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FROM SOUTH-EAST.

The cathedral of Chester had originally an establishment of Secular Canons (see Southwell and Wells.) Its patron saint was St. Werburgh, a kinswoman of St. Ethelreda of Ely. In the eleventh century it was refounded as a Benedictine monastery by that great noble Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, who ruled the Welsh Marshes with almost regal sway. Henry VIII. made it the seat of a bishopric, which, though but a part of the ancient Mercian diocese of Lichfield, extended northwards into Yorkshire and Westmorland. Nowadays the diocese and county of Chester are coextensive.

If we proceed to the west doors, we have before us a vista of exceptional beauty. The apparent length of the interior is greatly increased by the screen thrown across it, which, however, is not so solid and lofty as to block up the vista entirely, as at Canterbury and York, nor so exiguous as the metal screens at Lichfield and Ely.

Passing under the new organ screen, we come to the most ancient work to be found in the cathedral—viz., genuine early Norman work of the eleventh century. It is to be compared with that of the south transepts of St. Albans and Hereford. Below, in the east wall, is an arch, which once led into an apse. Above is a balustraded arcade, quite of the St. Albans and Hereford type. Above, there must have been small clerestory windows, such as those built up in the opposite wall. The whole transept must have been low and humble, and is invaluable as showing us what eleventh-century work was really like, and of enabling us to realise the vast progress that had taken place in design, in masonry, and in carving by the time that Durham, Romsey, and Peterborough were built. This early transept was of one bay only. Notice how small the stones are, the gaping joints, and the irregularity of the courses.

North-West Tower.—Bearing in mind the character of this masonry, pass out into the north aisle of the nave, and proceed to the Norman tower at the end of it. The work here is clumsy and massive, but far superior to that of the north transept, c. 1120. The north wall of the nave (now covered with mosaics) is also Norman. Other traces of the Norman cathedral will be found in the north aisle of the choir, to which we retrace our steps. On the right will be seen a great circular capital upside down, which has been used as a foundation for the north-east pier of the tower. A few feet farther is one of the original circular bases, proving that the Norman choir had vast circular piers like those of Gloucester, Durham, and St. John’s, Chester. Two bays farther east will be found in the pavement a semicircular band of dark marble. This marks foundations that have been found of the apsidal ending of this aisle; one of the stones of this Norman apse remains in the pavement. Moreover, it has been found that the central aisle of the choir, at the end of the second bay from the tower, ended in a semicircular range of columns, like St. Bartholomew’s, Smithfield. From these indications we can restore the plan of the original Norman cathedral with some certainty. It had a nave and aisles of the same dimensions as the present ones; unaisled transepts, each of a single bay, and an eastern apse to each transept; perhaps a low central tower; a choir of two bays, ending in a semicircular range of columns and arches, and surrounded to the east by a semicircular ambulatory or processional path. On either side were aisles, three and a half bays long, each terminating in an eastern apse. So that the Norman cathedral had five eastern apses, and resembled in plan Gloucester and Norwich, except that the chapels of the choir-aisles of Chester point, not north-east and south-east, but due east.

NORTH TRANSEPT.

Norman Cloisters.—Returning to the north aisle of the nave we pass through the doorway at the east end of the aisle into the cloister. This doorway, as seen from the cloister, is, from its ornamentation, of later date than the north transept, and may also be about 1120. The south wall of the cloister is now seen to be Norman; Norman abbots are buried in the recesses. Passing along the cloister westwards, we have in front another Norman door, and a very late Norman passage. Passing along the west walk of the cloister, a doorway on the left leads into a large Norman undercroft, with two aisles roofed with massive unribbed vaulting. Above, as the division in the vaulting shows, were a large and a small hall. These buildings on the west of the cloisters may have been originally the cellars, refectory and dormitory of the lay brethren, as at Fountains and Kirkstall; and afterwards the cellar and halls of the Abbot’s house. To the south, above the late Norman passage, is the Episcopal chapel, also Norman, with good Jacobean work.

Vestry.—We now return through the north transept to the north aisle of the choir. The next work done in the cathedral is to be found in the vestry to the left. The Norman apse of the north transept was pulled down; the arch in the west wall is nearly all that is left of it; and a new chapel was built here in the Transitional period, between 1145 and 1190, to which period the vaulting belongs. Later on, the east end of it was remodelled, and the western arch built up. Part of the foundation of the original Norman apse may be seen in the pavement near the door.

Vestibule.—Now we come to the Lancet or Early Gothic work (1190-1245), including vestibule, chapter-house, fratery, refectory, Lady chapel, and the eastern bays of the choir. Passing through the north transept again, and out through its north door, we enter the vestibule, the architectural gem of the cathedral. The piers have bases, but no capitals—a feature common enough in late Gothic, but very unusual in such early work. Pass into the cloister to see the lovely trefoiled doorway of the vestibule. Then return to the Chapter-house, which is of the same date as the vestibule. It is rectangular, as were most of the monastic Chapter-houses originally: e.g., Exeter, Durham, Oxford, and Bristol. The windows have an inner arcade. Here is a bust of Canon Kingsley, by Mr. Belt. Returning to the vestibule, and passing out of it by the modern north doorway, we cross the Slype with its elaborate vault, and pass into a vaulted building of two aisles, each of four bays, laboriously restored at considerable expense, and then allowed to relapse into a coal-cellar: this is the so-called fratery. Rooms in similar positions occur at Fountains and Kirkstall; their use is not known. Notice the day-stairs which led to the Monks’ dormitory, which was overhead, on the east side of the cloister, also the curious cusped windows adjacent. Along the whole of the north side of the cloister extended the Refectory, the Monks’ dining-hall; now the west end has been lopped off, and a passage driven through the east of it. Towards the west end will be found a fine doorway by which it was originally entered. To the right of the doorway is a recess marking the site of the lavatory. Inside, in the south wall, is the original staircase and pulpit of the refectory. Table talk was forbidden in all monasteries; a good book was read aloud to the monks during meals. Another equally fine pulpit remains in the refectory of Beaulieu, Hampshire; another, in the open air, opposite Shrewsbury Abbey. The upper part of the refectory has Perpendicular tracery inserted in the original windows.

VESTIBULE OF CHAPTER-HOUSE.

Now we return to the cathedral, to the Lady chapel: much restored, of similar date and character to those of Hereford and Bristol. It was a remarkable specimen of mediæval “jerry-building,” built without foundations of any sort or kind. One of the bosses, figured in Dean Howson’s book on “The Dee,” depicts the murder of Thomas Becket. Originally the Lady chapel had three windows, each triplets, on either side.

Eastern choir.—To the same period belongs the east wall of the choir, and the two eastern bays. The east wall is pierced by but one arch, as at Hereford and Chichester; an inferior ending to the triple eastern arches of the choirs of Wells and Salisbury. The mouldings of the southern arches are a cheap imitation of the better work on the north.

Western choir.—The remaining bays to the west have piers of altogether different section, and are Early Geometrical in character (1245-1280); and should be compared with Westminster choir and the Angel choir of Lincoln. In digging, the foundations of the east ends of the thirteenth-century aisles have been found. They turn out to have been polygonal. Sir G. G. Scott has been allowed to rebuild this aisle in apsidal form, and to crown his work with a hideous “extinguisher” roof. To put up this sham Gothic, he pulled down the Perpendicular choir-aisle, and expelled the monuments of three ancient county families in favour of an eminent contractor. This is what is called “restoration.”

All the above work stops at the top of the beautiful triforium, a trefoiled arcade. The clerestory is late Geometrical work; the tracery of the windows is thin and uninteresting (1280-1315). The proportions of the choir as thus completed are not at all satisfactory; the tall clerestory, with its big broad windows, is ruinous to the effect of the low pier-arcade and the diminutive triforium: it looks top-heavy. Compare the choir of Lichfield.

We have seen that by the end of the thirteenth century the monks had rebuilt all the work to the east and north of the cloister, as well as the Lady chapel and the whole of the choir. In the fourteenth century they set to work to rebuild the whole of the south transept, the central tower, and the nave. None of the upper parts of these, however, were finished till the following century. The South Transept is so vast that the old church of St. Oswald may have still remained in use while the transept was building around it. It has western as well as eastern aisles: which it is rare to find except in cathedrals of the first rank, such as Ely and York. Some of the aisle windows retain very beautiful Curvilinear tracery. The springers of vaults remain, but no vaulting was executed, except one bay at the south end of the east aisle, till recently, when the remainder of this aisle was vaulted. The vast size of this transept—it is as large as the choir, and nearly as large as the nave—is in striking contrast to the diminutive North Transept, and is the most remarkable feature in the ground plan of the cathedral. Originally there stood here an independent church, belonging to the parish of St. Oswald. But in the fourteenth century, when the abbey was in possession of great wealth, the monks desired to enlarge their church. They could not enlarge it to the north, for on the north were their cloisters, chapter-house, refectory, and dormitory; on the south was the parish church of St. Oswald. They therefore came to terms with the parishioners, in accordance with which they built a new parish church for them, where now stands the Music Hall. But in the fifteenth century the parishioners were able to evade their bargain, and vindicated their claim to the whole of the new south transept, which the monks by this time had completed. “Sic vos non vobis.” And to get into it they cut the fifteenth-century doorway, which is still to be seen through the lower part of the window at the south end of the west aisle of the new transept. And here they remained in possession till the present century, using the transept as their parish church. In 1824 the transept was actually blocked from the cathedral by a solid wall. But in 1874 a new church, St. Thomas, was once more built for the parishioners, and they were again ejected from the site of the old church of St. Oswald. The dividing wall was pulled down, and the transept has been again thrown into the cathedral. Unfortunately, the congregation being gone, there is no one to fill it, and it remains a squalid and desolate solitude. Why not have replaced the dividing-wall by an open screen and have left the parishioners in peace?

Central Tower.—This was probably commenced in the fourteenth and finished in the fifteenth century. It has been found that the north-west pier rests upon some floriated gravestones of the thirteenth century, which disposes of the idea that the piers of the tower have a Norman core. Notice the variation in the treatment of the tower-arches.

Nave.—Here also there is Curvilinear tracery in the windows of the south aisle. The piers and arches, also, on the south side are of fourteenth-century work, of simple but good design. The northern pier-arcade differs in some features; it may be a little later. On the other hand the initials of Abbot Simon Ripley (1485-1492) are found on the first pier from the west; and so this arcade may be really later work, assimilated in character to the earlier work on the south side.

CHOIR.

South Transept.—The next thing seems to have been to complete the south transept in the Perpendicular style; and also the easternmost bay of the nave, which was needed to give abutment to the rising tower. To this period, perhaps the fifteenth century, may be assigned all those Perpendicular windows which are cusped, in the transepts, the nave, the refectory, and elsewhere.

Nave.—The final operations comprised all those windows which are without cusps—e.g., the clerestory windows and the north aisle windows of the nave; also the south porch and west front and the commencement of a south-west tower, and the fine wooden roof of the north transept. All this was done early in the sixteenth century. Perhaps piety had waxed cold, and pilgrims’ offertories were less productive. At any rate, all the upper part of the interior of the nave is bare, bald, and poverty-stricken. For the beautiful triforium of the choir we have here a blank wall; unhappy, too, in proportions, the nave of Chester is one of the least satisfactory designs of the Middle Ages. In the south-west tower is the Consistory Court, with good Jacobean woodwork.

One other alteration had to be made. There was no access to the Lady chapel except through the one arch at the east end of the choir. When St. Werburgh’s shrine was placed at the entrance of the Lady chapel in the fourteenth century, it was awkward to have but a single approach to the Lady chapel; so the eastern apses of the two choir aisles were pulled down, and two Perpendicular aisles added, one on each side of the Lady chapel. (The one on the north is still allowed to exist; the one on the south was pulled down by Scott). Thus the west window on either side of the Lady chapel was converted into a doorway, and a convenient processional path was provided round St. Werburgh’s shrine.

To the late Perpendicular or Tudor period belong the eastern, northern, and western walks of the cloister, which should be visited next. In part of the west walk, and in the new south walk, there is a double arcade; dividing the walks into a series of separate compartments or studies for the monks. An analogous arrangement occurs in the cloisters of Gloucester. Notice, also, the insouciance with which these Tudor builders dropped the ribs of their vaults down on earlier doors and arches. Similar reckless disregard of the good work of preceding builders occurs at Canterbury, where the most beautiful doorway in the Cathedral is cut into by later vaulting.

North Aisle of Nave.—This has been recased, and provided with rich vaulting. It was to provide abutment for this new vault that the south walk of the cloister was rebuilt. The nave and choir have been vaulted in wood; following the precedents of York Minster and Selby Abbey.

The exterior is, to all intents and purposes, nineteenth-century work. The original design had almost wholly disappeared through the decay of the soft sandstone. It is, however, very handsome and effective; especially in contrast with the exterior, equally new, of Worcester.

NAVE, NORTH SIDE.

Of minor work the chief objects of interest are the Byzantine font, perhaps of the eighth century; the remains of the fourteenth-century shrine of St. Werburgh and the contemporary sedilia; the fine misereres and stalls (Perpendicular); the Renaissance gates of Spanish ironwork, and the Renaissance candelabra (Italian); the epitaphs of John Lowe, tobacconist, John Paul, publican, and John Phillips, merchant, in the south transept; those of Mayor Green, and an American loyalist, on the south-west pier of the tower; the tablet of Randolph Caldecott and the pretentious monument of Bishop Pearson in the north transept; the tablet of Dean Arderne in the south aisle of the choir; and in the north aisle those of Subdean Bispham and Bishop Jacobson, and the epitaph on the gravestone of E. P. Gastrell. The new organ rests on five Renaissance columns brought from Italy; the communion table is of wood from the Holy Land. On the wall near the west door is a tablet to Bishop Hall, and another

To the Memory of

JOHN MOORE NAPIER

Captain in Her Majesty’s 62nd Regiment

Who died of Asiatic Cholera

in Scinde

on the 7th of July, 1846,

Aged 29 years.

The tomb is no record of high lineage;

His may be traced by his name;

His race was one of soldiers.

Among soldiers he lived; among them he died;

A soldier falling, where numbers fell with him,

In a barbarous land.

Yet there was none died more generous,

More daring, more gifted, or more religious.

On his early grave

Fell the tears of stern and hardy men,

As his had fallen on the graves of others.

Surely one hears the trumpet on the dusty field of Meeanee, and the word of command of the stern old general. The inscription can be by none other but Sir Charles Napier. There is not much in verse that rings like these few lines of prose.