CITY OF DURHAM 



The floor of the chapel was newly flagged in 

 1825. The altar pace along the east side is 

 raised two steps, with a return at the north end. 



The exterior of the chapel follows the general 

 lines of its construction with gables north and 

 south and a smaller one in the middle of the 

 east elevation, behind the parapet, over the 

 wheel window. The great north-east and 

 south-east buttresses, square on plan, become 

 octagonal at the line of the sills of the upper 

 windows and terminate in lofty pinnacles. The 

 two major buttresses on the east elevation have 

 smaller pinnacles set back behind gabled heads, 

 and the intermediate buttresses terminate in 

 gablcts at the line of the parapet. The character 

 of the original design of the east front was a 

 good deal changed at the time of the early 

 19th-century restoration, many features being 

 then destroyed and others introduced. Wyatt 

 removed the canopied niches of the major 

 buttresses containing the statues of William 

 of St. Calais and Ranulf Flambard mentioned 

 in Rites,^^ and the wall surface suffered in the 

 general paring down process. The north pin- 

 nacles -' and the windows in the east gable 

 lighting the roof space date from this period. 

 All the lower windows have double chamfered 

 jambs and moulded heads and the upper have 

 single jamb shafts and labels. In the middle 

 bay, between the major buttresses, the slender 

 intermediate buttresses between the lancets are 

 carried up to support an arcade of three plain 

 arches, thus advancing the surface of the wall 

 immediately below the wheel window and 

 making the lancets appear to be deeply 

 recessed. The wheel window is moulded all 

 round and has Wyatt's Gothic ornament in the 

 spandrels. Horizontally the east elevation is 

 divided at mid-height by a string-course, and 

 there is a string also at the level of the sills of 

 the lower windows. On one of the corner stones 

 of the major buttress south of the middle bay 

 is cut in 13th-century characters ' Posuit hanc 

 petram Thomas Moises,' a record of the name 



^' ' Upon the east front of the Nine Altars in two 

 large buttresses on each side of the round window are 

 erected statues of Williani of Karileph ... on the south 

 side, and on the north Ranulph Flambard . . . the first 

 in his mitre and episcopal habit, and the other having 

 his head uncovered ' {Riles, p. 93). 



** An undated drawing of the east front (Grimm's 

 Topog. Drawings, Brit. Mus. ii, no. 132, reproduced 

 in Trans. Durh. and Northd. Arch. Soc. v, 36) made in 

 the latter part of the 1 8th century, before the removal 

 of the 15th-century tracery from the windows, 

 shows only the two south turrets with pinnacles, or 

 spirelets. The north turrets and the major buttresses 

 were without them. The canopied niches and statues 

 are shown. The south-west turret was rebuilt in 

 1826-9 and the return of the west wall restored; the 

 north pinnacles would be added about tliis time. 



of one of the masons engaged in the work.-* 

 The north gable has an open arcade of five 

 trefoiled moulded arches on grouped shafts 

 with moulded capitals and bases, standing on a 

 string above the great window. Over this in 

 the apex of the gable are three smaller trefoiled 

 arches with canopies.^^ The south gable is 

 entirely filled by an ascending arcade of seven 

 moulded arches, three alternate openings of 

 which are pierced and glazed, lighting the roof 

 space. In a recess on the face of the north-west 

 turret is the famous carving representing the 

 legend of the Dun Cow. The original sculpture 

 had fallen into decay before 1795 and was in 

 consequence replaced by the present cow and 

 milkmaids of frankly modern character.^' 



The platform of ST. CUTH BERTS FERE- 

 TORT is 6 ft. above the floor of the chapel of 

 the Nine Altars, into \vhich it projects some 

 10 ft. It is separated from the quire by the 

 screen of the high altar and is 37 ft. long from 

 north to south by 23 ft. in width. It has a low 

 parapet with modern moulded coping and its 

 north and south sides are plain, but the longer 

 east face has an arcade of eleven boldly moulded 

 semicircular arches springing from shafts with 

 moulded capitals and bases, all work of the 

 latest date of the chapel. Originally the plat- 

 form was enclosed by a grille upon which were 

 ' very fine candlesticks of iron ' which had lights 

 set in them before day ' so that the monks could 

 see to read on their books in the Nine .\ltars 

 when they said mass.'-^ The shrine was de- 

 stroyed shortly after the surrender of the con- 

 vent, but the precise date is not known. The 

 oak screen erected on three sides of the plat- 

 form in the 17th century was removed in 1844 :-* 

 it is shown in BiUings' drawing engraved the 

 year before, and a portion of it, four bays in 

 length, is now in the University Library.^* 

 The tomb of St. Cuthbert was opened in 1827, 

 and again in 1899: its contents have already 

 been described." The Purbeck marble ground- 



21 Possibly the master-mason. In the Treasury at 

 Durham is a grant of a burgage in Elvet by ' Thomas 

 Moyses filius Dalber,' c. 1240, with a seal inscribed 

 'S' Thome Moises' (GreenweU, Durh. Cath. 8th 

 ed. 65). The inscription on the plinth is on the east 

 and north sides just above the ground. 



22 As shown in Carter's drawings, 1810, but much 

 restored. 



23 There is an engraving of the original carving in 

 Hutchinson, Hist. Durh. ii, 226. The present cow 

 is of the shorthorn breed, attended by two dames in 

 the costume of the reign of George IV : Raine, St. 

 Cuthbert, 55. 



2> Rites of Durh. (Surtees Soc), 198. 



25 Tlie moulded coping was placed on the parapet 

 at tliis time. 



26 It is in a perfect state of preservation, except 

 that the cresting is missing. 



27 r.C.H. Dur. i, 241. 



lOI 



