Chapter XIII: Part I: History and Details (2)

The windows in the aisles are triple lancets, at the back of inner arches, supported by slender shafts of Purbeck marble. The dilapidated Perpendicular tracery with which the lights were filled has been removed, leaving the windows in their original state. Under the windows runs a wall-arcade resembling that already described in the transept, with trefoiled arches, and sculptures in the spandrils. Many of these have been restored, but all deserve careful notice. The subjects are--masses of foliage; knights fighting with monsters; mystic animals, such as the basilisk and cockatrice, and others described in early bestiaries. In the north aisle is a bishop offering a church, and in the south the Crucifixion. Nothing like a definite arrangement can be traced throughout the series. The vaulting of both aisles is quadripartite, with small bosses.

The east window of the north aisle has been filled with very good stained glass by HARDMAN, in memory of the late Hon. and Rev. Canon COCKS. That in the south aisle is a memorial of the Rev. ALLEN WHEELER, B.D.

The _eastern bay_, in which stood the altar of the Lady-chapel, was disfigured by a large debased window, inserted early in the present century; and was, before the restorations, in a dangerous condition. It was found necessary to rebuild the east wall entirely; and two tiers of lancet lights, five in each tier, have been inserted, in strict keeping with the architecture of all this part of the cathedral. Two lancets, one above another, are placed in the north and south walls. A very beautiful wall-arcade, of the same character as that in the aisles and transepts, but more enriched, runs round below the windows. This is entirely new, and the very good sculptures in the spandrils were executed, under direction, by BOULTON of Worcester. The subjects at the east end are--Isaiah; Abraham and Isaac; the selling of Joseph; the brazen serpent; Jonah; and Jeremiah. Foliage and grotesques, copied from the older spandrils, are repeated at the sides. The eastern lancets have been filled with stained glass by HARDMAN, given to the cathedral by the citizens of Worcester. In the central lower light is the Crucifixion; above, the Ascension. A series of medallions, representing the principal events in the life of our Lord, fill the remaining lancets. The glass is very good, though perhaps a little thin in quality. The spandrils above the lights in both tiers have been filled with sculpture by BOULTON; chiefly figures of angels.

XV. On the north side of the chapel is a small mural slab, with flowers at the sides and an urn above, for ANNE, wife of IZAAC WALTON, who no doubt wrote the inscription, which is as follows:--“Ex terris ... M.S. Here lyeth buried so much as could die of Anne, the wife of Isaac Walton, who was a woman of remarkable prudence, and of the Primitive Piety. Her great and generall knowledge being adorned with such true humility, and blest with so much Christian meeknesse as made her worthy of a more memorable monument. She died (alas that she is dead!) the 17th of April, 1662, aged 52. Study to be like her.” The wife thus commemorated was the sister of Bishop Ken. Walton himself survived until 1683, and was interred in Winchester Cathedral.

XVI. In the arcade of the south aisle are monuments for JOHN BANKS JENKINSON, Bishop of St. David’s, who died at Malvern in 1840; and for Prebendary DAVISON, Fellow of Oriel, who died in 1834, the author of a well-known work on Prophecy. On the floor of this aisle is the recumbent effigy of an _unknown lady_, of the fourteenth century. The head is covered with a veil. “The folds of the gown are disposed with great breadth, taste, and skill.... The feet rest against a whelp or dog. This effigy is sculptured in high relief out of a slab somewhat coffin-shaped, and is one of the most beautiful mediæval monumental relics in the cathedral. It is indeed well worthy of artistic study[85].” This effigy is not in its original position. The much mutilated figure near it, also of the fourteenth century, was found recently at the foot of the steps of the south-east transept.

At the back of the choir-screen, to which place it was removed within the last century, is a high tomb with an effigy, which probably represents the last Abbot of EVESHAM, Philip Ballard de Hawford, who died between 1550 and 1558. The tomb is of earlier date. The Abbot, who wears the _mitra preciosa_, is fully vested. The pastoral staff, placed on the left side, is covered with the veil. The effigy is of alabaster.

On the floor, and immediately in front of the easternmost bay which contained the altar of the Lady-chapel, are three episcopal effigies, two of which are of much interest. The most northernly, which according to Mr. Bloxam is the earliest episcopal effigy in the cathedral, is assigned by him to Bishop WILLIAM OF BLOIS, (died 1236,) who laid the foundation of this part of the church. “The effigy is sculptured in low relief, on a coffin-shaped slab, and was probably set originally on the stone coffin which contained the remains of the Bishop.... On the head is the low mitre; about the neck is seen the amice. In front of the breast, on the chasuble, is a lozenge-shaped ornament like a morse, in which stones, glass, or paste have been inserted.” Under the chasuble appears the alb, above which one of the fringed extremities of the stole is visible. The maniple hangs on the left arm. The pastoral staff crosses the body diagonally, from the left shoulder to the right foot. On each side of the head is Early English foliage. The southernmost effigy is assigned by Mr. Bloxam to Bishop WALTER DE CANTILUPE, who died Feb. 12, 1266. It is sculptured in Purbeck marble, and represents the Bishop with a moustache and beard, wearing the low mitre, the alb, the stole, the dalmatic, and the chasuble. The amice is round the neck. “I believe,” writes Mr. Bloxam, “this effigy to have been originally placed as the lid to and on the stone coffin of Bishop Walter de Cantilupe, and to have been sculptured and prepared during the lifetime of that bishop. Great care has evidently been taken in its execution, and as a specimen of the monumental sculpture of the middle of the thirteenth century it is not without considerable merit[86].” A coffin, containing the remains of a bishop in his episcopal vestments, in all probability Walter de Cantilupe, was found in December, 1861, under the wall on the north side of the choir, near the east end. On measuring this coffin, and comparing it with the effigy described above, they were found to correspond exactly. The central effigy, which is much mutilated, is either that of Bishop BRIAN (died 1361) or Bishop LYNN (died 1373).

In the central bay of the _north_ aisle is the effigy of an _unknown lady_, of the thirteenth century, and the earliest female effigy in the cathedral. It “is not of much merit as a work of art, but if the lady is here represented of the natural size, she must have been 6 ft. 3 in. in height. I think, however, from the examination of not a few examples, that many early sepulchral effigies were greatly exaggerated as to size[87].” In the adjoining bay is the effigy (also 6 ft. 3 in. in height) of an unknown _knight_, temp. Henry III. He wears mailed armour, with the long surcoat over it.

XVII. The _north-eastern transept_ precisely resembles that opposite. The windows have been rebuilt, and restored where necessary, but without any alteration of the original design. The sculptures in the wall-arcade are curious and interesting, but no principle of arrangement is evident.

On a high tomb in the centre of the transept is a full-length figure, by CHANTREY, of CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH, wife of the Rev. WILLIAM DIGBY, who died in 1820. The sculpture is fine, but the design is scarcely appropriate, and suffers infinitely when compared with the repose and dignity of the earlier effigies in this cathedral.

Against the south wall of the transept, between it and the choir, under a Decorated arch, is an effigy which has been ascribed to Bishop COBHAM, (died 1337). “The head, which is mitred, reposes on a square double cushion, supported by much mutilated figures of angels. The vestments, consisting of the chasuble, dalmatic, tunic, and alb, are not well defined[88].” Below this, “on a high tomb of the seventeenth century, and under a pointed arch of the fourteenth century,” is an effigy assigned to Bishop WULSTAN BRANSFORD, died 1349. He wears the chasuble, the dalmatic, and the alb. “The chasuble is enriched with the orfrey, or super-humerale, an ornament not unlike the archiepiscopal pall, hanging down in front, and fringed at the lower extremity[89].”

XVIII. The _north choir-aisle_, of the same general character as that opposite, has also been restored. The beauty of the capitals and bosses of foliage is here especially noticeable. In the last bay toward the west, on the west side of the window, and high in the wall, is a small oriel window, of Perpendicular date, formerly communicating with the sacrist’s lodgings. There is now no access whatever to it; but Norman arches in the wall (evident from without) indicate the existence of a sacrist’s chamber, and probably of a window afterwards replaced by that now existing, before the rebuilding of the choir in the thirteenth century. From the window the position of the great shrines at the head of the choir was commanded, and it perhaps served as a watching-chamber.

In this aisle (removed from the south transept) is the monument of Bishop MADDOX, (1743-1759,) who had “an exact knowledge of the constitution of this national Church.”

XIX. In the easternmost bay of the south aisle of the nave a door (the Prior’s entrance) opens to the _cloisters_. These are of Perpendicular date, but their construction has not been recorded. They are (1866) undergoing a complete restoration, externally and internally; and the debased stone-work, inserted in the windows in 1762, has been removed. The exterior was so dilapidated that an entire re-casing was necessary; but the ancient details have been most carefully decyphered and restored. Although very perfect, however, the cloisters are of no great interest or beauty. The arrangement of the vaulting-shafts on the piers between the windows should be noticed, as well as the flowing tracery on the sides of the arches. The use of the squared openings in the piers, on three sides of the cloisters, is quite uncertain, and Professor Willis has suggested that it may have been a mere caprice of the builder[90]. The vaulting of the cloisters is lierne, with bosses of foliage. In the west walk the ancient lavatory remains.

In the north walk is the well-known sepulchral slab, with the single word _Miserrimus_. This “most wretched one” was the Rev. THOMAS MORRIS, Minor Canon of Worcester, and Vicar of Claines, about two miles north of the city. At the Revolution he refused to take the oaths to William III., and consequently lost his preferments. He was supported by the richer Nonjurors, and in allusion to his destitute condition ordered this single word to be engraved on his tomb-stone. The inscription thus really intimates a very different feeling from that suggested in Wordsworth’s sonnet:--

“ ... Himself alone
Could thus have dared the grave to agitate,
And claim, among the dead, this awful crown.
Nor doubt that he marked also for his own,
Close to these cloistral steps a burial place,
That every foot might fall with heavier tread,
Trampling upon his vileness. Stranger, pass
Softly!--To save the contrite, Jesus bled.”

XX. Although the cloisters are not in themselves of any unusual interest, they afford one of the best illustrations remaining in England of the manner in which the chief monastic buildings were grouped about them. On the _east_ side is a passage formerly leading to the prior’s house, and beyond it the chapter-house. On the _south_ side is the refectory, now used as a school-room. On the _west_ side, close to the lavatory in the wall, is the entrance to the _dormitory_, which has itself been destroyed; and beyond again is a narrow passage (in which are staircases communicating with the triforium of the nave, and with the upper part of the dormitory) by which the west front of the church was approached from the cloisters.

The _slype_, or arched passage in the east walk, is Norman, (with some details, on the north side, of very early character,) and separates the chapter-house from the south wall of the great transept. Between the entrance to this passage and the chapter-house are two recesses in the wall, which may be compared with those in a similar position at Norwich; (see the Handbook for that Cathedral). Their original use is unknown.

The _chapter-house_ [Plate III.] is circular within, (as it was without until the Perpendicular casing was added,) but is divided into ten bays by vaulting-ribs which spring from a central column, and from shafts at the sides. Without, the building is decagonal, with a buttress between each bay. The lower part of the chapter-house, the central column, and the vaulting, are transition Norman, of nearly the same date as the two western bays of the nave. Early in the sixteenth century, however, a Perpendicular window was inserted in the upper part of each bay, and the exterior of the building was entirely cased with Perpendicular masonry. The doorway

opening from the cloisters is Perpendicular. A plain circular arcade, slightly recessed, runs round the interior, above a stone bench. A second arcade, of interlacing arches, covers the upper part of the wall, and is surmounted by a stringcourse with the billet-moulding, the whole being in alternate courses of grey and white stone. Above this are the Perpendicular windows. The chapter-house has shared in the late restoration.

XXI. At the end of the east walk of the cloisters is a passage under the refectory, to the Close beyond. The _refectory_ (120 ft. long) extends the whole length of the south walk. There is an entrance to it near the south-west end. The lower part, or crypt, is early Norman; the room above, a long parallelogram, is Decorated, of the reign of Edward III. It is now used as the school-room of the “King’s school,” founded by Henry VIII. after the dissolution of the priory.

In the west walk is the lavatory (Perpendicular), already mentioned, and the entrance (Perpendicular) to the _dormitory_; this, like the refectory, was a long parallelogram. The foundations of the walls have been traced, and portions of a row of columns (Perpendicular) which ran down the centre of the undercroft.

At the north-west angle of the cloister is the monks entrance to the cathedral. The cloister terminates nearly in a line with the third bay of the nave. Parallel with the last two, or transition Norman bays, is a narrow arched and vaulted passage, also transition Norman, of very good character, with a doorway of the same date at the western end. On the south side of this passage there is a staircase which led to the dormitory, and at the north-west angle one which leads to the triforium of the south aisle of the nave.

Beyond this passage a view is obtained of the very plain _west front_, with its Norman portals and modern Decorated window.

XXII. On the _north side_ of the cathedral, between the north porch and the west front, stood the “Carnerie,” or charnel-house chapel, built by Bishop William de Blois in the thirteenth century, and demolished in 1677. The crypt is still remaining, although no trace of it is visible above ground. The two transition Norman bays on this side had apparently shewn signs of weakness in the Perpendicular period, when the existing flying buttresses were erected. A third occurs between the two transepts, and close beyond it is the entrance to the _crypt_. [Plate IV.]

This is by no means the least interesting portion of the cathedral, since it is unquestionably the work of WULFSTAN, and the only part of the building which can be assigned to him. In 1084 Wulfstan began the rebuilding of the monastery, and in 1094 he held a synod in the crypt of the cathedral, “which he had built from the foundation.” This was no doubt the existing crypt, which extends under the choir and its aisles. The main piers, which are solid masses of masonry, stand immediately below those in the choir. In the central division of the crypt, the vaulting is carried on three rows of pillars, with plain cushioned capitals and

square abaci. There are also semi-detached shafts, of similar character, connected with the main piers on either side. In the aisles of the crypt the vaulting springs from semi-detached shafts on either side, and rests on a single row of columns in the centre. The east end of the central division (which remains entire) is apsidal; and the curious and intricate arrangement of the vaulting at this point (arising “from the complicated slopes which had to be adjusted there”) should be especially noticed. The aisles of the crypt terminate at present nearly at the bend of the apse, but they were originally carried quite round it, so as to form a circular procession-path. “There are but four apsidal crypts in England, which in chronological order are,--Winchester (1079), Worcester (1084), Gloucester (1089), and Canterbury (1096). In all these the side aisles run completely round the apse. Amongst them, Worcester is remarkable for the multiplicity of small pillars employed to sustain the vaults. The side aisle has a row of small pillars running along the centre, which are not employed in the other examples. The central portion has three rows of intermediate pillars, whereas Gloucester and Canterbury have but two rows, and Winchester but one. Yet the width of the central crypt of Worcester is less than the others. The increased number of pillars, by diminishing the span of the arches, and dividing the weight of the vault upon so many supports, enables the diameters of the pillars to be reduced, and gives greater lightness to the architecture. For the height of all these crypts is nearly the same; so that at Winchester and Gloucester the arches are flattened into ellipses, the pillars are low and squat, and the crypts appear as sepulchral vaults; while at Worcester, where the arches are semicircular and the pillars more slender, the crypt is a complex and beautiful temple[91].” It has been compared to the mosque (now the cathedral) of Cordova. We may re-people this crypt in imagination with the venerable abbots and priests of the synod convened by Wulfstan[92].

It is probable that small apsidal chapels flanked the crypt at its western termination, on both sides. On the south side such a chapel still exists, immediately under that which opens from the south aisle of the choir. The western, and part of the southern, wall of this chapel is Norman, as are the central pillars. The square eastern end, however, is Early English, of the same date as the chapel above it.

In the crypt are preserved the ancient north doors of the cathedral, removed about the year 1820. They date from the fourteenth century, and are coeval with Bishop Wakefield’s work. These doors are said to have been covered with human skin. Tradition asserts that a man who stole the sanctus-bell from the high altar was flayed alive for the sacrilege; and portions of skin, which the late Mr. Quekitt, Assistant Conservator of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, declared to be human, remain fixed to the inside of the doors, under the iron-work.

The west doors of Rochester Cathedral, and the north doors of Hadstock and Copford Churches, both in Essex, were also covered with skins, said to have been those of piratical Northmen. The Rochester doors have entirely disappeared. Those of Copford have been removed, but portions of them are still in existence. The doors of Hadstock Church remain in place. Fragments of skin from Hadstock and Copford were examined by Mr. Quekitt, who pronounced it human in both cases[93].

XXIII. The great Norman tower fell in 1175, “a circumstance of such common occurrence that there is some evidence against a tower being Norman work if it had not fallen down[94].” The existing _central tower_ dates from 1374, but the general design alone remained before its restoration (still, 1866, in progress) was commenced. The soft sandstone of which it is built had crumbled away to such an extent, that all the details had perished. The tower, which is 196 ft. in height, is of good proportion. It was by no means improved by the modern parapet and pinnacles which were placed on it in the last century, and somewhat altered in the early part of this. A new peal of ten, or possibly twelve bells will be hung in the tower after its complete restoration.

Close beyond the north-east transept stood an octangular “clocherium,” or bell-tower, which was taken down in 1647. It was of very early character. The east end of the cathedral has been rebuilt, as already described, (§ XIV.,) by Mr. Perkins. The walls of the south-east transept have also been rebuilt, and its very fine buttresses with open turrets deserve special notice. A little west of this transept, and between it and the chapter-house, are the remains of the _Guesten Hall_. This was a very fine hall of the fourteenth century, built for the entertainment of noble guests of the priory and of the more illustrious pilgrims to the shrine of St. Wulfstan. Like “La Gloriole” at Canterbury, and the guest-chambers of other great monasteries, it closely adjoined the prior’s lodgings. These were assigned to the Dean on the creation of the Dean and Chapter after the dissolution, and the Guesten Hall formed part of the deanery until 1842, when the Ecclesiastical Commissioners made over the episcopal palace to the Dean, and the former deanery was pulled down. The Guesten Hall was then disclosed, and attracted much attention, not only from its own beauty, but as a very interesting historical relic. It was, however, much out of repair, and a considerable sum would no doubt have been required to effect its restoration. Accordingly, in 1860, the greater part of it was pulled down, and the roof was given by the Dean and Chapter to a new church which it is proposed to erect in the city of Worcester.

The Guesten Hall was commenced in 1320 by Wulstan Bransford, then prior of the monastery, and afterwards Bishop of Worcester. The beauty of the Decorated tracery, which still remains in the windows, calls for especial notice; and the oaken roof was a very fine example. It is evident that nothing but absolute necessity could justify the destruction of such a relic. “This magnificent guest-chamber of the fourteenth century was an historical monument of considerable importance, as shewing the splendid hospitality of the clergy of those days, and as illustrating in a remarkable manner the manners and customs of the time of Edward III. It was the last of these structures that we had remaining, and with it we have erased a chapter out of the history of England[95].”

XXIV. The College Green, on the south side of the cathedral, is entered through an archway under the _Edgar tower_, which tradition asserts to have been erected by Ethelred II., son of Edgar. It may possibly occupy the site of an older building, but the present tower is late work, and of little interest. In a niche on the east front is a much shattered figure of King Edgar. The rooms in the tower are now used as the chapter library, and as offices of the diocesan registry. Among the MSS. of the chapter library is one of great interest--An Epitome of Roman Law by Vacarius, an Italian who was brought to this country by Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, and who introduced the study of Roman or “Civil” Law at Oxford in the reign of Stephen. This is the only copy of the work of Vacarius known to exist in England, and only four copies are known on the continent--in the libraries of Konigsberg, Prague, and Bruges, and one in the possession of the Emperor of Russia[96].

The _deanery_, north-west of the cathedral, was the episcopal palace until 1842. It contains a fine hall, and some ancient portions. The east front was built by Bishop Hough in 1723.

WORCESTER CATHEDRAL.