Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Gloucester Part 12

The third window (also by Hardman) is a memorial to Archdeacon Timbrill.

The fourth window (by Hardman) is a memorial to the Hon. and Very Rev.

Edward Rice, who was Dean from 1824 to 1862.

The fifth window (also by Hardman) is a memorial to the Rev. T. Evans, D.D., a former Headmaster of the Cathedral Grammar School; died 1854.

The sixth window (by Hardman) is in memory of Miss Mary Davies.

The seventh window is a memorial (by Hardman) to Rev. B. S. Claxson, D.D.

The eighth window is a memorial to Rev. John Luxmoore, D.D., who, after being Dean of Gloucester from 1800-1808, was Bishop of Bristol, later of Hereford, and finally of St. Asaph, where he died in 1830.

The ninth window is a memorial to the Ven. Henry Wetherell, B.D., a late Prebendary of Gloucester, who died in 1857.

The tenth and last window in this alley is by Clayton & Bell, and is in memory of Rev. E. Bankes, D.C.L., late Canon of the Cathedral, who died in 1867.

"At the north end of the east alley of the cloister, and almost concealed by the later panelling, is an Early English doorway opening into a vaulted pa.s.sage or entry, chiefly of the thirteenth century. This entry pa.s.ses between the east gable of the frater and what I have suggested may have been the common house-garden, and leads straight into the infirmary cloister. The pa.s.sage is covered by a stone vault of four bays, supported by heavy moulded ribs springing from corbels. The south half of the pa.s.sage is 6 feet 10 inches wide, but the northern half of the east wall is set back so as to increase the width to 7 feet. This pa.s.sage was lighted in the first bay by a single light with trefoiled head, with very wide internal splay. In the wider end were two other openings now blocked. That to the north had a transom two-thirds of the height up, above which the rear-arch is moulded, while below it is plain.

The other is not carried above the transom level, and the sill has been cut down and the opening made into a doorway into a house outside; in which state it remained until within the last forty years. That some thirteenth-century building stood here seems evident, and the upper half of the north opening was clearly a window above the roof to light that end of the entry.

"The north end of the entry opens directly into the east alley of the infirmary or "farmery" cloister, which is built against the north side of the east end of the frater." (Hope.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: CLOISTER GARTH FROM THE NORTH-WEST CORNER, SHOWING THE OLD DRAIN.]

#North Alley# (east to west).--This "north alley" was closed at both ends by screens, and must therefore have had some special use. From a.n.a.logy with the arrangements at Durham there can be little doubt that this alley was partly appropriated to the novices.... We have curious evidence that the north alley at Gloucester was so appropriated, in the traces of the games they played at in their idle moods. On the stone bench against the wall are scratched a number of diagrams of the forms here represented:

[Ill.u.s.tration: 3 Game Diagrams]

The first is for playing the game called "Nine men's morris," from each player having nine pieces or men. The other two are for playing varieties of the game of "Fox and Geese."

"Traces of such games may generally be found on the bench tables of cloisters where they have not been _restored_, and excellent examples remain at Canterbury, Westminster, Salisbury, and elsewhere. At Gloucester they are almost exclusively confined to the novices' alley, the only others now to be seen in the cloister being an unfinished 'Nine men's morris' board in the south alley, and one or two crossed squares in the west alley." (Hope.)

In the north alley wall some of the lower halves of the five easternmost windows have been re-opened, and the bricks with which they were blocked removed.

The next bay contains traces of a doorway into the cloister-garth that has been blocked.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MONKS' LAVATORY.]

The #Monks' Lavatory# takes up the next four bays. As Mr Hope says, "it is one of the most perfect of its date that have been preserved. It projects 8 feet into the garth, and is entered from the cloister alley by eight tall arches with glazed traceried openings above. Internally it is 47 feet long and 6 feet wide, and is lighted by eight two-light windows towards the garth and by a similar window at each end. One light of the east window has a small square opening below, perhaps for the admission of the supply pipes, for which there seems to be no other entrance either in the fan vault or the side walls. Half the width of the lavatory is taken up by a broad, flat ledge or platform against the wall, on which stood a lead cistern or laver, with a row of taps, and in front a hollow trough, originally lined with lead, at which the monks washed their hands and faces. From this the waste water ran away into a recently discovered (1889) tank in the garth." (Hope.)

A plan of this tank is here shown by permission of Mr Waller. It seems to have had a sluice at the west end in order to dam up the water if required in greater volume for flushing the drain.

Opposite the lavatory is a groined almery or recess in which the monks kept their towels. The hooks and indications of doors to this recess are still there. There are traces, too, of screens or part.i.tions in the lavatory arches.

To the west of the lavatory is a "curious arrangement. It consists of a large opening in the lower part of the window, occupying the s.p.a.ce of two lights, with a separate chase in the head carried up vertically on the outside. It had a transom at half its height, now broken away, as is also the sill." (Hope.)

It is possible, as suggested by Mr J. W. Clark, F.S.A., that this chase was lined with wood, and was the means by which a bell rope pa.s.sed out to ring the bell which summoned the monks to meals.

The #North Alley.#--The windows in this alley as far as the Monks'

Lavatory have been filled recently, 1896-97, at the expense of Baron de Ferrieres of Cheltenham.

There are twenty-seven lights in all, and they const.i.tute the lower part of five windows, a doorway taking the s.p.a.ce of three lights. The _eighth_ contains a mitre and a crozier, an initial E and the date 1022.

This window is an anachronism, as Edric was not a mitred abbot. Abbot Froucester was the first to wear a mitre, in 1381.

Over the lavatory are four windows, also given by Baron de Ferrieres.

Like the windows in the lavatory, they contain subjects which are in some way connected with water.

The small two-light windows (ten in number) in the Monks' Lavatory have been glazed by Hardman, at the expense of Mr B. Bonnor.

A bra.s.s on the wall near the lavatory records that the masonry of the north walk was restored by the Freemasons of the province of Gloucester in 1896.

The #West Alley.#--The north window of three lights has been filled with gla.s.s (by Ballantyne) to the memory of members of a Gloucester family named Wilton.

The window was formerly an Early English doorway, which can still be traced. "It retains the upper pair of the iron hooks on which the doors were hung, and was the entrance into the great dining-hall of the monks, called the refectorium, or, in English, the frater." (Hope.) The effect of the window is beyond words.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD WATER TANK IN THE CLOISTER GARTH.]

The #Slype#, or covered pa.s.sage, which is entered from the south-west corner of the cloisters, is a vaulted pa.s.sage of Norman work, and is under part of the old Abbot's lodging--_i.e._ the present Deanery.

This pa.s.sage, which is on a lower level than the cloister, was "the main entrance into the cloister from the outer court. This entrance was always kept carefully guarded to prevent intrusion by strangers or unauthorized persons." (Hope.)

The pa.s.sage served as the outer parlour, in which the monks held conversation with strangers and visitors.

The #South Alley.#--This alley has ten windows each of six lights, but below the transoms the lights are replaced by twenty carrels or recesses, two to each window. This was the place to which the monks resorted daily for study (after they had dined) until evensong. The first window--_i.e._ the westernmost window nearest to the slype--is a memorial to J. Francillon, Esq., a judge of the county court, who died in 1866. The gla.s.s is by Hardman.

The first two carrel windows were filled with gla.s.s of a simple and inoffensive nature, by T. Fulljames, Esq., and the rest were filled by T. Holt, Esq., to the memory of members of his family, their initials being inserted in the lower corners.

The last window in this south alley is a memorial to R. B. Cooper, Esq., as the bra.s.s tablet sets forth. The gla.s.s, which is by Hardman, represents the conversion and the execution of St. Paul.

Some of the windows in the cloister are glazed with a peculiarly charming white gla.s.s, which admits plenty of light, but is not transparent. The effect is most restful to the eyes after examining some of the bizarre creations in the other windows.

When the cloister windows are entirely filled with gla.s.s they will contain a history of the Life of our Lord.

Britton, in 1828, bemoaned the conversion of the garth into a kitchen garden, and showed how the acc.u.mulation of vegetable refuse was injuring the stone-work. There are still residents in Gloucester who can remember Dean Law digging up his own potatoes in the garth. This is now the private garden of the Dean, and is very simply, and therefore charmingly, laid out. It contains the old well of the Abbey.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CLOISTER, SHOWING THE CARRELS OF THE MONKS.

_Photochrom Co. Ltd., Photo._]

The present #Deanery# was originally the Abbot's lodging, in which royal persons, high ecclesiastics, and n.o.bles were entertained. When, however, in the fourteenth century, a new Abbot's lodging was built on the site where the episcopal palace now stands, the Abbot's old lodging was a.s.signed to the Prior. The Deanery (which, however, is not shown to visitors), as it now stands, "consists of two main blocks, built on two sides of a court--the one to the south, in the angle formed by the cloister and the church; the other to the west, with the court between it and the cloister." The southern block, which contained the private apartments of the Abbot, consists of three large Norman chambers, one above the other, with their original windows enriched within and without with zig-zag mouldings. Each chamber has also in the north-east corner an inserted or altered doorway into a garde-robe tower (shown in Carter's plan, 1807), but now destroyed; and the two lowest chambers have their southern corners crossed by stone arches, moulded or covered with zig-zag ornaments. All these chambers are subdivided by part.i.tions into smaller rooms. Mr. Hope says:

"The ground storey is entered from a vaulted lobby or antechamber, now modernized and converted into a porch. The first floor has a similar antechamber, as had originally also the second floor, but this has been altered. These antechambers are all of early thirteenth-century date, with a good deal of excellent work remaining about the windows.

"Between the church and the rooms just described is a building of two storeys. The ground storey consists of a vaulted pa.s.sage, already described as the outer parlour. It is on a lower level than the cloister, which is reached from it by a flight of steps. Over it is a lofty room, also vaulted, which was the abbot's chapel. It is now entered by an awkward skew pa.s.sage from the first-floor antechamber.

"Both the chapel and outer parlour were once 9 feet longer, but were shortened, and their west ends rebuilt with the old masonry, at the same time that, I have reason to believe, the west front of the church was rebuilt and also curtailed of a bay in the fifteenth century. The first floor of all this part of the house contained the abbot's private apartments, namely, his dining-room, bedroom, solar, and chapel. The second floor was devoted to his own special guests, while the ground storey contained a reception-room, and probably accommodation for one or two servants.

"At the north-west corner of this southern block is a semi-octagonal turret. Until this was altered a few years ago it contained the front entrance into the deanery, and within it a flight of stairs led to a series of landings communicating with the antechambers on the first and second floors, as well as the rooms on the north. Both the turret and the landings replace a much earlier entrance tower, nearly square in form, and of the same date as the antechambers. Many traces of this remain, and show that it was a handsome and important structure.

"The western block of buildings, which is connected with the southern block by the turret and landings, has been so altered in the fifteenth century, and further modernized and enlarged of late years, that it is very difficult to make out the original arrangement. The southern half is two storeys high, with a large hall on the upper floor and the servants' department below. The hall is now divided into two rooms, lined with good Jacobean panelling, and its fifteenth-century roof underdrawn by plaster ceilings.