Chapter III: CURVILINEAR.—But hardly was the new choir completed when, together

with belfry and bells, it was destroyed by a great fire, with the exception of the aisles, which were protected by their stone vaults. The Canons, not a whit disheartened, resolved to rebuild the choir, and to rebuild it even longer and loftier than before. To its length they added an eastern bay, just wide enough to provide a processional path at the back of the high altar. They increased its height to 72 feet. But the piers and walls were too thin to bear the additional weight. They increased the thickness of the aisle-walls to 5 feet; the piers they rebuilt. The thirteenth-century arches, however, which were apparently not much damaged by the fire, they managed in some inexplicable way to retain. A modern contractor would take the arches down, and then rebuild them with the old stones. A mediæval builder would be more likely to underpin the arches, take the piers away and then rebuild them without disturbing the arches at all. The old builders revelled in such engineering feats. At Exeter they retained the clerestory wall while constructing new piers and arches below it; at York they transplanted two arches in the transept. The capitals of the new piers are exceedingly rich and interesting; they contain the best mediæval representation we possess of the Seasons; six capitals on the south side from east to west, six on the north side from west to east. The corbels also of the vaulting-shafts have rich naturalistic foliage. With that respect for good earlier work that is characteristic of the Curvilinear period, and so rare at any other time, they carried the cinquefoiled arcading of the aisles round the east wall, introducing, however, the characteristic detail of the period, not to bewilder unfortunate antiquaries of later days.

Their _chef-d’œuvre_, however, was the east front. On this they lavished all their wealth and all their art. It is a very poem in stone. Its only rival is the contemporary east front of Selby. “The great window,” says Professor Freeman, “is the grandest of its kind in England.” It certainly has no rival, unless it be that of York. The four lateral lights on either side of the Carlisle windows are gathered up into two pointed arches; at York these two arches are ogees; the free swing of the ogee arches contrasting most effectively with the pointed arch which embraces them both. The glass in the tracery represents our Lord sitting in Judgment; the procession of the Blessed to the Palace of Heaven, shown in two silvery quatrefoils; and very realistic representations of Hell and of the General Resurrection. It contains a portrait of John of Gaunt; the window was probably glazed when he was Governor of Carlisle, 1380-84.

So far the Canons spared no expense; everything was of the best. But their resources were taxed too heavily; it was impossible to finish the choir with the magnificence with which it was commenced. Triforium and clerestory are thin and poor; the inner arcade of the latter of the barest character. The piers had been rebuilt and strengthened, apparently to support a vault; but a vault was found too expensive, and was abandoned. Then hammerbeams were constructed for a roof of the type of the magnificent roofs of March Church and Westminster Hall. This in its turn was abandoned, and the present wagon-roof of wood was put up. For similar economical reasons the south transept was rebuilt without the aisle commenced in the thirteenth century.

IV. PERPENDICULAR (1360-1485).—But the misfortunes of the Canons were not over yet. Another fire destroyed the new north transept. This was rebuilt between 1400 and 1419 by Bishop Strickland, who built the forty-six stalls of the choir. Then came the question of the central tower and the nave. The original plan had been that, when the choir was finished, a new central tower and a new nave should be built, both of the same width as the choir. But their troubles had been too much for them. The courage of the Canons gave way. They saw no prospect of ever being able to rebuild the Norman nave; so instead of pulling down the Norman tower and building one as broad as the choir, they left it standing merely adding a new upper story to it. It is, of course, far too small for its position; and while ranging with the nave, is quite lop-sided when seen in connection with the roof of the choir; though the awkwardness is lessened, and even made picturesque, by the addition of a staircase-turret on the north side of the tower. This was about 1401.

V. TUDOR.—Things seem to have improved towards the end of the fifteenth century. Prior Gondebour painted the ceiling of the choir and the backs of the stalls; and to him are due the beautiful screens in the south transept chapel. He also built a grand barn with a magnificent roof of beams nearly two feet thick: much of it is still standing. The refectory also is due to him; it has a pretty pulpit for the reader, as at Beaulieu and Chester. The Gate Tower or Abbey Gate House was rebuilt in 1528.