Chapter I: Front Matter

THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF
GLOUCESTER

A DESCRIPTION OF ITS FABRIC
AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE
EPISCOPAL SEE

BY H. J. L. J. MASSE, M.A.

AUTHOR OF "TEWKESBURY ABBEY" AND
"DEERHURST PRIORY," ETC.

WITH FORTY-NINE ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1905

_First Published January 1899_
_Second Edition August 1900_
_Reprinted January 1905_

_The Riverside Press Limited, Edinburgh_

GENERAL PREFACE

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 Archaeology and History, and yet not too technical in language for the use of an ordinary visitor or tourist.

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 Archaeological 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.

GLEESON WHITE, E. F. STRANGE,
_Editors of the Series._

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

I wish to express my great obligations to Mr F. S. Waller (the Cathedral Architect) for his courtesy and kindness in allowing me to make the fullest use of his "Notes and Sketches" of the Cathedral, a book which is now, unfortunately, out of print; to Mr W. H. St. John Hope, F.S.A., for permission to quote from his "Notes on the Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter at Gloucester," published in the Records of Gloucester Cathedral; also to the Records of Gloucester Cathedral.

To Mr E. J. Burrow I owe special thanks for permission to use blocks made from his black-and-white drawings, one of which has not been published before; to the Very Rev. the Dean for much useful information and assistance; and lastly to the Sub-Sacrist, Mr T. W. G. Cooke, whose help has been at all times ungrudging and invaluable.

H. J. L. J. M.

CONTENTS

PAGE
CHAPTER I.--History of the Building 3

CHAPTER II.--The Exterior of the Cathedral 14
The West Front 20
The South Front and Porch 20
The South Transept 21
The Tower and the Bells 22
The Lady Chapel 26