Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Carlisle Part 2

The second bay from the east is divided into three equal s.p.a.ces, with a very narrow acute angle on the right.

A series of fine gabled b.u.t.tresses gives relief to the exterior of the choir on each side.

The windows of the #Clerestory# have very rich mouldings, and also afford fine examples of flowing tracery. Each bay has an arch with three divisions, the central one higher and wider than the others. On this side only--the north--the base is ornamented with trefoils.

There is a cornice above the windows extending from the tower to the east end. It is richly decorated with heads and the ball-flower ornament which is characteristic of fourteenth-century work. It is broken here and there by gargoyles projecting almost three feet from the wall. The parapet makes but a poor show in comparison with the rich windows and cornice.

As the choir never had a groined ceiling there was no necessity for flying b.u.t.tresses, and their absence gives the clerestory a very monotonous flat effect. This is further intensified by the window tracery being level with the wall, the architraves having no depth of moulding round them.

Some years ago the aisles and clerestory were skilfully refaced, and consequently the exteriors have a very modern appearance.

East of the retro-choir is the exterior of a staircase leading from the north choir aisle to the clerestory parapet. It terminates in a highly-finished octagonal turret whose parapet is enriched with a running trefoil ornament resembling that on the base of the clerestory windows. The north-eastern and the small east b.u.t.tresses terminate just beneath, in gables richly ornamented with minute crockets. The panelling of the former is rather like the decoration of the central portion of the east end.

#East End.#--An irregularity in designing the east end has been covered by placing the great b.u.t.tresses so as to make the pediment appear irregular, and the cross at the apex seems, consequently, not to be in the centre of the choir; while, in fact, it is the great east window (with the gable window over it) that is out of position.

The sill of the east window is unusually near the ground, and it is flanked by substantial b.u.t.tresses finely pinnacled. Each b.u.t.tress contains two niches with beautifully carved canopies: the base of the lower ones being a trifle higher than the springing of the arch. They display full-length statues of St. Peter, St. Paul, St. James, and St.

John.

A staircase crossing over the east window in the thickness of the wall receives light from the triangular window enclosing three trefoils which appears in the gable. Immediately beneath this Trinity window--as it is called--is a richly-canopied niche adorned with a statue of the Virgin Mary bearing in her arms the Holy Child.

The summit of the gable is crowned by a large richly-floriated cross; and on each side are four smaller ones, with crockets of foliage between them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE EAST END. _Photochrom Co. Ltd., Photo._]

In spite of the fact that the east end has been almost entirely rebuilt, it is a remarkably good example of Late Decorated work, and it would be difficult to find its equal in England.

The wall of the north aisle is higher than the south aisle, because of a pa.s.sage between the staircases. The b.u.t.tresses do not rise above the parapet, and are finished off with richly-panelled gables, ornamented with crockets and finials.

The end of the south aisle is decorated with corbels and parapet, like the choir, and with pinnacled b.u.t.tresses.

On the south side of the #Choir# the first three bays from the east end are practically the same as those on the north side.

The remaining windows, including those of St. Catherine's Chapel on the east of the south transept, are Early English, but of later date and not so pleasing as the others. Instead of two lights they are furnished with three; some of these have small circular openings in the spandrels over the mullions filled with stained gla.s.s.

The fifth compartment (against which a vestry was formerly built) shows traces of a door, and over that a pa.s.sage, probably connected originally with some of the conventual buildings.

The grotesque gargoyles, "these wild faces, these images of beasts and men carved upon spouts and gutters," are very vigorously executed.

The windows on the south side of the clerestory are without the trefoil which ornaments the base of those on the north side.

The blank window next to the tower is also wanting; in other respects the clerestory presents the same features as on the north.

#South Transept.#--The chapter-house and cloisters formerly adjoined the south transept, and there was probably an entrance from the chapter-house leading down a flight of stairs into the transept.

Billings says: "The modern casing at the base of the end of the transept (about 12 ft. high) shews the height of the #Cloisters#: and the doorway above, the level of the chapter-house floor. From this it would seem that the cathedral was entered at the south transept from the chapter-house by a flight of steps."

The foundation of the south wall having been shaken by the removal of the remains of the conventual buildings, ma.s.sive b.u.t.tresses were added, and a very richly sculptured doorway inserted between them (1856). It was designed by Mr. Christian and is the princ.i.p.al entrance to the Cathedral. Its character is that of the late work of the choir, and is somewhat out of keeping with this distinctively Norman portion of the building.

The window over the entrance is of the same date.

The west side of the transept is lighted by two plain round-headed windows, not quite central.

The outer moulding of the window arch of the south transept clerestory has billet ornament. Above this is a corbel table of heads and mouldings which interferes with the upper window mouldings. The transept compartments differ from those of the nave by the addition of a flat b.u.t.tress between each, which consequently breaks the continuity of the corbel table.

As the side of the nave was covered by the conventual buildings it was of plainer character than the north, and had no b.u.t.tresses between the windows.

The clerestory is exactly the same as on the north.

The foundations of the old west wall are behind one of the prebendary's houses to the west of the nave.

The west end, as it stands at present, was restored by Mr. Christian.

A local sandstone was used in the construction of the building: grey, or white in the Norman portion, and red in the other parts. This red sandstone is not so good for exterior as for interior work, because it is liable to perish by the action of the weather.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE NAVE, SOUTH SIDE. _G.W. Wilson & Co., Photo._]

CHAPTER III

THE INTERIOR

The cathedral now consists of part of the original nave (the two eastern bays only) with aisles; and north and south transepts without aisles, but with a chapel on the east side of the south transept; the central tower; and the choir with north and south aisles and ambulatory or retro-choir.

The #Nave.#--Entering by the modern doorway on the north, we are at once in the fragmentary nave, of Early Norman work. Its present length is about 38 feet and width about 60 feet. In 1645 the Scots destroyed about 100 feet of the nave, and it has never been rebuilt. This mutilation has had a serious effect upon the proportions of the building, and induces a feeling of want of balance. The open timber roof, raised to the original height, was subst.i.tuted at the restoration for a flat ceiling which had been put up at a previous "embellishment" of the cathedral. Bishop Walkelin made use of similar roofs in Winchester Cathedral (1070-1097).

The triforium (1140-50) has in each compartment a semi-circular arch entirely without ornament.

The clerestory consists of three arches supported by columns with carved capitals; the centre arch, which is larger than the other, is lighted at the back by a round-headed window.

We may say that the nave is

"propped With pillars of prodigious girth."

They are ma.s.sive circular columns nearly six feet in diameter, and support semi-circular arches. The capitals of those on the south side are carved with leaf ornament; the rest are plain. Against the wall between each arch is a semi-circular engaged shaft reaching to the base of the triforium. The arches near the tower have been partly crushed owing to the shifting of the tower piers caused by faulty foundations.

About 1870 the west end of the nave was restored by Mr. Christian. The window is filled with gla.s.s, in memory of the Rev. C. Vernon Harcourt, canon and prebendary of Carlisle (d. 1870).

One of the south aisle windows--the "Soldiers'" window--is in memory of men and officers of the 34th (or c.u.mberland) Regiment, who fell in the Crimea, and in India during the mutiny. Three Old Testament warriors appear in stained gla.s.s--Joshua, Jerubbaal ("who is Gideon"), and Judas Maccabeus. The battle-torn fragmentary regimental colours hang from the arch opposite. Just beneath this window a doorway (now blocked up) formerly led from the cloisters into the nave.

Up to the year 1870 the nave was used as a parish church. The cathedral from its beginning as the priory church, in accordance with a very common practice of the Augustinian body, contained two churches belonging to two separate bodies quite independent of each other.

The choir and transepts formed the priory church, in the possession of the prior and canons until the dissolution of the monastery, when it pa.s.sed to the dean and chapter. The nave formed the parish church of St.

Mary, and belonged to the parishioners. After the civil wars it was cut off from the transepts by a stone wall, and furnished with galleries and a pulpit. A new church to accommodate the parishioners having been built in the abbey grounds in 1870, all these additions were removed, and the nave was restored to the cathedral, adding greatly to the general effect. An interesting event in the history of the parish church was the marriage of Sir Walter Scott to Miss Carpenter on the 24th December 1797.

He had made the acquaintance of Miss Carpenter at Gilsland in July while touring in the Lake district. She had "a form that was fashioned as light as a fay's, a complexion of the clearest and lightest olive; eyes large, deep-set, and dazzling, of the finest Italian brown; and a profusion of silken tresses black as the raven's wing." Scott was strongly attracted to her, and within six months she became his wife.

A tombstone under the west window shows the matrix of what was once a magnificent bra.s.s.