1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



119 



however, that he raised with so much care, and so cunningly adorned, 

 and the monastery whose walls so often reverberated the applause of 

 his virtues, are now no more seen, and the finger of tradition alone, 

 points out the spot where once they stood. 



The present cathedral occupies a more elevated and commanding 

 site to the westward. It was commenced by Archbishop Thurston, 

 soon after his advancement to the see of York, fin 1119). The plan 

 was a simple cross, and the style Anglo-Norman with semi-circular 

 and pointed arches promiscuously applied. The walls, as usual in 

 similar buildings, are thick enough to allow galleries or passages to 

 be formed in them. The doors are ornamented with shafts and arch 

 mouldings, in which richness is produced by the repetition of a simple 

 elementary form ; and it is worthy of notice, that in the Norman 

 arches the blocks of stone, though moulded or carved in a variety of 

 ways, never wholly lost the original square figure, previously given to 

 them. Without asserting, therefore, that at this period the mouldings 

 and ornaments were actually wrought after the stonework was set, 

 such a disposition of the mouldings would tend very much to sim- 

 plify that process : and it will further be found that these ornaments 

 are not unfrequently modified to suit the actual size of the blocks. 

 There is a low central tower with good detail; and immediately 

 under this is a small crypt or cell, with access from the nave, and also 

 from the choir. To what use it was appropriated does not seem very 

 clearly decided, its extreme dreariness suggesting the idea of a 

 penitentiary ; and the small recesses in the sides suitable for the re- 

 ception of a lamp or crucifix assisting the notion. It may have served 

 simply as a confessional; but whether intended for the momentary re- 

 ception, or more perdurable home of the sinner, or the fugitive from 

 the arms of the temporal power, it is evident that the priest entering 

 from the choir could communicate with and not be seen by a person 

 brought down from the nave. For this purpose there was an orifice 

 in the wall that has acquired the name of St. Wilfred's needle, which 

 the more energetic visitors make a point of endeavouring to get 

 through : and the fine polish acquired by the stone in its contact with 

 silk and broadcloth, show that the attempt is pretty generally made 

 with success. Since the completion of the original structure, no 

 building has perhaps undergone such important alterations without a 

 more complete destruction of its individuality. 



The transepts, however, bear more legibly than any other portions, 

 the impress of the 12th century, but the inner roofs appear never to 

 have been completed. Small shafts suited to support the foot of a 

 groin (revealing a purpose unfulfilled) are carried up (here as in 

 many other instances) story after story, and are at last left without 

 adaptation either to a flat or vaulted ceiling ; and thus from the ab- 

 sence of an homogeneous and appropriate inner roof half the effect is 

 lost. How lame and abrupt does the flat ceiling at Peterborough ap- 

 pear to an eye that has dwelt on the masculine vaulting of Durham ! 

 The cause of the very few instances of Norman groining remaining, 

 except in crypts, and the fair presumption that not many ever existed, 

 is a subject open to investigation, and a speculative idea may be not 

 without its utility in eliciting satisfactory information. Thick as the 

 walls of that period are known to be, the risk that would have at- 

 tended charging them with stone ceilings, without the auxiliary re- 

 sistance of external buttresses, may have become an object of anxiety 

 with the. builders, and the execution of such works in stone may have 

 been attended with difficulties which even at this time would be con- 

 siderable, and may then have proved altogether insurmountable, ex- 

 cept under the most favourable circumstances, and amplitude of 

 means. The centering alone, if considered for a moment, is an object 

 involving so considerable an amount of expense and practical skill, 

 that we cannot wonder that even in the best days of the art, methods 

 should have been devised for dispensing with it, and hence doubt- 

 lessly arose the adoption of wood at Lincoln, York, and elsewhere. 

 Did not the Norman builders feel and shrink from the difficulty like 

 their successors, but without the good fortune to hit upon so happy 

 an expedient? We know that they affected the groin, from its con- 

 stant adoption in crypts and ailes, when a moderate span facilitated 

 its execution. As the central tower presented the strongest abut- 

 ments for an arch of any part of the church, it is possible that a 

 groin existed there similar to that at Lindisfarn, in Northumberland, 

 and causes for its non-existence, at the present time, are by no means 

 deficent. Before leaving the transept we may notice that on the east 

 side of each, there is a chapel of two arches ; that in the north 

 transept being nearly coeval with the church, and that in the south, of 

 the fourteenth or fifteenth century. 



The choir comprised originally three arches only, but was subse- 

 quently increased to six. The effect is curious at first, from the cir- 

 cumstance of the triforium arches being filled with tracery and 

 glazed, and the roofs having been lowered. It looks, therefore, like 

 a double clerestory. The addition of the arches appears to have 



been carefully made to assimilate with the original work, but subse- 

 quent alterations bear the characteristic of their own date. In 1319, 

 the church was burnt and greatly injured by the Scots, but restored 

 by the munificence of Edward III, Melton, archbishop of York, and 

 others; and the "steeples" were then added, of which the central 

 one, 40 yards high, was called St. Wilfred's. 



There is an old print which shows spires on the central and western 

 towers similar to Litchfield. The former was blown down in 1660, 

 destroying in its fall a part of the south side, of which the reinstate- 

 ment (said to have been done at the expense of one of the preben- 

 daries) is still perceptible, by the variation in style. After this acci- 

 dent the other spires were removed. In the south aile is a large 

 piscina, probably used for washing the sacerdotal linen, and round the 

 the sides and end there was arched-headed panelling, but part of this 

 is now displaced by the altar screen, erected some few years ago from 

 a design by Mr. Blore, under whom also the groined ceiling was re- 

 stored, in which are preserved the ancient wooden bosses, which are 

 very beautiful. The east window, erroneously said by Rickman to be 

 of five only, consists of seven lights, and is a fine example of the 

 kind. The' clear opening is 4S feet high. Sir William de Plumpton 

 was founder of a chantry at the altar of the Holy Trinity behind the 

 high altar. The act of endowment is dated at Ripon on Wednesday, 

 the feast of the conversion of St. Paul, 20 Edward III, 1345, and was 

 sealed with the seals of Henry de Plumpton, the chaplain first ap- 

 pointed thereto, and of Sir William de Plumpton, which bore the im- 

 pression of a shield, and on it five fusils, with the name written on the 

 circumference. This chantry was screened from the rest of the 

 church, and under lock and key, but no vestige of it remains. 



Near the altar on the south side of the choir are three sedilia and 

 a piscina of curious and elaborate design and skilful execution. The 

 arches are cinquefoiled, the cusps being ornamented with small gro- 

 tesque heads or other figures, which at the first glance appear to ter- 

 minate the design; but, on closer inspection, it is found that the small 

 bas-relief first seen is merely the crown of another head in high relief, 

 of a figure falling into bas-relief and covering the soffit of the arch. 

 These figures have human heads with the bodies of quadrupeds. 

 They are of either sex and habited in full monastic costume ; and the 

 stout friar is regarding, with an expression too energetic to be per- 

 fectly platonic, the beautiful coy, and wimpled l nun. Seats of this 

 kind are not of unfrequent occurrence in English cathedral and other 

 churches, as well as in those of the continent: "at Seus, on the 

 epistle or south side of the high altar are five seats. One for the 

 celebrant, (which is highest,) two for deacons, and as many for sub- 

 deacons, all officiating while the other priests were in the choir." 

 " One single seat," continues the essayist, (Clark in the Archaologia,) 

 " is accounted for by the choir performing the part of sub-deacon, and 

 one priest that of celebrant and deacon. In churches better endowed, 

 beside the celebrant one performed the part of deacon and sub- 

 deacon. In such churches were trco seats. Thus the number was 

 proportionate to the richness of the endowment, and the seats in- 

 tended for the officiating clergy only. The bishops' seats, were at the 

 east and by the side of the altar. The choir is rich in carved oak- 

 work. The stalls are furnished with misereres and tabernacle work, 

 (which is said to have formed the model for the new work in the 

 choir of York Minster.) The throne is also an object of interest, as 

 presenting one of the earliest evidences of the architectural attain- 

 ments of the noble Earl, the President of the Institute of British 



The organ screen is of bold and original character, without pre- 

 tending to the extreme elaboration of that at York. Adjacent to tins 

 stands part of a rich stone pulpit. The central tower has for some 

 generations, presented a most singular and heterogeneous spectac e, but 

 at the same time affording to the professional observer a valuable 

 comparative view of the varied proportion and effect of the first and 

 latest eras of true Gothic. In point of expansive lightness, the ear- 

 lier style is certainly entitled to our admiration, though mass and 

 richness maybe exclusively the merit of the latter, lhree of the 

 piers of the central tower were cased in the perpendicular period, 

 and the arches of the choir and south transept were also completed; 

 but the fourth pier and the arches of the nave and north transept 

 retain their original form. It is also illustrative of the method pursued 

 to find the perpendicular work carried on the two sides quite up to 

 the battlements. The immense size of the piers and the increased 

 height of the springing, has the effect of contracting the opening ot 

 the arch, and also of rendering it necessary to ramp up the longi- 

 tudinal crown rib of the groin. 



Taking our survev in chronological order, the next point lor con- 

 sideration is the west front, which comprises the end wall of the 



' The wimple is a pan of the head dress. 



1G* 



