A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



details being different on the two sides, and there are 

 carved foliate bosses on the carved arms of the seats, 

 and a very fine series of carved misericordes. Some 

 of these have allusions to the Stanley family, but the 

 majority belong to the type of secular and often 

 humorous subjects common on these carvings. They 

 are of very great merit in some instances, though, 

 unfortunately, a good deal broken. The hare cooking 

 the hunter and his dog, the pilgrim robbed by 

 monkeys, the man who has broken his wife's cooking- 

 pot, two men playing backgammon, &c., are among 

 the best of them. 



The quire arcades, which have been already referred 

 to as perhaps being Huntington's work, have panelled 

 spandrels and a line of cresting over the arches. 

 Slender shafts run up from the piers to clustered 

 capitals at the springing of the clearstory windows, 

 which are of five cinquefoiled lights with tracery. 

 From the capitals, on which stand eagles bearing 

 shields, spring the cusped braces of the low-pitched 

 roof, with its rich traceried panels and carved bosses 

 at the intersections of the heavy moulded timbers. 

 Huntington's rebus occurs on the roof, and at the 

 repairs carried out by Mr. Crowther evidence was 

 found that some of the timbers were parts of a differ- 

 ently-arranged roof, re-used by Stanley, and probably 

 belonging to Huntington's quire, which must have 

 had a clearstory of much the same height as at present. 

 It seems to have had in each bay a pair of two-light 

 windows instead of the present arrangement. Two 

 dates, 1638 and 1742, are cut on the roof, marking 

 repairs done in those years. 



At the west of the quire is the screen, a fine piece 

 of woodwork which has been a good deal restored, the 

 coved canopy and front of the loft having been added 

 by Scott in 1872. On the loft stands the organ, 

 given in that year, and replacing one made in 1684 

 by Father Smith, and renewed in 1742. 



The Derby chapel, or Chapel of St. John the 

 Baptist, is separated from the north aisle of the quire 

 by an arcade of five bays with four-centred arches, and 

 details which are much plainer than those of the main 

 arcades of the quire. Its north elevation does not 

 correspond to the arcade, being of six unequal bays, 

 each set in a wall arcade of excellent detail, perhaps 

 Huntington's work reused. The first, third, fourth, 

 and fifth bays contain four-light windows flanked on the 

 inside by blank tracery and canopied niches, filling up 

 the remaining spaces within the wall arcades, whose 

 arches also form the heads of the windows. On the 

 outside the blank tracery does not occur, and the 

 windows in consequence have segmental heads. At 

 the west the chapel opens by a wide arch and a flight 

 of four steps to the north chapel of the nave, the site 

 of the former chapel of St. James. The chapel is 

 closed in by contemporary wooden screens, the 

 entrance being from the south-west, where, over the 

 door, are the arms of Sir John Stanley, son of Warden 

 Stanley, impaling the quartered coat of Handforth, 

 with a modern inscription on brass giving the date of 

 its completion as 1513. The Ely chapel, opening 

 from the north-east of the Derby chapel, is entered 

 through a screen of early 1 6th-century date, moved 

 here from St. James's chapel, and was completed after 

 Warden Stanley's death by Sir John Stanley, being 

 intended to contain his tomb. The tomb now in the 

 chapel is a copy made in 1859 of l ^ e original altar- 

 tomb, and on it is fixed the mutilated brass figure of 



Stanley in his episcopal dress as Bishop of Ely. The 

 design of the chapel harmonizes with the Derby 

 chapel, but being wider from east to west than the 

 other bays, it has a north window of five lights instead 

 of four. The eastern bay of the south aisle of the 

 quire opens southward to the chapel, built in 1890 

 in memory of Bishop Fraser and containing his tomb j 

 while the second bay, with its four-light south window, 

 resembles the north side of the Derby chapel, and 

 probably preserves the old design of Huntington's aisle, 

 though the masonry is for the most part renewed. 

 The third bay contains the entrance to the chapter- 

 house, probably the work of Stanley, and consisting 

 of two deeply- recessed four-centred doorways set in a 

 wide panelled recess. The chapter-house itself is 

 octagonal, with a modern wooden vault, and is lighted 

 by four-light windows in its four outer faces ; its 

 present design is probably due to Stanley, though 

 Huntington seems to have built a chapter-house 

 here, which, according to some evidence quoted in 

 Mr. Worthington's book on the cathedral, was 

 octagonal as at present. The foundations, however, 

 of part of a square building are said to have been 

 found here, and are claimed as Huntington's chapter- 

 house, and it can only be said that, no further in- 

 vestigation being at present possible, the question 

 must be left as a contested point. The remainder of 

 the aisle is taken up by a library, vestry, and passage, 

 occupying the area of the old Jesus chapel. Its use 

 as a library dates from the end of the 1 6th century, 

 when its then owners, the Pendletons, sold it to the 

 city of Manchester. The small Hulme chapel which 

 opened southward from its east bay, after being rebuilt 

 in 1 8 1 o, has been pulled down, and no trace of it now 

 exists. A door opens from the library to the chapter- 

 house, which is panelled in oak with seats round the 

 walls, and a chair for the bishop on the south side. 

 From the crown of the vault hangs a fine chandelier. 

 The nave arcades, the history of which has already 

 been given, are of six bays, and faithfully reproduce 

 Langley's work, which they succeed. In general design 

 they closely resemble the arcades of the quire, having 

 the same traceried spandrels and line of cresting over 

 the arches ; but the detail is simpler, though still very 

 effective. The clearstory windows are of five lights, 

 and before restoration were entirely without cusps ; 

 these have, however, been added in the new work. 

 Externally their effect is richer than that of the clear- 

 story of the eastern arm, as there is tracery in the 

 spandrels over the windows and pairs of angels 

 holding shields at the bases of the pinnacles which 

 mark each bay, neither of which features occurs to the 

 east of the chancel arch. The turrets flanking this 

 arch break the long line of windows very satisfactorily, 

 rising above the parapets and ending in crocketed 

 spirelets, while internally they make a very effective 

 feature, masking the junction between the nave and 

 quire arcades, and by their size and solidity atoning 

 for the rather insignificant chancel-arch. The nave 

 clearstory seems to have had much the same his- 

 tory as that of the quire, and as built by Langley 

 probably had two windows in each bay, an arrange- 

 ment altered to that which now obtains at Stanley's 

 rebuilding of the north arcade. This was deduced by 

 Mr. Crowther from the evidence of re-used timbers 

 found by him in the nave roof, which had been 

 adapted to the wider span caused by the setting back 

 of the north arcade. 



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