious inscription, which assumes +more than the character of its subject would seem to warrant: +<i>Spiritvs, ervpto, salvvs, gilberte novembre, carcere principis +en(c) aethere barkle, crepat. añ: dãt ista salutis</i>. Which may +thus be translated, "Thy soul is safe, Gilbert Barkley, having +broken from its prison in the beginning of November, it speaks +from the sky. These words give the year of its safety," The +words referred to are in the middle part of the tomb—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2"><i>Vixi, videtis præmium:</i><br /></span> +<span>83 <i>Lvxi, redux quieascibus.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i2"><i>Pro, captua gendo præsulis</i><br /></span> +<span class="i2"><i>Septem per annos triplices</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The figures 83 at the side of <i>Vixi</i> and <i>Lvxi</i> suggested to Mr +J. Parker that the letters stood also for figures thus—vi (6) +xi (11) lv (55) xi (11), the total being 83, which was the age at +which Berkeley died. The quatrain may be translated—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"I have lived, you see my reward:<br /></span> +<span>I have shone, returning to my rest.<br /></span> +<span>Having held the office of bishop<br /></span> +<span>For seven times three years."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The east end of the north aisle forms a roomy chapel which +is dedicated to St. Stephen, and contains a piscina of the same +type as those in the neighbouring chapels. Its east window +has five lights, and that in the side wall has three, with good +reticulated tracery; the principal mouldings are already assuming +the large flat hollow form which was to become characteristic +of the Perpendicular style. The chapel of St. Catherine on +the south side corresponds to it exactly.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image36" id="image36"></a> +<a href="images/image36h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image36.jpg" + alt="Procession Path And Lady Chapel." + title="Procession Path And Lady Chapel." /> +</a></div> + +<p><a name="III_13" id="III_13"></a><b>The Procession Path</b>, or, to use the uglier and more +accurate word, the Retro-choir, is a rectangular space between +these chapels and the transepts, on the north and south, and +the Lady Chapel and presbytery on the east and west. This +space is vaulted; and the vault is carried by four slender piers +of Purbeck marble, with attached shafts, in the midst, by a group +of Purbeck shafts on each of the two piers which lead into the +Lady Chapel, and by the light blue Purbeck shafts of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span> +eastern arches of the presbytery. As two of the middle piers +(which are set diagonally from north-east to south-west, and +from south-east to north-west) are in a line with the pier-arches +of the choir, while the other two, though in a line with those +of the Lady Chapel (which themselves project into the Path), +are without those of the choir, a complicated system of vaulting +and a charming arrangement of piers is the result. Indeed, this +exquisite group of piers has never been surpassed, and nothing +can be found that better illustrates the subtlety and extreme +refinement of the last stages of Gothic architecture at their +best. At whichever point one stands fresh beauty is apparent. +It is merely a device for connecting Lady Chapel with choir, +while leaving a wide path free for processions, yet what a gem +of perfection has been drawn from the need! As one sits at +the corner near the south wall of the Lady Chapel, one can +best appreciate the range of vaulting, which, though it is +doubled here, is of the same height as that of the aisles, +running faithfully round to cover the ambulatory which encircles +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span> +the choir, while on either side the pillars soar upward to +the higher vault of the Lady Chapel and the yet higher ceiling +of the choir. Opposite are the painted fragments of glass in +the north choir aisle, seen through the arches of the presbytery, +and the windows over the range of tabernacle work in the +choir itself. On the left the south aisle can be seen stretching +onwards, across the bright break of the transept, to the west +end, and on the right are the gorgeous windows of the Lady +Chapel. Everywhere the slender pillars stand, and the mouldings +branch away from their rich capitals, each doing its +appointed work, calculated and exact, in what would seem at +first but a lavish profusion of marble shaft and moulded stone. +Yet we can hardly now imagine what it all was like before the +richly-decked altars were torn down, the painted windows +knocked to fragments, the canopies, tombs, and images defaced +or destroyed.</p> + +<p>The vault is lierned with richly-carved bosses still warm +with the marks of gilding; both on the bosses and the capitals +the foliage is of the crumpled character suggestive of the oak-leaf.</p> + +<p>Unlike the piers of the Lady Chapel, the bases here are of +marble, though the plinths are of stone. Two grotesque heads, +lower than the bosses, at the north and south-western angles, +hold three ribs in their mouths, the ribs, which end there in +seeming futility, being used to cover an awkward corner of the +vaulting.</p> + +<p><a name="III_14" id="III_14"></a><b>Glass in the Choir Aisles and Chapels.</b>—A good +deal of glass in a more or less fragmentary condition +survives in the eastern portion of the church. It is fine work +of the first half of the fourteenth century. In the south aisles +there is good glass in all the upper lights; the third window +has later glass in the lower lights, which bears the date 1607, +and consists of coats of arms and a series of small square +pictures of foreign type. The east window of St. Catherine's +chapel is composed of fragments fitted together at random; in +the upper lights of the south window are rather coarse heads +of St. Aldhelm, St. Erkenwald, and other saints: two of them +should be noticed for the early form of papal tiara. In the +corresponding chapel of St. Stephen both the east and north +windows are the same, the north window even containing a +second head of St. Erkenwald; the other saints are +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span>inscribed—"St. +Stephanas Papa" (the Pope Stephen, who died 257), +"S. Blasii Epi" (St. Blaise), and "S. Marcellus Papa"; in the +topmost light of both windows is a small figure of Our Lord.</p> + +<p>In the north aisle, the first window (counting from the east) +contains a St. Michael; the next a crucifix and a figure of St. +Mary Magdalen, with some sixteenth-century coats (including +the curious arms of Bishop Knight, p. <a href="#Page_87">87</a>) in the lower lights. +Similar coats are in the third window, which has a figure of +St. John Baptist. The fourth window contains modern glass +erected in honour of Bishop Ken (p. <a href="#Page_157">157</a>), as a memorial to +Dean Plumptre, who died in 1891. In the centre Ken is +represented in full pontifical vestments, below him angels are +supporting his arms impaled with those of the see; over his head +is the favourite superscription of his letters, "All glory be to God," +and at his feet his rule of life "<i>Et tu quæris tibi grandia? +Noli quærere</i>" (Jer. xlv. 5). The left-hand panels represent St. +Paul teaching Timothy (because Ken wrote the "Manual for +Winchester Scholars," and the "Exposition of the Catechism"), +Christ's charge to St. Peter; the right panels represent St. +Paul before Agrippa and St. Peter in prison (because Ken was +one of the seven bishops imprisoned by James II.). The two +lower panels represent labourers going to their work singing +<i>Benedicite</i>, and a priest and choristers chanting <i>Nunc Dimittis,</i> +in allusion to Ken's morning and evening hymns.</p> + +<p><a name="III_15" id="III_15"></a><b>The Lady Chapel</b> was finished in 1326, before the +presbytery was added to the present choir, and thus it belongs +to the middle of the Decorated period. In plan it is octagonal, +the three western sides consisting of the three arches by +which it is opened to the rest of the church. It could, in +fact, stand perfectly well as a detached building like the Lady +Chapel at Gloucester, and doubtless it did so stand while the +presbytery was a-building; but its connection with the church +itself allows its apsidal west end to be cunningly combined +with the beautiful pillars which support the vault of the +ambulatory. The arrangement by which these three western +sides project into the ambulatory is more easy to see than to +describe; from the west side of the piers which support them +spring the vaulting ribs of the retro-choir, while on the east +side of the piers the shafts rise much higher up to carry the +loftier vault of the Lady Chapel. As the chapel is not a perfect +octagon like the chapter-house, but is elongated from east to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span> +west, this vault was difficult to manage, and its lines are +somewhat distorted in consequence. The vault springs from +triple shafts between fine traceried windows of five lights, and +its ribs meet in a boss containing a beautiful figure of our +Lord seated on a throne with outstretched arms; the colour +and gilding are well restored.</p> + +<p>Professor Willis said that "the polygonal Lady Chapel and +the vaulted work which connects it with the presbytery is a +most original and unique piece of architecture, of pure and +beautiful design." As to the first part of this sentence there +can be no difference of opinion, and all will agree as to the +fineness of the general effect of the chapel; yet there may well +be two opinions as to the purity of the work. I confess that the +following criticism (<i>Builder</i>, Aug. 1862) from a lecture of Mr +E.W. Godwin seems to me to be not entirely without justification:—"With +the single exception of the way in which the vaulting +is managed, I look upon this Lady Chapel as no better than +the other work of the same date. There is a weakness about the +constant recurrence of the same form in the tracery of the +windows; the lines of the vault are, in some cases, clumsy to +a degree; and the capitals have lost their constructional +character altogether. The growth and vitality, the change and +joyfulness, so visible in the earlier caps, especially those with +figures, are no longer to be seen. Leaves are now stuck on; +or, at the best, wreathed round the bell of the capital; and so +the <i>function</i> of the capital—the upbearing principle—is lost." +So much for its defects. The peculiar excellence of the +chapel is that it gives that apsidal ending to the church +which adds so much to its beauty both within and without, +and yet does not interfere with the square end of the +presbytery.</p> + +<p>The Lady Chapel has been fitted up for the use of the +Theological College, and its furniture contrasts favourably with +that of the choir. A litany desk, stalls, and credence-table in +oak have recently been given, and a retable carved by Miss +Neville; the altar cross, however, is too stunted for its position. +The eagle lectern, in spite of its dark appearance, is modern, +of Dean Goodenough's time. The doorway on the south side +led to the old vestry, so wantonly destroyed in the present +century: now that the chapel is in daily use the need of the +vestry is much felt, and a cupboard in St. John's chapel has to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span> +serve for a makeshift. The gas-brackets are of later and more +pleasant work than those elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Mr Ferrey discovered fragments of a reredos at the east end +of the chapel, and set them up as best he could to form the +present reredos: the original arrangement seems to be lost, for +some of the pedestals are on the level of the floor, while some +of the niches at the top are cut in half. Mr Ferrey restored +the whole chapel at the same time, and paved it with tiles.</p> + +<p><b>Glass in Lady Chapel</b>.—The large windows of this +chapel are all filled with beautiful fourteenth-century glass, but +alas! in a marred condition. The side windows contain fragments +packed together anyhow. The eastern window was +made up out of old pieces by Willement at Dean Goodenough's +restoration, and its colour almost completely spoilt by modern +insertions. The harm, however, is not irreparable, for the +figures are almost entirely genuine, and the bad effect is mainly +due to Willement's blue background. A careful examination +would easily separate the new from the old, and it would be +quite easy at the present day to remove the bad work and +replace it by glass that would carry out the old harmony of +colour. The lower lights are filled with two tiers of figures in +canopies, David and other patriarchs in the upper tier, and the +following well-chosen series in the lower:—The Madonna in the +midst, on her right the Serpent and Eve, on her left the Brazen +Serpent and Moses. The upper lights of this window contain +angels bearing the instruments of the Passion, which are unspoilt, +as are also the busts of patriarchs in the north-east +window, and of bishops in that on the south-east. Three of +the topmost lights contain emblems of the Evangelists, the +fourth is lost. One inscription remains, <i>Ista capella constructa +est</i> ... but the date is gone.</p> + +<p>A tall and light monument stands between the Lady Chapel +and St. Catherine's; its crocketed finials, filled with tracery, +rise almost to the ceiling. The canopy is open at the sides +and western end, but the eastern end forms a niche; this part +has been restored in colour and gilding, it is powdered with +<i>fleurs-de-lys,</i> and bears a shield containing the <i>Agnus Dei</i>. No +other part shows any trace of colour. The base is much +higher than that of an ordinary tomb, and the canopy seems +to have been somewhat altered at Ferrey's restoration.</p> + +<p>The spot where the altar of St. Catherine and All Virgins +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span> +stood is now "Sacred to the memory of John Phelips Of +Montacute in this county esquire. Descended from a line +of ancestors, Whose names for two centuries and a half abound +in the annals of the county, He succeeded at an early age to +the paternal estates, And sustained the wonted hospitality of +his house. He soon became a most active and intelligent +magistrate," etc., etc.</p> + +<p><a name="III_16" id="III_16"></a><b>The Chapter-House Staircase</b> is entered by the doorway +in the eastern aisle of the north transept. There are few +things in English architecture that can be compared with it +for strange impressive beauty; the staircase goes upward for +eighteen steps and then part of it sweeps off to the chapter-house +on the right, while the other part goes on and up till it +reaches the chain-bridge; thus the steps lie, worn here and +there by the tread of many feet, like fallen leaves, the last of +them lost in the brighter light of the bridge. Here one is still +almost within the cathedral, and yet the carts are passing underneath, +and their rattle mixes with the sound of the organ within.</p> + +<p>The date of the staircase is clearly somewhere between that +of the chapter-house and that of the church itself. It is later +than the church, for it is built up against the transept buttresses, +and it contains some of the best examples of simple geometrical +tracery, while there are nothing but lancet windows in the +church of Reginald and Jocelin. But the simple geometrical +tracery of its two four-light windows prove that it was finished +before the chapter-house was begun. The arches of these +windows are rampant, to follow the level of the stairs; their +beautiful circular tracery is massive, deeply-moulded, and filled +with remnants of rich glass; their shafts of blue lias have +naturalistic capitals which are in striking contrast both to the +Early English carving in the church and the full Decorated of +the chapter-house itself. Below the windows is a stone bench +rising in steps with a foot-pace of similar construction; this +arrangement adds much to the effect of the staircase, though it +is marred by a modern hand-rail.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span></p> + + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image37" id="image37"></a> +<a href="images/image37h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image37.jpg" + alt="Steps Of Chapter-house Vestibule And Passage Over Chain Gate." + title="Steps Of Chapter-house Vestibule And Passage Over Chain Gate." /> +</a></div> + +<p>Before the Chain Gate was made, the vestibule ended with a +graceful window of four lights similar to those at the side. The +upper part of the window remains, but the lower part is +occupied by a Perpendicular doorway, and the whole now +forms a screen which, by breaking the light, adds considerably +to the charm of the staircase. Through this doorway, where +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span> +they are cut away to allow the door to open, the steps +continue for two stages, but in a narrower flight. Here the +windows are Perpendicular, and the vaulted ceiling has given +place to a wooden roof, for this is the Chain Gate, as light and +pretty within as without. It was only an after-thought, a +matter of convenience, thus to connect the chapter-house with +the Vicars' Close, and the screen that now breaks the light had +for a century and a half been the outside window, just as the +blocked window of the transept had been the outer light for +the fifty years before the staircase itself was thought of. It +was just a practical matter-of-fact device; but what magnificent +utilitarianism, what an inspired after-thought!</p> +<p>The main gallery of the Chain Gate is shut off by a door +which, if it were kept open, would make the prospect even +more beautiful than it is. Two corbels which support the +vaulting-shafts of the lower staircase should be noticed; they +both represent figures thrusting their staves into the mouth of +a dragon, but that on the east (wearing a hood and a leathern +girdle round his surcoat) is as vigorous in action as the figure +on the west side is feeble. A small barred opening in the top +of the east wall lights a curious little chamber, which is reached +from the staircase that leads to the roof.</p> + +<p><a name="III_17" id="III_17"></a><b>The Chapter-House</b> is entered by a double-arched doorway, +the small vault between the arches having an odd boss +composed of four bearded heads. There are marks in the +wall which lead one to think that the doors were hung in a +wooden screen under this vault. The old doors are now used +in the house of the Principal of the College, where they were +identified by Canon Church. They have little slits in them, +through which those in the chapter-house could speak with +those without, who no doubt waited for admittance on the +stepped stone bench of the staircase. Grooves in the two inner +shafts of the doorway seem to have been made for the insertion +of some light screen, by which the entrance was divided into +two passages for ingress and egress. The absence of doors +certainly adds to the rather cold unfurnished appearance of +the chapter-house in its present condition.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span> +</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image38" id="image38"></a> +<a href="images/image38h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image38.jpg" + alt="Chapter-House—Doorway." + title="Chapter-House—Doorway." /> +</a></div> + +<p>The room itself ("a glorious development of window and +vault" it has been called) is one of the best examples of that +type of chapter-house which belongs mainly to the thirteenth +century, and is a peculiar glory of English architecture. Of +octagonal plan, its vaulting ribs branch out from sixteen +Purbeck shafts which cluster round the central pillar, typifying +the diocesan church with all its members gathered round its +common father, the bishop. Each of the eight sides of the +room is occupied by a window of four lights, with graceful +tracery of an advanced geometrical type. These windows, +which are among the finest examples of the period, have no +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span> +shafts, but their arch mouldings are enriched with a continuous +series of the ball-flower ornament. Most of the old glass, in +which ruby and white are the predominant colours, remains in +the upper lights.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image39" id="image39"></a> +<a href="images/image39h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image39.jpg" + alt="Chapter-House—Interior." + title="Chapter-House—Interior." /> +</a></div> + +<p>Under the windows runs an arcade which forms fifty-one +stalls, separated into groups of seven by the blue lias vaulting-shafts +at the angles, but in the side which is occupied by the +doorway there are only two stalls, one on either side of the +entrance. Two rows of stone benches are under the stalls, +and there is a bench of Purbeck round the base of the central +pier. The arcade strikes one as too shallow: its canopies, +which rest on blue lias shafts, are ornamented with feathering, +crockets, finials, and an interesting series of small heads. +Some of the heads wear crowns, mitres, hoods, and square +caps; others are grotesque, though I cannot detect the +"jesters" to which some writers refer. Some of the heads +have the same formal twist in the hair as those of the large +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span> +corbels in the nave (p. <a href="#Page_81">81</a>). The heads on the side opposite +the door are all (with the exception of one modern head in +plaster) covered with the early form of papal tiara, a conical +hat with a crown round its rim. On this side, in the middle +stall, is the bishop's seat, and here are traces of colour; the +little heads are still pretty with pink cheeks and painted eyes +and hair, and above the canopy the saltire of St. Andrew is +discernible.</p> + +<p>Thus the bishop still retained, at least in theory, the head-ship +of the chapter. The dean sat on one side of him, the +precentor on the other, and the rest in due order from the +archdeacons and officers down to those in minor orders. Even +the boys of the school were admitted to part of the meetings, +and they stood on the floor round a desk which was in front of +the chief pastor. "There every morning," says Canon Church +(<i>Chapters in Hist, of Wells</i>, p. 333), "after the prayers of the +third hour and the morning mass, the chapter of the whole +body was held for the daily lection and commemoration of +brethren departed, for maintaining discipline, hearing complaints, +passing judgment, inflicting punishment; for ordering +the services of the day and of the week—for sitting in council +and drawing up statutes."</p> + +<p>Beautiful as is the general effect of the chapter-house, it +must be admitted that its detail is inferior to that of the staircase, +which is just one stage earlier in the development of +architecture. Nor can its capitals be compared for a moment +with those in the nave; the lighter form of structure doubtless +calls for a lighter cap, but these are distinctly untidy in +their decoration. The crockets are very near having that +wholesale look which has caused nineteenth-century architects +to make so much of this easily debased ornament. The +arrangement, too, by which the fine doorway rises into a window +of unmodified pattern seems a rather awkward compromise, +especially as the line of the staircase roof cuts slantwise across +the lights. One cannot help thinking that an earlier architect +would have departed from his uniform pattern at this point, +and have inserted a window or arcade better adapted to the +position, with the addition, perhaps, of sculpture in the vacant +space.</p> + +<p>Between the roof and the vault there is a curious chamber +which reminds one of the crater of a volcano, and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span>impression +is increased by the sponge-like stone, which has some +resemblance to tufa. The open arcade under the roof has +served to keep the woodwork in remarkably sound condition.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image40" id="image40"></a> +<a href="images/image40h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image40.jpg" + alt="Chapter-House—Vault." + title="Chapter-House—Vault." /> +</a></div> + +<p><a name="III_18" id="III_18"></a><b>The Undercroft</b>.—Much of the external beauty of the +chapter-house, as well as the charm of its staircase, is due to +its unusual height above the ground. It rests upon a vaulted +chamber or undercroft, which is popularly called the crypt, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span> +though that term is not very accurate, as the chamber is not +sunk underground, but stands almost on a level with the floor +of the church. The innumerable springs in the soil of Wells +do not, indeed, admit of a subterranean building. The undercroft +was finished before the chapter-house staircase was begun; +perhaps its walls were built at the end of Jocelin's episcopate; +at any rate it was finished by 1286, and represents the last +development of the Early English style. It was used as the +treasury, where the vestments, ornaments, registers, and other +precious things, both of the bishop and chapter, were kept, +and, to increase the security of its massive walls, the sacristan +had to sleep within them every night.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image41" id="image41"></a> +<a href="images/image41h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image41.jpg" + alt="Chapter-House—Undercroft." + title="Chapter-House—Undercroft." /> +</a></div> + +<p>It is reached by a dimly-lit, impressive passage, which is +entered from the north choir aisle through a doorway with +deeply-sunk mouldings and carved capitals. Two heads, slanting +inwards in a rather awkward manner, support the curious +pediment-shaped canopy over the doorway. At the commencement +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span> +of this fine passage, just within the doorway, is a small +vault supported on extremely odd corbels, as if the mason had +taken advantage of the obscurity to wanton with his craft. +One is a large head with enormous cheeks, apparently suffering +from acute neuralgia; a handkerchief, under which a few +comically-stiff curls escape, covers the head and is tied under +the chin; another represents two dragons biting each other, +with a head upside down beneath them; another, which reminds +one of the worst eccentricities of modern crockery, is +formed by a hand holding a foliated capital. I suppose that +the head with swollen cheeks is really another testimony to St. +William Bytton's power over the toothache. The undercroft +itself was finished before 1286, perhaps some time before; but +the more advanced sculpture of the passage looks as if that +part were built in the "toothache" period—that is to say, some +ten years or so after Bytton's death in 1274.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image42" id="image42"></a> +<a href="images/image42h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image42.jpg" + alt="Chapter-House—Undercroft." + title="Chapter-House—Undercroft." /> +</a></div> + +<p>Certainly the bosses of the vault in the passage beyond the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span> +doorway are of a character that suggests the transition to +Decorated which was in progress at this time. They are +elaborate, and, with one exception, through-carved. The first +from the door represents a head, the next an <i>Agnus Dei</i>, the +next two grotesque heads joined together, then apparently the +Serpent tempting Eve, then an ox, dragons, two small grinning +heads, with animals apparently biting them on one side. The +corbels are carved into heads, some crowned, others reversed +with the shaft in their mouths. On the right-hand side, as +one enters the undercroft, a pretty stone lantern projects from +the wall; of the little mullions which form its face, one is set +far enough from the wall to admit of the insertion of a lamp.</p> + +<p>Two heavy wooden doors at the entrance leave no doubt +as to the purpose for which the undercroft was built. The +outer door is the most massive; it is studded with nails, and +has two great bolts and a huge lock: on the outer side a kind +of escutcheon is formed round the keyhole by a heart-shaped +piece of iron, surmounted by a cross; on the same side there is +an iron bar, and the hook to hold it across the doorway. A +deep hole has been worn in the pavement by the feet of those +who pulled open the door. The inner door is lighter, and +ornamented with beautiful elaborate hinges: on this side are +deep sockets in the wall, into which the inner bars were run.</p> + +<p>In the undercroft itself the walls are impregnably thick, the +windows narrow, with wide splays. The vaulting, somewhat +later in style than the walls, is an admirable piece of construction, +well-fitted to bear the weight of the lofty chamber +above. It is also remarkable, Professor Willis points out, for +the way in which the arches are disposed without the introduction +of ribs. From the round shafts which are grouped +about the octagonal pier in the centre spring the vaulting +ribs, the extremities of which rest upon eight round pillars; +and another set of vaulting ribs spans the space between +these pillars and the eight walls, where they rest upon twelve +shafts between the lancet windows. Could anything be more +simple and secure in construction, and more varied in effect?</p> + +<p>Here, on one of the capitals and on a moulding near the +door, we meet with the dog-tooth moulding usually so +characteristic of the Early English style. The piscina in +the doorway should be noticed for its carving of a dog +gnawing a bone. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span> +</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image43" id="image43"></a> +<a href="images/image43h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image43.jpg" + alt="Section Of Chapter-house." + title="Section Of Chapter-house." /> +</a></div> + +<p>A large aumbry is formed by a recess in the thickness +of the wall. The parapeted structure opposite is a modern +coal-hole, for which some other place might surely be found. +There are several stone coffins in the undercroft, and a good +many fragments of carved stone, some of which are very fine. +Here also is a cope-chest of the usual shape, which allows the +copes to be put away with only one fold. Near it there is a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span> +large oblong chest covered with iron bands. An iron door +which is also kept here is thus described by Mr H. Longden +(<i>Archæological Journal</i>, 1890, p. 132): "It is made of slabs +of iron nailed to an oak frame-work, and liberally braced +across with hinges and diagonal cross-straps, stiffening the +door in the best way known at the time. This is not an +iron-plated door, but an iron door; it is, in fact, a 'safe' +door of the time, and is an uncommon instance. It must be +remembered that the slabs of which this door is formed were +all beaten out of lumps of iron, and that iron was not then +made, as now, in plates, bars, or rods, but ... The lump +of iron had to be heated and drawn out on the anvil at a great +expenditure of time and labour. Much of the charm of old +work arises from the irregularity of the shapes, never quite +round, or square, or flat, which the iron took, and we miss +this in the neat and mechanically-finished work of the present +time."</p> + + + +<hr class="major" /> +<h2> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a> +CHAPTER IV.</h2> +<h3>HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE.</h3> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span> +Legend, which in every ancient city is raised to the dignity +of an article of faith, places the origin of Wells diocese in the +remote past; and the visitor is required to believe that Ina, +King of Wessex, the first great West Saxon lawgiver, the ruler +who finally established the English supremacy in the south-west, +was also the founder of the see of Wells. He is said +to have planted a bishopric at Congresbury, and in 721 to +have removed the see to Wells with the help of Daniel, the +last British bishop. The story, however, rests upon no good +foundation.</p> + +<p>Before the middle of the seventh century the heathen invaders +were converted by St Birinus, and by the time of Ina +Wessex was divided into the dioceses of Winchester and +Sherborne, the latter including Somerset, Dorset, and part of +Wiltshire. This was all that Ina did towards establishing the +diocese of Wells; and it did not go very far, for the special +boast of the diocese is that it consists of one county, Somerset, +and of nothing else. And so it is that the honour of possessing +Ealdhelm, the first bishop of Sherborne, who tramped +about, an open-air preacher, in his diocese, belongs to Salisbury +and not to Wells; although Doulting, where Ealdhelm fell +sick and died sitting in the little wooden village church, is the +very place whence afterwards the stone was quarried for the +building of Wells Cathedral.</p> + +<p>It was under that great warrior, Edward the Elder, that the +diocese of Sherborne was divided, and the Sumorsaetas received +a bishop of their own, whose stool was placed in the church of +St. Andrew at Wells.</p> + +<p>It is quite probable that the above tradition grew around +Ina's name owing to his having really established a church +with a body of priests attached to it; since we find in a +charter of Cynewulf, dated 766, a mention of "the minister +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span> +near the great spring at Wells for the better service of God in +the church of St. Andrew." This charter is probably spurious, +but it may for all that enshrine an historical fact, especially as +it does not pretend to the existence of a bishopric. If this be +the case, then Edward, who wanted a fairly central church for +a diocese which had no important town, must have found +Wells very convenient for his purpose. For while Glastonbury, +besides being in those days an island, had an abbot of its own, +this little body of secular priests would be ready to receive the +bishop as their chief, and to become his chapter. At all +events, the year 909 saw Wells with a bishop of its own.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image44" id="image44"></a> +<a href="images/image44h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image44.jpg" + alt="Specimens Of Capitals." + title="Specimens Of Capitals." /> +</a></div> + +<p><b>Aethelhelm</b> or <b>Athelm</b>, <i>Bishop of Somerset, or Wells</i> +(909-914), a monk of Glastonbury according to tradition, was +the first Somersetshire bishop; he is said to have been an +uncle of St. Dunstan: he was made Archbishop of Canterbury +in 914.</p> + +<p>It will be convenient to weave the history of the foundation +of Wells with that of the bishops. So here, at the outset, the +reader must bear in mind that from the beginning the cathedral +church was served by "secular" clergy, by priests, that is, who +were bound by no vows other than those of their ordination, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span> +who did not live a community life, but had each his own +house, and generally at this time his own wife and family. +Wells Cathedral was not "built by the monks," and its chapter +was never composed of monks; though some of the bishops +belonged to religious orders, it kept up a pretty constant rivalry +with the "regular" clergy of Glastonbury and Bath. It belongs +in fact, to the cathedrals of the old foundation, whose constitutions +were not changed at the Reformation; and its chapter +has continued in unbroken succession, from the days when +Aethelhelm first presided over his little body of clergy in the +church of St. Andrew, down to our own time. But at first that +chapter was informal enough, nor was it finally incorporated +and officered till the time of Bishop Robert in the twelfth +century. The number of canons does not seem to have been +fixed, though in the next century we hear of there being only +four or five.</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image45" id="image45"></a> +<a href="images/image45h.jpg"> +<img src="images/image45.jpg" + alt="Specimens Of Capitals." + title="Specimens Of Capitals." /> +</a></div> + +<p>The next five bishops are all little more than names to us. +<b>Wulfhelm</b> succeeded Aethelhelm in 914: also translated to +Canterbury; <b>Aelfheah</b> (923), <b>Wulfhelm</b> (938), <b>Brithhelm</b> +(956-973), and <b>Cyneward</b> (973-975).</p> + +<p><b>Sigegar</b> (975-977), a pupil of St. Dunstan, and abbot +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span> +of Glastonbury, was succeeded, or perhaps supplanted, by +<b>Aelfwine</b>, in 997-999.</p> + +<p><b>Aethelstan</b>, or <b>Lyfing</b>; translated to Canterbury 1013.</p> + +<p><b>Aethelwine</b> and <b>Brihtwine</b> shared the episcopate, either +as rivals or coadjutors. Brihtwine was last in possession. +<b>Merewit</b>, also called Brihtwine, succeeded in 1026.</p> + +<p><b>Duduc</b> (1033-1060), a German Saxon. Cnut had given +him the estates of Congresbury and Banwell, which he left to +the church of Wells; but Harold took possession of them.</p> + +<p><b>Gisa</b> (1060-1088), a Belgian from Lorraine, found his see +in a sad condition: the church was mean, its revenues small, +and its four or five canons were forced, he says, to beg their +bread. He at once set to work to increase the revenues; and +from Edward the Confessor, from his queen, Edith, then from +Harold, and afterwards from William the Conqueror, he +obtained various estates for the support of his canons.</p> + +<p>He also changed the way of living of the canons, and built +a cloister, dormitory, and refectory, thereby forcing them +to live a common life, much as if they were monks—an unpopular +innovation which was supported by the appointment in +the foreign fashion of a provost to be chief officer, the canons +choosing for this post one Isaac of Wells.</p> + +<p><b>John de Villula</b>, <i>Bishop of Bath</i> (1088-1122), a rich +physician of Tours. He put an end to the semi-monastic +discipline of Gisa by pulling down his community buildings +and erecting a private house of his own on the site. And he +removed the see of Somersetshire from Wells to the Abbey of +Bath.</p> + +<p><b>Godfrey</b> (1123-1135).</p> + +<p><b>Robert of Lewes</b> (1136-1166), the second founder of the +cathedral; he made the constitution of the chapter, he rebuilt +the old Saxon church, and he started Wells as a borough by +the grant of its first charter of freedom. Of a Fleming family, +though born in England, he was a monk from the Cluniac +house of St. Pancras at Lewes; and to another and more +famous Cluniac monk, Bishop Henry of Winchester, King +Stephen's brother, he owed his advancement. In the very +year of his consecration he began the recovery of Wells from +the low estate in which John de Villula and his rapacious +relatives had left it. He restored their property to the canons, +and, in order to secure it, he divided it off from the property +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span> +of the see by a charter of incorporation. He assisted at +Henry II.'s coronation in 1154, and at the consecration of +Thomas à Becket in 1162.</p> + +<p>Bishop Robert arranged the quarrel with Bath by settling +that Bath should take precedence of Wells, but that the bishop +should have his throne in both churches, and be elected by the +two chapters conjointly.</p> + +<p>By the charter which incorporated the chapter of Wells, +Robert also settled portions of the estate, or prebends, on the +twenty-two canons, and founded the offices of dean, precentor, +chancellor, treasurer, sub-dean, provost, and sub-chanter, all of +which, except the two last, still exist.</p> + +<p>After an interval of eight years, <b>Reginald de Bohun</b> or +<b>Fitz-Jocelin</b>, the Archdeacon of Sarum, was consecrated +Bishop of Bath (1174-1191). Immediately afterwards he induced +the monk who was soon to become famous as St. Hugh +of Lincoln, to leave the Grande Chartreuse, and to come to +England as prior of the first English charter-house. He built +the greater part of the present nave transepts and choir; for +this end he made large gifts to the fabric fund, and collected +gifts from others. He also extended the privileges of the +town, and increased both the endowment and the number of +the prebends.</p> + +<p><b>Savaric</b>, <i>Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury</i> (1192-1205), a +relation of the Emperor Henry VI. In 1191 he started +with Richard I. for the Holy Land. At Messina, though +not yet in priest's orders, he obtained private letters from +the king sanctioning his appointment to any bishopric to +which he might be elected. Bishop Reginald was a kinsman +of his, and, on his election to Canterbury, he obtained +the vote of the convent of Bath for Savaric. The Justiciar +gave at once the royal sanction, in spite of the protests of +the canons of Wells, who had not been consulted. Savaric +had meanwhile wisely established himself at Rome, and was +able to obtain the Pope's consent. He was consecrated +priest one day and bishop the next, but he still remained +abroad.</p> + +<p>Savaric, supported by the authority of King John, broke +into Glastonbury with soldiers, starved and beat the +monks, and, with great violence, established himself in +possession.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span> +His biography was compressed in a clever epigram:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"<i>Hospes erat mundo per mundum semper eundo,</i><br /></span> +<span><i>Sic suprema dies fit sibi prima quies,</i>"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>admirably translated by Canon Bernard:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Through the world travelling, all the world's guest,<br /></span> +<span>His last day of life was his first day of rest."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Yet he was the first to institute the daily mass of Our Lady, +as well as that for the faithful departed, in Wells Cathedral.</p> + +<p><b>Jocelin Troteman de Welles</b>, <i>Bishop of Bath and +Glastonbury,</i> and after 1219 <i>Bishop of Bath</i> (1206-1242), is, +after Ken, the most famous of Wells worthies. He came from +a local stock, and spent all his time and money on the cathedral +church, first as canon, then as bishop for thirty-six years. +In 1208, when Pope Innocent III. laid England under an +interdict, the bishop published it in his own diocese, and +then fled the country, leaving his estates to be seized by +John. On John's submission to the Pope in 1213, he +returned, and two years later stood by Stephen Langton at +Runnymede, putting his name as Bishop of Bath and +Glastonbury to <i>Magna Charta</i>. When John was dead it +was Jocelin who administered the oath to Henry III. at +his coronation.</p> + +<p>In 1219 Jocelin made terms with Glastonbury, which +Savaric had seized, giving up the abbacy and the title in +return for four manors. He founded a hospital, re-endowed +the Lady mass which Savaric had instituted, increased the +number of prebends (the estates, that is, which each maintained +a canon) from thirty-five to fifty, provided houses for +the canons, and a regular endowment for the vicars-choral, +started a grammar school in addition to the choristers' school, +and enclosed the bishop's park. But most of all is he famous +for having rebuilt the church which Savaric's vagaries had let fall +into dilapidation, and for having added to it the noble west +front. So extensive were his repairs that in 1239 a reconsecration +was necessary; and three years later he died, "God," +says old Fuller, "to square his great undertakings, giving him +a long life to his large heart." He was buried in the midst of +the choir as a founder of the church; and as this interment +marked out Wells as the chief church in the diocese, the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span> +monks of Bath were not told of his death till after he had +been buried.</p> + +<p><b>Roger</b>, <i>first Bishop of Bath and Wells</i> (1244-1247). On +Jocelin's death in 1242, the monks of Bath made a last effort to +recover the supremacy which had drifted from them. Contrary +to the agreement which had been made, they pushed through +their own candidate, Roger, without consulting with the Wells +chapter, and snatched the regal sanction and papal confirmation +for their nominee before the chapter of Wells could make +a move. At last, the Pope, after much litigation, decreed +that, in order to avoid any further vacancy, Roger's election +should be confirmed, but that henceforth the chapter of Wells +should have an equal voice in the election of the bishop, who +was to use the title of Bath and Wells. Roger was buried +in his old abbey of Bath; he was, however, the last bishop to +be there interred. The words of Peter Heylin are henceforward +true of the see:—"The diocese of Bath and Wells, though it +hath a double name, is one single bishopric. The bishop's seat +was originally at Wells, where it still continues. The style of +Bath came in but upon the bye."</p> + +<p><b>William Button</b> or <b>Bytton</b> (1248-1264).</p> + +<p><b>Walter Giffard</b> (1265-1266), a statesman-bishop, took the +king's side, and, after the victory of Evesham, was rewarded with +the chancellorship and the archbishopric of York.</p> + +<p><b>William Bytton (the Saint)</b> (1267-1274). When Robert +of Kilwardy, provincial of the Dominicans, was made archbishop, +he chose Bytton, on account of his saintliness, to +consecrate him; and so great was the impression made by his +holy life that he became the object of popular canonisation +at his death. Miracles were worked at his tomb, and crowds +flocked to it with offerings, especially such as were afflicted with +toothache.</p> + +<p><b>Robert Burnell</b> (1275-1292), the greatest lawyer of his +day, chancellor of Edward I.; built the hall of the episcopal +palace.</p> + +<p><b>William of March or de Marchia</b> (1293-1302), had +been treasurer in 1290. Two unsuccessful efforts were made +to obtain his canonisation.</p> + +<p><b>Walter de Haselshaw</b> (1302-1308), successively canon, +dean, and bishop.</p> + +<p>Under <b>John of Drokensford</b> (1309-1329) the chapter +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span> +obtained a strong confirmation of their rights as the result of +a violent quarrel with the bishop, who had claimed the power +of visiting the churches under capitular jurisdiction.</p> + +<p><b>Ralph of Shrewsbury</b> (1329-1363), Chancellor of Oxford, +put the finishing stroke to the constitution of the cathedral by +founding the College of Vicars. He was a great supporter of +the friars, and left them a third of his property. Among his +good deeds he disafforested the royal hunting ground of +Mendip, and thus did great service to the people, "beef," as +Fuller has it, "being better pleasing to the husbandman's +palate than venison." At his death he was buried in the +place of honour before the high altar, for it was under him that +the last great building operations in the church of Wells were +completed.</p> + +<p><b>John Barnet</b> (1363-66), translated from Worcester, was +soon again moved to Ely. After <b>John Harewell</b> (1367-86), +who helped to build the south-west tower, and <b>Walter Skirlaw</b> +(1386-88), <b>Ralph Erghum</b> (1388-1400) was translated +from Salisbury, and founded at Wells the much-needed college +for the fourteen chantry priests, which was destroyed under +Edward VI., and of which the memory is preserved in "College +Lane." There were now, therefore, three distinct corporations +at Wells—the Chapter, the College of Vicars, and the College +of Chantry Priests. <b>Henry Bowett</b> (1401-1407) was promoted +to York.</p> + +<p><b>Nicholas Bubwith</b> (1407-1424) is remembered by the +almshouses at Wells which he endowed, by his provision for +building the north-west tower, and by his chantry chapel. There +was at this time another hospital called the Priory, which has +now disappeared. He was one of the English envoys at the +Council of Constance. Mandates were sent him by the archbishop +for the prosecution of the Lollards, but there is no +record of any proceedings having been taken, till <b>John +Stafford</b> (1425-43) had succeeded him, when one William +Curayn was compelled to abjure and receive absolution for +some very reasonable heresies. Stafford was translated to +Canterbury.</p> + +<p><b>Thomas Beckington</b>, or Bekynton (1443-65), was first +tutor, then private secretary to Henry VI., and Keeper of the +Privy Seal. His many works at Wells are noticed in our other +chapters; in his will he states that he spent 6000 marks in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span> +repairing and adorning his palaces. After his death, the mayor +and corporation showed their gratitude by going annually to his +tomb (p. <a href="#Page_125">125</a>) to pray for his soul.</p> + +<p><b>Robert Stillington</b> (1466-91) was a minister of Edward +IV., and one of Richard III.'s supporters. Accused in 1487 +of helping Lambert Simnel, he was imprisoned at Windsor for +the rest of his life. <b>Richard Fox</b> (1492-94), Keeper of the +Privy Seal, translated to Durham. <b>Oliver King</b> (1495-1503), +Chief Secretary of Henry VII. A dream moved Bishop +Oliver in 1500, to rebuild Bath abbey in the debased Perpendicular +style with which we are now familiar.</p> + +<p>The celebrated <b>Adrian de Castello</b> (1504-1518) obtained +first Hereford and then Wells, as a reward for political services. +As he never visited his diocese, his affairs were managed by +another famous man, Polydore Vergil, who was archdeacon, +and furnished the choir of Wells with hangings, "flourished," +says Fuller, "with the laurel tree," and bearing an inscription, +<i>Sunt Polydori munera Vergilii</i>. Adrian, who was born of +humble parents at Cornuto in Tuscany, had been made a +cardinal in 1503 by the infamous Pope Alexander VI., and +both his archdeacon and himself are prominent figures in +Italian history of the period.</p> + +<p><b>Cardinal Wolsey</b> (1518-23) was appointed to the see, +which he held together with the archbishopric of York; he was +therefore Bishop of Bath and Wells only in name, and was soon +put in the enjoyment of the richer sees successively of Durham +and Winchester. He was followed by <b>John Clerk</b> (1523-41) +and <b>William Knight</b> (1541-47). The abbey of Bath was now +suppressed, so that the bishop's seat was now at Wells alone, +and (excepting that the style "Bath and Wells" remained) the +see was restored to its original condition before John de Villula +migrated to Bath.</p> + +<p><b>William Barlow</b> (1549-54) was translated from St. David's +without even the form of a <i>conge d'elire</i>. In return for this and +certain money payments he made over a large portion of the +episcopal property to the greedy Duke of Somerset; he also +secured the episcopal manor of Wookey for his own family. +The other cathedral estates were similarly treated. Barlow fled +at the accession of Mary, but was caught and imprisoned in +1554. He had in Henry's time recanted some Lollard tracts +which he had written, and now under Mary he recanted once +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span> +more. On the accession of Elizabeth, he (p. <a href="#Page_81">81</a>) accepted the +poorer see of Chichester.</p> + +<p><b>Gilbert Bourne</b> (1554-59) had been Bonner's chaplain. +At Elizabeth's accession he was deprived and imprisoned in +the Tower. After 1562 he was kept in nominal custody, and +died in 1569.</p> + +<p><b>Gilbert Berkeley</b> (1560-1581) succeeded him. <b>Thomas +Godwin</b> (1584-90), the historian of Wells, succeeded Berkeley.</p> + +<p>Another three years' vacancy was followed by the appointment +of <b>John Still</b> (1593-1607). He and his successors, <b>James +Montague</b> (1608-16), translated to Winchester, <b>Arthur Lake</b> +(1616-26), a wise man and "most blessed saint," were mostly +occupied in the fight with Puritanism. William Laud was +bishop here for two years (1626-28), but his history belongs to +London and Canterbury, whither he was translated. <b>Leonard +Mawe</b> (1628-29), <b>Walter Curll</b> (1629-32), translated to Winchester, +and <b>William Piers</b> (1632-70) followed. The latter, +who put down the Puritan "lectures," and ordered all the altars +in his diocese to be set against the east wall and railed in, lived +to see all his work undone and then restored again at the +accession of Charles II. <b>Robert Creyghton</b> (1670-72), who +had been dean, succeeded him. He was a great musician +(p. 113), and his gifts of ornaments to the cathedral have been +already mentioned. <b>Peter Mews</b> (1673-1684) was translated +to Winchester.</p> + +<p><b>Thomas Ken</b> (1685-90), the best and most famous of all +the Somerset bishops, has left so great a name in the see, and +figured in so many stirring events, that one can hardly believe +that he was only given five years in which to use his influence +upon history. Before he was made bishop, however, he had +already given proof of that quiet courage which was more than +once to thwart the will of princes. In 1679 he went to the +Hague as chaplain to Mary, the wife of William of Orange. +Here he expressed himself "horribly unsatisfied" with William's +unkindness to his wife, and he incurred the Prince's anger by +persuading Count Zulestein to marry a lady whom he had +seduced. Soon after, when he was living at Winchester, he +refused to allow the royal harbinger to use his prebendal house +for the lodging of Nell Gwynn, on the occasion of Charles II.'s +visit there in 1683. Charles, with characteristic generosity, +thought all the more highly of him, and when he was told of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span> +the vacant bishopric, said no one should have the see but "the +little black fellow who refused his lodging to poor Nelly." +Before the year was over, Charles was on his death-bed, and +summoned Ken to his side. The bishop persuaded the king to +send the Duchess of Portsmouth from the room and to call in +the Queen. He then absolved him, although Charles would +not receive the communion.</p> + +<p>After the Monmouth rebellion (p. 17) he, with the Bishop +of Ely, was sent to tell the Duke of his fate; he remained with +the wretched man all through the night before his execution, +and accompanied him on the scaffold. He then returned to +his see, used all his influence on behalf of the unhappy peasants, +and by his personal intervention, saved a hundred prisoners +from death. He strongly opposed the Romanising policy of +James II., and preached several sermons which had a large +share in the formation of public opinion. He was one of the +seven bishops who were committed to the Tower for petitioning +the king against the order to the clergy to read the second +Declaration of Indulgence. The incidents of that wonderful +trial are familiar to all Englishmen, and it is notable that one +of the richest dissenters in the city begged to have the special +honour of giving security for the high church bishop of Bath +and Wells.</p> + +<p>But when the revolution came, Ken was found among +those who were called non-jurors, because they regarded their +oath of allegiance to James as still binding. He was consequently, +in 1690, deprived of his see. He made a public +protest in the cathedral against his deprivation, and continued +to sign himself <i>T. Bath and Wells</i>, but he had to live in retirement, +and with an income of only £20 a year. He died in +1710, and was buried in Frome Church at sunrise, in allusion +to his morning hymn ("Awake, my soul, and with the sun"), +and to his habit of rising with the sun.</p> + +<p>Ken was in every way a great saint, and, like all the saints, he +was distinguished by his love for the poor, and his care for +their education. Among his customs it is recorded that he +used to have twelve poor men to dine with him on Sundays, +and that he was wont to go afoot in London when the other +bishops rode in their coaches. He wrote many books, among +them his "Manual of Prayers for the Use of Winchester +Scholars." "His elaborate works," says Macaulay, "have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span> +long been forgotten; but his morning and evening hymns +are still repeated daily in thousands of dwellings."</p> + +<p><b>Richard Kidder</b> (1691-1703) became bishop on the +deprivation of Ken, Dr Beveridge having declined the offer +of a see, the rightful ruler of which had been unjustly removed. +Kidder did not, however, long enjoy his usurped position; +for, on the night of November 26th, 1703, a great storm—the +same that destroyed Winstanley in his lighthouse on the +Eddystone—blew down a stack of chimneys in the palace, +and thus killed both the bishop and his wife as they lay +abed.</p> + +<p><b>George Hooper</b> (1704-27), an old friend of Ken, was +next offered the see, but he urged the reinstatement of the +rightful pastor. Queen Anne offered to restore Ken to his +bishopric, but he importuned Hooper to accept, and from +that time ceased to sign himself by his diocesan title. Hooper +had preceded Ken, in 1677, as Princess Mary's spiritual adviser +at the Hague, where he had won her back to the services +of the church, and he had also been with Ken at Monmouth's +execution. Almost as lovable and holy, he was more learned +than his friend.</p> + +<p>Hooper was succeeded by <b>John Wynne</b> (1727-43), <b>Edward +Willes</b> (1743-73), and <b>Charles Moss</b> (1774-1802); all three +were typical eighteenth-century prelates, rich and mostly non-resident.</p> + +<p><b>Richard Beadon</b> (1802-24), was translated from Gloucester.</p> + +<p><b>George Henry Law</b> (1824-45), a son of the Bishop of +Carlisle, and brother of Lord Chief-Justice Ellenborough, was +translated from Chester, and is said to have been an active +prelate till his latter years. Hon. <b>Richard Bagot</b> (1845-54) +came to Wells as a place of retirement after the worries which +he had gone through, as Bishop of Oxford, during the +Tractarian movement.</p> + +<p><b>Robert John</b>, <b>Lord Auckland</b>, was translated from +Sodor and Man in 1854. At his death in 1869, he was +succeeded by <b>Lord Arthur Charles Hervey</b>, who died +in 1894. The present bishop is <b>Dr G.W. Kennion</b>, who +was translated hither from the Australian diocese of Adelaide.</p> + + +<div class="ctr"> +<a name="image46" id="image46"></a> +<a href="images/image46h.png"> +<img src="images/image46.png" + alt="PLAN OF WELLS CATHEDRAL" + title="PLAN OF WELLS CATHEDRAL" /> +</a></div> + +<hr class="major" /> +<h2> +<a name="TRANSCRIBERS_NOTE" id="TRANSCRIBERS_NOTE"></a> +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE</h2> +<p>This book contains, in a few quotes from monumental inscriptions, +some special characters that may not be available +in all fonts. There are instances of the letters i, u, and o +with macrons and u with breve. These have been rendered using the HTML +entities for the Unicode characters: ī, ū, ō, and ŭ +respectively. There are also single instances of the letters +m and x with macron and two instances of letter n with macron. +As there are no Unicode characters for these, they have been +rendered as [=m], [=x] and [=n].</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral +Church of Wells, by Percy Dearmer + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BELL'S CATHEDRALS *** + +***** This file should be named 32280-h.htm or 32280-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/2/8/32280/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, David Cortesi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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