4Z 9 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND ESSAYS ON ARCHITECTURAL ART I. A STUDY IN DOMIES. II. THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND. III. ENVIRONMIENT IN ARCHITECTURE. IV. PIAZZAS. V. ARCHITECTURAL ACOUSTICS. ESSAYS ON ARCHITECTURAL ART II THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND BY \NILLIAMI BURNET TUTHILL, I.A. ARCHITECT 1ewv Lorh THE MIACMILLAN COMPANY 1923 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Set up and printed. Published April, 1923. Press of J. J. Little & Ives Co. New York TO EVERY LOVER OF ARCHITECTURAL ART a A NOTE TO THE READER The author wishes to make but one prefatory note and that is in reference to the arrangement of the illustrations in their relation to the text. As stated in the writing, each general division of the illustrations - such as general views, west fronts, etc. - are set in an approximately correct chronological order, and so have a teaching value in connection with the historical development of the English cathedral system. By the nature of the case, the text cannot follow the illustrations when it continually refers and cross-refers to them. This may entail some slowness in the reading and may be more or less disagreeable at first, but as these references are purely for a studentiaI purpose, they result in giving clearness to the exposition, as they are informative and instructive for the purpose sought, and will ultimately be a pleasure rather than a tedium. W. B. T. I CONTENTS I TRODUCTION GENERAL STUDY OF THE CATHEDRAL STRUCTURS.L. CHARACTERISTICS OF TIIE CATHEDRAL STRLCTURES.... THE ARCHITECTURAL PERIODS. THE ESSENTIAL PARTS OF THE CATHEDRALI STRU CTUE.... CHURCH AT IONA CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL GLOUCESTER CATHFDRAL. DURHAM CATHEDRAL NORWICH CATHEDRAL HEREFCRD CATHEDRAL. ELY CATHEDRAL.. PETERBOROUGH CATHEDIRAL LINCOLN CATHEDRAL LICHIFIELD CATHEDRAL. SALLISBURY CATHEDRAL.. W\ELLS CATHEDRAL... Y ORK CATHEDRAL EXETER CATHEDRAL. CATHEDRALS NOT INCLUDED IN THE W\ORK PLANS........ TABLE OF LENGTHS OF CATHFDR ALS DIAGRAM OF LENG-IHS DIAGRAM OF HEIGHTS CLOISTERS CHAPTER HOULSES LADY CHAPELS... PAGE I 6 12 24 36 53;6 "0 80 (-() So 96 98 III I I I [ IJ30 139 I 54 158 i68 I 74 ~-i83 184 185 i86 I8 -188 18) I I THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FROUDE, beginning his essay on the "Dissolution of the Monasteries," writes this sentence "To be entirely just in our estimate of "other ages is not difficultit iis "impossible. "The mind as well as the eve adds "something of its own, before an "image of the clearest object can be "painted on it." It is the same with a study of a very specialized and complete period of architecture, finished long ago and under social, political, and financial conditions of which one who is not a fairly close student of its history has little comprehension. Many of its concrete evidences remain, may be examined or measured or photographed, and a knowledge gained of what was actually done; but it is quite impossible to enter wholly THE CATIhEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND into the essence of the surroundings and the periods that were affecting or urging them at the time of their commencement and in their development; they are, involuntarily, looked at through a laterday perspective and the criticisms are based on it. One has to study them as if they were in a museum and had finished with development. The vitalizing personal environments, the actual conditions of the lives lived bv the builders in the continuing struggle between their church and their state, the aspirations after what was thought to be really beautiful or the local ambitions to surpass a rival how and why the artists and the bishops who designed and erected the strangely fascinating series of fabrics such as England can show, thought and wrought as they did- all this is deduction from inert remains and scant written records; it is attained only bv those who know the ecclesiastical and political history of the surging period and can easily read the story held in the carven stone. All that one is free to do, is to look at the cathedral buildings as they exist before one's eves, absorb and analyze, if may be, the impressions they make and get out of the seeing and the 'THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 1 Iona Scotland A VIEW FROM SOUTHEAST V\II Century study, what one may be able to understand of their lovel- message. This writing is not, in any sense, a hand-book on the English Cathedral Churches; it tries to show the beautiful, both actual and relative, in the architecture and with as much of historical correctness as may be, and thus make a few and inspiring pages. There are hand-books many, with the fullest details of dates and dimensions, bishops and *^ TIlE CATIEDRAL CIURCH OF ENGLAND builders, tabulations of sculptures and saints plus analytical comments on the structures and their periods. To these the reader who wishes the 'facts' is cordially referred. The illustrations are arranged in an approximately correct chronological order for each one of the groups of any particular detail,- such as general v-iews, west fronts, interiors, chapter houses, and so on, and thus form several regular time sequences. All the structures referred to had their beginnings between the years IO-o and 1225; that is, from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries inclusive. The rebuilding of, or the addition to, the fabrics was continued over periods of about one hundred years in some instances, to approximately four hundred years in others; the longer periods being required in such constructions of late date, as the renovation of the east end of Norwich or the erection of the new ceiling of the choir of Gloucester. In other words, the structures, with not many exceptions, were practically complete, as we know them, before the end of the thirteenth century and were therefore built in those prodigious three 4 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND centuries of wondrous architectural activity and achievement. NQt only in England but on the continent, the same period saw the great Gothic erections; in Paris (I 163-1242), Amiens (1220-1288), Chartres (I 30-1200), Rouen (I202 -I280), Rheims (I2 I2-1242), Beauvais (I247-1273), and elsewhere. The world had never experienced, and is unlikely to experience again, such an outpouring of architectural art and enthusiasm for it. The stately and frigid architecture that came with the Italian Renaissance, the approach and realization of a modern commercialism, the total lack of any great principle of living - full of enthusiasm and devotion, perhaps consecration - that seeks to garner all men under a common inspiration - the age of correctness and scholarship by formula - the absence of religious ideals - these together have sterilized all but individual exhibitions of an art impulse. Since the wonderful cathedral building period in England and in the north of Europe, the Great War has been the nearest realization to a concentration and inspiration of men's minds in and with a common purpose - an august ideal - under 5 THE CATIEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 2 Canterbu r 107,6-I 184 VIEW FROMI TIl - NORTH Central Tower, 149I whose compelling influence magnificent results were accomplished. The study of the many beautiful cathedral churches of England is approached with an attitude very different from that w'hich marks excursions into most other phases of architecture. One seems to know that, in addition to the structures themselves, he is about to enter an unusual atmosphere, one whose strongest attribute is peacefulness, and ( THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND so looks and travels, not as those who go about the world to see as much as may be within a given time, but rather as a reverent student with mind receptive to the artistry he is to become familiar with. Such an attitude is, in great degree, a consequence of the continuous seeing of building after building at relatively short distances the one from the other, and wrought both in beauty of fabric and with loveliness of surroundings. The attractiveness of the architecture soon gains a personal quality, it becomes something more than piles of stone happy in arrangement; and when looked at as a whole with the settings, invigorates the artist spirit. It is further felt to be distinctively English. The difference between the expression of the English cathedrals and that of the continental structures is radical. It is highly probable that much is due to the restrictions of the geographical environment of the island on which England's churches were built. Exterior and racial contacts or intrusions of differing peoples and architectural influences or methods did not just merge over the border lines; they had to cross the surrounding waters and so wvere reduced to a minimum, and 7 TIIE CATIIEDRAI CHURCH OF ENGLAND that which w\as built was developed under its own artistic strains. In addition there apparently existed in the builders, for some unperceived reason, perhaps a natural endowment, an innate response to what was beautiful in a building - in the structure that was to be the centre of their everyda3y living, the sanctuary where they were to worship and which was to represent the religious ideal that guided them. They expressed this response in a manner as beautiful as their degree of culture and their means could be forced to permit. Perhaps in this philosophizing we are treading very closely to that state of mind against which our first page was to be a warning. There was also the undisturbed opportunity for the deliberate expression of feelings and ideas both in time, taken to express them - that is, deliberate building; or in extent or physical area over which they might be spread - that is, unrestricted size - and the result was a peculiarly attractive series of ecclesiastical structures. The attractiveness is enhanced because the development of the actual building has been very natural, regular and historical, and was 8 TIlE CATHEDRAL ClUR; (OF ENGIAND FIGURE 3 Winchester J0()( 1093 VIEW FROM SOUTHEAST conceived in connection with the immediate surroundings in which it found itself. All this is emphasized by a very little study and comparison with simiIarly-purposed and town-surrounded buildings on the continent - in France, in Spain, in Germany. The line of development of the buildings that is the architectural history - is found in the very fabric of the structures, and the differences referred to are clear indeed to everyone who with ') TIlE CATHEDRAL CHtL'RCH OF ENGLAND fair diligence and a modicum of information searches for it. Furthermore, the development through succeeding styles or methods of expression may be in many steps, exhibiting all the phases in one and the same building as York or Durham or Ely or Winchester; or by one step or one complete phase of architecture in which the greater part of the church is wrought- as at Salisbury or Lichfield; that is, in other words, one may find the whole history of the enchanting phases of a real architectural art in the buildings themselves and wholly within the shore lines of the British Isles. This phase is both complete and very simple to learn about; there is little of extraneous influence to discover, and what there is of it is easily referred to its proper origins. It also differs from other phases of architectural art, such as the Byzantine or Romanesque or that of the Renaissance, by the very simplicity of comprehension, and above all else bv the peaceful attitude its study produces. When one looks into the matchless interiors that gIorify Canterbury (Figure 49), or Lincoln (Figure 38), or Exeter (Figure 5o), or Winchester (Figure 52), 10 TIlE CATHEDRAL CHURCI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 4 Gloucester 1089-IToo ', I. I I " - ';,fA. — -'. -1. - -4 -,,I,,'It, , W- -.Ab.. Z. 1. ' t~~ r r* ( -.'t.9, —* i 4 \VIEW FROM NOJRTHWEEST Choir, I33 —135r. Ccntral Tower,.io- T45-7 or of many another, one does not thrill because of the immensity and overpowering sense of bigness, as in St. Peter's Church in Rome, or St. Paul's in London, or still again in Sancta Sophia in Constantinople. One is not astonished by scale but is rather enraptured by the calmness of the beauty of agninitude, the peacefulness and reverence expressed in buildings supremely well fitted to the purpose for which they were designed II THE CATHEDRAL C(ILRCII OF INGLAND and builded. A quiescence of spirit like this does not belong to the continental churches, one may boldly venture to say, although theyr are in a similar class for purpose and architectural style, as for instance the cathedral at Amiens in France and Cologne in Germany. (Figures 13 and 48.) For in these immense piles other evident aims where present in the minds of the designers and readily found their expression in the buildings. Height, amazing to the beholder, was the chief among the many followed, a quality distinctly opposed to the sense of restfulness. These daring ideas awere frequently carried out at the expense of others just as important and fundamental. Among the English buildings it is only at Durham that one has anything like a sensation of astonishment. (Figures 5 and 36.) One will often marvel at the great lengths, the perspectives wonderfully and effectively contrived, the entrancing phrasing of the sunlight from many a dwindow, the unending motion of line, the varietyt in form; but the most permanent of the impressions cwil be the essential beauty and quietude of the composition. 12 TIlE CATHEDIRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 5 Durham 1095-I 33 i ~t I -~L VIEW FROM SOUTHW-EST Central Tower, 1450-1457 The foremost characteristics of the English cathedral churches, taken as a whole, are length of plan, apparent width, lowness in height, great variety in plan-forms and disposition and very effective combination of the more important features. A sentence or so defining the more general of the characteristics may help the study wve are attempting. All the divisions and details 13 TlHE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND that differentiate church buildings in the "Pointed style" are, to a certain degree, common to the buildings both of England and the continent. In the former, however, there is an inexplicable and subtle difference by which forms, proportions, parts, dimensions, join together and make the appeal to the feelings more than to the reason. One accepts the impression of the design as a whole without essaying any immediate analysis. In the English churches, the proportion of lowness to great length gives a stunning effect of extent and spaciousness. (Compare the table of dimensions at the end of the book.) The window system is a peculiarly beautiful and ordered one, graced by a most dignified and often rich tracery with a character distinctively its own. The vaulted ceilings were developed similarly to those of the continental churches built in the genuine pointed style, sometinmes excelling the latter in logic and richness. VW~hen one adds to the general beauty of the architecture an almost universal charm of surroundings and to which all, or any, of the illustrations from Figure 2 to Figure I2, bear witness, one finds before him a series of structures that 14 TIE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGIAND FIGURE 6 Norwich Io06- I33 * ' A I VIEWN FROM SOUTHEAST Spire, 1446-14-2. Refaced, in I856 East End of Choir, I.-"2-I4Q9 will, in vain, be sought for elsewhere. Taken separately, however, it is possible to make a distinct classification of the cathedral buildings according to their respective merits, and the analysis is of import for competent understanding. Some can lay little claim to be of inspired design, and in other instances, were it not for the surroundings, thev might be considered ordinary. For 15 TIlE CAT1'I)IDRAI. CIIt RCI OF ENGLAND instance the cathedral church at Manchester is a commonplace building without distinction for size or without any vicarious help from the constructions or areas about it. (Figure 14.) The latter may be just unfortunate for the composition. The front of the cathedral at Peterborough can only make for questioning, mixed with amazement; it cannot produce ecstasy. (Figure 2j.) Carlisle is not distinguished in general design but makes abundant amends by a most wonderfuI window. (Figure 77.) But Lichfield, Salisbury, Lincoln, Ely, Norwich - the list could be increased so as to include most of the other cathedrals -claim unqualified admiration, which, however, does not say that they all are, and in every respect, above any criticism. The figures given on these pages will illustrate the general characteristics and claims to which allusion has been made and will exhibit their variable, and so their personal, qualities; a fuller descriptive examination of them is (-iven immnediately below. Figure 65 is a view of Lincoln cathedral taken from the east -the end of the church opposite the entrance 16 TIlE CATHEDRAL CIURCI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 7 Hereford 1099-I 11 - -; -tot r I A VIEW FROM -THE NORTHI ASTT doorways - and shows the effective length wrought into lucid perspective, varied in its lines and with the several component details well defined. The dignified central tower set over the crossing of the nave and transepts is:t powerful architectural feature. The great window is unparalleled and the chapter house to the right is unique. Figure 46, the interior of Canterbury I7 TIlE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND cathedral, is a most impressive example of great apparent length and a relatively low ceiling. The effect of spaciousness is splendid and is not excelled by the Renaissance interiors. The building is actually long, five hundred and fortyfive feet, or twxentv feet longer than the huge cathedral at Cologne. The perspective is very fine. The view is taken from a point close to the east end of the church immediately in front of the high altar. One sees the rich furnishings of the choir the stalls, or seats for the clergy and the vaulting, very simple in design. In the background after looking beyond the bright space shown at the 'crossing,' is the well-lighted nave and the upper part of the large and distant west window at the end of the church. The vaulting of the ceiling of the nave Awill be observed to be different in style and somewhat richer than that of the choir. The interior is also a very good example of the variety one may find in a single building and also of spaciousness. Exterior variety of design, as well as a perspective of great artistic value, is shown in the vieXw that Figure 8 gives of Ely cathedral. The central tower or 18 TIlE CATIIEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 8 Ely I 1107-11 33 VIEW: FRONI SOUTIuHWEST Oct;gon:tt Centre, 1323-136.2 octagon and its lantern, together with the western tower group, makes an unsurpassable exhibition of stateliness and outline. SaIisbury cathedral (Figure Ii) and Norwich (Figure 6) are fine examples of poise and dignity. These two cathedrals are somewhat similar because of masses dominated by a single spire. Each, however, has its own marked character. In Salisbury the nave, double transepts, 19 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND the chapter house - at the right - the lofty spire of stone and the trees are all contributors to a composition of unusual artistic charm. Norwich shows a single strongly marked transept and an elaborately buttressed choir. At the far left one may descry the finals on top of the western front and get the impression of length. The tower and spire are well balanced, in good proportion to the building, and happily help to make up a striking exterior. For the example of interior richness of effect combined with simplicity, accomplished wholly by the most direct architectural means, Exeter is pre-eminent. (Figure 50. Compare w ith Figure 39.) Special reference is made to the manyribbed vaulting, easily comprehended, and the richly moulded arches and grouped shafts. Durham, in Figure 17, shows the general masses of building that make up a cathedral entity - nave, aisles, transepts, central and western towers and others. In this particular case they compose into a virile find majestic church, described by one as being "half church of God, half castle 'gainst the Scots." And finally for this present 20 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCI I OF ENGLAND FIGURE 9 Lincoln I192-I200 VIEW FROM NORTH-\\ I iT series of illustrations and in order to show the lovely settings so peculiar and individual to the cathedrals of this island country, we look first at Lichfield (Figure io) taken from across its pool and in a charming frame of trees making an enchanting picture with the three spires — the only cathedral church in England so embellished. Then.look back to Figure 7, which shows the fane at Hereford in its surrounding of bucolic 21 TIE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND lo\xeliness. Additional pictures would be onlI repetitions of the characteristics shown in those already referred to. There would be manv a variation, but thev all would express the same ideas and sentiments; one could use a different set of illustrations, but the result would be the same. These pictures make good the claim for England's peculiarly beautiful church architecture, the development of which will be found an easy path to follow. England had many churches built in the manner of the Saxon architecture before the Norman Conquest in the eleventh century. This great historic episode gave to England one of its most conspicuous and helpful contacts from outside its borders and with it came a newer and more cultured system of design. The buildings that the NormanFrench churchmen met wvith in the conquered country were of the order of that on the island of lona and whose remains are shown in Figure i a good example of the very early ecclesiastical structures of Britain. After this distant period came the leaven of the Norman builders, which superseded all that had been done in the Saxon churches. The 22 THE CATHEDRALECHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 10 Lichfield 1200-I250 I A VIEW FROM SoI;TIHllASI builders brought with them their experience in construction, and new and more ambitious buildings were started everywhere. Some of the original structures were wholly razed; parts of others were merged into later erections. Archaeological investigations sometimes chance upon a fragmentary relic of the centuriesold shrines. Of the many later churches that were undertaken before the middle 23 TI1E CATIIEDRAL CHUR( I OF ENGLAND of the fourteenth century, some seventeen had Norman beginnings and records of such originals as Iona, and their subsequent variations may be found in the existing fabrics. * * * The first preliminary of importance to be made clear for the present study is a statement, as simple as possible, of the general divisions or phases of Gothic architecture in England. In a very concise and therefore valuable history, Professor Hamlin has worded the distinctions characterizing it and its developments. It is paraphrased here as briefly as may be, to convxey an intelligent definition, necessarily of a more or less technical order, and has been conmbined with other details of essential information. English church architecture is in general divided into four classes - the Early English, Decorated, Perpendicular - the three preceded by a Norman period. The builders who had crossed xover the channel from France naturally adhered, in general, to the features and technique familiar to them from their building in the Romanesque style of architecture in Normandy, but 24 TH!' CATHEDRAL CtIURCHI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 11 Salisbury I220-I258 tl-. "IF L I VIEW FROM SOL -TH L-ST Spire, 1331 with less refinement and skill.* They used heavy walls, full round arches, mouldings of round sections which, when enriched, were most frequently cut 'with a large-scale ornament, a zigzag or chevron, and the billet. The capitals of the columns were of a forni usually described as 'cushion caps'-that is, cubical blocks with rounded corners. The piers were sometimes single, circular * The charact: r (f the vrv't e:.rl Normlan buildings may be judged from the church ot St. Guillem du Desert, in France. 25 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND constructions of enormous girth, here perfectly plain, there built with attached shafts. Most of these details may be seen in Figure 36. The doorways were also after the Romanesque manner with many shafts at each side, the arches carried by them having a corresponding number of members or mouldings. Ceilings were built with vaults of strictly semicircular shape, intersecting with one another, the joints between the surfaces being formed on cross arches, also semicircular, and on diagonals reaching from corner to corner of the compartment of the ceiling to which they belonged. The vaulting surfaces were plain. (Look at Figures 35 and 36.) Most of the Norman churches were originally built Nwith wooden ceilings, the stone vaults being erected at much later dates. The wooden ceiling still exists in the nave of El- (Figure 42), and may be seen in that figure above the rood-screen and beyond the vaulting at the 'crossing' or centre of the church. You will note that it has a painted decoration -a rare thing in a Gothic cathedral church. Peterborough has also continued its inheritance of a wooden ceiling. 206 THE CATIEDRAL CHURCI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 12 York I 225-I40} B.1 \~I^ I r^H-I^ VIEXV FROMI SOUTHI\WEST W\ITH Cl'rI Very good examples of the great piers and arches and the details used by these vigorous Norman builders may be studied in Figure 35, the nave of Gloucester, and in Figure 36, the nave of Durham. In the former the piers are plain; in the latter, Durham, they are embellished by surfiace cuttings peculiar to the Norman manner. This picture also shows the plain round shafts attached to the larger piers and their 2 - THE CA'I IEDRAL ClHURCHI OF ENGLAND cubical or 'cushion caps.' In both views the billet and zigzag ornaments on the mouldings of the arches may be made out. Windows other than the large west or east windows were single roundtopped openings, as seen in the many parts of the walls of Durham which Figure I7 shows. The dates of this period of English Gothic are assigned between io66 and I 154. The second period, named the Early English - otherwise the Pointed Lancet Style - follows with the dates of II75 to 1202. Its characteristics are: simple groined vaults with an increasing number of vaulting ribs, simplicity and vigor of design and detail. The ornamentation was modelled after the forms of small plants very much conventionalized. The windows are narrow, sometimes single, sometimes grouped in pairs and included under a single and larger arch. In the earlier of the buildings,, the mullions - or uprights in the windows dividing it into parts - and whatever of tracery the windows had, were of the description called 'plate-tracery'; that is, the openings w ere cut through slabs of stone a few inches thick and finished 28 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF 1.N(G IANI) FIGURE 13 Amiens, France 1220-1260 VIEW FROM \NEST WITH CITY plain and entirely without mouldings. For the vaulting of this period the example may be taken from the interior of LichfieId cathedral (Figure 39), while instances of the simple window forms may be seen in the east window of Ely (Figure 45) or in an exterior view of the windows of the chapter house of Lincoln. (Figure 64.) The third architectural division the Decorated or Geometrical (also 29 THE CATIIEDRAL CHURCI OF ENGLAND called the Perfect Pointed Style), and included between the years I272 and I377 -has a vaulting verv much further developed and more ornately treated with multiple cross ribs. The instance is the choir of \\Winchester in Figure 52. The proportions are becoming much more slender and lofty, influenced, perhaps, by the knowledge of what the architects Nwere doing with the great cathedral buildings in France. The decorations are richer and less vigorous, foliage having become naturalistic. Windows are increased almost recklessly and are filled with tracery and mullions more and more elaborately moulded the heads filled with geometric forms sometimes very rich in design and of much beauty. Figure -, the east window of the cathedral of Carlisle, is not only a very good example but is, perhaps, the most beautiful window among the many beautiful windows of England. The instances of the development of the smaller window into a more elaborate detail are to be seen in almost all of the church structures illustrated. The last regular division of the English Gothic style is called the Perpendicular or the Late Perfected Pointed and is 3(0 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 14 M tanchester 1422 - \IE\ generally dated from 1329 to I483. In it the vaulting became varied and richly treated; the vaults of Norwich are an example. (Figure j3.) An extraordinarv exhibition of the intricate design of the period is given by the choir of the cathedral of Gloucester. (Figure 58.) Soon, further elaboration was sought and finally reached the very complicated and rich fan-vaulting, the most notable instance of which is the marvellous stone ceiling of the chapel of Henry VII in Westminster Abbey. 3I THIU CATHFIDRAL (IIURCH OF ENGLAND Among our illustrations of this character of design a very competent example is the ceiling of the cloister of the cathedral at Gloucester. (Figure -o.) Ornamentation now became profuse and sophisticated, and technical execution was preferred to dignity of design. The divisions of the windows changned into a system of verticaI uprights with horizontal transoms, without inspiration, and was the work, apparently, of the artisan rather than of the artist. The so-called 'Tudor arch' — four-centred contrivance of doubtful quality! made its appearance:and the degradation of the once Iiving English style was complete. The 'perpendicular' style has often and with fair reasonableness been called "carpenter's Gothic." Henry VII's chapel in Figure I5 shows an exterior in this uninspired method of design; another is the cathedraI of Manchester (Figure 14), which may justly be described as hopelessly unbeautiful. After this period nothing that was great \was accomplished in Gothic design. By the time it had exploited all its vagaries and astonishing e'ssa1ys in fanvaulting, the influence of the approaching Renaissance had begun to appear and 32 TIlE CATHIEDRAL CIURCI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 15 \estminster Abbey. I503-I520 a k il'li r. - S 3g-y --- t --- ~-~xwz;~ ~ -. V IEW Chapel of Henry VII to supersede the vitality of the pointed method by an insular classicism in church and palace, the climax being St. Paul's cathedral in London. The wonderful personality that the best periods of the pointed style were capable of eliciting from the designer and shown in the list of buildings from the early Norman churches to the barren 'perpendicular' and covering together some four hundred or more years, gave ';ay 33 TIHE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND to an architecture governed by rules of proportion and a fateful sameness of effect; the peculiar beauty of the English Gothic was belittled and deserted and even contemned and altered and destroved in the name of restorations. Perhaps there is at the present a new discoverv of its beauty and saneness although much-applied to commercial structures but it may again have a renewal of favor and again be able to give delight. It will, however, be likely to be conceived from the restless standpoint of the twentieth century rather than from that of the centuries ago when it was wrought in deliberation and was filled with beauty and "the peace that passeth understanding," so potent in its inspiration for the one-time lovely utterances. When compared with one another, helped by having a good set of plans to work over, the cathedrals are seen to be designed on very similar lines and with almost identicl I requirements.* The relative disposition of important parts is also similar. But the resulting buildings are infinitely varied. There is the * Pl:lns can be found in spceciill hilnd-books, and also in the plans on pp. 178- 1 83. 34 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 16 Canterbury 1076- 184 r \VIEW r FROM THE I\EST Central Tower, I495 utmost freedom in treatment and originality in the grouping of the myriad details. No fixed rule is followed except in the major parts and the generalized whole. NearIv every cathedral church is able to exhibit not only variety, both in general and particular design, but also examples of ingenious irregularity and clever resource. No series of buildings offers a better or more frequent opportunity for the interesting and 35 TIHE CATIEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND informing inquiry into the reasons why any particular element or detail of a composition has been devised in some peculiar waay instead of following consistentIy the general scheme and method at first adopted. Exigencies and difficulties necessarily occur in working out any building problem and some special treatment of them is made obligatory; the skilful designer may be able to make them the inspiration for features still more beautiful. Lincoln and York ca thedrals give manyVn examples. The general plan of a cathedral building is familiar to almost every reader of architectural historv. \ith the description sketched below, refer to and follow the plans on pages I78 to 183, selected to give a clear visual understanding of the lay-out of the parts and elements; each one spoken of, either now or later, may be found in at least one of them. The plan lmay be described as a long main portion crossed at right angles )3by a similar and shorter structure, sometimes closer and sometimes further away from the centre of the church. The longer portion is called the nave; the smaller, the choir; and the portion that divides the navxe and choir, the 36 TIlE CATHEDRAL CHtURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 17 Durham 1095- 133 - -- VIE-W FROMI NORTI HWEST Galilee, 1133-I 153. Central Tower finished 1480 transept. The intersection of the longer and shorter portions of the plan is the 'crossing.' The nave is usually much the longer of the two parts of the main building; it, together with the choir, is, without exception, laid out so that the main axis lies in an east and west direction - the nave to the west, and the choir - or altar end - to the east. 37 TIlE CATIEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND The nave is divided lengthwise by two lines of piers or columns that catrry the walls on top of which the stone ceiling is constructed. There is, therefore, a central passage - the nave proper - and two narrower passages the north and south aisles, one on either side of the central one. The aisles are sometimes continued into the choir, when the name becomes the 'ambulatory.' One of the aisles, seldom if ever both, occurs in the plan of the transept; the transept is therefore by so much the narrower than the nave. The height of the nave extends from the pavement of the church to and including the vaulted stone ceiling; that of the aisles is relatively low, seldom more than half as high; it is also vaulted. Over the aisle vault is an outer roof which leans against the nave walls. (See Figure -.) The walls of the nave are divided into three horizontal stages, the first, the main piers and their arches at the floor Ievel; next the triforium or the less important arcade immediately over the former and opening into the space over the vaulting of the aisle ceiling and under its actual roof; and finally above this arcade, the windows of the clear38 THil CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGIAND I IGURI' I Ely 1107-1133 VIEWN FOM \WELSr Galilee, 1198-121;. Lantern at Centre, 1323-1326 story - the series.of important openings that give the larger part of the light to the interior of the church. Examples of all these divisions are to be found in the several illustrations. The nave of the cathedral of Lincoln is selected for their pictorial enumeration. (Figure 37.) It shows i. The central passage and, onr either side of it, the pie rs with the arches over tlhem; 3(, THE CATHEDRAL (ICHURCII OF ENGLAND 2. the triforiurn - or system of low arches immediately over those referred to in division I; 3. the clear-story windows above the arcade of the triforiunm; 4. the vaulted ceiling; 5. and looking through the arches of the nave will be seen the aisles between the piers and the outside walls of the church and then the vaulted ceiling over the former. The windows of the aisles open to the exterior. The aisle vaulting is only al)out half as high as that of the nave. In Figure 44, the nave of York cathedral, there will be seen a repetiti0on of these parts and also in Figure 36, the nave of Durham, still another. Figure 32, an exterior view of Lincoln cathedral, shows the aisles from the outside, their low inclined roof and the upper part of the nave walls with the clear-story windows. The building is, obviously, narrower at the clear-story by as much as the aisles project at the level of the floor of the nave. The narrower transept in this tfigure shows that the aisles are not carried into it. In Norwich cathedral (Figulre 6) is a fine set of clear-story windows between the liying-buttresses of the choir. The same feature is shown in the view 40 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 19 \Wells I 75-12o6 \NEST FRONT, I225 of Winchester (Figure 3), and finally Durham, in Figure 17, explains the relations between the aisles and the nave walls. At the west end of the nave is the main entrance; it has its variants as to position, as at Canterbury (Figure I6) and also at Gloucester. Opposite it, at the other end of the cathedral, is placed the high altar on which all observation is supposed to concentrate. 41 TIHE CATIEDRAI (CHURCII OF ENGIAND The shape of the east or altar end of the English cathedral is usually rectangular; in the continental churches it is semicircular. Compare the square ends of Salisbury (Figure 33), of York (Figure 60), of Lincoln (Figure 65), of the interior of Durham (Figure 43), of the interior of Ely (Figure 45), with the round ends shown in Figures 6 and;3 that is, of Norwich and Lichfield respectivelv. In some instances, as at W\estminster Abbey, Peterborough, Lichfield, and Norwich -- the last two referred to above - the semicircular termination universally seen on the continental Gothic structures is retained. It is wondered why the English architects rejected or failed to appreciate a detail of such valuable artistic qualit- and so persistently labored on the harsher square ends. Towers,* or towers carrying spires,t are often erected over the crossing of the nave and transepts. The interior of the latter towers above the level of * Gloucester, Figure 4; lIreford, Figure 7; \\'inchester, Figure 3; Petcrboroutrh. Figure 2;; and \\orccstcr, Carlisle, Chestcr, and Rochlster unfigured hcre. t Norwich, Fu Slibur Figure Slibr igre I; Chichester and Ovford. 42 THE CATIIl'-DRAL CHIURCII OF ENGLAND FIGURE 20 Bourges, France c. 1275 - s-l.~ —.z ~C~ - - L~L THIE FIVE ENTRANC E PORTAL'the ceiling of the nave, received an architectural treatment more or less ornate, and the whole was frequently of great effect. A group of three towers* two on the western front and one at the crossing, was designed for six of the cathedrals. In one instance, the three towers were finished with spires, as at Lichfield (Figure 26). The towers of Exeter were * Cantcrbur-, Figure i6; Durham, Figurcts;-I7; Lincoln, Figure 9; York, Figure 24; \WClls, Figure io; Wcttminster Abbey and Ripon. 43 Till: CATHEDRAL (ICHURCHI OF ENGLAND set at the transepts (Figure 34). El! is in a class by itself (Figure 8). The cathedral plan, therefore, consists of the main parts -nave, north and south transepts, and the choir, with their structural accompaniments of towers and other details important for the plan and the composition. These special details will be looked at later. The examination of a series of figures, illustrating from an exterior point of view the main divisions just referred to, ill be helpful as a recapitulation. The outside of a nave is shown in Figure 24 -York; it also shows the western towers, the western entrance between the former and the big square central tower over the 'crossing.' Canterbury, in Figure I6, exhibits the same features as does York and, in addition, a variation of the entrance by making it through a southern porch near the front of the building. Gloucester has an arrangement of the entrance door similar to that of Canterbur-. Durham shows like units in its elevation (Figure 17), with the added detail of the north transept projecting stronrgl from the base of the high central tower. The entrance of this cathedral - Durham - 44 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 21 Lincoln 11 1192-1200 W ESTT FRONT, C. 1260 has a still different variation, through a smaller structure built in front of the west wall under the great window. For some reason not surely ascertained it is called a Galilee Porch. A similar arrangement occurs at Elv cathedral. Transepts have abundant illustration in Salisbury cathedral (Figure 33), where they are double - not an unique occurrence, however. Other parts of the 45 TIlE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND com0position evident in this figure:re the lady chapel at the extreme east end of the church and the spire at its central point. Figures I-, 23, and 32 are specially referred to in connection with this feature. \inchester giv-es a clear notion of a choir - to the right of the central tower- as also a well-defined transept. (Figure 3.) Another straightforNward choir is shown in Lincoln's church in Figure 32, -the right portion of the buildinr in the picture, -and with it a very fine central tower. As the reader has already observed, towers both at the front and at the crossing of nave and transepts are usual features. They are shown in many of the illustrations. (See pages 42-43 with footnote.) Naturall- with the elements of the plan as they have been described, the main body of a cathedral church is cruciform. Whether it wvas intentionally so plotted in commemoration of the supreme happening in the history of Christianitv or was a splendid generalization of some artistic minds of long ago, cdoes not much signify; the series of buildings that developed out of the idea is most beautiful. 46( TIHE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIG(IRE 22 Svtlisbui v 1220-1258 \\TEST FRONT, 1220-1258 Spire, 1331 These many illustrations and the references to them should have made the reader very familiar with the appearance, location, and relations of the major parts of a cathedral structure. While looking at them, be careful to note in every instance how they contribute both to the variety and beautv of the building, the general sky-line (that is, the outline of the entire com4 - TIE CATH EDRAL CHURCHI OF ENGLAND position), the perspectives, and the phrasing of the many parts. There are several other features of great import for the composition of the cathedral design and of inestimable value in the ensemble. These are the lady chapels, the chapter houses, and the cloisters. Of these three, much of surpassing interest could be written, for they possess an artistic charm of the first order in their own right and have a place of unlimited possibility for beauty in the designs into which they are incorporated. In addition they go deeply into ecclesiastical history. (See plans, pp. 18-i83.) The first of these -- the lady chapel - is a sort of anti-climax to the greater interior of the cathedral. It is, in general, located on the east and west axis and at the extreme end of the building. This is the position for thirteen of the cathedrals. The others have various locations, -see page 133, the most notable exceptions being Ely cathedral, where it is on the north, and still more strange at Durham cathedral, where the chapel is the Galilee Porch and at the west end of the building. It mayv extend far beyond the east end, as at 48 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCHI OF ENGLAND Gloucester and Wells, or be merged into the choir or presbytery and lose its separateness, as at York and Lincoln. In general its architecture is very elaborate, rich, and effective. The illustrations of Salisbury (Figure 33), W\ells (Figure 59), Ely (Figure 62), Lichfield (Figure 6I), and Peterborough (Figure 63) the last two being interiors - ill fully exhibit this feature. The chapter houses are the second detail of large scale; they are chambers of considerable size, usually in separate constructions, studied and elaborate and most interesting in their architecture, their ceilings wrought in a manyribbed vaulting of rich and striking effect. They were purposed and prepared as meeting-places for the lay and ecclesiastical corporations, and added very impressive surroundings for any serious and dignified conferences. They have been parts of the deliberate plans of fifteen cathedral structures. The chapter houses of \\ells, York, Lincoln, Lichfield, and Salisbury are of unusual distinction; their exteriors, as before written, are most telling elements in the architectural compositions of 49 TIHE (CATHIEDRAL CHtlRCI OF ENGLAND which they are parts. (See the plans on pages i-8-i83.) A sufficient number of illustrations of the feature is among the figures herewith - as, for instance, Figures 59, 6o, 62, 64, and 66. Norwich and Hereford once had chapter houses, but over-zealous restoration or perverted religious fervor made away with them. Of the interesting exterior details or attached buildings, none surpasses the cloisters for attractiveness and very real beauty. Fewer than half the churches here shown have them, for they were built only in connection with the Benedictine Abbeys. Salisbury (Figure 68), Canterbury (Figure 67), and Gloucester (Figure -o) show the general characteristics, and the plans on pages 178-183 their relations to the cathedral entity. Somewhat later in this book they w ill be nore fully described and compared with examples from other countries, where, the purpose being the same, the env ironmental co)nditions work out a different expression. Eight of the principal cloisters are on the south side of the cathedral, a properl! chosen location, as they were built for TIHE CATIEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 23 Amiens, France 1218-1260 \\EST FRONT sheltered walks around an open area the 'cloister-garth' - for the recreation and exercise of the members of the conventual brotherhood; four are on the north, and three - Winchester, Exeter, and Rochester exist only as memories. Five of our cathedrals had none. Their I architectural value is of the first order; the exteriors are attractive, their window tracery lovely, the interiors beautiful in THIE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND variety of light and perspective, and their atmosphere most restful. As one compares the cathedrals of England with those on the continent, another important as well as distinctive detail will be seen in which the two classes of buildings are markedly different. The entrances of those of England are approached practically from the ground level, whereas in France and elsewhere there is an imposing ascent of steps leading up to a broad platform on which the cathedral front is established. The effect is very architectural. The mental effect, however, is one of withdrawal rather than of unrestricted intimacy, as in England, where the sacred edifice bids the people come in - not come up. Compare Figures 19 and 28 with Figure 20. \\We have drawn, as it were, a charcoal sketch of the deve'opment of the cathedral structure and have become acquainted with the several divisions of the fabric, such as nave, transept, and the like. The pictures illustrating them will have helped to fix the parts defined. The churches masy now be looked at, one after another, and the story Imade to j2 THE CATHEDRAL CHIURCII OF ENGLAND FIGURE 24 York 122-1I407 VIEw FRONt \\ -ST West Window, 1338. Centr;l Tower, 1389-140o run along an approximately correct chronological line. We may be able to find much that is attractive and informing other than what we have already seen. _ A verv venerable church has left its relics on the Island of Iona. (Figure i.) It has already been alluded to. ' ou will observe that even at its early date 53 TIE CATHEDRAI Cllt'RCII OF ENGLAND the seventh centurv - it had been built in a location with attractive surroundings, up on a small island on the west coast of Scotland with the water of a sound of the same name between it and the rather austere-looking mainland the Ross of Mlull. lona is most vitally important in the militant history of religion in Ireland and Scotland and is identified with the memory of St. Columba a tempestuous, able, and war-like abbot-presbvter born in the sixth century (52I) who came to Iona in 563 and was the founder of the building wahose ruins, with those of its successors, remain today. The original structure was all but destroyed bv Norse rovers at the end of the tenth century (986) and rebuilt in o,7. \When the Roman religious orders were established in the island, the present buildings arose (1273). The interest in its history, however, is concentrated in its earliest beginnings under St. Columba. The structure is of good proportion, the tower notably so. Before the place was entirely abandoned, the nave had had the usual communication with the choir through the large arches built in the lower part of the tower wnalls. These i4 TIE CATIEDRAL CIULRCII OF ENGLAND FIGuRIE 25 Peterborough I 17-1145 L - I \\Wi:s FRONT, C. 1337 openings were filled up at some later period. They are still visible, however, in the walling immediately below the lines showing the connection of the former and fallen roof, with the tower, and were pointed. Some of the details are interesting. Among them are the heads of the windows and doors which were in simple pointed form and the large doorway with its well-moulded arch and jambs. THE CATHEDRAL CHL'RCH OF ENGLAND There still remains at the tops of the tower and the walls, an arcaded cornice. The church had also a regular orientation east and west and seems to have been, in great part, builded or remodelled in the Early English period. \\hen complete it was a sightly object. The story of its erection and then its abandonment, if known in fullness of detail, would be interesting reading. Canterbury has the finest of the English fronts, with the splendid feature of two western towers, and possesses all of the inspiring dignity that belongs so peculiarly to a detail of such magnitude. The front is entirely out of the class of those called 'frontispieces,' as that of \Wells in Figure I9 (or plan on p. 80o), or Salisbury in Figure 22, or vet in Peterborough in Figure 25, and about which more will be written later. The group of three towers is more effective than the group of three spires and will be so conceded when a studious comparison is made with the cathedral at Lichtield (Figure 26), beautiful as the latter is. A well-designed and wellplaced central tower, added to the western towers, has an effect only surj(~ TlHE CATHEDRAL. CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 26 I ichfictId 1200-1250 I I.=,., ~~'* j \NEST FRONT, 1273 passed by a great dome. The towers, as details, give cohesion to all the other parts of the design, and when the central one has a superior emphasis, because of greater size or better placement in the composition and is, withal, beautiful in itself as Canterbury's is, the effect is unparalleled. Compare the central towers of Winchester (Figure 3) and Hereford (Figure 30) to see how ineffective a great feature can be. 57 THE CATHEDRALI (it 1RCI( OF ENGLAND On the front of Canterbury, between the buttressed towers, is the very broad, spacious, and richly-wrought west window and, beneath it, a very insignificant doorway. You will soon observe that relatively small dimensions and unimportant treatment is the consistent method of dealing with the portals of the cathedrals. W\hen we compare the latter with those of the great French churches, the astonishing difference becomes apparent and puzzling. The architecture of this cathedral is most elegant, finished, cultured, contained. It has nothing of the austerity that one sees in Durham or Lincoln and is not at all like that of sophisticated Salisbury. The entrance doorway is small but raised to importance by being set in an unusual porch of which, however, it is not the principal feature; it is almost lost in competition with the galleried sculptures and is wholly forgotten w hen one has entered the cathedral's impressive interior. The study of the exterior is indeed a delight to an architectural devotee for it is so full of architectonic value and wonderful historic content. It has great xariet\y - a very unusually modelled 48 THIE CATI HEDRAL (:H1 UlRCI( 1 F ENGLAND FIGtURE 27 Exeter I279-1291 \\VI- T FRONT, 1331-1350 fabric; Norman towers and chapels alternatin( with later structural changes and additions - all easily recognized and at the far east end a circular chapel as the church's termination, -a novel and interesting detail. All are merged into a charmingly phrased perspective to which the ever-beautiful trees, as an architectural adjunct, lend so much character. \\ hen one passes around to the north side of the church (Figure 2) and enters 59 TIHE (ATIEDRAL CHlURCH OF ENGLAND the Deanerv Gardens, one sees this English 'house of God' in its finest aspect and one more or less typical for all the great cathedrals - varied and rich in outline, impressive in dimension and distances and architectural variety, and always w ith the never-to-be-forgotten trees. About a continental church a tree is a novelty. England's churches seem to have required this beauty of nature added to that of the architecture, in order to make the latter the more distinctive and telling. From this loveIl spot, the view of the sanctuary is most attractive. It is its north side. Far to the right are the western towers on the front of the church; the choir bulks at the left and above it is the central tower, unrivalled in design. Not only is the cathedral verv beautiful but it is also very venerable and full of years, having been completed more than seven centuries ago. The interior, in Figure 46, is a view looking west and taken from a point in front of the high altar; it is amazin, and turns a sense of immense size into reality. Beyond the 'crossing' is the nalve, commencing at the line of the dark ()o THE CATIEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 28 W\inchester 1-6-1093 v i~g^\r y;,;t I I,"). 4 S WEST FRONT Remodelled, 1 360-1366 archway, its ceiling showing in lighter tone in the illustration. At the far end the great west window may! be discerned. The length is vast, both apparent and actual, as previously told. But its proportions do little to emphasize the really splendid height; vet Canterbury has a vaulted ceiling whose apex is eighty feet above the pavement of the church. In spite of its vastness it maintains its architectural calmness. Compare it with a similar view of the famous French I! IIIE CATIEDRAL CIURCI OF ENGLAND cathedral at Amiens, whose ceiling trembles with altitude, sixty feet higher than Canterbury's vault. (Figure 47.) One gets immensity in the French church but fails to get anything of a personal connection with the building. It is magnificent and also big, but does not touch one's inner feelings. Then remember that there are some ten other cathedral churches in France, each higher than English Canterbury, one even with a height of one hundred and forty-two feet -- Beauvxais, shown in Figure;; - almost twice as high as the church we are trying to know about. Another comparison of value is with an interior with an altitude still more formidable - a stone vault finished at one hundred and fifty-two) feet above its pavement. This is the great cathedral at Cologne. (Figure 48.) But Canterbury does not suffer by any of the comparisons with these great ceilings. Their study makes the vitality of the English proportions and architectural environments not only the more evident but places the noble churches in a class bv and peculiar to themselves, and, further, shows the potent difference between the cathedrals of the two countries. Of the 62 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 29 Lichfield I200-I250 ENTRANCE DooRWAY, I 27( interiors of Canterbury, Amiens, Cologne -the greatest Gothic trio in the world the lower and English one gets more closely to one's fundamental sentiments. You cannot love either Amiens or Cologne, for Vyou never stop wondering at them. Then, when one goes into the nave of Canterbury, passing beyond the roodscreen at the west end of the choir, and 63 TIHE CATHEDRAL CIHLRCII OF ENGIAND still looks west, one has, as shown in Figure 49, a view of the extreme end of the dignified nave and the rich window terminating it. The portion of the building shown here is a very fine design and will compare without loss with any other similar interior. It was built about a hundred, years after the cathedral at Amiens had been completed. The many vertical lines of the shafts clustering around the piers give stately effect and lend to the impression of a very considerable height. The plain untreated piers of the choir have an almost opposite effect. (See Figure 46.) The figure al so exhibits the difference between the vaults of the choir and those of the nave, the former built in connection with the original building, the latter about two hundred years later. A view of the cloisters of this cathedral with their elaborately designed tracery is given in Figure 6-. This particular part of the structure shows, to some extent, how the fabric was altered from time to time during the buildingr operations of the successive bishops. The chapter house, the upper part of which is above the cloisters at the right, is original Norman work and has its 64 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 30 Hereford I(099-I I I5 \IEW FROM NORTHEAST characteristic forms and details. Note the round shafts with cushion capitals in the range of windows and the blind arches at the second stage of the building. The wheel-window, barren in design, has the Norman ornaments previously described. Below in the cloister is pointed architecture in its later expressions. A low-pitched gable of Roman6 - TlHE CATIEDRAL CHURCl OF ENGLAND esque character completes the elevation and is embellished with a course of corbel brackets, also Romanesque. The mixture of styles here has not diminished the architectural values; it has rather made them the more individual, the more personal, and perhaps relatively more beautiful. W\\inchester has a very regular cruciform plan, a great length of nave and well-defined transepts. (Figure 3.) Because of its apparent lowness and lack of large and marked exterior features, it has the appearance of a provincial church rather than the third longest cathedral structure in England, one that may be compared with the continental church of St. Peter in Rome, or the great German cathedral on the Rhine. The view accentuates the relative lowness of the building, its several parts, and the presents quat central tower, doing nothing to overcome the impression or to give the building any emphasis. It is, howev-er, fair to the cathedral to record that the existing tower replaces the original that fell in 120,7. The builders of the newer one, mavhap, erred on the side of caution; yet the ()(} THE CATHEDRAL CHIURCH OF ENGLAND church seems to be waiting for something to happen. The illustration gives the usual happy environment of trees and beautiful objects of the country-side. The choir when looked at carefully is seen to be built after the method of correct Gothic design, with buttresses and with windows filled with rich tracery in the stvie of the later manifestations of the English manner. The date of this choir falls in the fourteenth century. The east end, beyond which the lower buildings of the retro-choir and the lady chapel extend, has an ornate gable, on either side of which are elaborated corner towers. Below the gable is the great window, exceedingly rich in tracery but which for our study may best be seen in the interior view of the cathedral. (Figure 52 or 78.) The transepts have strong projection and for the most part belong to the Norman fabric of the eleventh century (Io76-og93). As an ensemble the cathedral as shown in the illustration is very attractive. The west front, however, is a somewhat monotonous composition without marked unity of design and consists of an apparently straight wall, divided into 67 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND three portions,-a buttress and a pinnacle at either extremity and two strongly projecting buttresses on either side of the central section. (Figure 28.) Between the two larger buttresses is placed the huge window, designed in the bald 'perpendicular' style. It has been curiously planned so that its width shall be the entire width of the nave within. The lateral windows are too large architecturally and compete for position in the design, rather than relinquishing the place of importance to the main window. Below these windows is the main entrance door, insignificant in importance and conception. The strength of the central buttresses gives the needed dignity to the front and, with the somewhat sparse enrichment, keeps the composition from being commonplace. The arrangement of its parts hinders one getting from it a correct notion of the real magnitude either of it or of the building of which it is the front. The very marked horizontal division, in addition to being low in itself, is an unfortunate element of the design. \inchester's front, however, is not an unattractive one by any means, but it is not actually beautiful; it has, 68 THE CATHIEDRAL CIIURCIIOF, ENGLAND FIGURE 31 Ely 117-I 133 \\NESTEI'N TOWER AND NA VE St. Catherine's Chapel at base of Southwcst Tra nsept and to a marked degree, the architectural quality of 'stle. No cathedral in England has a finer nave. (Figure 52.) Canterbury and Lincoln are not excepted. It is extremely dignified. It is on a larger scale than Lichfield and its beauty is more grandiose. Its architectural system is peculiarly well-ordered and has all the 69 Tll< CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND best features of the best English Gothic. Better than any other interior does it show sustained architectural accent. One can scarcely believe that all the maze of line, of shaft, and of arch, that today makes up the total of its richness, covers over a stern and characteristic Norman construction such as one sees in the nave of Gloucester cathedral. (Figure 35 and plan on p. I-8.) W\"hen its bishop began to rebuild his church, he did not tear down his older building; he just overlaid it with the newer construction in the later and current style, paring off the old walls where necessary for his richer sanctuary. If you go further into the choir, a truly magnificent sight will greet and grow upon you. (Figure 78.) The great window is finely designed and is of telling proportion, fine in placement and of untold value to the end of the church; and under it is the superb and enormous reredos built in lustrous white stone, rich in sculpture and architectural form. This end of the church is architecture at its best as decorative art. * * * The view of the cathedral of Gloucester shown in Figure 4 docs not indi-o THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 32 Lincoln I 192-1200 TOW\ER W\IT!H NAVE AND T-RANSEPr 1237-1301 cate any feature in a distinct detail other than the general proporti,,ns of the mass of the fabric and the central tower as related to it; but it is another instance of the beauty of the English settings that are of so much import to the artistry of the great sanctuaries. All the surroundings of whatever description the country at large, the fields, the hills, the trees and the -I THIl CATIII-DRAI CHURCH OF ENGLAND pools - have been made or have been developed into parts of the composition, and with the buildings make of them a series of pictures differing from any other in existence. The cathedral is shown from the southeast and has the choir to the right and the central tower and transept in the middle of the view. The first building on the site was erected in the years between 1089 and I 1OO, and for three and a half centuries went through many changes and alterations, just as in Winchester, without the tearing dowsn of the entire original Norman fabric. It is written that so well was the church builded that even after all the work on the later structural modifications, "strange to say, scarcely a settlement of any kind can be seen." It is a remarkable building indeed to have been able to be radically altered and then to have remained for a period of about seven hundred years without developing some weakness. The tow\er, whose height is about two hundred and twenty-five feet, is of very graceful design and is, naturally, the nlmst inmpressive feature of the exterior view. The nave, looking wvest from the' crossing' under the tower and towards the THE CATHEDRAI CHUR(CH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 33 Salisbury I220-I2 -6 VIEW FROM NOPTHEAST Spire, 1331 great window, shows the Norman work of the original church. (Figure 35.) Photographs are the best means, other than an actual visit, for obtaining a really competent understanding of the interior, or of any other interior, in fact, where the scale of the details is verv large, as in this cathedral. The nave is a powerful design. It speaks of strength, not beauty; of virility, not elaboration. The effect 73 TIIE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND given by the rows of apparently closely spaced and massive round piers, of great relative height and stunning solidity, is extraordinarily fine, and the arches they carry are not less so. The latter are carved with the aggressive zigzag and billet ornament of the peculiarly masculine Norman method; there is no instance of these builders having used in their carved enrichments the more gracious decoration by foliage, either natural or conventionalized. The piers or columns are very large in diameter and height and of ponderous effect. The vaulting is extremely simple and of an early type, having been erected in the middle of the thirteenth century (1242). It replaced the original ceiling, burned at the end of the preceding century. It has been remarked already that the ceilings of the Norman churches, when first built, were of wood and were later replaced by stone vaultings, the notable exceptions being the naves of Ely and Peterborough cathedrals, both of which retain the painted reminiscences of their first treatment. (Figure 42.) 'You mn!- be able to note in Figure 35 that the vaulting at the far end of the 74 TIlE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 34 Exeter 1279-1291 VIEW FROM NORTHWEST nave and adjacent to the window is of different style and much more elaborate in treatment. This is an instance of the cumulative construction done bv one bishop after the other in proportion as they had ambition for a richer church and could command the necessary funds. The great window filling the end of the church is in the stvIe described as 'perpendicular' and is a most excellent 7, > TIlE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND composition, very dignified, and here a satisfactory termination of the Norman nave in addition to its being an unusually happy instance of the 'perpendicular' Gothic. One has but to turn around and Iook upwards, to see a vastly different character of vault in the ceiling of the choir of the same cathedral (Figure 58). It is just as elaborate as that of the nave is simple. (Compare Figure 35.) The impressive dignity of the work of an earlier date has been replaced by an extreme and restless treatment; it is possible to study out the lines if one so wishes; but the design does not come at a glance as does the vaulting system of the nave. It has a date of about one hundred years later than the nave's ceiling. The next step in constructive design of the stcene ceilingr, and perhaps quite logicalv, was the fan-vaulting; but wonderful though it may be, architecture lost something when its practitioners and patrons sought for striking effects and amazing construction. It is said that the fan-vaulting originated in the very fine cloisters of this same cathedral of Gloucester, to which reference will be made immediately. 76 TlE CATHEDRAL CHURCI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 35 Gloucester I oJ-I 100 to,e I, INTERIOR OF NAVE, LOOKING \\ESI Norman Nxivc \aulted, 1239- 1242 These cloisters are the most celebrated in the kingdom. (Figure 70.) The ceiling is a splendid and perfect example of fan-vaulting at its best, is detailed in a very rich manner, and has marvellous effect of perspective. It is well to remember that the craftsnanship necessarv to actually build these intricate ceilings and windows and the great cathedrals to which they w-ere attached, was in its wa- the counterpart of the THE CATHI-DRAL CHttRCH OF ENGLAND skill required to design them effective team-nwork with wonderful results. The cloisters Awere erected between 135 and I412 and are glazed. If one were not wholly occupied in wondering at the ceiling and the beauty of the perspective, a distinct loss of values would be felt because of the presence of glass. It interferes with a free extent of seeing and materially affects the impression of largeness. Glazing, however, was peculiar to the English cloisters by reason of the climate. Of fan-vaulting other examples may be seen at Peterborough (Figure 63), at El-, at Oxford, at Canterbury in its north transept; its apogee was in Henry VII's chapel at \\estminster. Keeping Gloucester's very beautiful cloistered walk in one's mind, a few continental cloisters may be studied for conmparisons. The first is connected with the church of St. Gregory at Valladolid in Spain. (Figure -2.) The designer of this composition has evidently put clear sunlight on his architectural palette. It is southern in its brightness and Spanish in its extreme elaboration. One might wish to add to the picture a green-laden 8 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 36 Durham I095-1I33 INTERIOR OF NAVE, LOOKING \\EFST Vaulted, 1133. West \indow, 1341.. 1133. nd~v 1341I~ bough of a tree to go athwart the brilliancy and perhaps increase the beauty. There is no suggestion of glazing in this cloister and there was no need for it. The second is at the monastery of Belem at Batalha in Portugal, and is fully able to tell its own tale. (Figure I.) Nor is glass here nor in the third example - the famous and enchanting cloister of the church of San Paolo in Rome. (Figure 73.) This is most charming and fanciful in design, strictly, 79 TIHE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND vet freely Renaissance in character, rich with mnostic-inlav in the friezes and on the columns, the whole made the more grateful as a place of retreat by the shrubs and plants that grace the space the walls enclose. All these southern cloisters are beautiful in design and have individual claims for attractiveness. They are responsive to their respective environments. But one is inclined to look at them more as examples of architecture and feels no readiness to substitute them for the very personal English compositions. * * * Durham is one of the very venerable members of the fraternity of English cathedrals, founded and carried to its present-dyiv completion under the sixth bishop of the See. (Figure;.) As long ago as the year o1095 it was commenced, and in the years that followed soon after the usual additions and changes were made until the coning of the fifteenth century, when the work was practically finished. One walks down the treebordered road in front of the church set in its place at the top of the bluff on the far side of the river - named Wear and soon reaches the Prebend's <So, THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 37 Lincoln I 192-I200 INTERIOR OF NAVE, LOOKING \Gi.-T I260-I280 Bridge, a sightly construction; then crossing over the slow-moving stream, one enters a broad path on this side leading down to the water, when in front of him and abov\e his eves appears this v iew of Durham's inspiring pile lifting its three towers and splendid bulk with supreme dignity. All this is not very fully expressed in the picture nor in the words tha:t try to tell of it. 8i TIlI- CATHIIDRAL CIURCH 01' ENGLAND None other of the great English cathedrals has such an appearance of withdrawal or aloofness as Durham on its high seat. Severe in character and outline, it has, in views from any considerable distance, apparently less than the usual abundance of architectural detail, and its effect thus becomes one of general form, proportion, and balance; vet the beauty of the situation is a conspicuous asset of its impressiveness, and the quality loses little of its power even when winter has bared the branches of the trees and stiffened the river; the dignified shrine of St. Cuthbert still remains forbidding and majestic. The closer view, in Figure I7, gi'es the cathedral with a more discernible detail and shows particularly well the somewhat unusual feature of a Galilee Porch, built at the front and beneath the large west window (1133-1153). This Galilee is also the lady chapel and is an unique instance of its occurrence at the west end of a cathedral church. It found itself there, not by preference of the location but because when its bishopbuilder conmmenced it in the canonical place at the east end of his church, and there appeared nany cracks and defects 82 THE CATHEDRAL CHIURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 38 Lincoln 1192-1200 I *l i J,^ ^ II, I EI INTERIOR, LOOKING W\NEST THROU'GH CHOIR Nave Vaulted, I260. Choir Vaulted, 1209-1235 due to the work done on previous constructions at the spot, it was accepted as an indication that the place was acceptable neither to God nor St. Cuthbert, and the other end of the building was tried. The western towers, up to a line just above the great window, belong to the original structure of some eight hundred 83 TIE CATII:IDRAL CHURCI OF ENGLAND years ago. Their upper parts, very varied and most excellent in design, were built in the early part of the thirteenth century. A specially interesting detail of the front is the large semicircular arch shown immediately above the window. It is a portion of the first building operations. The window itself was built two and a half centuries after the cathedral was founded. The central tower is of noble proportions but entirely a later erection - finished in 1480. Its predecessor the old Norman tower has wholly disappeared. Other features of the edifice may be studied in this view with advantage to one's architectural knowledge. The interior of the nave is both impressive and solemn. (Figure 36.) It is a combination of great vir(or and power. Its parts are massive and even its minor details approach the heroic in size; but the picture does not give the effect one receives when the huge piers can be actually touched and the hands laid into the decorative patterns cut inches deep on their surfaces. The general notion tof the unit of the dcesign of the cathedral building is here clearly shown at the middle of the nave 84 TIlE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 39 Lichfield 1200-I 250 INTFRIOR, LOOKING EAST Presbytery, 1325 wall, where you can see a complete modulus- or theme, so to speakmade up of two arches supported at their further ends on square piers and at the centre on the huge cylindrical pierthe latter between the two former. This unit is repeated, as you will see, throughout the composition, with more or less variation. On all sides of the square piers are grouped smaller plain columns. 85 TIll' CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND On the face of the pier towards the nave, shafts attached to the stonework run up through the triforium and clear-storyor the upper parts of the nave walls to receive and carry the ribs of the vaulting of the ceiling. These are very important architectonic members, as they effectually tie the several parts of the design together into an organic whole. Further on in this book the criticism here made will help to show their importance as functions of a design, particularl- when they are absent. The arches smaller in height than the arches of the nave, and show n in the stage inmmediately above the latter, are in that portion of the system called the triforium and which opens into the space over the vaulted ceiling of the aisle of the church and the roof just over it. This roof may be seen in many of the exterior views of the cathedrals shown on these pages. Above this and between the vaulting ribs of the ceiling are the windows of the clear-story, the principal source of light for the interior of the cathedral. Mlanv of the details may be recognized as having been described earlier in this writing. You may be 86 TIHE CATHEDRAL CIIURCI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 40 Salisbury I2i8-I258 INTURIOH, LOOKING; \NiL_ able to decipher in the illustrations the characteristic Norman decorative treatment of the arches. The ceiling vaulting is the original construction of about 133. It is very direct and simple; compare it with the ceiling of Gloucester's choir showxn in Figure;8. The west window does not impress the writer as being of more than ordinary quality; this is very evident if it be studied in comparison with such an one as that of Gloucester shown in 8 - TIHE CATHEDRAI CHURCH OF ENGLAND Figure 3;, or of Canterbury, in Figure 49, both west windows. A 'hand-book' detail may be of interest when one studies the nave of Durham; it is written to enable the reader to get a notion of the scale of the interior. The pier, with the clustered columns, covers an area of two hundred and twentv-five feet on the floor - that is, a space fifteen feet lon(r and the same in width. The cylindrical piers are twenty-three feet in circumference or, say, seven and a half feet in diameter. These dimensions are really huge and, when they are comprehended, the impressiveness of the entire structure keeps pace with the knowledge of them. The choir is shown in Figure 43. The architectural system of the nave is continued into it. The most outstanding detail, the rose window -in itself unEnglish - is meagre and not conspicuous as a successful composition. It would take much rich glazing to overconle the poverty of the design. If you will look at a real French rose window, a detail in which the Gallic architects excelled infinitely well, you will see how poor Durham's window is. Look at Figures 13 and 47 aind then back again at Fig88 THE CATIEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 41 York I 125-I4O0 CHOIr, LOOKING EAST, \\ITH IADY CHAP'EL 1362-1 372 East W indow, J4Oure 43. The English architects could not make the window English enough to merge it into a cathedral structure belonging peculiarly to their own island styles. It was not lack of ability nor timidity in design nor the technique of construction, for their cathedrals emphaticallv testify to the contrary. They did not feel the feature well enough to design it and produce something that would compete with the French artists. 8X, TIlE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND Their energies or inclination followed differing paths and attained different vet most beautiful results. The lower part of the choir is ineffective and it is so because of the interferences of the altar screen and the window system behind it; the former is a very elaborate construction (1380), but is a detail composed entirely for itself. Altar screens of very much better relative design can be seen in the cathedrals of Lichfield (Figure 39) and of Ely (Figure 45). See also plan on page I-9. The exterior of Norwich cathedral, in Figure 6, is striking and promises an architectural interest that a closer investigation does not make (good. Many details are attracti-ve both in themselves and because of their places in architecturaI history; but there are others that neither merit attention nor are particularly good in design. No question can arise as to the beauty, the distinction, and artistic excellence of the interior. The view in this illustration of the outside of the church is the most telling the cathedral has to offer. The spire is very effective. The square tower on which it stands is Nor,,man work of quite go THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 42 Ely I I07-1133 INTERIOR, LOOKING W\EST THROUGH CHOIR With Octagon at Crossing. 1323-1362 unusual detail. The present spire, after a number of vicissitudes to its predecessor, burning being the last, did not come into existence until the latter part of the fifteenth century (1446-1472). To find its place as a design, compare it with the spire of Salisbury cathedral shown in Figure 68. The semicircular east end with which 9i TIE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND the cathedral was first built has been retained and is shown in this view; in connection with it are the pronounced flying-buttresses and the Iarre, ornate clear-story windows that stand between them. Almost all the round ends which their earIy masons constructed in the Norman manner have been replaced by the square English type. The remains of the earlier parts are often uncovered, and it is interesting when it is found that they have been buried somewhere in the later erections and preserved for a possible discovery long years after, rather than destroyed completely. Another very curious and unbeautiful feature is the broad windows with square heads seen just below where the flyingbuttresses begin to rise upwards. They are built so high on the outer walls of the aisles that the roofs of the latter are compelled to be almost flat in order not to interfere with the clear-story windows above; the result is the loss of a very effective roof detail; the design suffers thereby. Study this feature comparatively as it is shown in many of the views of exteriors. The exterior of the nave walls, of which but a fraction is shown in the <2 TIE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 43 Durhtam I095-1I33 CHOIR, LOOK!NG EAST 1236-1290 figure, is an interesting piece of the originat Norman work, not much disturbed by alteration. The west front, fortunately not among the ilustrations in this book, is a most inept and inartistic piece of design. In general it has sone resemblance to the front of the cathedral of \\inchester in the divisions and treatment, and an 03 THE CATHI-DRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND approximate idea of it can be obtained by looking at the latter front in Figure 28. Norwich's front is certainly neither worth serious study nor vet a visit. The interior will not disappoint either in splendid general effect or most interesting architectural design. (Figure 53.) The nave is genuine Norman work which one rejoices to see. It was built in the half dozen decades beginning in I091 and shows, with definition, the architectural divisions of the main walls of a cathedral structure the nave arcade - the triforium and the clearstory. The ponderous forms of the details, the round arches and virile proportions that belong to the undisturbed and unmodified Norman style, lend vastly to an effect of solidity, permanency, poise, and dignity. The ceiling vault was built late in the fifteenth century and is in the style called 'perpendicular' and is recognizable by the short cross ribs in addition to the main structural ones. The former add to the intricacy and restlessness of effect, but not to greater beauty nor strength and stability of the vault. The choir and presbvtery, in Figure 54, is a lofty impressive interior with the THE CATIIEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 44 York 1225-1407 INTERIOR OF NAVE, IOOKING WEST Nave, I291-134;. We\tst W\indow, i338 French semicircular end (already spoken about), beautiful windows, and elaborate ceiling. The lower arcade at either side (shown in the brighter portion of the picture) is built with 'four-centred' arches that belong to the 'perpendicular' style - also known as 'Tudor work' and much out of keeping with the architecturaI spirit of the rest of the building. They are the hither end of the A)) TIlE CATIEDRAL CHURCI OF ENGLAND architectural path whose beginning is shown in the Norman arches above them and around them at the semicircular end of the church, back of the high altar, both in the triforium and the nave level. A comparison picture (Figure 55) is the interior of the French church at Beauvais, also planned with a round end and whose date is the middle of the fourteenth century (I 33-) and can be studied to advantage for the difference between an English and a French expression of the same feature. This French building was erected to surpass the height of the cathedral at Amiens ( 42' vs. I40'), civic emulation being the inspiration rather than the particular beauty of the building. The mental effect of the interior, while fine, is almost wholly restricted to loftiness and wonderment; that of Figure 54 exhibits an adequate loftiness and at the same time most excellent and normal architectural proportions and taste, together with a spaciousness rivalling anything on the continent. In addition it has poise. Hereford has neither a larre nor a striking- cathedral church. The most attractive view of it is across the town. <,(~ THE CATHEDRAL CIURCH OF~ ENGLAND FIGULR l 45 EIy 1 107-1133 CHOIR AND EAST W\INDOW I22)(- 1254. Neither has its plan nuch of unity, a quality that should and could exist at the same time with variety even where the latter has been carried to, an extreme. \\hen one studies the plan technically, it does not give a sense o(f coherence; it has the effect of a building made up from an unordered aggregatio)n of parts, and the view given in the figure seems to tell the same tale. (Figure 3o.) It was pri TIHE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND mariIl of Norman origin, of which many interesting parts still remain,and has had the usual modification and addition so conlmon to its fellow cathedral structures. The central tower misses of effect; it appears to have sunken into the building; in some views it is more justly seen and with greater satisfaction. In its later parts the church is notable as a fine example of a building in the Decorated style. The treatment of the upper part of the wall of the lady chapel - the structure at the left of the picture - is very successful and is characteristically Norman. The cathedral repays a conscientious study and is well worth a visit if only to reproduce before one's eves the view of it given in Figure The period of its original construction was from the end of the eleventh century (1099), extending a few years into the twelfth century (I I ),-sixteen years in all. The north transept, shown in Figure 30, was rebuilt two centuries later (I 2- 1292). Ely is an inspiring and imposing sight. (Figure 8.) In stateliness, it is surpassed only by Durham or by Lincoln. 08S THE CATHEDRAL CIURCH OF ENGIAND FIGURE 46 Canterbury 1070-I 84 INTERIOR, LOOKING THROUGH CHOIR Choir, 1175-II84. Nave, I379-1400 It seems to be placed on the ground in a particularly noble and stable manner. It is a commanding and assertive architectural entity. It has wonderful conplexity and great originality of outline. It is effective and grand as seen in this xview. Other aspects are also fine and vary continually as the larger elements of the design move on each other according as the point of view is changed 99 TIHE CATHI DRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND and new combinations are formed. This, naturally, is true only of buildings of magnitude and whose formative details are on a large scale and, furthermore, as in Ely, more or less detached the one from the other so as to allow for the apparent relative motion referred to. Buildings with groups of towers or spires or similarlyr strong features have this fortunate quality of variation of perspective. Durham and Lincoln have the advantage of naturally high situations, as each is set on a considerable hill. Elv's location is not much more than one would describe as a hillock; but the mass of its building is almost more imposing than that of the other two. It can be seen from great distances and hence, being always kept in sight and other things being equal, it is likely to grow impressive in proportion as one approaches; then the effect is coloss:a l. The cathedral has many striking features that assist in modelling a very fine sky-line, an element of the utmost importance in any architectural composition. And Ely is quite unlike anything else in this respect, for it has more than the canonical group of three towers THIE CATHEDRAL ClIURCI FIGURE 47 Amiens, France OF ENGLAND 1220 -1260 INTERIOR, LOOKING \\EST and a long line of building. Unusual features give the mass of the cathedral an unrivalled shape; they commence on the west with the superb tower of supreme stateliness, huge in dimensionaI effect, and by its easily apprehended parts has power to seize one's imagination at first sight. It gains (rreatlv in impressi'veness by an apparent stability given by the heavy south wxing with the militar\turrets. The group is stunning and has I01 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND been designed with a deliberate, sure, and experienced architectural pencil. (Figure 31.) The next great feature is the 'octagon' and its lantern at the centre of the pile (as given in Figure 8), a most unusual and effective composition as well as a splendid pendent to the tower group at the west end of the church. The bold transept and the great length are vital details of the outline. The unique central feature — the octagon and the lantern - is shown both in the general v'iew of the cathedral in Figure 8 and in closer detail in Figure 62. In the latter view the reader can also see the original north side of the church, as also the transept flanked by strong corner turrets. Beyond this is the lady chapel, attached to the transept. The picture also allows a study of the rich and excellent design of the octagon and the lantern over it. The large ornate pinnacles at the top of the former and at its many corners, and the rich arcade and parapet between them, strongly emphasize the effect of the main detail of the complete composition - the octagon - a matchless accent in t very original architectural device. The cathedral has massive propor102 THE CATHEDRAL CHIURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 48 Cologne, Germany 1248-1322 INTERIOR, LooKING EAST Spires finished 1883 tions and great length and, in addition, has the advantage of appearing as actually very long. Refer again to Figure 31, which will also show the western tower and the walls of the nave at the clear-story level. The windows in both these sections of the wall are as their Norman builders left them, the mullions and tracery Nwork being inserted at later dates. 103 TIE (ATHEDRAL CHURCII OF ENGLAND Figure 18 (rives still another view of the western front and again shows how wonderfully effective and very unusual the tower is. The entrance to the cathedral is through a Galilee Porch, a building of some size in front of the tower. Its sides are covered with four stages of blind arcading in the Early English style, very effective and very simple. Above the doorway is a group of three large lancet windows similar to the famous window in the cathedral's east end. The doorway itself the principal entrance into the building - is impressively fine and dignified and in some respects comparable to the western doorway of the cathedral of Lichfield, shown in Figure 29, but much less rich in design. At the extreme left of the illustration one can make out the old north walls. The wall of the transept is peculiarly plain. Above the roof the ornate lantern is again to be seen and is valuable especially in this picture for the effect it has in accenting the perspective. Returning to Figure 62, the almost detached square-looking structure with the large traceried window is the lady chapel. The usual place for chapels of 104 THE CATHEDRAL CHtURCH OF ENGIAND FIGURE 49 Canterburx I(oo-I I84 -fJ f.4 NAVE, LOOKING \\EST 1 3-,-1400 this dedication, as we have before seen, is the extreme east end of the cathedral. Ely and Durham are exceptional in havinog them at different locations in the plan Ely's connected with the north transept, as above, and Durham's, a Galilee Porch at the wvest end of the church. In general shape, the chapel has not much beauty- a plain rectangle; vet 10j TIlE CATHEIRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND its design is original and it is richly decorated; the plain surfaces are covered with arcades and tabernacle work and wrought pedestals for saints who are absent. Its interior is most redundant in its sculptured, decorative treatment undescribable without it before one's eves; the carving of the wall arcade elaborate in the extreme. It is a result following naturally from the material in which it is built a soft material, chalk stone that lends itself easily to a facile chisel, and architectural and sculptural forms present no difficulty in execution. The two large windows at either end of the room are filled with clear, uncolored glass and give a garish and inartistic effect to the interior. The years of its building were from I321 to I349. The interior of the cathedral, inadequately shown in Figure 42, is an extraordinarv composition great length -great richness great dignity - unusual features as effective as they are unusual (such as the vaulting under the octagon at the crossing o(f the nave and transepts) -the ceiling of the nave St. Catherine's chapel, a wonderful chamber in almost pure Norman style. I () THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 50 Exeter 1279- 1 2) I INTERIOR OF CHOIR, LOOKING WEST I30o<-1369 Remodelled in 1390 The choir, in Figure 42, has an extremely ornate interior and was built in two periods of time with a break of more than a century between them, or about fifty years in all. The vaulting is of two classessimple for several of the bays at the far east end, and rich and late between that point and the west end of the choir 107 TlHE CATtEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND where it terminates under the famed octagon. Figure 42 shows the nave as still retaining its original wooden ceiling. This portion of the fabric, therefore, was not vaulted in stone when the church was first built. It makes a verv fine and artistic picture over the roodscreen and appearing just under the ribs of the octagon's vaulting. Looking further into the eastern part of the church there is to be seen a wvindow composition than which there is nothing finer in England (Figure 45), not excepting Carlisle (Figure -7). The latter is wonderfully rich in its tracery; the former is wonderfully simple, consisting of two tiers of perfectly plain lancet openings, three in the lower and five in the upper, put together with a consummate artistic feeling. The window is magnificent and has a thrilling dignity. Professor Freeman has said of it that "it is the grandest example of the grouping of lancets." It makes an extraordinarv sigrht as one enters the cathedral at the far-away other end. The effect over the highly-wrought altar is superb, and no detail of it or about it disturbs the impressiveness. I oS THE CATHEDRAI CIURCHI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 51 Exeter 1279-1291 CHOIR, LOOKING EAST I279-1291 Remodelled - 1390 The architectural treatment of the choir is elaborate, yet most excellent, and so are the ecclesiastical furnishings; but the change from richness of architecture and altar and furnishings, to the dignified simplicity of the vast window and the equally simple vaulting over it, does not make one feel that there is anv abruptness or a marked change, for it is all on a very high plane of artistry. 09 TIHE CATHEDRAI CHURCH OF ENGLAND The most striking interior detail is the huge octagon at the crossing and its intricate vaulting. (Figure 5-.) This was built after the collapse of the piers at the crossing of the nave and transepts. No attempt to rebuild the fallen piers was made; instead a novel and daring design was essayed a great octagonal structure with a lantern above it -all carried by a vaulting ingeniously supported (in principle) on the construction that was undisturbed by the disaster. The device may be readily and intelligently studied and understood from the picture and, better, from the technical plan of the building. The net result of the method employed was that there was, practically, built in a Gothic cathedral a dome carried on a pendentive system a system peculiar to the churches in the so-called classical stvIe. The detail will surrender itself to a little critical study of the illustration. As a whole it is a very magnificent idea, grand in its conception, powerful in its effects, and well fitted to a church structure so notable for its other incomparable features. Unfortunately the construction is of wood, as is also the lantern up to which it leads. The I() THE CATIlLDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE S2 \\inchester 1 -5-I i84 j I Vt ~Ir r' V I-NT-RIOR, LOOKING EAST ClIoir rebuilt later. Nave, I3-I - 146)' octagon was commenced nearly hundred years ago. SIx Peterborough cathedral (Figure 25), in its wav, is as remarkable a church as Ely. It has many outstanding features like the latter, but none of them impresses one as do those of the other sanctuary; and further, there is not the unmistakable mark of genius on its composition that is everywhere visible at III THE (ATHEDRAL (I URCI OF ENGLAND the shrine in the latter town. The fabric is very much extolled and defended, perhaps gratuitously, by those to whom it is of special interest; but the architectural critic may find abundant grounds for his rejoinders. The greater part of the building other than its front is a very consistently complete Norman structure built between the Xears I I 7 and I 14;, the front being constructed in another style in 133-. But when one has exhausted the study of the interesting architectural detail in itself and the local parts of the composition and commences to view it as a whole conception as it now stands, both as an interior and an exterior, then one will find a number of facts connected with its design and artistic qualities that are not wholly satisfying and that one readily notices. It is not a compelling composition either for dignity or stateliness - in fact, it has none of the latter qualities. It has been said that much of the serious study that might be given to the building as a whole is diverted to an undue admiration or querulousness about its amazing west front. W\ere it a complete and approximately coherent design, such I 12 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGILAND FIGURE 53 Norwich 1096-1133 INTERIOR OF FNAVE, LOOKING EAST Ceilin:i, 14-2-1499 comment could not have been justly made. The front, bv itself, is looked at by the critics from points of view quite the opposite of one another. Fergusson writes "It is the grandest front in Europe"; Freeman, "that it is old Greek translated into the finest English." It appears to the writer, however, as a daring frontispiece designed wholly for 113 TIHE CATHEDRAL CIHURCII OF ENGLAND itself and then attached to a cathedral building as best it may be. It is not a culmination of a design of, nor an architectural expression of, the structure whose front it is; it does not accord with the width of the nave, nor does its outer and cavernous vaulted recesses, of great pnoportional altitude, agree with or tell in any way of the building behind them or of anv other of the great structural fumiatrons. It is not a preparation to the building whose chief expression it should be. It could be applied to any other ecclesiastical building of large dimensions. One writer, and he is an eulogist, says "that it the recessed front is rather a porch or a piazza than a front." All this does not mean that the front is necessarily inartistic but that it is scarcely in accordance with the canon of good architectural design. This elevation is freely admitted to be unusual and astonishing, and has immensity of effect; yet it is not supremely beautiful. It is a novel and elaborate essay in architecture, very fine as architecture whose attractiveness is to be found in striking originality and audacity. The fact that most interests us here is th.it xith the exception of the 14 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 54 Norwich 1096- 133 CHOIR, LOOKING EAST 1472-1499 central porch and the spires surmounting the front, it is built in the best and purest Early English style of architecture, which style is the language of so many of the preenminently beautiful cathedral churches. There is a similarity of idea between the facades of Peterborough and Lincoln, the latter to be discussed later in these pages. Lincoln's front is seen in Figure I 1I TIHE CATIEDRAL CHURCII OF ENGLAND 21. Both fronts are wide, screen-like compositions extending on each side beyond the lines of the respective buildings and each having three great arched recesses. That of Peterborough is more architectural and, compared with Lincoln, has a firmer claim to real beauty. Incidentally there are three other cathedrals with screen fronts Salisbury, Wells, and, to a lesser degree, Exeter. The interior of the cathedral is impressive but with proportions of width and length - without artistic refinement. The nave system of arches - the triforium (unusually high) and the clearstory is built in the truest Norman style in every detail. The lady chapel -here called the New Building or the Retro-choir- was commenced in 1430 and completed in i 28. (Figure 63.) Its particular feature is its ceiling, built in fan-vaulting. This class of vaulting is wonderful from a technical point of view, both for its design and execution; and here with the ornate windows (Late Decorated) makes a fine room. Its proportions are unusual and far from ecclesiastical in effect. Peterborough retains its original semicircular east end, I16 TIE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGU RE 55 Bc.,tuvzais, Fr.lncc1 1337 CHOIR but a study of it is only to be made from the exterior of the church; the lower part of the rounded plan is lost in the newer Retro-choir. Figure 9 shows a grea:t English church at Lincoln, commenced near the end of the twelfth century. It is another cathedral about which one ma- speak xwinged wo)rds - words, however, temI 17 TItE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND pered with some criticism. "It has grandeur of the whole, artistic refinement of its parts and as a complete exponent of English architecture throughout its greater period, it is a matchless example." (Scott.) It has a wonderful dignity well becoming its fine situation. Its great form is impressive to a degree, even when one is so far away that no detail can be distinguished other than the superb outlines and general mass, with the three towers dominating it; or when, from a nearer view-point, the several characteristic features and their own details begin to emerge into sight. Lincoln cannot fail to impress; it has too much of actual largeness and extent. It is on a very grandiose scale, is finely conceived and is plotted in a competent and well-ordered manner and with a keen sense of architectural climax. The figure will assist in the understanding of its general character as well as the greater and essential parts of the cathedral building. See plan, p. 181. It is true that its great front, shown in Figure 21, is subject to the same class of critical examination as was given to Peterborough's front. It may not have been designed and built, like the latter, ii{4 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 56 York I225-1407? r' " 1 1 r ( t,li| I TRANSEPT, LOOKING NORTH 1260 as a whole and all at one time, and mar not have been distinctly undertaken and intended as a frontispiece; but as it grew into a complete architectural feature such as it is, by the added and intentional work of many prelates, one after the other, it finally assumed the form we see and know and became an entity just as if so designed originally. The finished product is what one examines 119 TIE CATHEDRAL CHUR(IC OF ENGLAND critically and not the reasons by which it reached the better or worse result. Its character as a whole is evident from the illustration shown in Figure 9. Its front, like that of Peterborough, and all those cathedral churches w ith distinctivelv marked elevations that have been classed as frontispieces, is very much wider than the building back of it and does not respond to, nor explain the essential divisions of the latter and is so dissociated from it. Another questionable feature is that it is built immediately in front of the fine pair of western towers and disturbs both the forcefulness of what of them is visible and their possible purpose as important elements of a sane design, as well as covering the gable construction which oriurinally connected them with the old front. Finally, it does not consort happily with the architecture of the other portions of the fabric; that is, the elevation stands by itse' f. On the other hand, it is like Peterborough's front in that it is astonishingly original and imposing and has splendid architectural effect; it has the interesting difference that in it one may trace out the clevelopment of the composition 120 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCHI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 57 ElN, 1107 I133 1Ii 1 VAULTING OF THE OCTAGON 1323-1362 and the work of its many builders, from the oldest parts to the completed design. It is also like Peterborough in the three huge recesses, those of Lincoln having the added interest that they form the only remaining parts of the first cathedral on the site. The three doorways piercing the wtall in the Norman part of the front have 121 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCHI OF ENGLAND been well described as "the most truly exquisite specimens of the latest and most refined period of the Romanesque, just before its transition into the pointed style." (Scott.) Their round arches are barely discernible in the picture. (Figure 2I.), The facade, if one may apply that architectural term to the front of a building in the English Pointed style, is finely terminated on either extreme by octagonal stair turrets with pyramidal stone roofs. Their design is most excellent. Taken all together the front is most interesting and withal has much dignity. Just as effectively and with great beauty and variety, but with little of the severity of its Norman forbears, does the cathedral let itself be seen in Figure 65. The splendid east end with a wonderful window whose composition has the greatest architectural merit and charm, the individual chapter house and the top of the central tower, are the salient features of this illustration. One would be loath to believe that the artists who conceived this plan just happened upon an arrangement possessing such distinguished perspective value and that they did not foresee, as they Awrought 1 22 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGIAND FIGURE 58 Gloucester 1089- ioo / CEILING OF CHOIR I337-I377 out its parts, that the final picture would be one of surpassing variety and beauty. How magnificently the central tower sets in its place at the crossing of nave and transepts, and how it reigns over the design, is well told in Figure 9; and Figure 32 shows it having the same dignity and regal poise and with an approach close enough to allow one to study the fine architectural details and I23 TIE CATHEDRAI CIHURCH OF ENGLAND their relations the one to the other. The tower rises from the roofs without uncertainty and with great majesty. On the first stage, included between the bases and the ridges of the roofs, and on the second, immediately above the latter [and here entirely encircling the tower] is a fine series of unpierced arches in simple moulded lancets. Then follows a panelled band and above this, on each of the four sides of the tower, a pair of lofty windows whose vertical members, elaborately decorated with crockets, carry rich canopied heads. The peaks of the heads terminate in the ornate parapet at the top of the composition. The architectural divisions just pointed out should be attentively studied. The windows are extremely beautiful. The corners of the tower are designed with fine turrets which NwilI be seen to be verv essential elements of the whole. The towers of Lincoln and of Canterbury should be studied together; both are superb exponentsof a similar architectural feature. Incidentally it may be of interest to know that Lincoln's tower is nearly fifty-five feet square and has a height of two hundred and scventv-one feet. 124 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 59 \Wells I099-1 I LADY CHAPEL \ND (CHAPTERi HOUSE r ROM THE NORTH L:A'r 1292-131) The technique of its construction is both unusual and clever. The record has it that instead of building one heavy and solid stone wall from the tops of the nave arches at the crossing, to the top of the tower, two thinner walls were constructed, well tied together and with a considerable space between them; the result being a maximum stabilit- with a mininunm 12) TIE CATHEDRAL ChURCH OF ENGLAND load on the arches. A very little figuring of the weight of the thicker wvall Nwill show honw excellent was the device. Figure 64 shows in detail the chapter house whose general place in the composition is given at the right-hand side of Figure 65, and at the left of the cathedral in Figure 9, where its pointed roof emerges above the house tops of the town. As originally built it did not have the outlying piers and flyingbuttresses. They were added when the erection of the stone ceiling made a strain more than the walls were able to resist. The ceiling is actually of stone, not imitated in wood as at York, and so the buttresses have real work to do. It is a structure to be remarked, for it is very unusual in itself and is a most fine accent in the composition of the east end of the cathedral. The very simple wvindows are grouped in pairs of sharply pointed lancets and are not enclosed within the usual larger arch. The style of architecture is Early English. The interior of the cathedral (Figure 3-) is a view of the nave looking towards the entrance doorwav on the west. It is also in the same Early English style and 1 2() THE CATHEDRAL CHURCII OF ENGLAND FIGURE 60 York I 225-140, EAST E D Great Window, 40o-. Chapter Hlous, i?9I-I34 Central Tower, 1389- 40 -is one of the best examples of it we possess. The treatment is consistent throughout in walls as well as ceilings. The nave was completed in 1260. Quoting again from Mlr. Scott, he says of the interior "that it exhibits the Early English style in the highest stage of development... its parts symmetrically proportioned and carefully studied... and there seems to be no deficiency I2 - TIlE CATHEDRAL CHULRCII OF ENGLAND in any way to deteriorate from its merits." The great window is effective and peculiarly well designed. Figure 38 gives another picture looking towards the nave but this time through the choir, the point of view being taken immediatelv back of the altar screen. The architectural treatment of the walls of the choir is more elaborate than in the nave; the vista to the further end of the church is splendid although not quite the equal of a similar view in Canterbury. (Figure 46.) From the same point, turning about, one sees the window at the rear of the presbyter- the extreme eastern end of this church. (Figure 76.) This portion of the cathedral is, perhaps, the most beautiful of any similar part in any other of the cathedrals. of England. Lichfield is a strong competitor, but its character is wholly different. The window is magnificent and is wonderfully stately. In architectural style it may be claimed as being in the transition between the Early English and the Decorated styles, the style perhaps more precisely termed "Geometrical." But whatever the name of its style, its I28 THE CATHEDRAL CIILRCII OF ENGLAND FIGURE 61 Lichfield 1200-1250( LADY CHAPEL, 1310 beauty is wondrous. Its design is most simple and reserved, its proportions most perfect, the balancing of its parts most remarkable, and its details most beautiful. If the reader will go to Lincoln and remain before this great glazed opening, reverently studying it, he will search for more adjectives with which to express his feelings. It is such beauty as this window shows that is able to explain much of the enthusiasm exhib12() TIlE CATHEDRAL CHURCI OF ENGLAND ited when England's great cathedral period is described. Lichfield's sanctuary is a small but a most lovely one. England has nothing else with which to compare it. It is not so massive a pile that it is inappropriate to speak of it as having "charm," and this quality it does have to a remarkable degree. One's first view of the building is very likely to be the one presented in the figure Figure o -- a view showing as fine a grouping of the parts of an architectural composition as one can find anywhere. The dull red sandstone structure and the three beautiful spires rising out of the trees against the blue heavens and over the "cathedral pool," make an enchanting picture. That the people of the town and adjacent country to whom this sacred building was a frequently recurring sight, should have regarded it affectionately, is no wonder, nor vet that familiarity with it should have earned for it the intimate name of "The Ladies of the Vale." Surely no one who has seen the cathedral and its groupings and charming surroundings will readily forget the impression of a fine 13o THE CATHEDRAL CHIURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 62 Ely 1107-1133 EXTERIOR OF OCTAGON AN) LANTERN 1323-1362 Iady Chapel, 132 I-1340 architectural composition in a lovely setting. The cathedral has a very simple plan with a relatively long nave and choir - almost of the same length - and very short transepts, the latter set at about the middle of the church. The special features are few but distinctive, namely, the dignified and richly vaulted chapter 131 THE CATHEDRAL CH(21RCII OF ENGLAND house, the supremely artistic lady chapel, and the three impressive spires. The church is built, as has been stated, of dull red sandstone. W\e have no illustration in this series of the interior of the chapter house; its plan is a long octagon, vaulted in the richest manner, with many ribs spanning from the outer wall to a very beautiful single clustered shaft at the centre of the room. It is a very striking interior. (See plan on p. 182.) The west front, Figure 26, is not large, but it is unique. Broadness for effect has not been essayed by making it wider than the church building, as was undertaken at Lincoln and Peterborough and elsewhere. Lichfield's front is no wider than the combined widths of the nave and the adjacent aisles of the church behind it, and it does not lose thereby any bigness in effect. It is correct in its architectural expression. It is an exceedingly- rich elevation covered from bottom to top with arcades, panels, niches, and row upon row of sculptured.kings and saints. The first row is at the lowest stage and between the entrance doors; another is immediately above and extending the complete width of 132 THE CATHEDRAL CIHURCHI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 63 Peterborough 1117-1145 TiEF RETRO-CHOIR 1438- 128 the church, and these again are followed by two ranges above, broken into by the large window. They are continued on the sides of the towers and appear also above the doorway of the south transept. These ranks of figures must recall to the reader the fronts of two very famous French churches - one at Amiens, the other at Paris w-here similar pageants of prelates and poten'33 TlE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND tates are spread over them. Amiens is shown in Figure 23. A very subtle and artistic feature of the design of the front of Lichfield is the octagonal turret completing the outer corner of each of the towers. They deserve careful study. From the towers the spires rise out of a mass of pinnacles, and for several stages of their height have an ornate system of fenestration; above this, to the finials, they are designed with a rich and effective panelling. The central spire is apparently unornamented, save by the architectural divisions of the several ranges of unobtrusive windows. A closer examination xwill show that its raking angIes are embellished by small crockets placed in a characteristic English manner. The ensemble is superb. Only a fraction of the original external fabric is now visible, for by degrees it has been almost entirely restored, but with a restoration carried out with much painstaking adherence to former lines and details. As far as the writer can ascertain, only a very few parts have been subjected to any! newer designing, so that the cathedral nmay be taken as appearing today as it did to the build134 TIlE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 64 Lincoln 1192-1200 CHAPTER I OL'SE ers who completed it in the thirteenth century. There are three entrances on the west front (Figure 26), the Iateral one deeply recessed, ver- rich in jamb shafts and arch moulds, the latter elaborately decorated with foliage. The central doorway is most beautiful - unquestionably the most beautiful ecclesiastical doorway in the country. (Figure 29.) It is peculiarly rich in treatment, abundant in imagination, fine in proportion and 13j THE CATHIEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND balance, and exhibits genuine artistic sense. The cusping on the arch is both very effect ve and very bold. The figure sculpture is rich and well placed. The foliage deeply wrought on the inner arch, and the outer band modelled in a series of consecutive tabernacles and figures, is design and execution of the first order. England offers another design as a companion to the doorway of Lichfield the entrance to the Galilee of the cathedral of Ely, and which has already been noticed. (Figure I8.) A comparative study of the two entrances is well worth while. The doorway of Ely has marked simplicity and commanding dignity and is wholly an architectural design, fine in its conception. Lichfield's doorway is sculptural as well as architectural, and for pure artistry is an unsurpassable composition. The two might be further defined the one as classic and self-contained, the other as romantic - an ordered exuberance. Ely is strictly English; Lichfield suggests the richer character that might have been induced by influences from across the channel, and its date of 1276 would not forbid such a suggestion. 13'() THE CATIIEDRAL CIIURCH- OF ENGLAND FIGURE 65 Lincoln I 102-1200 EAST END OF THE CATHEDRAL East Window. 1260-I280. Central Tower Finished 1311 I3II The interior is shown in Figure 39 and looks toward the sanctuary end of the church, wxith the wondrously artistic windows of the lady chapel and the high altar in the distance. The unusual effect of a church with a dark east end, rather than one radiantly bright as at Lincoln or York, is a novelty in cathedral design; the emphasis to the windowv system is most telling. This interior is extremely beautiful and has conspicuous unity. In archi137 THE CATIEDRAL CHURCI OF ENGLAND tectural notation it is in the style of the transition between the Early English and the Decorated styles, a period that our studies have shown produced the most attractive, individual and normal of the truly English designs. The choir was commenced at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The ceiling is direct, easily understandable, and at the same time has great richness. The lady chapel is not in a building attached to the cathedral, after the usual manner, but opens out of the beauteous presbytery as the chief glory of the church and of this view. The complete interior of the lovely chapel with its octagonal end is shown in Figure 61. Its beauty and artistry are without flaw. The dark stone makes a background that helps to define, by contrast, the brightness and beauty of the fine glass and the exquisite tracery of the nine tall windows that gi\ve light and distinction to the unusually conceived feature. Just as effective and rich is the arcade that goes around the wall under the windows, in a series of decorative canopies. The parapet above these is fine in its relative scale, and the manner in w hich the designer has tied together the 138 THE CATHEDRAIL CHURCI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 66 Salisbl rv I220-I1258 CHAPTER HOUSE, I263-I284 Spire, 1331 arcade and the window system, by the tabernacled-niche built above the former on each of the piers between the windows, is most able and worthy of praise. The chapel in its entirety makes on the visitor the impression of stately magni icence. Salisbury is usuaIIy accorded a place as one of the great cathedrals of Eng139 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND land. One of the particular claims for the place is, that it was, with very few exceptions, built consistently in a relatively short period and in one architectural style throughout - the Early English. The exceptions are, the upper portion of the tower, the spire, and the cloisters. These are, however, so well merged into the design of the fabric that the differences of style are scarcely apparent to the layman without a previous knowledge and searching. The church was built in the years from 1220 to 1238. (Figure ii.) It is most excellent in its strict architecture of a version of a style; this is quite perfect. Its conception in a particular method of architectural expression has been carried out relentlessly to a logical conclusion; but it fails markedly in a personal element. The structure has poise, but lacks virility. It derives its chief attractiveness from its varied exterior. Its plan-form gave the promise of a very fine perspective; its execution redeemed it. The bold double transepts have I\ leading value. Over the junction of the nave with the larger of the transepts stands the mighty spire, four hundred and four feet high. In 140 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 67 Canterhurv I I" —T 184 CLOISTERS AND LIBRARY, I39 —I41I Very much altered in XV'th Centurv the figure, the grouping of the parts of the building shows much distinction. One can trace the entire church building from the east end to the finials of the front just appearing over the chapter house and get the notion of its length (4-3 feet). One can see also the upper part of the building and the two transepts, and can decipher much of the architectural detail of the walls. 141 THE (ATEDI)RAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND The tower that is, the construction up to the beginning of the spire is not as compelling a composition as is the tower of Lincoln (Figure 32), and although ornate does not develop so splendidly from the roof to its summit. (Put a card over the spire in Figure I I, and then compare its tower with that of Lincoln shown in Figure 32.) The tower and spire together, however, is certainly one of the finest compositions in Europe. Compare it if you will with the central spire of the cathedral at Rouen of about the same height. Salisbury's great central feature is surpassing in its stateliness and is imposing by its great height. Both tower and spire were added to the church about the year 1300 and are in the days of the early Decorated work. The window system, the same on the four faces of the tower, is a croup of four similar openings with canopied arches in tcwo stages, identical in design and apparent dimension. The spire is most graceful, has very subtle beauty, and rises out of the tower in a matchless manner and with great dignity. The interior of the cathedral (Figure 40) does not elicit any enthusiasm; it 142 THE CATIEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 6S Salisbury 1220-1258 EXTERIOR OF CLOISTERS, 1263-1264 Spire, 1331 is frigid, precise, commits no outstanding vagaries, is apparently correct in design and architecturally, as it should be. W\hy it should not be able to claim applauding attention may be difficult both to understand and to explain. It has length, good vaulting, consistent treatment, good proportions; but it has neither variety nor vigor. How far this may be due, at least in part, to the ar143 TlE CATIEDRAL CHURCt OF ENGLAND chitectural treatment of a primary and important detail in the design of the nave, and which is unescapable and interferes with the largeness of effect, is open to discussion. Certainly the great piers lose by being surrounded by four dark, slim, polished, and prominent shafts, one on each face of the piers, with which they do not blend; they belittle and disturb the unity of a major detail whose function is of the first importance. Perhaps this can best be explained by looking at a pier, similar in all respects, as far as plan is concerned, used in the interior of the cathedral at Amiens. (Figure 4-.) The method of relative detailing is different and the pier gains great richness and stability because of the attached shafts. The whole is ap-.parently one conception and the total effect extremely fine. The opposite in artistic method and effect is shown at Salisbury, where the design is distinctly and disturbingly separated into its component parts. (Compare the two piers as shown respectively in Figures 40 and 4.) A further questionable detail is that the wall immediately above the nave 144 THE CATIIEDRAL CHURCHI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 69 Salisbury 1220-1258 INTERIOR OF CLOISTERS, 1263-1264 arches is wholly and markedly plain, the continuous horizontal moulding course at the top of it serving to make it more so; the moulding cuts the nave abruptly from the triforium. Still further, there is a lack of a visible connection between these important divisions of the nave svall; the shafts that are so commonly seen commencing at the piers, or just above them on the nave walls and running up through the triforium I4 - TIHE CATHEIDRAI CHURCH OF ENGLAND to the actual ribs of the stone ceiling, are absent. The effect of these two features together is to break the sense of cohesion in the parts of the wall and give the appearance rather of a series of architectural stories or avers than an organic whole; there is no architectonic connection between the several divisions of the walls as noted above, and which is so easily recognizable and is so valuable an artistic device of design in Durham (Figure 36), Lincoln (Figure 3-), El (Figure 45), or in 'inchester (Fig.;2), where the connection is matchlessly perfect. In addition the shafts at the piers under the triforium arches in Salisbury are of the same order for size and color as those attached to the piers of the nave, and are also in groups of many relatively short columns. It is easily seen that this arrangement of details can give no visual and vertical connection of idea between the two major divis'ons of the wall. The triforium is therefore detached and introduces a difference in architectural scale and parts, an always perilous happening in design. (The groups of triforium columns to which reference has been made, nay be seen at the upper rightI4( THE CATHEDRAL CHURCI OF ENGLAND hand side of the illustration.) For a great cathedral church such a confusion of relative details is incomprehensible, and the result is that the building must fall to the level of ordinary design. Mavhap the total effect was different before the freaks of alteration and innovation and whitenwash Xwere perpetrated in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and when applied color w-as a large item in the presentation of the building's interior and could make up, to some degree, in decorative treatment what might have been lacking in architectural thinking. But what vwe see today is to be seen in the structure as above described, and affects, and must affect,one's present-day judgments. Salisbury-'s front might be called a very distinct architectural frontispiece. (Figure 22.) It was designed for itself and in no functional relation to the building as a whole. It, like Lichfield, is enriched over its entire surface, but in a very unregulated manner. Arcades, band courses, rows of niches, w-indow- forms without windows, are applied with a lavish hand and with no great respect for architectural centres or lines or canon. Thev 147 THE CAThEDRAI CHURCH OF ENGLAND keep on to the extreme edges of the building and there, without preparation or consideration of the angle, turn and continue for some distance on the side walls. The architectural principle of a competent framing for a design is absent; the outlines taken vertically at the corners are ragged because they cut through the deep reliefs of the ornaments and the projecting mouldings of the arches and other members. Therefore marked indentations are left. The controlling detail of the design as a whole is curiously not the small square angle towers or turrets at the extremities of the elevation, important as they seem to be, 'nor any other of the surface features, but the central piers of the great window. Without their well-defined vertical lines the front would, artistically, go to pieces. The triple window, while consisting of three huge plain lancets, is not important enough for the front. Some and more than usual emphasis is given to the doorways, for they are designed as parts of a separate composition; yet they are still insignificant are still doors and not portals. The front in its entirety, however, is 148 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGIAND FIGURE 70 Gloucester 1089-I TOO INTERiOR OF CLOISTERS, 1375-1412 commanding as well as peculiar and wholly individual. Compare Salisbury with the front of the French Amiens (Figure 23), a cathedral built from 1220 to 1280 that is, in almost the same years that saw the erection of Salisbury. Study both the outlines of the two buildings and the two porch s! stems. Amiens is a mass of wvell-placed niches and arches, rich sculpture, and lovely tracery. Such exuberant design, such unlimited richness and romantic fancy, 14() TIlE CATIEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND was never dreamed of in England, at least not at Salisbury. The towers here are pronounced frames and accents of the front; they do not extend much above the building, but one's eves hardly get up so high. No porches like these were ever attempted by the British architects. They are, in France, the function-in-chief of the design; Salisbury's triple entrance is a conspicuously trivial thing in comparison. Amiens is an entrancingly rich and highly artistic front, the extreme of decoration and fine architecture. Yet England's churches, in their greater directness and simplicity, no matter how one may criticise and compare them with others, are like members of one's own family - they are a delight one can keep as companions far longer than the brilliant Gallic masterpieces, beautiful and wonderful as they are. The Nview of Salisbury shown in Figure 33 has a genuine architectural value. It is extremely instructive and interesting to work out the parts of the design as it develops from the lady chapel (at the left) through the attractively studied gables set over the ends of the choir aisles, making a step in the architecture I jo THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 71 Be[em, Portugal C. 1515 - INTERIOR OF CLOISTERS AT BATALHA between the chapel and the actual east end of the church; then the massing up of the fabric into the choir, followed b the two transepts, the design completed and finished by the tower and its wonderful roof of stone. Yet in one respect the illustration is less interesting than the one given in Figure i i. Compare them. In this one the north side of the church the walls rise sheer out of the ground, like cliffs; in the other there is a splendid preparation for the coming of the dominant detail - the spire - in I7I THE CATIEDRAL CIURCH OF ENGLAND the many divisions and parts of the building itself the chapter house and the fine trees. Figure 33 is of particular service to the student of architectural design. Study also the plan on page I83. Another attractive view is in Figure 66 and in which the several parts of the structure, as well as the chapter house, are shown. Compare this figure with the chapter house of Lincoln shown in Figure 64. You will observe that its roof is flat and so invisible, and that the walls are finished with a continuous parapet - a bit ordinary - and further that the windows are similar to those in the cloister (see Figure 68), but with better proportion. Lincoln's chapter house is less elegant but much the more 'irile. Figure 68 shows the exterior of the cloisters and another lovely grouping of the elements of the building into a very perfect picture. Many of the architectural details may be seen. The cloistered arcade is rich and attractive, although its tracery is somwhat craftsmanlike and stiff. The columns are apparentl- too delicate for the large-scaled tracery they have to carry and the I j2 THE CATIEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 72 Va!adolid, Spain C. 1580 CLOISTERS OF THIE CHLCCH OF ST. GREGORY cusped circle in the head of the compartment is rather heavy. Criticism of details, however, does not detract from the general beauty of the composition a typical sheltered walk belonging to the sometime monastery - exquisite in its detail and a fine adjunct to the picture. The interior of the cloister is a restful-looking simple place with attractive variation of light and perspective. (Figure 69.) It is, like the other cloisters that have been referred to, wholly 153 TIlE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND English. Their art is as fine as their sentiment and imagination. The sunlight, the open arcading filled with beautiful tracery, the vaulted ceilings and long vistas, are parts of memorable pictures. WVells cathedral dates from about the years II-5 to I206. (Figure I9.) It is another in the class of 'frontispiece' churches whose chief attractiveness is in the massive dimensions, architecture and breadth. You will notice that the last is attained by placing the pair of western towers beyond the north and south lines of the building's main walls. (See the north tower of the front as shown in Figure 59. A plan of this building would materially help in its study. One is given on page I80.) The catalogue of the cathedrals with the screen or sham fronts names five examples out of the fifteen we have looked at in these pages; and when one considers how very fine seven of the true-fronted buildings are, one wonders why the designers of the former sought for strange models with worse results. It is further to be renarked that all the members of the frontispiece group, I:4 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 73 San Paolo, Rome, Italy Founded 324 CLOISTERS Burned in I823 and rebuilt Cloister almost ars originally built with two exceptions, were built subsequent in date to the buildings of the more normal or really English type; the exceptions are Lincoln and by a small margin, Salisbury. That is, it would seem that the designers had tired of their older models and had started out after the astonishing, the more or less bizarre, and for design for itself 1 55 TIlE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND (after the manner of ultra-modern composition in music) always so dangerous, if not fatal, for anv real and beautiful art work. The front in this picture, at least the view most usually published, blocks any intelligent understanding of the building as a whole and only gives the merest glimpse of the central tow er. The view from the other end of the church (Figure 59) is also unappealing and does not show the church to advantage. It does give very well the relative detachment of the northern of the two front towers beyond the building as well as the chapter house in the foreground. As architecture it is in very beautiful English work and some of the details and combinations are very charming. Returning to the west front in Figure 19, the marked characteristics are seen to be, six ponderous and ornate buttresses the panelling between which simulates the triple windowv the elaborate and rich architectural detail covering the entire facade, the apparentlv unfinished towers, and the remarkably little doors. \Ve have called attention in the case of Salisbury cathedral to the, 6 TIlE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 74 Amiens, France 121i8-1260 CHOIR STALLS I o8-I j2I difference between the English entrance doorways and those of the French cathedrals, and the elevation of Amiens was cited as the example in comparison. With those of the cathedral at Wells, compare the entrances of the church at Bourges, also in France, and whose probable date is 12-5. (Figure 20.) The doors at Wells were erected about fifty years earlier. Those of Bourges are magnificent portals of wondrous effect I 7 TILE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND through which to go up into the sanctuarv. It is not easy to understand why some approach to a design of such telling quality was impossible to the spirit of the English fronts. At any rate, none of them has much more than insignificant and humble dimensions of doors like Wells. The entrances to Lichfield and Ely might be made exceptions, not because of relative size but only because of their actual beauty and worthiness. York (Figure 12), a thirteenth century erection, is a very well-known and an important cathedral. It is the seat of an archbishop and is second in ecclesiastical dignity only to that of the archbishop at Canterbury. But it is only its size, its general and indisputable magnificence, its political connections, and some outstanding architectural details that give it place among the notable church buildings of England. Its praise has been sung - in both modes. Of all the English churches, not excepting those which have forsaken the best tradition of English cathedral design, it holds the least power to arouse enthusiasm in an amateur of architecit8 THE CATHEDRAL CIURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 75 Exeter 12-()-1291 CHOIR STALLS c. I300 ture. That it is an impressive, even a striking, composition, both as an exterior and as an interior, cannot be questioned. It may be all this and still fail quite signally as an exponent of compelling architectural art whose very flaws and imperfections are not detrimental to its entire expression. It has been very variously esteemed, sometimes favorably but more often tile 159 TIE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND contrary. It has an air of masculine and stately repose shown most admirably in Figure 12, where the rva-t bulk of the minster and its fine grouping of towers appear above the roofs of the town's houses. There are cathedrals more finely placed, several richer in ornament, a few more delicately varied in outline, but there is none more dignified and magnificent. Figure I2 gives a specially attractive ensemble of a large English town and its cathedral church. Compare it with a similar view of Amiens in Figure 13, and you will emphasize the relation of a cathedral to its surrounding city. York is beautiful and paternal; Amiens, commanding and sovereign. York's cathedral belongs to its town; Amiens, to its cathedral. And you will recognize that the feeling expressed by the French church is barren. The west front of York (Figure 24) shows its best points and also some of its defects. It is richly ornamented and also very dignified. Its architectural parts are balanced, the relative proportions of its three towers very good, the effect being much enhanced by the greater mass and simplicity of the central one. But it fails to appeal I 6o THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 76 Lincoln I I 72-1200 E.ST W\INDOW - IN ANGEL CHOII I260-I280 with an inevitable sense of completeness as does, say, Canterbury. One examines it in detail and commences to discover, without any undue criticism, elements of design that may be questioned not because of themselves but because of their effect on the entire composition. The buttresses are very huge and splendid, but their size and splendor give the great window- the i6i THE CATHEDRAL CHURCI OF ENGLAND most important feature of the front - a crowded appearance and a secondary prominence, and there seems to be scanty room for it to develop itself as it should; or, in other words, it soon impresses one as being too large for its position, which is not really the case. The windows in the towers are also apparently too large for their office and take from the sense of solidity something that should be pronounced in such an important feature as a tower in an architectural design. Mlore disturbing still is the over-largeness chargeable to the windows in the upper stages of the western towers. They are designed as large single openings. Had these windows been drawn after a pattern similar to those that grace the central tower at Lincoln- a pair of equally important and high openings the effect would have been powerfully fine, both for themselves and for the edifice. An architectural critic writes about the front "it is richly decorated and well-proportioned in the mass, but it is curiously ineffective when height and breadth and its regular outlines are considered." He continues in another place - "the English architects have eni62 THE CATHEDRAL CHUIRCHI OF ENGLAND FIGURE 7i7 Carlisle 1250-1400 EAST WINDOW, 1292 (26'x I ') deavored to rival the French on their own ground and have not succeeded.... Boldness and strength are altogether Nwanting. All Norman and earlier English Gothic work has this great merit that the design seems to emphasize and be dictated by the materials in which it is carried out. The Nornan architect never forgot for a moment - and he Xwas not skilful enough to forget - that he vwas building with stone. THE CATHEDRAL CHURCI OF ENGLAND So he did not conceive his front as a flat surface to be ornamented but as a solid wall to be built, and naturally his ornament followed and emphasized the main lines of his building.... But as masons grew more skilful and designers more sophisticated, they found it pleasant to play with their material. The result is often beautiful. The method gave the freest play to the artist's invention, but it had its dangers, and they are exemplified at York. There the designer regarded his west front as a large space to be played with and in his anxiety to decorate it richly, he lost his sense of unity and proportion. He has forgotten to use his ornament merely to emphasize the main lines of the structure. At York the main lines are neglected. And vet there is much to be said on the other side. The mere size the height and width go far to make the front impressive; and the detail, even now when so much of it has been restored, is usually beautiful. If it is not great architecture it is at least living architecture." One of the details that disturbs the architectural expression is to be found in the technique of design and is neither 164 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND difficult to explain nor hard to understand. To a general observer it may not seem to amount to much; it is like well-chosen words in a discourse or a writingr and therefore has a place of importance in the ensemble. It is to be found in the unusual acuteness of the arches over the openings and is especiallv noticeable in those of the windows. They are sharper than what is almost universal in the Early English style in its best period. It is readily seen by carefully looking at the large west window of York shown in Figure 44 - at the end of the nave of the cathedral and then making a comparison with similar windows in Lincoln cathedral (Figure 37), Durham cathedral (Figure 36), or Canterbury cathedral (Figure 49). After studying these three pictures return to that of York, when the difference will become very apparent and the criticism sustained. The interior lookinog toward the east (Figure 41), and showing the choir and the lady chapel back of it, will be allowed to make its own storv both for its architecture and its artistry. The proportions are somewhat low, the window vast claimed to be the larcest i65 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND glazed window surface in England (32 feet by 78 feet). It is a huge screen of uninspired composition filled with rlass not effectively rich. The ceiling of the choir is complex. The interior toward the west (Figure 44), in the way it makes clear the architectural parts and divisions of the nave walls, is more emphatic than most of the other illustrations adduced to show them and surely helps to a better understanding of their relation to one another and to the design as a whole, if any further testimony on this point were needed. The most salient feature of this interior is the clearness by which it shows that its elements, in their varied forms and relations, have been designed for their part in the system of a building with a vaulted ceiling, to be built in stone; that is, they were devised for a special work to be done. But there is no stone vaulting; the ceiling is wholly of wood and colored to imitate masonry. The effect of form and perspective is fine and has all the value of a real stonework, but architecturally it is unIlora I. Of the vicew across the transept in Figure 56 there is no criticism; it is 166 THE CATHEDRAL Cl URCH OF ENGLAND FIGURE 78 Winchester I076-1093 iit 'I.i 1%~ \ I THE REREDOS Earlv XVth Century impressive and of great dignity. The composition with its five tall perfectly plain lancet windows with another group of five smaller ones above, the latter disposed to fit the ceiling, is wonderfully fine design and has marked power. The openings are the simplest form of the unembellished pointed arch. The picture also shows other details of much interest to the student, such as the grouped shafts and their sculptured I 6 - TIIE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND capitals, the mouldings of the arches, and the enriched corbels. The last picture of York (Figure 60) shows the exterior of the east end of the cathedral and includes in it the great window of the lady chapel, the chapter house, and a fine view of the central tower. A view of the windowv from the interior of the church is to be found in Figure 41. It man be noted that the sharply pointed roof of the chapter house covers another instance this cathedral has to offer of a vaulted ceiling of fwood masquerading in the form of stone. The picture shows a total of much richness of detail, but detail without inspiration - is craftsmanlike and affects the visitor by its flatness, bigness, ornateness, and by its most patent attribute - artificiality - rather than being the supremely artistic ensemble that the varied parts, their dimensions and relative positions, could have made of it. The cathedral church at Exeter, the detail of whose front is shown in Figure 2,, has a very fevw features in common awith the cathedrals awe have already studied; the most conspicuous of these 168 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND are the large window and the small doors. The church was one of the latest in the series of great buildings, its dates placing it between the earlier part of the thirteenth and the middle of the fourteenth centuries. There had been a Saxon church on the site for seventy years when the new building was begun and worked at for nearly a century. The present fabric belongs chiefly to the first years of the fourteenth century and has been added to and altered in the customary manner. One writer comments that "it grew up after one pattern but with certain advances as the work wvent westwards." (It is to be noted that the cathedral structures were always commenced at the east or altar end.) The gradual execution of Exeter, by always adhering to the original plan, has resulted in a more than usually unified whole. Its low effect is made the more noticeable by the position of the towers at the transepts - in fact, they are the transepts rather than at the western end of the building. The front loses impressiveness by the arrangement and becomes the more or less insignificant, but the whole composition gains im169 TIlE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND mensely in variety and picturesqueness of effect. The last-named characteristics are very much enhanced by the strongly projecting buttress system, made up of features with an unusual sense of detachment and hence very noticeable and important. (Figure 34.) The front (Figure 27) is rich in elaboration rather than in design and is replete with figure sculpture and architectural detail; furthermore it is peculiar in being built in three receding planes, the first at the ground level the porch screen proper in which the relatively very small entrance doors are placed; the second, set back of this, is the real west front wvall of the church and naturally carries the great and beautiful window. The third plane is at the top of the front and includes the finishing gable and the triangular window pierced in it. It is, as one will perceive, a very uncommon and original device for a cathedral front. It is, however, to be remarked that in proportion as an original design is good in its arrangement and the balance of its parts, and there is also excellence in the relation of the parts the one to the other and the whole is more or less actually I-O THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND beautiful in itself and correct in architectural expression, such a composition is a real contribution to architectural art. Exeter's front answers this definition and can therefore be classed as a conception worthy of serious study. It is most admirable as well as novel. When the cathedral is seen from a point of view that includes the three planes of the front, the buttresses and the transeptal towers, the picture is architecturally satisfying in the extreme. The towers are most interesting features, substantial, architectural, and, as stated before, in an uncommon position. Their surfaces show the modifications they have undergone since the Norman builders first began their work on them. Up to the middle of their height they are plain and more like constructions belonging to a castle than to a place of worship. Above this level there are arches, openings, parapets, and corner turrets, everv one of them straightforward in detail. The position of the towers occupying the entire transepts of the church, has a novel effect on the interior. As there was no central tower, no construction was needed or had to be prepared to 171 THE CATIHEDRAI CHURCH OF ENGLAND carry it, and hence there was no visible 'crossing' or 'lantern' and the ceiling was free to go in one unbroken and continuous sweep the whole length of the building. Of this some idea will be obtained from Figure 0o. Two views of the interior - Figure 50, looking towards the nave through the choir, and Figure 51, the choir itself w ill show what a peculiarly lovxely interior Exeter has. Arcading, rich clustered shafts, elaborate sculpture and a beautiful west window, are some of the outstanding attributes. It is unfortunate, however, to have to record that the groined ceiling, so beautiful and dignified in its lines, is a wooden composition just as is the ceiling of the cathedral of York and the Octagon of Ely. In spite of this disappointment Exeter's church is a most fascinating sanctuary; and when the sun plays through the clear-story w-indows and models its light on the stonework, has a most remarkable and memorable charm. Figure 75 is a view of the choir and shows its architecture and rich furnishings and the very unusual rood-screen. The last consists of three low open arches most elaborately sculptured; I -2 TIlE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND above them is placed the somewhat obtrusive organ. This picture also well exhibits the vertical divisions of the nave wall -- nave arches, triforium, and clear-story so many times referred to. Just for a moment tarry while you compare these choir stalls of Figure 75 with those of that great French fane at Amiens and shown in Figure 4. The latter are accredited as being the most exuberantly and artistically wrought wooden stalls in the Pointed style, either of England or France. Beautiful as are these GaIlic "seats of the godly" the English example does not lag far behind. The details of two east ends finish our study; both have been referred to before. They form a happy ending to the illustrations of a lovely architecture. The first is the wsonderful stone-traceried window in the cathedral church at Carlisle, than which no window could well be more beautiful, very perfect in design and filled with fine glass. The second is the still more wonderful reredos of the altar in the cathedral church of Winchester, exultingly rich in architectural form and figure sculpture. 173 TIHE CATHEDRAL CIURCI OF ENGLAND They are shown in Figures 7- and 78, respectively. There is a group of about ten cathedral churches founded in the great thirteenth century that have not been included in the illustrations of this book nor in the critical examinations. None of them, save perhaps \estminster Abbey and WNorcester cathedral, could be classed among the distinctively notable buildings that have been the theme of this writing, either by dimension or design, neither would they have added to the completeness of the record or to a better understanding of the wonderful ecclesiastical edifices.* The constant allusion to the years and centuries of the commencement or the erection of the several cathedrals is to keep the attention of the reader fixed on the periods of time in their relation to those years which marked and included the highest achievements of Gothic architecture in England. The * The namnes of thest cathedrals are: Rochester, 1209-1 23( S,uthwel 1233-1204 \\orcester, 1203-I 218 \\'cstminster, 1245-1I26Q Chichester, 204-124.4 Chester 10o3-1 283 Elgin, 224-1244 Oxford, 1 233-1 204 Ripon, 1233-1294 Bristol, 202-14'0 i74 THE CATHEDRAL CHURC I OF ENGLAND knowledge is essential for the proper understanding of the development of the series of the great English churches. The story of the cathedrals is only less vitally interesting than the privilege of actually seeing them and walking within their precincts and this is a very happy experience indeed. It is easy to look about one and, as a critic and with the pride of later-century experience and technique, write as to what might have been the better for the design or how difficulties could have been avoided by this or another treatment or method of procedure; but even an imperfect study of the series of structures makes one put aside the criticism even should it tend to arise and marvel at the originality, the daring, the masterfulness, the unlimited resourcefulness in design and craftsmanship of the architects and their great, energetic, and far-seeing patrons the bishops w- ho wrought the wonderful and many-named shrines. Honor to them and also to the accomplished craftsmen who were able to put the glorious buildinrgs together! February 8th, 1922. I, I A SELECTION OF PLANS TO SHOW\ THE RELATION OF THE SEVERAL PARTS OF THE CATHEDRAL STRUCTURES From \ lurra 's Handlbooks. e TIIE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND Original Building, o89- 100oo PLAN OF CATHEDRAL AT G1(LOL(I- Sl -R i-8 THE CATIEDRAI CHURCHt OF ENGLAND Original Building, 095-I 133 PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL AT DURIHAM. I -() 4 TIHE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND Original Building, 1175-1206 PI \\ OF THE CATHIEDRAL AT \\ELIS 1 So THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND Original Building, 1192-1200 PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL AT LINCOLN i8i TIE CATIEDRAL CIURCH OF ENGLAND Original Building, I200-I 20 Pl..N (I THE (.\TH1EDRAL.T LIC:FIELD 1S2 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND Original Building, 1220 — 12 8 PLAN OF TIlE CATIIEDHAL AT SALISBL RY i83 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCI I OF ENGLAND THE APPROXIMATELY CORRECT INTERIOR LENGTHS OF THE ENGLISH CATIEDRAI CIIUR(CIIES Interior Lenglh If Iight of Vault Ely Cathedral Canterbury Cathedral W\inchester Cathedral York Cathedral. Lincoln Cathedral Salisbury Cathedral.. Durham Cathedral Peterborough Cathedral Gloucester Cathedral Norwich Cathedral Worcester Cathedral Chichester Cathedrdal W\ells Cathedral Lichfield Ca;thedral Chester Cathedral Hereford Cathedral Rochester Cathedral Carlisle Cathedral Exeter Cathedral NWestminster Abbey. *. 565 1 545. 526 486. 482 *. 4-3 *. 469 426 07 *. * 38 *. 3 -93 3')3.383 370 * * 355. 32-. 36. 6 201 380 *. 423 ft bet 72 feet 80 " "-8d 99 r" 82 " 8i " 2 ", 8 68 " 72 68 " " 6 " 67 6 8 " 78 -2 fla; ceiling 65 feet -0 100 French Buildings for comparison dimensions: - St. Peter's in Rome.... 14 feet St. Paul's in London... 80o Cologne in Germany... 52 " 152 feet Amiens in France..... 4 " (ext.) 140 Beauvais in France... Not completed 142 The English Cathedral churches average (omitting \'estminster Abbey) about one-half the height (o French Amiens. Three of the cathedrals arc longer than Cologne, the longest Gothic fane on the Continent, and are longer than Amiens. 184 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND Diagram of the Relative Lengths 0l:" I 9 I I T 11 I ITI,f. >5 z IA H= LI, 6L ' 1 f 1II I- -~ 9; I) Ci -t - -~-~ -t t-r ~ - r 00 cc~"~i8) Ely. Canterbury. Winchester. York Lincoln Salisbury. Durham.. Peterborough Gloucester Norwich so Chichester Worcester Wells.. Lichfield Chester Hereford Exeter. Cologne Amiens Beauvais 72 ft. 80 " 78 " 99" 82 " 72 4 78 " 68 " 72 "d 6I " 68 " 67 di 68 " 78 me 72 70 152 ft. 140 142 0 - 0 -- 0 -0 0 0 IV -- 0 2) 4 0 m i3 0 m:3 C+ - 0 - 0 0 -- 0 -0 0 <: - < o eD s- < r- * m~ CIMm 0.. 0 fq:r (A fb en (A 0 ~ ~ m m r rl o r) 0 0 I 0 * THE CATHIEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND TIlE CLOISTERS OF THE CATHEDRALS ENGLISH Built on the North.'ide Canterbury Chester Gloucester Lincoln Destroyed or Exist as Nites or Remnants Ely Exeter Rochester \\inchester Built on the.South.idce Chichester Durham Norwich Oxford Peterboro ugh Salisburv Wells \\orcester Vone Built Bristol Carlisle Lichfield Mlanchester York Ripon 187 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND THE CHAPTER HOUSES OF THE ENGLISH CATHEDRALS Built at t} Canterbu Chester GIouceste Lichfield Lincoln Wells. York he North of the Cathedral ry. Rectangle.. Rectangle r.. Rectangle attached to Cloister.Long Octagon... Decagon... Octagon... Octagon None Built Bristol Carlisle Ely Manchester Built at the Sauth Side of the Cathedral Chichester. Room over Sacristy attached to Transept Durham... Originally a Rectangle-now a Square attached to the Cloisters Exeter... Rectangle south of Transeptal Tower Oxford.... Rectangle attached to Cloister Peterborough. Rectangle attached to Cloister Rochester... Rectangle attached to Presbytery Salisbury... Octagon attached to Cloister Winchester.. Old Chapter House attached to Transept Worcester... Decagon attached to Cloister Destroyed or Sites only existing Hereford... on South attached to Cloister Norwich... Destroyed -was attached to Cloister I88 THE CATHEDRAL. CHURCH OF ENGLAND TIlE LADY CIAPELS OF THE CATHEDRALS ENGLISI I Chester, on East-\est Chichester, " Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford; " Lichfield, " Salisbury WNells, Winchester, " Lincoln, at East End o Worcester, " Y ork, Canterbury in Crypt Axis, projects beyond Cathedral,9 ~.....,..,f Presbytery,.. Ely, on North Side (of Cathedral Oxford, in Central Aisle of North Ch'apel Durham, Galilee Porch on the West End of Cathedral Rochester, between south Aisle and Transept Norwich, built on East End and destroyed Peterborough, site at Northeast of Calthedral Bristol, none built Carlisle, Manchester, " I89 I. INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS Amiens, France Amiens, France Amiens, France Amiens, France Beauvais, France Bourges, France Belem, Portugal Canterbury Canterbury Canterbury Canterbury Canterbury Carlisle View with City \\est Front Interior, \rcst Choir Stalls Interior, East The Five Entrance Portals Cloisters, Batalha General View From Southwest Interior, \Vest Interior, West, Nave Cloisters East W\\indow from Interior Figure,,,, 13 23 47 74 -5 /5 20 71 2 i6 46 49 67,, Cloisters, List of p Cologne, Germany Interior, East Figu] Dimensions of Cathedrals, Table of p Durham General View Figu; Durham View, Northwest " Durham Nave, West Durham Interior, East " Durham Plan p Ely General View Figu Ely View, \West Ely Towers and Nave Ely Octagon and Lady Chapel Ely Interior, \\'est El- Interior, East " Ely Interior sho wingOctagon" 19I 77. 187 re 48. 184 re 5 17 36 43 * I(7 re 8 I8 31 62 42 45 /7 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND Exeter West Front Exetor View, Northeast Exeter Interior, East Exeter Interior, West Exeter Choir Stalls Gloucester General View Gloucester Nave, Wrest Gloucester Ceiling of Choir Gloucester Cloisters Gloucester Plan Hereford General View Hereford View, Northeast Heights of English Cathedrals Iona, Church at, Scotland Lengths of English Cathedrals Lichfield General view Lichfield W est Front Lichfield Main Portal Lichfield Interior, East Lichfield The Lady Chapel Interior Figure 27 34 " 50 75 ' 4 35 " 58 70 p. I78 Figure 7 30 p. i86 Figure I p. I85 Figure 0o " 26 29 39 " 6i p. I82 Figure 9 21 32 " 65 37 " 38 " 76 " 84 p. i8i Figure 14 6 53 54 25 " 63 Lichfield Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Manchester Norwich Norwich Norwich Peterborough Peterborough Plan General View W\est Front Tower, Nave and Transepts East End Nave, West Nave from Choir East Window from Interior Chapter House Plan General View General View Interior, East Interior, East-Choii W\est Front Retro-Choir I92 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCI OF ENGLAND Salisbury Salisbury Salisbury Salisbury Salisbury Salisbury Salisburv Salisbury Rome, Italy VaIIadolid, Spain Wells \N ells \Vells Westminster Abbey W\inchester \\inchester \\inchester W'inchester York York York hYork 'York Y'ork General View Figure I West Front " 22 Spire and Transepts " 33 View with Cloisters " 68 Chapter I louse " 66 Interior, West " 40 Cloisters " 69 Plan p. 183 Cloisters of San PaoloFigure 73 Cloisters of St. Gregory 72 \\est Front " I9 Lady Chapel-Chapter House 5( Plan p. I8o HenryVII's Chapel Figure 15 General \icew " 3 W\est Front " 28 Interior, East " 2 Reredos 78 General View with City View and \\Vest Front East End Interior, East Interior, W\est North Transept 12 24 6o 4I 44 56 I93 DELIVERED AS AN ILLUSTRATED LECTURE I. December IIth, I906 2. February 9th, 1907 3. March 13th, 1907 4. November 7th, 1907 5. March 25th, I909 REWRITTEN I Public Library, Brooklyn Prospect Branch Public Library, New York Tremont Branch St. Margaret's School, N. Y. Public Library, New York, 96th Street Branch Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences N BOOK FORM July 1921 -February 1922 78 Illustrations A IC 9 . I I-;l 4. I - ,,. v: i 4!, i .,:04., f I., %,,. I. I -1