Chapter III: The Interior (2)

=The Choir.=--The choir extends 92 feet eastward from the screen. Its width is 33 feet between the columns, or 68 feet if the aisles be included. A notable peculiarity in it is, that after the lowering of the aisle-roofs externally, the triforium was glazed, so that there are two tiers of windows above the main arches.[92] Many styles meet here. The first three bays on the north side are Archbishop Roger's work, while the three opposite are Perpendicular, and lastly, the three easternmost bays on either side are chiefly Decorated.

To begin with the north side. The arch in the first bay has been built up, probably to strengthen the tower, and by the twelfth-century builders themselves, for the abacus-moulding of the capital is continued across the blocking wall. In the latter the fifteenth-century builders have made a small pointed doorway, which is now blocked but apparently once gave access from the top of the screen to a staircase in the north aisle. This and the two next bays bear in all three stages a general resemblance to the east side of the north transept. The columns, however, are clusters of eight cylindrical shafts, and stand upon circular plinths, the base proper following, of course, the form of the pillar. The capitals, as usual, are compound and composed of plain inverted bells, and have square tops with the abacus hollowed and grooved. The arches differ from those in the transept only in that the large moulding under the soffit is 'keeled,' and that the mouldings which flank it are simple ridges. In the triforium the cusps visible in the glazed sub-arches belong to some tracery which has been applied to the back at a later period.

The treatment of the vaulting-shafts is very remarkable; indeed, nothing is more instructive than the variety shown in the treatment of this feature throughout Archbishop Roger's church, the different parts of which are suggestive of nothing so much as of a series of architectural experiments. Here, upon the capital of each column, rests a sort of compound rectangular plinth, from which project three corbels, hollowed underneath and having little blocks beneath their overhanging edge. From this plinth and corbels springs a cluster of no less than five shafts, which, by their united width, conceal the springing of the upper order of the main arches. They are banded at the string-course below the triforium, and end at the sill of the clearstorey in a compound capital, of which the three central members are square, and the others round. Upon this capital, apparently, stand the two adjoining shafts that carry the thickening of the wall above the clearstorey, and here (but hidden by the vaulting) stands also the original roof-shaft, and these three are 'detached.' Thus the arrangement is in principle similar to that adopted in the north transept, while at the same time the clustered shafts are even more disproportionate here than there to the slight burden they have to carry; indeed the effect is that of five shafts diminishing to one. The vaulting hides a feature which is not found in the transept, namely, a little lancet arch whose apex comes exactly behind the roof-shaft in each bay.

Though the three eastern bays (still on the north side) are chiefly Decorated, portions of Archbishop Roger's work have been retained or used again. Thus the fourth column from the west is his, and perhaps the fifth up to the abacus, which is convex and of limestone. The respond against the east wall is of his pattern, but it has not the circular plinth, and the capital is of limestone, has the abacus moulded with rounds upon the edge, and is covered with delicate foliage in the Decorated manner. In these arches the lower order has exactly the same mouldings as in the western bays, and is of gritstone, while the upper order is of limestone, and has fillets upon the larger mouldings. It would seem, therefore, that the later builders have used the original archivolts again, and have merely added another order or orders over it. The plane of the wall above, indeed, is brought forward to the face of Archbishop Roger's vaulting-shafts: yet without being really thickened, since it is set back from his wall on the exterior. At the junction of the old vaulting-shafts with the additional order of the first Decorated arch the later builders have carved a group of grotesque faces. In each bay of the Decorated triforium there is a round arch filled with tracery consisting of three round-headed and trefoil lights with two circles enclosing trefoils above them; and on either side of this arch (but on one three only, in the first of the side bays) is a sunk lancet panel enclosing a pointed arch impaling a trefoil. The clearstorey has a second plane of tracery, a feature not very common in England. The vaulting-shafts are in clusters of three and are filleted, and the string-course below the triforium is not carried round them. Each cluster springs from a semicircular corbel resting on a head, and has its capitals enriched with foliage. The last pendentive of the vaulting rests on a single shaft springing directly from a head-corbel. The string-courses are not of the same pattern with those on the older bays.

On the south side the westernmost Perpendicular bay, up to the triforium, is solid and covered with cinquefoil panelling. In the next two bays the mouldings of the arch, among which a broad hollow is conspicuous, are continued down the column, and there is no capital--a sign of decadence more common in the Flamboyant work of the Continent than here. There is, however, a debased half-capital on the east side of the last Perpendicular column, and on the west side of it are three small heads at the impost-level. These columns are lozenge-shaped in section, wider from north to south than from east to west, and though the mouldings end before they reach the bottom of the column, there is no proper base. Each column has a shaft at the front and another at the back, the former carrying the rim of the arch and having a stilted polygonal base but no capital, while the latter has capital as well as base (both polygonal), and helps to carry the aisle-vault. The spandrels of these arches are filled with panelling, in which are several shields (one bearing the arms of Pigott). The triforium again shows in each bay a round arch; indeed, no better example than this choir could be found of the truth that the form of the arch is not a safe guide to the date of a building, but was often dictated by convenience; for here in the triforium are round arches, of which some belong to the twelfth, others to the thirteenth, and others to the sixteenth century. The fact that the distance between the string-courses was already settled by the Transitional bays, compelled the later builders to make their arches round, as a pointed arch of the requisite width would have been too tall. Here the round arch, which is again flanked by two panels, comprises three cinquefoil lights, and the mullions are carried up through the head. The panels are pointed and divided each into two cinquefoil divisions. The Perpendicular clearstorey windows have their rims moulded, but are not splayed. The vaulting-shafts resemble those in the Decorated bays, but their corbels are polygonal and have the sides slightly hollowed, and the abacus of the capital is a half-lozenge. The string-courses have not been made to match either the Transitional or the Decorated. The whole of this Perpendicular work is of very late character, and justifies the belief that it was the last important alteration in the fabric before the dissolution. Moreover, where it meets the tower there seems to be a 'straight joint,' which indicates that these bays are at any rate later than the tower piers.

East of the Perpendicular pillars the next column is Archbishop Roger's, and perhaps the next also, with the exception of its capital, which has two rings upon the necking, with the rectangular top imposed directly upon them and chamfered beneath, while the abacus (which is of limestone) is convex.[93] The respond against the east wall is again of the old pattern, but without the circular plinth, and its capital resembles that just described. In the westernmost of these southern Decorated bays three styles meet. The lower order of the arch seems again to be Transitional work, while in the triforium and clearstorey Decorated arches have been filled with Perpendicular tracery. In the two remaining bays the main arches are entirely Decorated, the lower order being of limestone and the large moulding under the soffit having a fillet. Over the last two complete columns there is a little foliage, and of the corbels of the vaulting-shafts one is enriched with foliage while the other consists of a head between two embracing figures. There is foliage upon the capitals of these vaulting-shafts, and upon the capital and base of that which supports the last pendentive of the vaulting. With the exceptions mentioned, these bays resemble those opposite.

It has been remarked that the choir was probably as long in the twelfth century as it is now. The point is indeed proved if (as there seems no reason to doubt) the last complete column on either side is original and occupies its original position; but a further indication is to be found in the fact that the fragment of the original south wall, the end of which is visible on the exterior between the south aisle and the apse, extends well into the last bay of the present choir.[94]

The huge east window, which is not splayed, has a deep rear-vault bounded by a massive rib, whose outer edge rests on slender engaged shafts with foliage on their capitals, while the inner edge ends in bunches of foliage. Between this rib and the tracery is another rib springing on the north side from a bunch of foliage and on the south from a grotesque corbel. The inner arch has slender shafts, and so has the moulding next to the tracery, but in the latter case the capitals are plain.[95] Few acts of vandalism are more to be regretted, probably, than the destruction in 1643 of the magnificent fourteenth century glass which once occupied this window. The present very poor glass, by Wailes of Newcastle, commemorates the revival of the see of Ripon in 1863.

Over the window may be seen the mark of one of the earlier roofs. The choir is thought to have received a groined vault of oak after the rebuilding of the east end, but this vault was probably renewed more than once, especially after the accident to the tower about 1450, and the fall of the spire in 1660. Sir Gilbert Scott found a vault of lath and plaster (probably the work of Blore) for which he substituted the present roof, a groined wooden vault, admirable in its lofty pitch and judicious colouring. Its chief feature, however, is the splendid bosses along the ridge, which are survivals from either the Decorated or a subsequent Perpendicular vault. In some of these bosses the figures are five feet long.

From west to east the subjects are as follows: (1) A head; (2) an
angel, with foliage; (3) a head; (4) a man conducting a woman to a
church door; (5) a bishop in benediction; (6) a king enthroned; (7)
a bishop enthroned; (8) a king and a bishop enthroned together; (9)
the Crucifixion (modern); (10) the Annunciation; (11) the expulsion
from Paradise; (12)? the good Samaritan; (13) a head.

There are also good foliage bosses against the walls between the pendentives. The westernmost pendentive on either side rests on a Perpendicular corbel carved with delicate foliage.

The general arrangements of the presbytery have been much changed since the middle ages. The altar then stood against a screen one bay in advance of its present position, and the iron hooks upon the second complete column from the east end on either side held, it is supposed, the Lenten Veil. Before the last restoration the altar stood, as now, against the east wall (on a single step, however), but the Sanctuary still extended two bays westward and was three steps above the rest of the choir, which was all on one level. Since then the floor has been raised one step at the east end of the stalls, and the steps to the Sanctuary have been diminished by one, while there are now two steps to the altar, and the Sanctuary and the raised portion of the choir have received an inlaid marble pavement. The reredos, an arcading of slender arches each enclosing a trefoiled arch impaling a trefoil, is a restoration of the original Decorated work. The latter had been covered by a painted screen of wood--possibly of late mediaeval workmanship--and this again by a huge oil-painting of the time of Charles II. Both were removed to make way for a high reredos by Blore, which in its turn was taken down by Sir Gilbert Scott.[96] On the pavement south of the altar is a piscina, which (if this be its original position) must have belonged to a chapel or chantry behind the high altar--possibly the chantry of the Holy Trinity _subtus altare_.[97] From its position it would seem that in those days the floor here was considerably lower than it is now.

=The Sedilia.=--The last bay on the south side is now occupied by three sedilia and a piscina, which form one block. As might be expected from the mediaeval position of the altar, they once stood in the second bay from the east, and they were not removed to their present position until the last restoration. Sir Gilbert Scott considered them late Decorated work, but they have rather the appearance of late Perpendicular. Over each seat is an ogee canopy, cinquefoil, crocketed, and surmounted by a huge finial. These canopies rest on square pillars, the sides of which are adorned with a sort of 'four-leaved flowers,' while the capitals are encircled with foliage in which are animals and monsters. Each pillar is surmounted by a pinnacle, and behind each canopy rises a crocketed gable, again crowned by a huge finial. The gables, the pinnacles, and the tops of the canopies are the work of Sir Gilbert Scott, who found the sedilia in a mutilated condition. Below the seats and the piscina runs a chamfer with 'four-leaved flowers' along it, and below this are panels enclosing trefoils containing faces. But the most curious feature of these sedilia is not perceived until a glance is given beneath the canopies. The carved ends of the cusps are in reality the heads of extraordinary grotesques whose bodies are curled up against the under surface of the arch. Some of these figures, in addition to their proper physiognomy, have faces carved on the crowns of their heads. The piscina, which has been converted into a credence table, has another ogee canopy, and is backed by a wall, along the top of which runs a band of foliage that is continued round the top of a square pillar at the end of the block.

The fine oak chairs in the Sanctuary are of modern construction but of old material, while the rails, lectern and pulpit are all modern.[98]

In the four easternmost bays the choir is separated from its aisles (except where the sedilia already block one arch) by elaborate oak screens of various designs, in the upper part of which the tracery is largely pendant--an arrangement characteristic of Yorkshire. These screens have been restored, but contain much of the old work, most of which is probably of the same date with the stalls.[99] Until the last restoration they were surmounted by seventeenth century galleries in the so-called Jacobean style.

=The Stalls=--thirteen on either side and eight returned against the Rood Screen--are exquisite specimens of fifteenth century woodwork. They are surmounted by lofty canopies of elaborate tabernacle-work supported on slender shafts and rising into a forest of crocketed spirelets and pinnacles. There are ribbed vaults under the canopies, and upon the pendants in front are hovering angels. The canopies on the south side were wrecked by the fall of the spire in 1660, and those over the eight easternmost stalls were then reconstructed in the 'Jacobean' style with a gallery above, while of the canopies now over the other nine, eight are said to have been brought across from the eastern end of the north range, where more Jacobean canopies were erected in their place. Sir Gilbert Scott removed all this seventeenth century work and set up reproductions of the fifteenth century design. Thus the eight easternmost canopies on either side are modern. The misereres and arms of the stalls are exquisitely carved.

The subjects upon the former are as follows, beginning from the
archway in the screen:--

_North side_:--(1) (CANON IN RESIDENCE) lion attacked by dogs; (2)
dragon attacked by dogs; (3) angel with shield; (4) dragon and
birds; (5) hart's-tongue ferns; (6) conventional flowers; (7) ape
attacked by lion; (8) vine; (9) birds pecking fruit; (10)
antelopes; (11) fox preaching to goose and cock; (12) fox running
off with geese; (13) fox caught by dogs; (14) dragons fighting;
(15) fruit and flowers issuing from inverted head; (16) man holding
club with oak leaves and acorns; (17) (MAYOR'S STALL) griffin
catching rabbit.

_South side_:--(1) (DEAN) angel with book; (2) angel with shield
bearing date 1489; (3) lion _versus_ griffin; (4) griffin devouring
human leg; (5) owl; (6) mermaid with mirror and hair-brush; (7) two
pigs dancing to bagpipe played by a third; (8) Jonah thrown to the
whale; (9) man wheeling another who holds a reed and a bag; (10)
fox caught carrying off goose by dog and by woman with distaff;
(11) winged animal; (12) hart, gorged and chained; (13) pelican
feeding young; (14) Jonah emerging from the whale; (15) Samson
carrying the gates; (16) head (modern)[100]; (17) (BISHOP'S THRONE)
Caleb and Joshua carrying the grapes and watched by Anakim.

Most of these misereres have exquisite conventional flowers (especially roses) cut upon them in addition to the figure-subjects. The desks in front of the stalls have rich finials, and their panelled fronts form the backs of a lower tier of seats, the arms of which are supported each on a square shaft set diamondwise. In front of these lower seats the desks again have carved finials and panelled fronts, and on those parallel with the Rood Screen the tracery is distinctly Flamboyant. The finial before the stall of the Canon in Residence has a griffin attached to it, and that in front of the Dean's stall a lion. Before both these stalls the ends of the two tiers of desks are richly carved. The Bishop's throne and Mayor's stall have each a canopied niche on the exterior toward the east,[101] and two small apertures in the east side to enable the occupant to see the altar, and in front of these two stalls the ends of the two tiers of desks are again richly carved. The Mayor's stall, which is wider than the others, was probably that of the Wakeman, and attached to the finial in front is a grotesque ape, beneath which the supporting shaft is of open work. The end of this desk displays a shield charged with two keys in saltire, for the see of York.

The Bishop's throne was originally occupied by the Archbishops of York. The Jacobean canopy, which succeeded that of the fifteenth century, comprised the space of two stalls, as did also the modern structure by which it was itself succeeded and which is now in the Consistory Court. The present canopy resembles those of the other stalls but is higher and more elaborate. Upon the back of the throne inside is a small mitre. The finial in front consists of an elephant carrying a man in his trunk, and bearing on his back a castle filled with armed soldiery, and in front of the elephant is a centaur (renewed), the shaft under which is again of open-work. The end of this desk displays a large mitre above a shield charged with the three stars of St. Wilfrid and supported by two angels, between whom is a scroll with the date 1494.

=The Organ= occupied the top of the Rood Screen as early as 1408; but doubtless all traces of the mediaeval instrument disappeared at the Reformation or in the Civil War. During the ascendancy of the Puritans organ-building became a lost art, and at the Restoration it had to be revived by foreigners, one of whom, Gerard Schmidt, nephew of 'Father Schmidt,' built an organ for Ripon. This instrument was remodelled in 1833 by Booth of Leeds, and about 1878 the organ was rebuilt by T. C. Lewis of Brixton, so that very little of Schmidt's work now remains. The present case was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott. Over the doorway in the screen is a projecting wooden gallery, in good imitation of the Perpendicular manner. This gallery, which dates probably from the time of Schmidt, was occupied until comparatively recently by the organist. From the front of it projects a well-carved hand, which, worked by a pedal, could be made to beat time--a very interesting piece of mechanism, which again probably dates from the time of Schmidt.

=The North Choir Aisle.=--The floor of the choir is now a step above that of the aisles, and it may be further remarked that in both of them the first bay is somewhat dark, being walled up on three sides; that in the second bay the archway toward the choir is occupied by organ-pipes; that a bench table runs along the side wall and the east end, and that the latter portion is adorned with panelling of the same design with the reredos.

In the north aisle the first three bays and a portion of the fourth are Archbishop Roger's work, with the exception of the windows. The most notable feature, as usual, is the vaulting-shafts, which spring from above the string-course, and are in clusters of three. In each cluster the central shaft is even thicker than the others, and the capitals, which are carved with foliage of Norman character, share a common five-sided abacus, while the bases are circular and rest on radiating brackets smaller than themselves. These brackets, which are said to be unique, have square corners and are moulded, but only on the front, and their receding portion consists of a concave moulding containing a convex block. In the north-west corner there is but a single shaft, which rises from the bench-table, is banded at the string-course, and has a square-topped capital. The vaulting has wall-ribs, cross-springers, and groin-ribs, and is rather high-pitched. Upon the cross-springers the mouldings are a large keeled round having on either side a hollow between fillets, while the groin-ribs are moulded as in the Markenfield Chapel. In the westernmost bay the vault has shown signs of weakness (like so many other parts of the building adjacent to the ill-fated tower) and has been strengthened by a cross-arch with a half-arch abutting against it on the west side, both springing from corbels. The corbels are quite in Archbishop Roger's manner, and indicate that these strengthening arches, and therefore the blocking walls from which they spring, are of his period. Moreover, the abacus moulding of the first choir capital is continued as a string to the shaft (which it encircles) in the north-west corner. This string is interrupted by a rather inexplicable round arch in the west wall, and has also been broken by the obtrusion of the Perpendicular tower-pier, and by the blocked doorway which once opened from the Rood Screen. Below this doorway (adjoining which there is a recess in the obtruding masonry of the tower-pier) the wall shows traces of a gallery or staircase. On the north wall the string-course, which is rather undercut, is original as far as the end of the fourth bay, and marks the level to which the sills of the original windows descended in steps.[102] In the present windows, which descend to the old level, the mouldings of the arch are stopped upon a set-off and the jamb is left plain.

In the two easternmost bays the Decorated string-course is of a different pattern and at a slightly higher level; and here the jambs of the windows are moulded with a hollow continued from the arch; while the rim of the latter has upon it a large filleted round flanked by hollows and supported on shafts with polygonal plinths and circular bases and capitals, the latter enriched with foliage. The east window, however, is not splayed, and has a deep rear-vault and a flat sill, while its rim is more elaborately moulded and there are shafts to the inner as well as to the outer arch. Except in the two easternmost windows on the north side, the glass is very poor. The Decorated vaulting-shafts are again in clusters of three, but rise from the bench-table and break the string-course. They have polygonal plinths, and their capitals are adorned with rather ill-cut foliage. In the north-east corner there is a single shaft having a fillet, and adjoining it is a round-headed doorway, which once opened into the angle staircase. In this aisle the panelling is carried two bays westwards.

It should be noticed that toward the aisle the choir arches have one more order in the three Decorated bays than they have in the rest. In the Decorated vaulting several chamfers are introduced among the mouldings of the cross-springers, and both in these and in the groin-ribs the most prominent moulding has a fillet. Otherwise the roof roughly matches that of the older bays. The older and the later period meet in the fourth bay from the west, where two of the groin-ribs have the fillet, while the other two are without it. In the two easternmost bays there are fine bosses at the crown of the vault.

It is thought that the Shrine of St. Wilfrid was in the east end of this aisle.[103] Unfortunately Leland's words _S. Wilfridi reliquiae sub arcu prope magnum altare sepultae_ are too vague to decide its exact position.

=The South Choir Aisle.=--This aisle, in some respects, has been altered more than the other, but the south wall is Archbishop Roger's work as far as the end of the fourth bay, if not farther. About 14 feet from the west end occurs that 'straight joint' in the masonry which shows the separation of this aisle from the Mallory Chapel to have been an afterthought; and a little further east a round-headed doorway, moulded with the edge-roll and retaining a panelled door of some age, opens into the Chapter-house. There was evidently a second and similar doorway a few yards further on, but it has been blocked (doubtless when the cross-wall was built at the back of it between the Chapter-house and vestry), and a square-headed doorway has been made to open into the latter. To the right of this entrance is a square-headed lavatory with a projecting rectangular basin and a hole knocked through into the lobby behind. This lavatory is of course an insertion, probably of the fifteenth century; indeed the whole of this part of the wall has been much repaired with limestone. The aisle is somewhat darkened by the fact that its first four windows look into the Lady-loft. Fortunately the three westernmost are original. They are as usual round-headed and plainly splayed, and their sills descend to the string-course in steps. Archbishop Roger's vaulting-shafts here are in better preservation than in the other aisle. The original vaulting itself must of course have been taken down when the three westernmost columns of the choir-arcade were rebuilt, but in the reconstruction the old ribs seem to have been used again. The groin-ribs have no room to descend upon the Perpendicular choir-capitals, and end prematurely upon corbels carved into faces.

The westernmost bay of the aisle has been divided into two storeys, the upper of which now contains part of the mechanism of the organ, but is thought to have been once a chantry chapel. This curious chamber is reached through a pointed doorway at the top of the Library staircase in the south transept. Its roof is of course formed by the aisle-vault, which originally extended, doubtless, as far westwards in this aisle as in the other. The space, however, has been shortened by the great thickness of a Perpendicular cross-arch, which, though its southern respond obtrudes into the aisle below, is itself only visible from this chamber. When, therefore, the vaulting here was rebuilt, it had to be adapted to the shortened space, and the groin-ribs, which are very much of Archbishop Roger's pattern, spring from Perpendicular corbels carved into faces. The wall which separates this bay of the aisle from the choir was said above, quite truly, to be Perpendicular, but on this its southern face the masonry is apparently Archbishop Roger's. It is of gritstone, and behind the organ-bellows there remains a corbel like those of the cross-arch that props the vaulting in the corresponding bay of the north aisle. The presumption therefore is that the original vaulting was similarly propped here, and that the wall on which this corbel remains was built to block or strengthen the first choir-arch, and has survived the arch itself. To the west of the door a small square window looks into the Mallory Chapel.

In its eastern portion this aisle resembles the other, but the bench-table here is only carried two bays westward, and the panelling only one bay. In the fifth bay from the west the window is shortened to about half the length of the others, and the string-course (which is of Archbishop Roger's pattern) is correspondingly raised, possibly because a longer window would have come below the springing of the vestry roof (in the period when there was no Lady-loft), or possibly (though this is less likely) to make room for the monument underneath, which, though placed here by Sir Gilbert Scott, who found it in pieces, may have occupied this position before. The monument is that of Moses Fowler, first Dean of Ripon (d. 1608), and the effigy is not a favourable example of English sculpture in the seventeenth century. Of the stained glass, that in the last window on the south side is of some merit. The capitals of the Decorated vaulting-shafts are better executed in this aisle than in the other. Here, as there, the Decorated vaulting begins in the middle of the fourth bay, where the fillet is again found upon the two eastern groins only. At the south-east corner of this aisle are the remains of a piscina--a fragment of a basin resting on a shaft--which probably belonged to one of the many chantries. The staircase at this corner affords the best access to the turret cell described in the last chapter, and to the attic over the choir, where the framing of the roof is a very remarkable specimen of modern joinery.

On account of the alterations that have taken place at different periods in the part of the Cathedral south of the choir, it will be well to examine the crypt under the Chapter-house before examining either the latter itself or the Library.

=The Norman Crypt.=--A round-headed doorway in the west wall of the Chapter-house admits to a staircase which, roofed with a sloping barrel-vault and descending southwards, turns eastwards, under another round arch, into the crypt. The age of this staircase is uncertain, but its west wall is of course the east wall of Archbishop Roger's transept, and its barrel-vault is under his buttresses which will be seen in the Library. The crypt is divided by a cross-wall with a round arch in it into two portions, each having the vaulting supported on pillars along the middle; but half of the first and third bays of the western portion has been walled up in modern times for burial-vaults. The width of the crypt is about 18 feet and the total length about 68 feet.

This part of the church was assigned by Walbran to Thomas of Bayeux (1070-1100), and by Sir Gilbert Scott to Thurstan (1114-1141); but it is quite possible that both these Archbishops, if not Oda or Oswald before them, may have had a share in its construction. Much of the work at any rate belongs to a Norman church which preceded that of Archbishop Roger.

In the vaulting (which by-the-way has had to be propped at some period by two rude pointed limestone arches at the west end) the chamfered groin-ribs seem to have been added later for strength, probably when the storey above was remodelled; but the vaulting itself, with its square pillars, its plain round arches from pillar to pillar and from pillar to walls, and without ribs upon the groins (such having been its original condition, apparently), seems pure Norman work.[104] The traces of painted decoration remaining upon both pillars and vaulting are probably original. Along the walls the arches spring, not from corbels, but from short strings of the same pattern with the impost-moulding on the pillars--a pattern not of very early character. The north and south walls must, perhaps, be as old at least as the vaulting which rests against them; nor does the former wall seem quite on the same plane with the portion of Archbishop Roger's choir foundations visible outside (between the present choir and the apse), he having perhaps built his wall against this one. The large limestone buttress against this wall, and another buttress which rises from the east wall but is hidden by the vaulting, were added in the Decorated period, and can be followed up through the two storeys above. They terminate in the pinnacles of the flying buttresses that span the choir-aisle. The south wall may perhaps be definitely placed somewhat early in the Norman period, since the windows are splayed both internally and externally.[105] Of equal age, probably, is the cross-wall (which, to judge from the mass of masonry that spans the present passage of communication between the two parts of the crypt, is very thick) since allowance is made for its thickness in the spacing of the windows.[106] It is at least as old as the vaulting, whose bays are arranged to suit it; and moreover the half-pillar against its eastern side has never been a whole pillar, as the capital plainly shows. This last remark applies also to the half-pillar against the extreme west wall, which therefore may perhaps be taken as marking the westward limit of the crypt at the time when the vaulting was constructed; while the east wall (excluding the apse) probably marks the contemporary eastward limit--if, that is to say, the eastern portion of the vaulting has not undergone alteration. That eastern portion is clearly planned for an apse or chancel of some kind. The arch that rises eastward from the last pillar is stopped half-way in its course by a cross-arch opening into the apse, and the two last groin-ribs are carried from the pillar to the abutments of the cross-arch, being obliged by this contraction of span to form the only pointed arches in the whole vaulting. Such an arrangement--a 'nave' terminating in an apse, and at the same time divided by a row of pillars along the middle--is somewhat unusual. The present apse is of uncertain date. Part of it may be Norman. Its window indeed is of early Norman type: yet its wall seems of softer stone than the rest of the crypt,[107] and the string which runs along the east wall of the latter and round the responds of the cross-arch is there broken off: moreover, the cross-arch itself is clearly not of the same date or construction with the two ribs of the apse-roof, which ribs may possibly be of the same date as the groin-ribs; and lastly, it will be remembered that the shafts on the exterior had something of the appearance of Archbishop Roger's work. The floor of the apse is raised on two steps, but there is no trace of an altar.

It will be noticed that at the south-east corner there is no apsidal chamber to correspond to that in the storey above. There is, however, an unsavoury hole from which have been extracted a number of skulls. Indeed, this crypt formerly contained huge piles of bones, which had probably been brought here by the sixteenth century builders from the foundations of their new nave-aisles,[108] and which were removed in 1865 to a pit in the graveyard. Among the stone relics which have found a resting-place here, the most interesting are a sarcophagus, the head of a cross of Saxon character, and a group of coffin-lids near the north wall. Most of these last are perhaps of the thirteenth century.[109] At the west end of the crypt is preserved Blore's reredos.

=The Chapter-house= is 22 feet wide from wall to wall and 35 feet long, but it was evidently once open to the vestry, and the dividing wall, which with its bench-table is of limestone, was erected in the Decorated or in the Perpendicular period. In both rooms, as also in the storey above, the original floor was perhaps of stone or tiles, but if so, it has been covered or superseded by wooden planking.

The Chapter-house is marked as such by the stone benches which are carried in two tiers along the north and south walls. On the north side the upper tier is interrupted by the piers of an arcading of plainly chamfered round arches, the central bay of which contains a fine mediaeval cupboard with iron scroll-work. The doorway into the choir is very curiously treated on this side. It is surmounted first by a lintel, the stones above which are wedges forming a 'flat arch,' and then by a round arch so high as to run up behind the westernmost arch of the arcading. The very fine vaulting, although some have ascribed it to the Early English period, belongs more probably to the time of Archbishop Roger. Unlike that over the choir-aisles and the Markenfield chapel, however, it has all its arches rounded, and is without wall-ribs. It springs from five-sided corbels which, like the corbels of the old nave, are finished off with scrolls, and which on the north side are placed against the piers of the arcading; and in the middle of the room it is supported on two cylindrical and monolithic pillars. The bases and capitals of these are circular, and the former are almost pure Early English, the plinth having a round moulding at the bottom, and the base proper consisting of two round mouldings separated by a hollow, with one or two beads or fillets. The capitals are less advanced in style, as the part just above the bell is not moulded and the abacus retains the square edge. All the eight ribs that rise from each pillar resemble the groin-ribs in the crypt.

The arcade against the north wall is continued in the vestry, and it has been thought that it is Norman, and that its arches were once open.[110] But had this ever been the case the piers would surely have been narrower, and would have had capitals. Indeed, it is doubtful whether the arcade is Norman at all: for if it were, its bays might be expected to agree in span and number with the (presumably Norman) bays of the crypt, whereas there are five bays there and only four here occupying the same total length. Secondly, the set-off on which its piers stand is probably Archbishop Roger's work, as will appear later; and the piers themselves seem to be of the same construction with the wall behind them, which again is almost certainly his. Moreover, it is significant that the arches agree in span with those of his choir, and that their piers are back to back with his vaulting-shafts in the choir-aisle. Lastly, these piers correspond in width with his buttresses on the north side of the choir. In fact it is difficult to resist the conclusion that they are Archbishop Roger's south choir buttresses in disguise,[111] and that the arches between them were thrown across merely to form a straight boundary for the vaulting, and to carry a ledge which (when there was no storey above) might support the external roof. The piers indeed are carried up, with a 'straight joint' on either side, above the springing of the arches, and the latter are constructed as if they had been let into the piers as an after-thought.[112]

As the bays of this arcade, to which the vaulting is adapted, do not agree with those of the crypt, it follows that the two cylindrical pillars here do not stand exactly over the pillars below--which strengthens the presumption that the vaulting there is of earlier date, and that its groin-ribs were added later for strength: nor does the dividing wall here stand exactly over the cross-wall below, so that the strain on the crypt roof must be considerable.

The two round windows are very widely splayed, and the uppermost part of their rim has a different curvature from the rest, as if they had once been straight-sided and round-headed. In their present form they are of uncertain date. The most conspicuous instance of the employment of this rare type of window--viz., the nave of Southwell Cathedral--is pure Norman, but the received opinion ascribes these Ripon examples to the time of Archbishop Roger, and it will be observed that their position harmonizes with the bays of the vaulting, which is presumably his, but has no relation externally to the spacing of the windows of the crypt, which, moreover, have an external splay. The third window was once circular like the rest, for a portion of the rim may still be traced; but as it would otherwise have been bisected by the cross-wall, the later builders have blocked half of it and squared the rest, splaying it at the same time like a squint. The date of the south wall itself is doubtful. It is thinner here than in either the vestry or the crypt.

Near the modern hearth is a case of curiosities found about the church, among them several fourteenth or fifteenth century reliefs in alabaster, representing the Resurrection, the Coronation of the Virgin, the story of Herodias, and the figure of a bishop, probably St. Wilfrid, with a curious P-shaped implement on his arm.

At the north end of the cross-wall it will be observed that the blocked doorway noticed in the choir-aisle was not round-headed on this side, but segmental. The square-headed doorway in the cross-wall itself is modern, and opens into a lobby, the opposite side of which is formed by the Decorated buttress whose lower portion was noticed in the crypt, while on the left is the doorway into the choir, and on the right another square-headed doorway, opening into the vestry.

=The Vestry.=--Before the erection of the cross-wall the vaulting evidently extended eastward continuously to the apse, which still contains a fragment of it with two corbels, while further traces, including another corbel, may be seen upon the south wall. Its removal may have taken place either when the two Decorated buttresses were introduced, or at the erection of the Lady-loft, or possibly much later; but was doubtless contemporaneous with the building of the cross-wall, which was evidently intended not only as a partition, but as a 'stop' for the portion of the vaulting that was retained. The present ceiling was put up by Sir Gilbert Scott, who, it is said, would have restored the vaulting had funds allowed. Of the buttresses, that adjoining the doorway has in its front, as well as in the side toward the lobby, a small trefoiled and moulded recess. These two buttresses are built against the piers of the arcading, part of the last arch of which is visible behind the cupboard.

In the same cupboard may be observed, scarcely above the floor, a wide stone ledge with a bold moulding worked along the front. If the floor can ever have been lower than it is now, this ledge may have been used as a bench. In itself, it is of course the set-off on which the piers of the arcading stand. Now it will be remembered that the portion of Archbishop Roger's wall-base visible from the graveyard (between the choir and the apse) has at the top a wide set-off or slope. This ledge in the vestry, then, seems to be level with the base of that slope, where moreover there is a moulding similar to that found here; also the front of the ledge here seems to be flush with Archbishop Roger's masonry there.

If, then, the work there is his,[113] the above considerations afford some reason surely for the belief that this set-off on which the piers of the arcading stand, and perhaps also the uppermost courses of the wall beneath it, are Archbishop Roger's work. Nor is it improbable that this set-off once had a slope, of which that above-mentioned was the continuation, and out of which the buttresses (_i.e._, the arcade piers) rose after the manner of those on the other side of the choir--in fact, that Archbishop Roger intended to make this wall the exterior of his church by demolishing the crypt, vestry, and Chapter-house; and that it was only after some such idea had been conceived and abandoned, that the arches were thrown across from buttress to buttress, the vaulting constructed against them, this ledge formed (by cutting away the slope of the set-off), and the stone benches carried along the wall of the Chapter-house.

The arch above the ledge has been mutilated to make way for a modern spiral staircase of wood leading to the Library. Half-way up this staircase there remain upon the wall and upon the buttress (if it may now be so called) portions of a string-course which may be taken perhaps as additional evidence for the theory that Archbishop Roger at first intended to demolish the vestry and Chapter-house.[114] It does not, however, match the external string on the other side of the choir, but resembles the internal string in the choir-aisles.

The single window in the south wall is round-headed internally, and is partially splayed on one side and not at all on the other: indeed the wall here appears to have undergone some alteration. In this room this wall is of the same thickness with the corresponding wall of the crypt, which is not the case in the Chapter-house.

East of the above window a square-headed doorway opens into the apsidal chamber enclosed by the corner buttress. This curious little chamber was probably a sacristy or treasury. It has a recess in the west side, and seems to have communicated directly with the graveyard. In the roof is a slab which has a small cross graven upon it, and which may have formed part of an altar.

The projection at the south side of the apse was probably one of the responds of an arch against which the vaulting abutted, as in the crypt. Under the east window the curve of the wall has been flattened, probably to afford a better back for the altar, of which the step remains. On the north side is an aumbry, with a recess adjoining it in the side of the buttress; and on the south side is a smaller aumbry, and a piscina with a projecting basin and a semicircular head, the latter cut apparently in one stone. This again is probably one of the earliest piscinae in existence. The curve of the apse is wider in this storey than below, which partly accounts for the fact that the adjoining Decorated buttress protrudes here into the room. There is also a difference in the stone used, and in several other particulars, _e.g._, the two windows here have very little external splay--all of which may or may not indicate a difference in date between the apse in this storey and in the crypt. The hand of Archbishop Roger seems traceable here not only in the external shafts and corbel-table, but also in the trefoiling (externally) of the east window. The two vaulting-corbels at any rate seem to be his, as well as the piscina. The upper part of the apse has lost its semicircular shape and been squared, and some masonry has been thrown across from its wall to the Decorated buttress, the motive having been perhaps to make a better support for the rectangular east end of the Lady-loft. The oak table in this room was probably the Communion-table of the church during the period following the Reformation.

The question now arises how long the vestry and Chapter-house have served their present purpose. Of the arrangements in this storey before the time of Archbishop Roger nothing can be recovered with certainty, but the (presumably Norman) wall between the two parts of the crypt suggests by its thickness that it was intended to support a division of some kind above. After being remodelled in the time of Archbishop Roger, however, this upper storey was evidently open from end to end, and its apsidal termination, containing both piscina and altar-step, indicates that it was a chapel: indeed, as has been well suggested, it was probably the original Lady Chapel. Nevertheless, in an age when every action of life was invested with a religious character, the western part may have been used for capitular purposes even without a dividing wall, and the gritstone benches, so significant of those purposes, are doubtless of considerable age. The statement in the old Records that the trial of 1228[115] was held _apud Rypon in Aula Capituli_ is definite enough to show that there was a recognised place for Chapter meetings; nor is it improbable that the reference may be to the present building. Some doubt is thrown upon this conclusion by a proclamation of Archbishop Lee in 1537 sequestrating the Common Fund on the ground that "the Chapter-house is ruinous in walls, roof, and stonework generally, so that it is likely to fall." These words, it has been thought, can never have been applicable to the present Chapter-house, and it has been suggested therefore that there may have been another which has disappeared. Archbishop Lee's words, however, are perhaps not irreconcilable with the present building. They may refer to the serious settlement which necessitated the huge Perpendicular buttress at the corner of what is now the vestry. There is, it is true, some difficulty in the fact that it is not the vestry but the Chapter-house which is mentioned, and in the allusion to a dilapidated roof (_tectura_); but it is conceivable that there was as yet no dividing wall, that the vaulting of what is now the vestry was still standing, that it had been injured by the settlement above-mentioned--in fact that its removal and the erection of the dividing wall took place in the time of Archbishop Lee. His direction for repairs may also account for the presence of limestone in the north wall of the Chapter-house, and for the propping of the vault at the west end of the crypt.[116] As has already been shown, the history of the vestry is bound up with that of the Chapter-house. At what period services ceased to be held at the altar in the apse, it is difficult to say; perhaps on the completion of a Lady Chapel above, perhaps on the erection of the dividing wall,[117] perhaps through the advent of the Reformation. At any rate, it was probably not before this part of the church had ceased to be used for services that it began to be recognised as a robing-room. There is an allusion to a recognised vestry in Leland, and very possibly the present room is meant; if so, it would seem from his account to have been used also as a library. But the fact remains that the church possesses no vestry except what is obviously a disused chapel.

=The Lady-chapel= or Lady-loft is 23 feet 3 inches wide, and 68 feet long.[118] Its west and north sides, being formed by what was once the exterior of the church, display not only windows and buttresses, but also a string-course with gargoyles. From the west wall projects one of Archbishop Roger's buttresses, terminating in a slope, between the two blocked windows of the Mallory Chapel, which resemble the aisle windows of the other transept. The window on the right, mutilated by the insertion of the doorway, has lost its shafts, and retains only their capitals. The other window is partly cut off by the south wall, and is now a cupboard.