Читать книгу How to Visit the English Cathedrals - Singleton Esther - Страница 12

“It is very complete and an admirable example of the intricate symbolism of the time. The subjects are arranged in three quatrefoils and two lozenges: the Crucifixion occupying a square panel at the foot, surrounded by representations of the spies carrying the great bunch of grapes; of Moses striking the rock; of the sacrifice of a lamb in the Temple, and of Abraham offering up Isaac on Mount Moriah. Next above is a lozenge-shaped panel, painted with the Entombment, adjoining which we have Joseph’s brethren putting him in the pit; Samson shorn in his sleep by Delilah; Daniel in a walled city, labelled Babilonia, and Jonah let down into the jaws of the whale by two men in a ship. Above these scenes is a quatrefoil, in the centre of which we see the Resurrection, surrounded by representations of Moses and the burning bush; Noah in the Ark; Rahab letting the spies down by the wall, and Jonah landing near Nineveh from the mouth of a great whale. Then another lozenge represents the Ascension and the scenes surrounding it are the Ark of the Mercy-Seat; Elijah ascending in a chariot of fire; the burial of Moses, and Hezekiah sick, while an angel gives him the sign of the shadow on the dial of Ahaz. The last of the series is at the top. In a square panel we see the great event of the Day of Pentecost. Above it Christ sits enthroned in glory. Moses receiving the Two Tables of the Law is below. On one side is the first ordination of deacons, and on the other the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples. The whole style of this window is later than that of the Becket series.”—(W. J. L.)

Canterbury: Choir, east

Rochester: West front

Passing west, down the steps worn by the pious pilgrims we reach St. Anselm’s Tower and Chapel. Anselm’s Tower (like St. Andrew’s opposite) is Prior Ernulf’s work. The elaborate south window (1336) is Decorated of five lights.

St. Anselm’s Tower is entered through splendid gates of ancient wrought iron.

At the east end behind the Altar of SS. Peter and Paul, the great Anselm (1093-1109) was buried. Over the chapel is a small room with a window looking into the Cathedral. This was the Watching Chamber, in which, as we have seen, a monk was stationed at night to keep watch over the Shrine of St. Thomas. There is a tradition that King John of France was imprisoned here.

We now reach the South-east Transept, the work of both William of Sens and English William on Ernulf’s walls.

At the corner of the South-west choir-aisle architects love to notice the round arch and double zigzag of the Norman style fitted into the Pointed Arch and dogtooth of the restoration of 1180. Under the windows are the tomb of Archbishop Reynolds and the monument to Hubert Walter, the latter the warrior-prelate and Crusader who kept the Realm for Richard Cœur de Lion and raised the ransom for his release.

The steps leading down into the great South Transept are similar to those of the opposite Transept of the Martyrdom.

Opening east from this Transept is St. Michael’s, or The Warriors’ Chapel, so named because of the martial monuments and tombs contained in it.

The famous East Kent Regiment “The Buffs” place their memorials here. This Chapel is particularly notable for containing the tomb of Stephen Langton, the author of the Magna Charta, which is of earlier date than the chapel. A very beautiful alabaster monument of Lady Margaret Holland with her two husbands, John Beaufort, son of John of Gaunt, and the Duke of Clarence, son of Henry IV., beautifully represents the armour and dress of the Fifteenth Century.

The Warriors’ Chapel is Perpendicular (about 1370), with a complex lierne vault. The architect is unknown.

Directly opposite, on the other side of the Choir, is the Transept of the Martyrdom. Here was erected a wooden altar to the Virgin, where a portion of the Martyr’s brains were exhibited under a piece of rock-crystal and fragments of Le Bret’s sword.

Before this altar Edward I. was married to Queen Margaret in 1299. A rude representation of the altar may be seen over the south-west door of the Cathedral.

Returning to the North-west Transept, we visit the scene of the Martyrdom which took place near St. Benedict’s apsidal chapel (now occupied by the Dean’s Chapel) Dec. 29, 1170, during vespers. The west door from the cloisters by which Becket entered and the pavement by the wall, where he fell, remain. He was mounting the stairs to the north aisle (now removed) when the knights attacked him.

We have already noticed the great Window here, which was the gift, in 1465, of Edward IV. and his Queen, whose

“figures still remain in it, together with those of his daughters and of the two Princes murdered in the Tower. The ‘remarkably soft and silvery appearance’ of this window has been noticed by Mr. Winston. In its original state the Virgin was pictured in it ‘in seven several glorious appearances’ and in the centre was Becket himself at full length, robed and mitred. This part was demolished in 1642 by Richard Culmer, called Blue Dick, the great iconoclast of Canterbury, who ‘rattled down proud Becket’s glassie bones’ with a pike, and who, when thus engaged, narrowly escaped martyrdom himself at the hands of a malignant fellow-townsman.”—(R. J. K.)

In this transept stands the monument of Archbishop Peckham (1279-1292) with his effigy in Irish oak. This is the earliest complete monument in the Cathedral.

We now pass into the Dean’s Chapel, occupying the site of St. Benedict’s Chapel. It was formerly the Lady-Chapel, built by Prior Goldstone in 1460 and dedicated to the Virgin. The beautiful fan-vault is similar to that in Henry VII.’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey and to the roof of the staircase leading to the dining-hall of Christ Church College, Oxford. The Dean’s Chapel received its present name from the number of tombs and monuments to deans here, one of the most curious of which is that of Dean Boys, who died in 1625. He is represented as he was found dead in his Library, and the arrangement of the books with the edges turned outward from the shelves strikes every one as singular.

Archbishop Warham, the last Archbishop before the Reformation, also lies here, his heavy tomb in great contrast to that of Archbishop Peckham, already mentioned, near it,—good examples of the styles between 1292 and 1533.

The East Window is also notable.

“The figures of Dean Neville and his brother, against the eastern wall, were transferred to this place on the destruction of the chapel which formerly projected from the south side of the nave, and of which the marks in the wall are clearly visible. In the east window some points may be noted. We see the Neville arms, and a red shield with white saltire, and also the elaborate Bouchier arms, the most distinguishable features of which are the water ‘budgets,’ two curious red skins joined together at the top, sometimes given as an honourable blazon to those who supplied an army with water. We also see the Bouchier knot alternating in most of the panes with the oak leaf and acorn. This is the mark of Woodstock.”—(F. and R.)

A door here leads into the Great Cloister.

Opposite to St. Anselm’s, St. Andrew’s Chapel, now used as the Choir Vestry, contains interesting remains of coloured decorations. In olden days St. Andrew’s was a sacristy, where, as we have seen, were kept the very precious offerings to the Shrine. On the inner side is a building of late Norman work—this was originally the Treasury.

The North-east Transept is a repetition of the South-east Transept. It, however, contains a monument to Archbishop Tait, designed by Boehm; and in the north wall are three slits called hagiscopes. Through these “holy spy holes,” the Prior could see Mass being celebrated at the High Altar and in the altars in the Chapels of St. Martin and St. Stephen in the Transept below.

Before descending into the Crypt we must stop to look at St. Augustine’s Chair, by tradition the throne on which the kings of Kent were crowned and given by Ethelbert to St. Augustine. All the Archbishops of Canterbury have taken office in it.

“This chair, which is sometimes called the chair of St. Augustine, but which belongs to the Thirteenth Century, is composed of Purbeck marble. In it each successive archbishop for the last six hundred years has sat when he has been admitted to his metropolitan functions.”—(W. H. F.)

The famous Crypt is usually entered from the South Transept. It is the oldest part of the Church, having been built between 1093 and 1107 in the reigns of William II. and Henry I. It is heavy, massive, dark and low, like all Norman work. The capitals of the pillars are quaintly and sometimes harmoniously carved; one under St. Anselm’s Chapel, for instance, represents a concert of beasts playing on musical instruments. The whole crypt was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and in the centre stood her altar and chapel. “The Virgin Mother,” Erasmus wrote, “has there an habitation, but somewhat dark, enclosed with a double iron rail, for fear of thieves; for indeed I never saw anything more loaded with riches. Lights being brought we saw a more than royal spectacle. This chapel is not shown but to noblemen and particular friends.”

The beautiful Screen, which resembles the screen behind the High Altar of the choir, is thought to have been added with other decorations of the Crypt at the time of the Black Prince’s marriage to the Fair Maid of Kent (1363), when he founded two chantries in the Crypt. These now form the entrance to the French Church, where the descendants of the Huguenot and Walloon refugees still hold service in the ritual of their ancestors.

Queen Elizabeth gave up the whole of the Crypt in 1561 to the Flemish and French refugees “whom the rod of Alva bruised.” The silk-weavers set up their looms here.

Before the magnificent shrine of the Virgin lies Henry VII.’s minister, Cardinal Morton, whose tomb is enriched with the crown and roses of York and Lancaster, the Cardinal’s hat, the Tudor portcullis and a passing allusion to his name—Mort (hawk) and Ton or Tun (a barrel). He assisted in building Bell Harry (or the Angel) Tower.

Another famous tomb in the Crypt is that of Isabel, Countess of Atholl, granddaughter of King John and sister-in-law of John Balliol, King of Scotland. She owned the castle of Chilham near Canterbury and died in 1292. Her tomb stands at the entrance to the Chapel of St. Gabriel. The latter is extremely dark, but shows, when lighted up, some remarkable frescoes of the Twelfth Century, representing the Nativity of Christ and of John the Baptist.

“Further beyond the Duchess of Atholl’s tomb the crypt is much loftier and becomes almost a church in itself. This is the part beyond the apse of the original Cathedral, the place of Becket’s first burial, where Henry II. did penance, passing the night in fasting and in the morning baring his back and receiving three lashes from each of the monks. Here the miracles began to be wrought and the Tumba, even after its contents were removed, was still reckoned a holy place. The present lofty crypt was built over and round the Tumba after the great fire of 1174; and, some forty years after its completion and that of the Trinity Chapel above it, the remains of Becket were translated by Stephen Langton, with great pomp, to the shrine prepared for them in the sanctuary above.”—(W. H. F.)

The Crypt is largely the work of Ernulf; and the diaper pattern and marble shaft by the door that leads from the S. E. corner of the Martyrdom, occur again in Rochester, where Ernulf became bishop (See page 34). A statue of Ernulf, intended for the west front of the Cathedral, is now in his Crypt.

The lower part of the Crypt ends towards the east in a semi-circular sweep of pillars. The end of the Crypt was built by Ernulf in 1096.

The old Benedictine Convent of Christ’s Church that St. Augustine established grew to be of the utmost importance. Portions of the massive wall by which they were surrounded still remain. The monastic buildings were numerous and extensive. The Prior, who had the right of wearing the mitre and carrying the episcopal staff, lived in great dignity. In a set of state chambers, known as the Meist’ Omers and belonging to the Prior, pilgrims of high rank were lodged. Somewhere in the vicinity of the Infirmary and its chapel was the miraculous Well of St. Thomas, which appeared in the Fourteenth Century. A passage and the Dark Entry, haunted by the ghost of Nell Cook of the Ingoldsby Legends, takes us into the Priors’, or Green Court, planted with linden trees, or limes, as the English call them. Here we find remains of the great Dormitory, the Guest House, built by Prior Goldstone, the Norman Almonry Gate and the Norman Staircase, the only construction of its kind existing. The Hall above was built in 1855.

The beautiful Cloisters, the work of Prior Chillenden (about 1400), are decorated on the roof with the arms of Kentish families. In the northwest corner is the doorway through which Becket passed to his doom.

“The cloister occupies the same space as the Norman cloister built by Lanfranc, but of the Norman work only a doorway remains at the north-east corner; there is some Early English arcading on the north side, but the present tracery and fan-worked roof belong to the end of the Fourteenth Century, when Archbishops Sudbury, Arundell and Courtenay, and Prior Chillenden (1390-1411) rebuilt the nave, the cloister and the chapter-house. The latter work cuts across the older in the most unceremonious way, as is seen especially in the square doorway by which we shall presently enter the Martyrdom, which cuts into a far more beautiful portal of the Decorated period. If we take our stand at the north-west corner of the cloister, from which a very fine view is gained of the Cathedral, especially about sunset, we may picture to ourselves the life of the monks. Above the north-eastern side of the cloister are the old Norman arches of their dormitory, now taken in to the new library; on the eastern side is the chapter-house, with its fine geometrical ceiling, where they transacted their business; on the south the great church, the services of which occupied so many hours of the day.”—(W. H. F.)