Chapter I: Front Matter

THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF OXFORD

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

BY THE REV. PERCY DEARMER, M.A.

WITH THIRTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS, 1899

First Published, April, 1897.
Second Edition, Revised, April, 1899.

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 archæology 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:--firstly, the great county histories, the value of which, especially in questions of genealogy and local records, is generally recognised; secondly, the numerous papers by experts which appear from time to time in the transactions of the antiquarian and archæological societies; thirdly, the important documents made accessible in the series issued by the Master of the Rolls: fourthly, the well-known works of Britton and Willis on the English Cathedrals; and lastly, 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.

For one who has learnt the best of what he knows within Christ Church walls it has been very pleasant to gather these notes of the Cathedral's history and architecture. Moreover, I am less remorseful than I might be at adding to the world's overcrowded library, because certain recent discoveries in the Cathedral have thrown the best of the old books out of date, and made it necessary for some one to weave together the older and the later knowledge. My indebtedness, therefore, is not only to former labourers in this field, but especially to the author of these discoveries, Mr J. Park Harrison, who roused my enthusiasm in the old days, and now has most generously helped me with his advice, and allowed me to incorporate in these chapters the substance of his own papers. To these pamphlets I would refer any who wish to go to the fountainhead for the account of the investigations, and especially I may mention two: "The Pre-Norman Date of the Choir and some of the Stone-work of Oxford Cathedral," and the "Account of the Discovery of the Remains of three Apses at Oxford Cathedral" (Oxford: Frowde, 24 and 23 pp.). I must also express my thanks for the kindness and help of Professor York Powell, and of Mr W. Francis, the senior verger, and to Messrs Carl Norman & Co. of Tunbridge Wells, Mr W. Giles, Mr Park Harrison, and Mr R. Phené Spiers, F.R.I.B.A., for the loan of and permission to reproduce various drawings and photographs.

PERCY DEARMER.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

History of the Cathedral 3

Description of the Exterior 27
Spire and Tower 28
On the North Side 32
The Saxon Foundations 33
Cloister 37
Chapter House 39
Bell Tower 43
Tom Tower 44
College Buildings 47

Description of the Interior 49
Nave 51
Monuments of the Nave 57
Organ 58
Pulpit 58
Tower 58
Aisles of Nave and Transepts 62
Glass in Aisles 63
North Transept 65
Glass in Transepts 67
South Transept 67
St. Lucy's Chapel 70
Monuments of Transept and Chapel 71
Choir 72
East End 78
Reredos 79
High Altar 80
South Choir Aisle 81
Monuments 81
North Choir Aisle 83
Shrine of St. Frideswide 84
Lady Chapel 88
"Watching Chamber" 89
Monuments in Lady Chapel 91
Glass in the Aisles 97
Latin Chapel 102
Glass in Latin Chapel 105

History of the Foundation 109
St. Frideswide 109
The Priory 114
College and Cathedral 118

The Diocese of Oxford 126
Oseney 126
List of the Bishops 128

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Christ Church from the East _Frontispiece_
Arms of the See _Title_
The Roof of the Choir 2
The Cathedral at the End of the Seventeenth Century 5
Christ Church from the Garden of the Canon of the 2nd Stall, 1857 10
Christ Church in the Eighteenth Century 11
The Tower and Spire 29
Early Saxon Arches 33
Plan of recently excavated Saxon Arches 34
Conjectural Plan of Early Saxon Church 35
Doorway of Chapter-House 39
Corbel in Chapter-House 40
Boss in Chapter-House 41
Choir, from the Old Cemetery 42
Tom Tower 44
Western Entrance and Bell Tower 45
Plan 52
Early English Moulding 54
Nave and Choir, looking East 55
Pulpit 58
Choir and Nave, looking West 59
From the North Transept 66
Clerestory Window in the South Transept 69
Third Capital of the Choir 72
Capitals of the Choir 73
Tracery of the Roof 77
Lady Montacute's Tomb 91
Ornament from a Tomb 95
The "St. Cecilia" Window 99
Window in the Latin Chapel 103
Section of the Interior before the Restorations 107
The Exterior in 1857 113
The Interior before the Restorations 123
Arms of the College 136