“had the further development of the glories of the Minster thoroughly at heart. At once he sacrificed his palace at Sherburn to provide materials for an appropriate Lady-Chapel, gave successive munificent donations of £100 at each of the great festivals of the Christian year, and called on clergy and laity alike to submit cheerfully to stringent self-denial to supply the funds.
“During his tenure of office of twenty-three years the Lady-Chapel was completed, a chaste and dignified specimen of early Perpendicular style, into which the Decorated gradually blended after the year 1360, and unique in its glorious east window, seventy-eight feet high and thirty-three feet wide, still the largest painted window in the world, enriched with its double mullions, which give such strength and lightness to its graceful proportions, and with its elaborate glass executed by Thornton of Coventry, at the beginning of the following century. But Roger’s choir, which was still standing, must now have looked sadly dwarfed between the lofty Lady-Chapel and the tower and transepts.”—(P.-C.)
Edward I. made York his capital during the war with Scotland, to the expense of which the archbishop and clergy gave one-fifth of their income. Parliament assembled there in 1318. The archbishops were great politicians and intriguers, now plotting against the king and now supporting him; great military leaders, sometimes defeated, like Melton at Myton-on-Swale, where he led 10,000 men against the Scots, or victorious, like William La Zouche (1342-1352) at Neville’s Cross near Durham; and nearly always great builders and benefactors of the Cathedral. Richard Scrope’s rebellion is famous. Lord Chancellor of England and Bishop of Lichfield before he became Bishop of York in 1398, Scrope was advanced by Richard II. In 1405 he headed a rebellion and was captured. The Chief Justice refused to try him. He was taken to his own palace at Bishopthorpe, condemned to death and beheaded near York in 1405. Buried in the Minster, thousands flocked to his tomb in the north-choir-aisle. Naturally enough the king who had murdered him tried to check the stream of offerings; but Scrope’s tomb became more popular than that of St. William. Scrope was a Yorkshireman, the son of Lord Scrope, of Masham, and the Scropes had a chantry in the chapel of St. Stephen, now destroyed.
The great central tower was erected in 1400-1423 and the church was re-consecrated on July 3, 1472; and so, at the close of the Fifteenth Century, York Minster existed as we see it: save for two fires (1829 and 1840) and a judicious repairing and restoration in 1871, the great Minster has not been changed.
When Henry VIII. disestablished the monasteries there were many outbreaks in York, and the famous “Pilgrimage of Grace” (1536) was much excited by the seizure of St. William’s head, still a beloved relic of the Cathedral. Lee, then archbishop, was taken by the rebels and forced to support them. Before this, however, Thomas Wolsey had been arrested at Cawood. Though Archbishop (1514-1530), it is said that he was never at York.
When York was besieged by the Parliamentarians in 1644, Fairfax restrained his soldiers to some degree, which explains why so much of the ancient glass is left. Thomas Mace’s description of the siege, however, shows how little respect the army really had for the Minster:
“The enemy was very near and fierce upon them, especially on that side of the city where the church stood; and had planted their great guns mischievously against the church; with which constantly in prayer’s time, they would not fail to make their hellish disturbance by shooting against and battering the church; insomuch that sometimes a cannon bullet has come in at the windows and bounced about from pillar to pillar (even like some furious fiend or evil spirit) backwards and forwards and all manner of sideways, as it has happened to meet with square or round opposition amongst the pillars.”
On February 2, 1829, Jonathan Martin, brother of the painter, John Martin, hid himself behind the tomb of Archbishop Greenfield, in the north transept during evening service; and after the church had been closed, set fire to the choir. The stalls, organ, and vault were destroyed and much of the stone-work was damaged. Restorations were started in 1832. Another fire occurred in 1840 in the south-west tower, occasioned by some workmen who were repairing the clock in the south-west tower. The wooden vault of the nave and the tower and bells were damaged. In 1871 some of the side walls were rebuilt.
Every one is familiar with the West Front of York; but the traveller who looks upon it for the first time is, nevertheless, overwhelmed.
“The West Front is more architecturally perfect as a composition in its details than that of any other English Cathedral, and is unquestionably the best cathedral façade in this country. The lower part, with the entrances and lower windows, belongs to the Early Decorated period. Above the windows the work is Late Decorated and the towers above the roof Perpendicular. Numerous niches cover the surface. It is doubtful whether they ever contained statues. The principal entrance is divided by a clustered pier, and above it is a circle filled with cusped tracery. Over the whole doorway is a deeply-recessed arch, and over that a gable with niches, one of which contains the statue of an archbishop, supposed to be John le Romeyn, who began the nave in 1291, and other niches have figures of a Percy and a Vavasour, who gave the wood and stone for the building. The favourite ballflower ornament of the Decorated style is seen on the gable, and the mouldings in the arches have figures representing the history of Adam and Eve. Above the entrance is a large eight-light window, pronounced by many to be too large even for York Minster, containing very elaborate and beautiful tracery, and over it is a pointed gable. On each side of the west window are buttresses covered with panelling and niches. The noble towers rising on each side of the west front, have buttresses similarly adorned, and each three windows, and over the second an open battlement forms a walk along the whole front. The towers have battlements and pinnacles. The south-west tower (1433-1457) was injured by fire in 1840; and the north tower (1470-1474) has the largest bell in the kingdom, Great Peter, which cost £2,000 in 1845 and weighs ten tons.”—(P. H. D.)
The twin-towers rise to a height of two hundred feet and are ornamented with windows, battlements, and pinnacles.
The Central Tower at the crossing of the transepts, built in 1410-1433, Perpendicular, is also two hundred feet high. It is the largest in England, and is considered not only one of the triumphs of Fifteenth Century architects, but one of the finest towers in the world. Much of it is supposed to be the work of Walter Skirlawe, Bishop of Durham, and its resemblance to the central tower of Durham Cathedral justifies the assumption. It has never been finished.
“The central tower rises a single story above the ridge of the roof and is open inside to the top. But for small gables on the buttresses, it is quite plain up to the level of the roof ridge. Above this it contains two long and narrow Perpendicular windows on each side, of three lights each, with a transom. These windows are ornamented ogee gables, and between them are three niches, one above the other, with canopies. The external buttresses are split up with vertical mouldings and ornamented with niches and panelling. The tower is crowned with a battlement. Horizontal string-courses with gargoyles divide the buttresses at intervals. There are no pinnacles on these buttresses, and they appear never to have been finished. It is possible that it was intended to set another story on the top of the present one, but this is merely conjecture.
“The English architects of the Fifteenth Century, if they were inferior to earlier builders in invention and vigour, were at any rate supreme in the management of towers. Their wonderful sense of proportion, their habitual use of vertical lines, and the character of their windows helped them to build what are perhaps the finest towers in Europe, and the central tower of York Minster
is one of the finest of all. Even the absence of pinnacles, if it is an accident, seems to be a lucky accident, and gives this tower an unrivalled dignity and an air of restraint suitable to the character of the whole cathedral.”—(A. C.-B.)
We enter the Cathedral by the south door of the South Transept and are introduced to what is considered one of the most superb architectural views in the world. The enormous width of the church and length of the transepts and the tremendous lantern produce almost the effect of St. Paul’s or St. Peter’s. Neither the east nor the west end is visible, for we are looking right across the arms of the crossing straight to the north end of the transept, where the Five Sisters display their jewels.
The Lantern is very lofty—180 feet from the floor—each transept is four bays long—223 feet from north to south—and 93 feet wide. To the top of the roof they measure 99 feet.
“The transepts, therefore, are unusually prominent, even for an English cathedral, and they have many other unusual features. Taken in conjunction with the lantern, they produce an effect to be found in no other Gothic church in the world. In England there are none so wide and so lofty. In France there are interiors even loftier, but in France the transepts are seldom a prominent feature of the design. Often they do not project beyond the outer wall of the aisles of the nave, and oftener still there is no central tower large enough to allow of a lantern at all. It is a great piece of good fortune, also, that the five vast lancets of the north transept end, known as the Five Sisters, still keep their beautiful original glass. If we look at these windows and consider how utterly ineffective they would be if they were glazed with plain glass, we can understand how little remains of the original beauty of the interior of Salisbury.
“The Five Sisters are, no doubt, the largest lancet windows in England, and it was a bold idea to fill almost the whole of that great front with them, but the boldness was entirely justified by the result.
“The glass in the Five Sisters is Early English of the simplest and most beautiful design. The colour, an almost uniform scheme of greyish green, is a curious contrast to the vivid blues and yellows of the period which preceded it, and examples of which may be seen in the choir of Canterbury. The pattern is an elaborate but restrained arrangement of the foliage of the Planta Benedicta (herb benet). The plain border surrounding the Early English glass was inserted in 1715. At the foot of the central light is a panel of Norman glass, the subject of which is either the dream of Jacob, or Daniel in the lions’ den.”—(A. C.-B.)
The glass in the lancets above the Five Sisters is modern.
In the eastern aisle of the south transept (Early English) the Tomb of Walter de Grey (died 1255), shows an effigy in full canonicals. The right hand is raised in blessing, the left grasps a crozier, and the feet crush a dragon. The columns at the sides are ornamented with leaves at equal distances. On either side of the gable over the Archbishop’s head an angel stands. The canopy is supported by nine pillars. In the eastern aisle of the north transept we stop to look at the tomb of Archbishop Greenfield (died 1315). This is decorated with an ornamented canopy.
A rich and elaborate Rood Screen separates the choir from the crossing. It dates from 1475-1505 and is composed of a central doorway and fifteen canopied niches containing statues of English kings from William the Conqueror to Henry VI. The latter is the only modern one. Above these are angels by Bernasconi. The central arch is surmounted with an ogee moulding decorated with foliage and a niche, on either side of which is an angel with a censer. The capitals of the shafts are carved; and rosettes and rows of foliage appear between the shafts. The canopies are very ornate. It is interesting to compare this screen with the one at Exeter.
The Choir, including the retro-choir, consists of nine bays—the largest and loftiest choir in England and one of the most beautiful. It was begun in 1361 at the east end and completed in 1405. It has been described as an “interesting example of a Perpendicular building carried out on the lines of an earlier Decorated design.”
“The choir itself is like an enormous college chapel. The aisles exist, but play no part in the design, which still culminates in the splendid blaze of glass from the eastern transepts and the great east window, and once culminated on the still more splendid blaze of the altar.
“The retro-choir, far too short and wide to be judged as an avenue of stone, is still more dependent for its effect on its glass. As most of that glass luckily remains, it is a miracle of airy splendour; one may see from it what were the objects, and how great the success of the much-maligned Perpendicular architects at their best.
“To sum up, then, this choir has not the delicate and spiritual beauty of the choirs of Lincoln or Ely. That is never found even in the finest work of Perpendicular architects; but for stateliness and magnificence it has not a rival in England. These qualities may be best appreciated standing midway between the two transepts and in front of the altar. From that point glittering screens of glass and soaring shafts of stone are to be seen on all sides; the whole effect is one of triumphant light and space and colour, not to be surpassed by the splendours even of Moorish or Italian architecture.”—(A. C.-B.)
The magnificent Perpendicular stalls perished in the fire of 1829, so did the Perpendicular altar-screen. The present stalls and screen are reproductions of these. The reredos of terra-cotta and wood is modern.
The vault of the choir is of wood, an imitation of the vault destroyed by fire in 1829. The windows of the clerestory are Perpendicular and contain five lights.
“The glass in the choir is almost wholly Perpendicular. As in the nave, it is very fragmentary and disordered. The change in the character of the design will be easily noticed. The Perpendicular glass is not so clear and delicate in colour, and the architectural and other patterns are less pronounced. This glass, regarded simply as decorative, is perhaps superior to that in the nave.
“Mr. Winston has pointed out that the earliest Perpendicular glass in the choir is contained in the third window from the east in the south aisle; in the third and fourth windows from the east in the north clerestory; and in the fourth clerestory window from the east on the opposite side. These windows date from the close of the Fourteenth Century. There is also an early Perpendicular Jesse in the third window from the west in the south aisle of the choir. The other windows of the choir aisles east of the small eastern transepts, as well as the glass in the lancet windows on the east side of the great western transepts, appears, he says, to be of the time of Henry IV.; the rest of the glass in the choir is of the reigns of Henry V. and VI., chiefly of the latter. He notices also, that the white glass in the windows is generally less green in tint than usual, and that he has learnt from Mr. Browne that it is all of English manufacture.”—(A. C.-B.)
We now come to the smaller transepts situated between the four eastern and four western bays of the choir. They are practically one bay of the choir with the triforium and clerestory removed. At each end are immense windows. Each is 73 feet long by 16 feet wide. Both have been restored; but the glass is original and very splendid. The north window contains scenes from the life of St. William; the south window depicts the history of St. Cuthbert, and is thought to date from about 1437. In it are members of the house of Lancaster.
The east end of the choir is almost entirely filled with the great East Window.
The space behind the altar is sometimes called the Lady-Chapel. This occupies four bays. It was built in 1361-1405, and is Perpendicular in style. The Altar of the Virgin stood under the great east window and here also was a chantry founded by the Percys.
“The great east window was glazed by John Thornton of Coventry. The terms of the contract for this work, dated 1405, are extant. They provide that Thornton shall ‘portray the said window with his own hands, and the histories, images, and other things to be painted on it.’ It was to be finished within three years. Glass, lead and workmen were to be provided at the expense of the chapter, and Thornton was to receive 4s. a week, £5 a year and £10 at completion for his trouble.
“The window is 78 feet high and 32 feet wide, and contains nine lights. It is entirely filled with old glass, except for certain pitches of modern glass, rather crude in colour, and inserted, it is said, after the fire of 1829. It contains 200 panels of figures. The subjects in the upper part are from the Old Testament, reaching from the creation of the world to the death of Absalom. The lower part contains illustrations from the Book of Revelations. In the loftiest row of all are representations of kings and archbishops.
“In the top lights are figures of prophets, saints and kings. At the apex of the window is a representation of the Saviour in Judgment.
“This window is probably the finest example of Perpendicular glass in England.
“The great east window, like the windows of the transepts, has a double plane of tracery reaching to about half the height of the whole. Between the two planes a passage runs at the base of the window, between two doors which lead to staircases in the turrets on each side of the windows. These staircases, in their turn, lead to a gallery across the window on the top of the inner plane of tracery. The view from this gallery is very fine.”—(A. C.-B.)
Of the numerous tombs and monuments in the east end below the windows in the retro-choir and choir-aisles, we note only two. That of Archbishop Bowet (died 1423), in the retro-choir (south side), is one of the finest Perpendicular monuments in existence, much mutilated, it is true; but still exhibiting its clusters of tabernacles and pinnacles joined to the arch beneath with fan-tracery. Bowet was still alive when this monument was erected in 1415. The other is William of Hatfield (died 1344), second son of Edward III., aged eight. The Plantagenista ornaments the canopy. Unfortunately the effigy of the little prince is much damaged.
The Nave is also superb and all the decoration most elaborate.
“The first impression on viewing this nave is a sense of its magnitude. Archbishop Romeyn and his builders determined to build a vast church which would eclipse all other rivals. They would have large windows, high, towering piers, a huge, vaulted roof, and everything that was grand and impressive. Edward I. was then fighting with the Scots and made York his chief city. It was immensely prosperous and the ecclesiastical treasury was replete with the offerings of knights and nobles, kings and pilgrims. Nowhere should there be so mighty a church as York Minster. In order to have space for large windows they made the triforium unusually small, which is formed only by a continuation of the arches of the clerestory windows. The design for the stone vaulted roof was never carried out. The builders feared that the great weight of a roof with so large a span would be too much for the walls, so a wooden vault was substituted. The piers have octagonal bases and consist of various sized shafts closely connected. The capitals are beautifully enriched with foliage of oak and thorn, and sometimes a figure is seen amidst the foliage. We notice thirty-two sculptured busts at the intersection of the hood-moulding with the vaulting shafts. Coats-of-arms of the benefactors of York appear on each side of the main arches. The clerestory windows have each five lights. The old roof was destroyed by fire in 1840. The present one has a vast number of bosses representing the Annunciation, Nativity, Magi, Resurrection, besides a quantity of smaller ones.”—(P. H. D.)
Looking up at the west end of the nave we have a double study in the splendid West Window (only surpassed by the famous window of Carlisle Cathedral); for the tracery of the Curvilinear, or flowing Decorated style has been carefully restored, and the window, which measures 56 × 25 feet, is almost entirely filled with the original glass given by Archbishop Melton in 1338.
“This is remarkable not only for the purity and boldness of its scheme of colours, but for the admirable way in which the design of the glass fits the elaborate pattern of the tracery. It will be noticed that both the figures and the architectural ornaments are in bolder relief than in the earlier glass of the Five Sisters, or the later of the choir. Some of the faces of the figures have been restored by Peckett, but not so as to interfere with the decorative effect of the whole. The window contains three rows of figures, the lowest a row of eight archbishops, the next a row of eight saints, including St. Peter, St. Paul, St. James and St. Katharine, and above this a row of smaller figures unidentified.
“The window contains eight lights. These lights are coupled in pairs by four arches with a quatrefoil in the head of each, and again formed in groups of four by an ogee arch above the other arches. The flowing curves of these ogee arches are most ingeniously and beautifully worked into the pattern of the upper part of the window, which contains five main divisions of stonework, each like the skeleton of a leaf in shape and in the delicacy of its pattern. Of these five divisions the top one is made by splitting up the central mullion; two diverge from it at the top of the lower lights; and two others curve inwards from the outside arch. The central mullion runs up almost to the top of the arch. The mullions are alike in moulding and size. Below the window is the west door, the head of which is filled with ancient stained glass. There is a gable above it, running up to the bottom of the window and containing three niches. There are kneeling figures on each side of the gable, so that the top of it may have held a figure of Christ. All that portion of the west end not occupied by the window and the porch is filled with stories of niches and arcading.”—(A. C.-B.)
The windows of the aisles of the nave are Decorated.
The Nave contains eight bays. Each bay consists of two main divisions: the upper half containing the triforium and clerestory; and the lower half, the main arches. A slender moulding runs between the two divisions. The piers consist of a group of separate shafts and the capitals are very delicate in design. The triforium is little more than an extension of the clerestory window-lights; but a band of stone ornamented with quatrefoils separates triforium and clerestory. The clerestory windows are geometrical Decorated. The design is much admired.
“It consists of five lights, the two outer of which are grouped in a single arch, with a quatrefoil piercing in its head. Between these two arches and on the top of the arch of the central light is a circle fitting into the arch of the window, and ornamented with four quatrefoils, four trefoil piercings, and other smaller lights. There are capitals to the outside shafts of the windows, and to the main shafts of the two inner mullions. All these mullions are very delicately moulded.
“The first window from the west end is plain. The glass in the other windows is rather finer and less fragmentary than in the north aisle.
“The second window appears to have been largely restored. The tabernacle work is very crude in colour. It contains figures of St. Laurence, St. Christopher, another saint, and three coats-of-arms below. The top lights are fine, and perhaps of Perpendicular date.
“The third window is one of the richest in colour in the minster, with its gorgeous arrangement of crimsons, greens and blues. There are inscriptions by Peckett, with the date at the bottom, 1789. His deep blues on the top lights are particularly unfortunate.
“The sixth window is also very bright. It probably contains Norman fragments. All the windows except the fifth contain insertions by Peckett.
“The clerestory window contains fragments and coats-of-arms.
“In the westernmost light of the second window from the west, on the north side, are portions of an Early English Jesse window. The wheel of this window, and those of the next five, also contain fragments of Early English glass. And in the lower lights of the fifth and seventh windows from the west are remains of the same date.
“The wheels in the clerestory windows on the south side of the nave all contain Early English glass, except the third from the west. There is also some Early English glass in their lower lights.
“The aisles of the nave are bolder in design and altogether more satisfactory than the nave itself. Like the nave they are unusually wide and lofty. In the two farthest bays to the west, above which are the western towers, the rough wooden roof, which has never been covered with a vault, may be seen. The vault of the aisles is of stone, with only structural ribs, finely moulded and with carved bosses. The aisle windows are, like those of the clerestory, of the geometrical Decorated Style, but of an earlier and simpler, uniform design. They each contain three lights. Above the three lights are three quatrefoils, pyramidally arranged.”—(A. C.-B.)
The second window from the east in the north aisle of the nave is said to have been given by a guild of bell-founders, or by Richard Tunnoc (died 1330), Lord Mayor of York. Tunnoc appears in the design kneeling before the Archbishop and around the picture of the casting of a bell is the legend “Richard Tunnoc me fist.” Above Tunnoc is a window. Bells appear in the border of the glass.
The window at the west end of the north-aisle of the nave is also very fine. It represents the Virgin and Child and St. Catherine with her wheel. In the west window of the south-aisle of the nave the subject is the Crucifixion. The head of Christ is supposed to be of the Eighteenth Century.
The choir-aisles are very similar to those of the nave. They have stone vaults and their windows are very beautiful. They have been described as representing “a design of which the tracery is arrested half-way in its process of stiffening from the curved lines of the Decorated style to the straight of the Perpendicular.” Each window is divided into three lights, each ending in an obtuse arch. Above these are three other arches and above them again two quatrefoils, and above them a sexfoiled opening.
For a description of the glass in these aisles we turn to A. Clutton-Brock:
“In the north aisle the east window is also very fine. It contains a representation of the Crucifixion, with St. John, St. James and the Virgin.
“The first window from the east is very fragmentary. The windows in the south aisle are rather fragmentary. In the first two from the west the top lights are empty.
“The second window is remarkable for the delicate modelling and drawing of the heads. The head of the Virgin reminds one of one of Lippo Lippi’s Madonnas. That of an old man with a beard in the central light is German in character. If these are compared with the crude
and simple design of the heads in the other windows, it will be obvious that they are of a different origin. Nothing, however, is known of their history.
“The third window has borders by Peckett. It contains the Jesse noted before.
“The fourth window is very fragmentary. It contains a beautiful figure of a saint in one of the top lights; the other top lights are by Peckett. In the central division, at the bottom, is the name of Archbishop Lamplugh, with a coat-of-arms. (Lamplugh’s tomb is close to this window.)
“The last of those windows contains painted glass given by Lord Carlisle in 1804, and bought from a church at Rouen. It is a representation of the Visitation, Mr. Winton says, taken from a picture by Baroccio, and dates from the end of the Sixteenth Century. The upper lights contain the original glass.
“The east window of this aisle is very fine in colouring, and fairly coherent in design. The subject is not clear.”
In the westernmost bay of the north-choir-aisle the eight-year-old son of Edward III.—William of Hatfield—was buried (see page 274). West of the tomb of Archbishop Sterne (died 1683), which has been called “an example of almost everything that a monument should not be,” we find the tomb of Archbishop Scrope, beheaded by Henry IV. (see page 265), interesting because it was a place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages.
From the north-choir-aisle we enter the Crypt. This was discovered after the fire of 1829. Here we find Norman work and some authorities go so far as to say some portions of the wall are of the Saxon church, built by Edwin in the Seventh Century. The capitals of the pillars (time of Roger Pont l’Évêque) are varied and very interesting.
“Entering the vestibule we notice the exact place where the Early English builders finished their work and the Decorated style begins. The difference between the styles in the Chapter-House and vestibule shows that the former was erected first. It has a wall arcade, and above are windows of curious tracery, filled with beautiful old glass. The shafts of the arcade support trefoiled arches, with a cinquefoil ornamented with a sculptured boss. Each boss and capital is beautifully carved with foliage, amidst which the heads of men and dragons appear. The glass is Early Decorated, and contains representations of Royal personages.
“The Chapter-House is one of the most beautiful in England. The entrance is an arch, divided into two arches by a canopied pier, which bears a mutilated statue of the Virgin and Child. Clustered shafts, with capitals, are on each side of the doors, which have remarkably good scrolled iron-work. The chamber itself is very magnificent. It is octagonal and in each bay there are six canopied stalls under a five-light window. The window tracery is superb. Clustered shafts support the vaulted roof. Everywhere we see richly carved stone-work, the finest in any cathedral, the foliage of maple, oak, vine and other trees. Here are pigs and squirrels feeding on acorns, men gathering grapes, birds, and coiled dragons and reptiles. The grotesques are most curious and interesting. In 1845, unfortunately, the building was restored and the painted figures of kings and bishops were destroyed, a poor tiled floor laid down; but, in spite of all, it can still maintain its proud boast:
[‘As the Rose is the flower of flowers, so is this House the chief of Houses.’]”
The date of this building is generally given as 1320.
A curious doorway at the north-east end of the north transept opens into the vestibule that takes us into the Chapter-House. This is a narrow passage running north for three bays, then turning at right angles and running east for two bays. It is Decorated in style. Traces of ancient painting may be observed, and the windows display their original glass, chiefly Decorated. In the upper lights there are some fragments of Norman and Early English glass.
The Chapter-House differs from most chapter-houses in having no central pillar. It is octagonal and is divided into eight bays. An acutely-arched window, with geometrical Decorated tracery, fills each of the seven bays. The space over the entrance is occupied with blank tracery like that of the windows. The windows contain five lights, each light terminating in a trefoiled arch. The glass, chiefly medallions and shields, dates from the time of Edward II. and Edward III. The one modern window declares itself.
Passing to the East Front we find that it is square, and, like the West Front, it is almost entirely filled with an enormous window. The great East Window contains nine lights, beautifully divided by mullions and crossed by three transoms. The arch of the head is filled with a great number of small divisions. Over the window is an ogee gable, surmounted by a pinnacle. Panelling forms a kind of background for it. Buttresses, tall and narrow, and containing six tiers of niches, flank the window on either side. Each is finished with a spire. The two aisle windows also have ogee gables, surmounted with finials. Above them runs a band of panelling. At each corner rises a tall buttress, finished with a lofty spire.
“The Choir and Lady-Chapel are Perpendicular work. The four eastern bays constituting the Lady-Chapel, are earlier than the later ones of the choir and vary in detail. The triforium passage in the former is outside the building, and the windows are recessed. Strange gargoyles, with figures of apes and demons, adorn the buttresses. The east end is mainly filled with the huge window, the largest in England, which does not leave much space for architectural detail. Above it is the figure of Archbishop Thoresby, the builder of this part of the Cathedral. Panelling covers the surface of the stone, and below the window is a row of seventeen busts, representing our Lord and his Apostles, Edward III. and Archbishop Thoresby. There are two aisle windows; buttresses adorned with niches separate the aisles from the central portion, and others, capped with spires, stand on the north and south of this front.”—(P. H. D.)
From the south-east we gain a very satisfactory view of the central tower and the ornate and elegant South Transept (Early English), dating from 1216-1241. The gable, with its large rose-window, cusped lights, turrets, buttresses, and lancet windows, all make a harmonious architectural picture. The south porch is considered rather small and has been much restored. Dog-tooth moulding is plentiful along the arches. It also occurs on the windows and gable.
Pinnacles and weird gargoyles decorate the Nave, divided into seven bays by tall buttresses.
The north side of the Minster is far less ornate than the south. Of course, the chief features here are the Chapter-House, with its curious roof and lovely windows, and the North Transept, very fine Early English of 1241-1260. Here we have the famous group of lancets, the Five Sisters (see page 270), and seven beautifully arranged lancets in the gable above—a very fine contrast to the gable of the south transept, with its rose-window. A vestibule leads from the North Transept to the Chapter-House, that splendid octagonal building, perhaps the finest example of Early Decorated in existence. Buttresses, topped with pinnacles, project at each of the eight corners. The strange pyramidal roof is surrounded by a battlement and curious gargoyles; among them bears peer out into space.
Dedication: St. Mary. A Church served by Secular Canons.
Special features: St. Hugh’s Choir; Angel Choir; East Window; Central Tower.
Lincoln Cathedral possesses a commanding site and three splendid towers that form a beautiful picture. Distance lends enchantment to the view at all times of the day and seasons of the year.
“Throughout a vast district around the city, the one great feature of the landscape is the mighty minster, which, almost like that of Laon, crowns the edge of the ridge, rising, with a steepness well-nigh unknown in the streets of English towns, above the lower city and the plain at its feet. Next in importance to the minster is the castle, which, marred as it is by modern changes, still crowns the height as no unworthy yoke-fellow of its ecclesiastical neighbour. The proud polygonal keep of the fortress still groups well with the soaring towers, the sharp-pointed gables, the long continuous line of roof, of the church of Remigius and Saint Hugh.”—(E. A. F.)
Lincoln Cathedral is also a landmark in the history of architecture, for here was developed the first complete and pure form of the third great form of architecture—the architecture of the Pointed Arch.
“The best informed French antiquaries acknowledge that they have nothing like it in France for thirty years afterwards; they thought it was copied from Notre-Dame at Dijon, to which there is a considerable resemblance, but that church was not consecrated till 1230, so that the Dijon architect might have copied from the Lincoln one, but the Lincoln could not have copied from Dijon.”—(J. H. P.)
To the historian, as well as to the student of architecture, Lincoln makes a strong appeal for many visits. Those whose time is limited will be impatient to inspect St. Hugh’s Choir, and the more beautiful Angel Choir beyond it. We must, however, pause a moment to recapitulate its history before we begin our walk through the Cathedral.
“The surface or exterior of Lincoln Cathedral presents at least four perfect specimens of the succeeding styles of the first four orders of Gothic architecture. The greater part of the front may be as old as the time of its founder, Bishop Remigius, at the end of the Eleventh Century; but even here may be traced invasions and intermixtures, up to the Fifteenth Century. The large indented windows are of this latter period, and exhibit a frightful heresy. The western towers carry you to the end of the Twelfth Century; then succeeds a wonderful extent of the Early English, or the pointed arch. The transepts begin with the Thirteenth, and come down to the middle of the Fourteenth Century; and the interior, especially the choir and the side aisles, abounds with the most exquisitely varied specimens of that period. Fruits, flowers, vegetables, insects, capriccios of every description, encircle the arches or shafts, and sparkle upon the capitals of pillars. Even down to the reign of Henry VIII. there are two private chapels, to the left of the smaller south porch, on entrance, which are perfect gems of art.”—(T. F. D.)
In the Seventh Century, Paulinus, Bishop of York, made converts in the Roman hill-town of Lincoln, and several churches were founded. The “bishop’s stool” was at Sidnacester and Dorchester-on-Thames before it was fixed at Lincoln.
“The king” (William the Conqueror) “had given Remigius, who had been a monk at Fescamp, the bishopric of Dorchester which is situated on the Thames. This bishopric, being larger than all others in England, stretching from the Thames to the Humber, the bishop thought it troublesome to have his episcopal See at the extreme limit of his diocese. He was also displeased with the smallness of the town, the most illustrious city appearing far more worthy to be the See of a bishop. He therefore bought certain lands on the highest parts of the city, near the castle standing aloft with its strong towers, and built a church, strong as the place was strong, and fair as the place was fair, dedicated to the Virgin of Virgins, which should both be a joy to the servants of God, and as befitted the time unconquerable by enemies.”
Such is Henry of Huntingdon’s account of the transference of the See, which took place between 1072 and 1075.
The church built by Remigius, on the site of an earlier church, was completed in twenty years. Remigius died three days before the date appointed for the consecration, May 9, 1092, and was buried before the Altar of the Holy Cross in front of the rood-screen. This first church was 300 feet long. It was severely plain; but so strong that Stephen used it as a fortress in 1141, when the castle opposite was held by his enemies.
The next great builder was Alexander the Magnificent (1123-1148), nephew of Roger, Bishop of Salisbury. A fire destroying the roof in 1141 necessitated repairs. Alexander remodeled parts of the church. He added the elaborate doorways in the west front in 1146; the Norman arcade along the west front; and built the western towers.
“Part of the west front of Lincoln was built by Bishop Remi, or Remigius, 1085-1092: the small portion which remains of this work is a very valuable specimen of early Norman, the more so that the insertion of later and richer Norman doorways by Bishop Alexander, about fifty years afterwards, enables us to compare early and late Norman work, while the jointing of the masonry leaves no doubt of the fact that these doorways are insertions and, therefore, confirms the early date of the three lofty arches under which they are inserted. A comparison of the capitals and details of these two periods, thus placed in juxtaposition, is extremely interesting. The wide-jointing of the masonry and the shallowness of the carving distinguish the old work from the new. Several capitals of the later period are inserted in the older work, as is shewn on careful examination by the jointing of the masonry, and by the form of the capitals themselves: the earlier capitals are short, and have volutes at the angles, forming a sort of rude Ionic; the later capitals are more elongated, and have a sort of rude Corinthian, or Composite foliage.”—(J. H. P.)
In 1185 an earthquake injured the Cathedral; and so, when Hugh of Avalon became Bishop of Lincoln in 1186, he began to collect money for repairs and rebuilding. The eastern end of the original Cathedral was removed, and in 1192 Bishop Hugh laid the foundations of his very original Choir. The architect was Geoffrey de Noyers. J. H. Parker, who studied Lincoln Cathedral for thirty years, considers this work of St. Hugh (A.D. 1192-1200) pure Early English Gothic and the earliest building of that style in the world.
“Canterbury was completed in 1184 and in 1185 St. Hugh of Grenoble, also called St. Hugh of Burgundy, was appointed Bishop of Lincoln, and immediately began to rebuild his cathedral. It is therefore plain that this portion of the building was completed before 1200, and a careful examination enables us to distinguish clearly the work completed in the time of Bishop Hugh, which comprises his choir and the eastern transepts with its chapels. The present vaults of St. Hugh’s Choir, and of both the transepts, were introduced subsequent to the fall of the tower, which occurred in 1240.
“The architecture in the north of Lincolnshire and the south of Yorkshire appears to have been a little in advance of any other in Europe at that period. St. Hugh’s Choir at Lincoln is the earliest building of the pure Gothic style free from any mixture of the Romanesque that has been hitherto found in Europe, or in the world. The Oriental styles are not Gothic, though they helped to lead to it. The French Gothic has a strong mixture of the Romanesque with it down to a later period than the Choir of Lincoln. St. Hugh of Lincoln certainly did not bring the Gothic style with him from his own country Dauphiny, or from the Grande Chartreuse where he was educated, for nothing of the kind existed there at that period. Grenoble (the place from which St. Hugh was brought to England) and its neighbourhood was quite half-a-century behind England in the character of its buildings, in the time of Henry II. of England and of Anjou, in whose time this style was developed.
“Nothing can well exceed the freedom, delicacy and beauty of this work; the original arcade of the time of St. Hugh is of the same free and beautiful style as the additions of his successors. The crockets, arranged vertically one over the other behind the detached marble shafts of the pillars, are a remarkable and not a common feature, which seems to have been in use for a few years only; it occurs also in the west front of Wells Cathedral, the work of Bishop Jocelin, a few years after this at Lincoln; or perhaps under him, of Hugh de Wells.”—(J. H. P.)
The eight years during which Hugh carried on the work