CITY OF DURHAM 



formed by the ends of the quire aisles, which 

 preserve the horizontal division of the quire 

 into triforium and clearstory. As the string- 

 course dividing the two stages of the rest of the 

 chapel is a little above the general triforium level, 

 the triforium of the quire is correspondingly 

 raised to face the chapel, so that no interruption 

 occurs in the main horizontal division, the 

 clearstory merely forming an additional sub- 

 division of the upper stage in these bays. In 

 each of the bays at the extreme north and south, 

 next to the vaulting-pier in the angle is a door- 

 way to the vice-turret, with a well-moulded 

 two-centred head springing from jamb shafts 

 with foliage capitals. Each of these doorways is 

 set in a length of plain ashlar, and between it and 

 the first of the western vaulting-piers is a single 

 bay of arcading. The skewed lancets in the lower 

 stage of the end bays are of the same height as 

 the lancets in the opposite wall and each has a 

 two-centred rear-arch inclosed by a label, and 

 shafted jambs of two orders. These windows 

 were placed out of the centre of the bays in order 

 to clear the vice-turrets, and the outer jamb in 

 each case is pierced by a short extension of the 

 lower wall-passage, which, however, is not con- 

 tinued beyond the window. These blocked 

 openings are alike in every respect and have 

 external jamb shafts and hood moulds. The 

 upper stage of the end bays is occupied in each 

 case by a tall recess, across the top of which is 

 carried the wall-passage leading from the vice 

 at the angle to the eastern compartment of the 

 quire clearstory. Each of these recesses has a 

 moulded head of two orders, the outer two- 

 centred, and the inner of trefoil form ; the 

 outer order springs from attached jamb shafts 

 with foliage capitals and moulded bases, and the 

 inner order from capitals of the same type 

 supported by grotesque heads. The vaulting- 

 piers which divide these bays from the bays 

 next the quire aisles are similar to their opposite 

 eastern piers, but the capitals of these and the 

 other western piers, in which human and animal 

 forms appear among the foliage, show that 

 this side of the chapel was the last to be com- 

 pleted. Each of the narrow bays next the quire 

 aisles contains a recess in the upper stage like 

 those in the end bays, with the clearstory pas- 

 sage carried across the top in a similar manner ; 

 in the lower stage, above the sill-string, is a tall 

 shallow blank recess with a moulded trefoil 

 head and label and shafted jambs of two orders, 

 the outer shafts being of marble, below which 

 are two narrow bays of arcading. The vaulting- 

 piers next the quire aisles are smaller than their 

 opposite piers, having only three marble shafts. 

 Above the arches to the quire aisles, which 

 occupy the whole of the lower stage of the bays 

 formed by the ends of the aisles, are triple- 

 arched openings to the eastern compartment of 



the quire triforium. The arches of these 

 triforium openings are moulded and enriched 

 and are supported by shafts with foliage capitals 

 and moulded bases. The clearstory window in 

 the bay on the north is of three lights with 

 intersecting tracery in a two-centred head, and 

 has an inner system of tracery like that of the 

 great north window with which it must be 

 nearly contemporary. The clearstory window in 

 the southern bay is of two lancet lights with 

 twin rear-arches enriched with dog-tooth 

 ornament, which spring from shafts with foliage 

 capitals attached to the jambs and are received 

 upon a central cluster of filleted shafts with 

 plain bell-capitals connected to the front of the 

 window by through-stones. The arches to the 

 quire aisles, which are two-centred and very 

 richly moulded, have their outer orders stilted 

 and one of each pair of responds is formed by a 

 portion of one of the great piers which terminate 

 the side walls of the quire. 



Besides the diagonals of the adjacent vaults 

 the great piers carry the transverse arch dividing 

 the quire vault from the central compartment 

 of the chapel vault, and receive the transverse 

 arches of the latter. In addition to these func- 

 tions they also form the responds of the eastern- 

 most arches of the quire arcades, as well as the 

 inner responds of the arches from the chapel 

 to the quire just described. They are of a 

 complicated polygonal plan with attached stone 

 shafts at the angles and a marble detached 

 shaft in the middle of each face having a slight 

 hollow behind in which it is partly recessed. 

 The piers are without annulets and the shafts 

 have capitals richly carved with foliage and 

 grotesques. The feretory platform, which pro- 

 jects into the chapel between the piers, is in 

 reality an extension of the sanctuary floor of 

 the quire, and the moulded bases of the three 

 shafts on the inner face of each great pier 

 carrying the transverse arch between quire and 

 chapel stand upon it, but the shafts between 

 this point and the eastern and western apices 

 of the pier, the limit to which the platform 

 extends on either side, rise from the floor 

 without bases. The evidence of change in design 

 during the early stages of the building of these 

 piers, already referred to, was furnished in 

 1895, when excavations were made at the foot 

 of the north pier in order to give access to the 

 still existing walls of the old apse of the quire. 

 The changes took place before the piers had 

 been carried above the level of the present 

 platform, and the bases of the pier then un- 

 covered have been left exposed. A little above 

 the chapel floor, which below the platform is 

 raised a step, the plinth as a whole has a moulded 

 base, on which stand water- holding bases for 

 both attached stone shafts and detached marble 

 shafts ; the original intention appears to have 



99 



