FOOTNOTES:
[1] St. Osburg's name is not found in the Calendar. As at the Dissolution the Cathedral possessed relics of St. Osborne, including his head in copper and gilt, these saints may be identical.
[2] Earl Street and Bishop Street are still principal streets in either half of the town.
[3] The walls of London were about three and a quarter miles long (including the river front), with ten or eleven gates; those of York three miles, of Chester hardly two.
THE RUINS OF THE PRIORY AND CATHEDRAL CHURCHToC
The Priory buildings and grounds covered a large area to the North of the two parish churches on the gentle slope descending to the little river Sherbourne, Priory Row forming its southern boundary.
The church occupied the South-West portion of this site, extending about 400 feet from the excavated west end to a point a little beyond the narrow lane called Hill Top. The excavation shows that the church stood on a sloping site, the floor level being some ten feet lower than that of Trinity Church. It was cruciform, with two western towers and a central one, and is believed to have had three spires similar to those of Lichfield but probably earlier in point of date. On the substructure of the North-West Tower now stands the house of the mistress of the Girls' Blue Coat School. The interior of the West end to a height of 5 to 8 feet, with the responds of the nave arcades and of the tower arches, is visible and in good condition. The beginning of the turret stair in the South-West tower is exposed, but the basement of the house unfortunately occupies the lower part of the northern one. The exterior of this is however easily accessible from an enclosure known as the Wood Yard, the much decayed spreading plinth and a few feet of walling above it not having been destroyed. Above this, grievous damage has been perpetrated by the casing and complete obliteration of the mouldings and arcading which remained. The towers were placed outside the line of the aisles as at Wells, the total width of the West front, 145 feet, being nearly the same in both cases. There are still indications of the position of the great west door, but the height of the inner plinth shows that there was always a descent of several steps into the church. At the south transept where was "the Minster durra that openeth to the Trinite Churchyarde," the descent must have been considerable. The remains show that the nave dated from the first half of the thirteenth century, while fragments of wall near the site of the transept with indications of lancet window openings are probably a little earlier than the west end.
Whether the church of Leofric and Godiva, dedicated in 1043, had survived wholly or in part until this time cannot be known, but, judging from the history of most other great monastic churches and from the known wealth of the monastery, it may almost be taken for granted that the Norman bishops and priors rebuilt much if not all. Some relics of Norman work have been found but the covering of the site with roads, graves and houses precludes the systematic exploration and survey which alone could solve this question and make clear the outlines of the plan of the whole establishment.
The entrance to some wine-cellars in Priory Row gives access to the old pavement level of part of the choir and transept. From the fact that a brick vault forms the roof the cellars have often been looked upon as the crypt of the church but this is erroneous; the vault is a later insertion and if any crypt exists it lies below this level. To the east of the cathedral was the Bishop's Palace, the gardens of it extending over the detached burial ground of St. Michael's to the east of Priory Street. The grandeur of this assemblage of buildings grouping, with the spires of the churches behind and rising so magnificently above the houses of the city can best be realized by going to the top of Bishop Street whence may be obtained the finest view of the two spires that remain (see p. 2).
ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH
ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH
CHAPTER IToC
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH
The early history of St. Michael's Church is very obscure. The fact that Domesday mentions no parish churches proves nothing. There can be little doubt that one at least existed. Though we have an earlier record of St. Michael's it is commonly held that Trinity is the elder foundation.
Of St. Michael's the first notice we have is when Ranulph, Earl of Chester, in the days of Stephen, about 1150, granted the "Chapel" of St. Michael to Laurence, Prior, and the Convent of St. Mary, "being satisfied by the testimony of divers persons, as well Clergy as Laity, that it was their right." Fourteen dependent chapels in the neighbourhood or within a few miles went with it and the number of these dependencies is held to show that it was "a primitive Saxon parish and of considerable importance." In 1192 Ranulph Blundeville, grandson of the former Ranulph, gave tithe of his lands and rents in Coventry and bound his officers under pain of a grievous curse to make due payment.
In the early thirteenth century a dispute arose between Bishop Geoffrey de Muschamp and the Priory as to the right of presentation, the Bishop claiming on the ground of being Abbot as well as Bishop. This was settled in 1241 by the Priory renouncing its claim in consideration of receiving a share of the income but in 1248 an exchange was effected, the Priory giving the advowsons of Ryton and Bubbenhall[4] (not far from Coventry) for St. Michael and its chapels and engaging to provide proper secular priests with competent support. In 1260 the church was appropriated to the monastery together with Holy Trinity and its chapels and although in the arrangement of 1248 twenty-four marks (£16) had been assigned to the vicarage, in 1291 we find the priory receiving fifty marks and paying the vicar eight and a half.
Since 1537 the patronage has with that of Trinity, been exercised by the Crown.
The internal evidence of the date of the building is given in the description of the fabric. Of external evidence in the shape of records or deeds we have very little. Tradition says that there was once a brass tablet in the church bearing the following lines:
Ann and Mary built the Spire;
William and Adam built the Church,
Ann and Mary built the Choir.
Now we know that William and Adam Botoner, who were each Mayor thrice between 1358 and 1385, built the tower, spending upon it £100 a year for twenty-two years, but what foundation there is for the other statements cannot now be determined. The tower was in building from 1373 to 1394, and the choir is contemporary with it, the nave was in building from 1432 to 1450, and the spire was begun in 1430. As William was Mayor in 1358 it can hardly have been less than one hundred years after his birth that both nave and spire were begun. It is however, likely that other members of the family (if not he, by bequest) contributed largely to the general building fund.
Much of the history of a parish church is concerned with its internal economy but even the records of this are not quite trivial for they enlighten us on many points wherein we are rightly curious. We are, for instance, constantly reminded, as Dr. Gasquet points out in "Mediaeval Parish Life," that "religious life permeated society in the Middle Ages, particularly in the fifteenth century, through the minor confraternities" or gilds.
Thus the Drapers' Gild made itself responsible not only for the upkeep of the Lady Chapel but also for the lights always burning on the Rood-loft, every Master paying four pence for each "prentys" and every "Jurneman" four pence. The cost of lights formed a serious item in church expenditure, needing the rent of houses and lands for their maintenance. Guy de Tyllbrooke, vicar in the late thirteenth century, gave all his lands and buildings on the south side of the church to maintain a light before the high altar, day and night, for ever, "and all persons who shall convert this gift to any other use directly or indirectly shall incur the malediction of Almighty God, the Blessed Virgin, St. Michael and All Saints."
Royal visits to the church have been noticed in the history of the priory and city, especially that in 1450 which was apparently intended to mark the completion of the church. Reference has also been made to the plays and pageants with which such visitors were entertained. The site for the performance of the cycle of Corpus Christi plays was the churchyard on the north of St. Michael's. Queen Margaret, whose visits were so frequent that the city acquired the fanciful title of "the Queen's Bower" came over from Kenilworth on the Eve of the Feast in 1456, "at which time she would not be met, but privily to see the play there on the morrow and she saw then all the pageants played save Doomsday, which might not be played for lack of day and she was lodged at Richard Wood's the Grocer."
There is evident reference to the dedication of the church in the pageant of the "Nine Orders of Angels" shown before Henry VIII and Queen Catherine in 1510 (p. 47).
The history of the church since the Reformation has been not unlike that of a vast number of others. Fanatic destruction, followed by tasteless and incongruous innovations, and these again by "restorations" sometimes as destructive, sometimes as tasteless, and nearly always feeble; such is their common history. In 1569 even the Register books were destroyed because they contained marks of popery, while from 1576 onward a want of repair is plainly suggested by frequent items of expenditure for catching the stares (starlings) in the church, at one time for a net, at another for "a bowe and bolts and lyme." In 1611 James I addressed a strongly worded letter to the Mayor and Corporation and the Vicar requiring them to reform the practice of receiving the Holy Sacrament standing or sitting instead of kneeling, "As we our Self in our person do carefully perform it." Whereupon the Bishop wrote that he "felt persuaded that there were not above seven of any note who did not conform themselves" to the church ordinances; while the Vicar said he "did not know of half seven of any note but do the like."
A Puritanical writer in 1635 thus mentions the changed position of the Communion Table, which had formerly stood away from the east wall: "The Communion Table was altered which cost a great deal of money; and that which is worst of all, three stepps made to go to the Comm'n Table altar fashion—God grant it continueth not long." Even the font, given by John Cross, mayor, in 1394, had to give place in 1645 to something less offensive to Puritan feeling, and in the same year the brass eagle, given in 1359 by William Botoner, was "sold by order of vestry for 5d. the lb., 8l. 13s. 4d." The rehanging of the bells in 1674 led to the destruction of the beautiful groined vault within the tower, and the year 1764 saw the completion of a series of galleries all round the church. Throughout all this destruction and desecration the citizens happily retained their pride in the great steeple, and by constant attention and rebuildings contrived to preserve it when negligence might have caused its ruin. The scrupulous care given to such work is well shown by items in an account for repairs, of date 1580:
| Payed to George Aster for poyntynge ye steple | £ 7 2 8 |
| Payed for 3 quarter and a halfe of lyme | 13 4 |
| Payed for egges | 8 4 |
| Payed for glovers pecis, woode & tallowe, abowte the lyme | 5 6 |
| Payed for a load sand | 7½ |
| Payed for 4 stryke of mawlte and gryndyng | 7 8½ |
| Payd for 6 gallons of worte more | 2 0 |
| Payd for gatherynge of slates & oyster shelles | 3¼ |
| Payd to Cookson for the cradle and 3 other pullesses | 5 8 |
The glovers' snippings were for making size, which, with the eggs, malt and wort were used in place of water for tempering the mortar. Lightning seriously damaged the spire in 1655 and 1694, in the former case causing much injury to the nave roof by falling stone. In 1793 Wyatt, the architect responsible for so much destruction of Mediæval work in various cathedrals, advised that a timber framework to carry the bells should be built up within the tower from the ground and that the tower arch should be bricked up. All this has been changed since 1885, the bells now hang (but are not pealed) in the octagon, the chimes and clock are in the chamber below, the arch is opened and the groining restored.
All galleries had been taken down in 1849 and the present seats, giving room for near 2,500 persons, introduced, while the incongruous wall-arcading in the apse was soon after added. At the same period many important sepulchral monuments, probably stigmatized as "excrescences," were taken down and removed to other parts of the church.
Five years after this the exterior of the aisle walls was recased with the same friable sandstone. In 1860 the reredos was erected, the subjects of the panels being the sacrifices of Abel, Noah, Melchisedec, and Abraham, and the Last Supper. To the latest restoration, which included entire recasing of tower and spire, clearstories and chancel, the new sacristy at the south east, and other work, Mr. George Woodcock, a Coventry citizen, gave £10,500, and the sum of £39,500 was raised and expended, the re-opening taking place on 22nd April, 1890.
In 1850 a dispute of considerable public interest with regard to the levying of the church rate between the vicar and the wardens and overseers was decided in the Court of Queen's Bench. An Act of Parliament of 1780 had empowered the wardens to levy a rate in lieu of tithe for the stipend of the vicar, to produce not less than £280 nor more than £300. The wardens having ever since allowed their powers to remain in abeyance, the vicar claimed the right to make the rate as his predecessors had done. Lord Campbell and three other judges were however unanimous in giving judgement against him.
The latest event in the history of the church is probably the most important. It has now been constituted a pro-cathedral for the proposed Diocese of Warwickshire, and a Capitular body has been formed. The statutes were promulgated by the Bishop of Worcester on the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, 1908. The Chapter now consists of twenty-four members:—the Bishop, the Vicar of St. Michael's (Rev. Prof. J.H.B. Masterman), the Archdeacon of Coventry, the Chancellor of the Diocese, ten priest canons and ten lay canons, with provision for the admission of a future second archdeacon. There are resemblances here to the constitution of the Southwark Chapter, consisting of four clerical and four lay canons, but at Coventry some of the lay canons are elective and for fixed periods. Doubtless the immense increase of population in the county, especially in this part (Birmingham is already a separate diocese), demands further oversight and much strenuous church work, and doubtless, too, the same religious enthusiasm which brought into existence the beautiful structures of Coventry's golden age will be able to meet the demand and cope with the new problems and aspirations of the present day. But the archaeologist trembles to think what may be done should the attempt be made to transform a building planned on the simplest parish-church lines into the semblance of a cathedral. It cannot be successful, and the original character of the church is but too likely to be sacrificed in the attempt.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] These have ever since remained prebends of Lichfield.
CHAPTER IIToC
THE EXTERIOR OF THE CHURCH
The church is built on a site descending towards the east, so that the chancel floor is more than twelve feet above the present street level. The narrow street on the south, Bayley Lane, gives us a succession of picturesque partial views but no general one, while on the north the rather formal avenue dividing the churchyard obscures much of the structure. On the whole, the most comprehensive prospect is to be had from the north-east, at the lower end of Priory Row. But no general point of view is needed, external or internal, to enable us to understand the plan or arrangement, which is almost as simple in form as a village church.
The typical English church plan consists of a nave with aisles, a long unaisled chancel with square east end, porches or doors on north and south, and a western tower, and this, save for its apsidal east end, but amplified by accretions in the form of chapels belonging to the many Gilds of the city, is the plan of St. Michael's.
In no part, however, do we find the chapels so set as to produce a pseudo-cruciform plan.
Before the latest restoration the walls were entirely of the local red sandstone, very similar in quality and appearance to that of which Chester Cathedral was built, and the extent of its decay, especially on the tower, was as grievous. Hardly a piece of external moulding or carving preserved its original profile or form, and some of the tower buttresses had lost so large a proportion of their substance not far above ground that they appeared to hang to the walls rather than support them. All save the aisles, which were refaced in the sixties, have now been cased with Runcorn Stone nearly the same in colour and much harder in texture.
The special glory of the church is its steeple. No doubt intentionally its height of 300 feet is practically equal to the length of the church. Only one other parish church, Louth in Lincolnshire, has a steeple as high as this, and those of only two English cathedrals, Salisbury and Norwich, exceed it.
There is, however, an essential difference to be noted in the position of these spires, those of the cathedrals at the centre, the crowning point in the composition, those of the parish churches at the west end, springing sheer from the ground. While the former have a more intimate relation to the building the latter have an almost independent existence in keeping with the theory which regards them more as symbols of municipal pride and power than as expressions of spiritual aspiration.
But however mixed the motives for their erection, religious forms and symbolism governed the design. Thus we have here three principal divisions—tower, octagon, spire, and nine stories or stages in all, six belonging to the tower and octagon, and three to the spire. Then in its dimensions we find that the total height is 300 feet,[5] the plan (exclusive of buttresses) is 30 feet square, while in its proportions the number 30 is interwoven, so to speak, with a simple arithmetical progression of heights in each story. Thus it is 30 feet from the ground to the spring of the lowest five-light windows, 30 feet again to the spring of the single-light windows, 27 feet more to the spring of the grouped windows above, and another 30 to the spring of the belfry windows. Thence it is 15 feet to the cornice below the battlements. The remainder is divided into a series of 20 feet heights, two twenties from cornice to top of parapet of octagon, 20 in each of the two decorated stages of the spire, 20 to centre of the upper spire-lights, three twenties to the finial. If we look at the stories as marked by the string-courses below the windows we find 50 feet given to the door and great window and then 20, 30, and 40 feet stages, reaching to the top of the parapet. The reader will have noticed the interposition of a 27 feet space among the thirties, and the reason for this is worth explaining.
It is now known that the tower could not be built in line with the centre of the proposed new nave because of the existence of a filled-in pit or quarry at its north-west angle. But the builder was rash enough to build the north-west buttresses beyond the edge of the old excavation and resting on the looser material. The consequences might have been foreseen. By the time the building had reached the grouped windows the settlement or sinking was considerable and an effort was made to remedy it, first by reducing the height of this (the weakest story), by one yard and next by starting the courses level once more. Five hundred years later and we find that whereas the sinking is 7½ inches near the ground level it is only 4 inches at the windows, plainly showing that it had sunk 3½ inches before the remedy was applied and four inches since. The writer is informed by the architect (Mr. J. Oldrid Scott) that all this angle was so full of rents and cracks that (coupled with the decay of the stone, especially in the buttresses) it was surprising that the whole had not fallen. A curious disregard of what we look on as a natural sentiment is to be noted in this connection, for the builders used a quantity of fine sepulchral slabs from the churchyard as filling for the foundations.
In magnificence of design the tower exceeds that of any other parish church in England, the uppermost story being the richest in detail. The variety of treatment and gradual increase in elaboration of the upper stories is admirable, the larger expanses of wall in the lower giving the necessary effect of stability to the whole. The west door is very insignificant, and might perhaps, with advantage to the composition, have been left out. It has the only four-centred arch in the whole. On each side of the great windows are niches with (restored) figures of saints and benefactors, twelve in all, including Earl Leofric and his famous wife, the Botoners and several kings. Sculpture appears again on the belfry stage. On the west and north sides the niches are in three tiers of three on either hand of the tall louvred windows, but on the south and east sides one tier is absorbed by the stair turret. All these have been renewed, but the remains of some of those which were taken down can now be seen in the crypt, and the one which is best preserved, by a happy coincidence the patron saint, is now placed within the church.
The octagon, which connects so finely the tower and spire, has four two-light windows on the cardinal sides, the other sides having blank panelling of similar design. Its parapet has square pinnacles, intended to carry seated figures. From each of the great tower pinnacles two ogee-shaped flying buttresses spring to the near angles of the octagon. A recent writer criticizes these as too flimsy in effect, but the fact that they are in pairs obviates this defect from most points of view. The walls of the octagon are 2½ feet thick at the base, but, as the inner slope of the spire begins at the level of the window transoms, the thickness at its parapet is more than 3 feet. The greater weight in this part corrects any tendency in the spire to push outwards the upright walls of the octagon; so well has it done this that no artificial helps, such as iron stays or bands, have been found necessary to add to its stability. Though so slender in appearance, its stonework is thicker than that of many later spires, for whereas Kettering is 14 inches thick for the first 10 feet and only 6 inches above, while Louth decreases from 10 to 5, St. Michael's diminishes from 17 to 11. The inclination from the upright of its sides is very slight, less than that of most others; Chichester having an angle of 7½°, Kettering 6°, Louth 5°, St. Michael's 4½°.
The decoration of the spire is admirably designed in relation to the slenderness of the tower, and its own height above the eye. The first stage is panelled so as not to present too great a contrast to the octagon, and the next is also panelled and has narrow canopied slits on alternate sides, with four thin buttress-like projections on each face. These provide the slight entasis to the outline which is found in so many spires, as it is in classic columns, and is designed to correct the appearance of hollowness which would occur in so long a straight line. The upper two-thirds of the spire has triple angle rolls, and, just halfway in the total height, are eight canopied panels of which four are pierced. The beauty of the steeple and its pre-eminence among those belonging to parish churches (even if such a reservation be necessary) sufficiently justifies the length of this description.
The oldest existing part of the church is the large south porch, almost facing the entrance to St. Mary Hall. The date of this is not later than 1300. Each jamb of the outside arch has four external and two internal attached shafts; the pointed arch is deeply moulded, while the arch rising from the fourth shaft is of round-headed trefoil form. The ceiling is vaulted with diagonal and intermediate ribs, and has the appearance of having been added rather later.
A doorway on its east side led to the Cappers' Chapel and there is a chamber over the porch for centuries appropriated to the meetings of the Cappers' Company. The present chapel and chamber are contemporary with the nave.
The external wall of the Dyers' Chapel (now the Baptistery) is canted so as not to block the Lane, St. Mary Hall having been already built. Passing east, the road dips gradually and gives this end of the church a more imposing elevation. After the Cappers' Chapel, there is only a single aisle forming the Mercers' Chapel and extending as far as the Presbytery. A door here, made in 1750, is opposite to the Drapers' Hall. The apse is now encircled with a series of sacristies divided into five chambers and spanned by flying buttresses. The first two bays on the south were built at the last restoration the vestry then removed not being part of the original design. Beneath them on the ground level is the engine-room pertaining to the organ. Though sometimes spoken of as an Ambulatory its position on a lower level, its original want of connection with the south side and above all the need for sacristies in so large a church dispose of the idea.
Some have thought that the apsidal Lady Chapel of Lichfield Cathedral built about fifty years earlier suggested an apsidal termination in the design of Coventry, but a certain difficulty in the way of the designer may have led him to adopt this solution. The normal Perpendicular east end had one large window, but owing to the great width of this chancel the proportions of such a one would have been nearly square, and the spring of the arch have been very low. A few years later and the depressed four-centred arch might have been adopted but, fortunately, its time was not yet.
The plans of the apses of Lichfield and Coventry differ in the angle at which the sides are inclined to the chord of the apse, the former having the usual angle of 45°, the latter one of more than 60°. Externally this is not so pleasant as the more "commonplace" form, the great dissimilarity of the several angles being unsatisfactory and the third side too quickly lost to view, but within the church these points are not noticed.
So little time elapsed between the building of the choir and nave that we find no marked difference of style as we proceed westward along either flank of the church. The Lady Chapel, known as the Drapers' Chapel, from its use and maintenance by that Gild, occupies the three bays of the North chancel aisle. From its elevation above the ground it was often spoken of as the "Chapel on the Mount," Capella Beatæ Mariæ de Monte. All the four windows are of seven lights, the three northern having a somewhat unusual transom band of fourteen quatrefoils, at the spring of the arch. The two windows of St. Lawrence's Chapel have a transom across the lights and a band of seven quatrefoils at the spring.
The buttresses of the Lady Chapel are rather richer in design than those of St. Lawrence's Chapel. The lower level of its parapet indicates some difference of date. The plan of this part of the church presents problems which bear on those connected with the rest of the church (p. 44). Beneath St. Lawrence's Chapel and extending under the north aisle westward are two crypts, entrance to them being by two doors from the churchyard, their position is shown on the general plan. It will be seen that the western one is of two aisles, each of three bays, while the eastern is only one bay in length. The entrance to the western was at first in the middle bay but this was blocked when the Girdlers' Chapel was built. That the eastern crypt was added later, and the present Lady Chapel later still is shown by the presence of windows in the east wall of both parts and other indications. But while the history of the church shows that the original Lady Chapel and crypt or charnel-house, were built soon after 1300, the present superstructures belong to a time about one hundred years later. Now as the western crypt may be safely assigned to the earlier date the Lady Chapel doubtless stood over it and flanked the old chancel of the church, in its normal position in fact as the existing one is now. But a point which remains to be explained is that the walls of the crypt are parallel to the line of the new chancel and not to the line of the old or new naves. It seems certain therefore that the inclination of the new chancel is a simple perpetuation of the old arrangement, and if not, the position of the crypt is hard to account for.
It is generally supposed that these crypts were used as Mortuary Chapels and the eastern one has in fact a piscina and aumbry, showing that there was once an altar. But for some centuries they served as a charnel-house, and are so called in a papal grant of Indulgences. In 1640 there is an entry in the church accounts of five shillings for "cleansinge the charnel-house and laying the bones and sculles in order."
They now contain fragments that have been removed or discovered in the course of various restorations. A small Norman scalloped capital, another of Early English workmanship and a voussoir showing the Norman zig-zag or chevron are interesting relics of structures earlier than anything now existing, while a number of the decayed statues from the tower find here a dark and damp repose very different from the airy outlook enjoyed by them for five centuries. It will be seen that they are near life size and are executed in a gray sandstone which has stood the weather much better than the red. The outer north aisle containing the Girdlers' Chapel on the east and the Smiths' or St. Andrew's Chapel on the west of the porch, is plainly of later date. The windows have depressed, distinctly four-centred arches, and in 1730 their five lights had simply cusped heads, the mullions running up to the architrave.
The north porch has only a slight projection. Above the four-centred arch are two two-light canopied windows opening into the church. The soffit of the doorway is panelled. On the west side where is now a canopied niche was formerly an external pulpit reached from within by the staircase which leads to the roof. It is shown in the 1730 view. On the east side are two odd little flying buttresses, intended apparently to repeat the inclined surface of the other side. The two north aisles are fortunately not carried westward so far as the nave, which projects a half bay beyond them and so prevents the otherwise unrelieved flatness of this part. The most effective of the porches is that on the west front, just north of the tower. It appears to have been built after the nave was finished, and may have been added expressly to provide a more dignified entrance to the church when Henry VI came in state in 1451, for it faces directly up the nave. The groining with cusped panels and numerous bosses has escaped restoration. The five niches above the porch are statueless, and so are those on the porch front. May they long continue so! The doors are largely original and are finely panelled and carved.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] At the last restoration the height was reduced to 298 feet.
CHAPTER IIIToC
THE INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH
From within the door by which the church is usually entered, that near the south-west angle, we obtain an overpowering impression of the special characteristic of the interior, its spaciousness, for it is here more than 100 feet wide and the east window is nearly 240 feet distant.
The nave, which is 37 feet 6 inches wide in the clear, is wider than that of many cathedrals, and much exceeds that of most parish churches, the widest (Worstead) given in Brandon's "Parish Churches" being 29 feet. Boston alone exceeds it by about 3 feet. While the ordinary aisle width ranges from 10 to 14 feet, the north aisle here is 23 feet, the outer north and the south being each 17 feet. The total internal length is 265 feet, exclusive of the sacristy; Boston, the only larger one, being 284 feet, while very few exceed 200 feet, and most are far smaller. The greatest internal width is 120 feet; Manchester, a double-aisled collegiate church, is about the same, and York Minster is 106 feet. Finally, the area is about 22,800 square feet, probably greater than that of any other English parish church, indeed, St. Nicholas, Yarmouth, is the only one which pretends to rivalry in this respect. Size is, of course, only one element in the impressiveness of a building, and may even be neutralized by the treatment (as, for instance, in the Duomo of Florence and St. Peter's, Rome, by increasing the size of its parts rather than multiplying them), but these few comparisons will help the visitor to judge how far this element colours his appreciation of the whole. As an illustration of mediæval methods of church building, it is interesting to trace the growth of the structure with the help of the few historical notices already given and the evidence of the building itself. The subject is full of difficulties, and the writer does not hope to solve them conclusively, but to put before the reader the main points which have to be considered before forming a judgement.