Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Gloucester Part 4

The scrolls contain the monkish lines--

Es merito Celebris ex quo baptisma subisti.

Lucius in tenebris prius idola qui coluisti.

The four figures represent Robert, Duke of Normandy; Thomas of Woodstock, 1397; Humphrey, 1447; William Frederick, 1534; all three of them Dukes of Gloucester.

The _first window_ (or over the west door into cloisters), of which only two lights are open, is a memorial window to Thomas Churchus (1870). The window, which is by Clayton & Bell, is very pleasing in colour.

The _second window_ is to the memory of Mr Price, who died in 1860. The gla.s.s is by Ward & Hughes.

The _third window_ contains some old gla.s.s in the upper half, restored by Hardman. Much of the lower half is new.

The _fourth window_ is a memorial window to Dr Hall, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford; died in 1843. The gla.s.s is by Clayton & Bell.

The _fifth window_, like the third, contains some old gla.s.s, restored by Hardman.

The _sixth window_ is in memory of Bp. Hooper, second Bishop of this diocese, and the only bishop of the united sees of Gloucester and Worcester. The gla.s.s is by Clayton & Bell.

The _seventh window_ is to the memory of Thomas Turner. The gla.s.s is by Clayton & Bell.

The _eighth window_ is a memorial to members of the Darell family, as explained in the inscription in the base.

In the windows of the clerestory are to be seen some fragments of old gla.s.s. The windows, which are of three lights, contain portions of ornamental borders with quarry glazing, and some medallions, stars in the foliations, and borders of crowns. Mr Waller thinks it was "probable that all these windows were originally filled with gla.s.s of this kind, which is similar in general design to that in the upper tiers of the clerestory windows in the choir."

The tracery of the windows in the clerestory is ascribed to Abbot Morwent, who rebuilt the west front.

The #Monuments# in the north aisle are of no special interest. That to Bishop Warburton at the west end contains an epitaph that is worth reading. Next to it is an ungainly tomb, filling up an enormous wall s.p.a.ce, with a depressing effect. Farther eastwards is the tomb by Flaxman to the memory of Mrs Morley, who died at sea in 1784 (p. 121).

The tomb to Alderman Machen, his wife, and family is interesting (1615), and is one of the few tombs that has not been removed from its original position.

The nave is lighted by rows of gas jets along the triforium or gallery, extending over the arches of the nave. The effect is good when the building requires to be lighted by artificial light, but the fumes and smoke from the gas have sadly discoloured the small columns and the arches in the triforium, and no doubt in time to come more serious mischief to the stonework will be developed. The fumes of the gas will also be fatal to the decorative pipes of the organ, and, with the a.s.sistance of the fumes from the radiators, will ruin any memorial bra.s.s that may be erected in the building.

Wires have been stretched across the nave to prevent the excessive echo from marring the effect of the music, but many curious echoes are to be heard. The mocking sounds that follow upon the sounds of the voice of a preacher, especially when the attendance is small, are very weird. They may be heard best from the last few rows of seats near the west end.

There are still to be found enthusiasts who would like to remove the screens from our cathedrals on the ground that they interfere with the utility and the beauty of the nave and the choir. But these well-meaning people quite overlook the fact that the beauty of the interior would be entirely marred by such a change. Firstly, the organ would have to be chopped into two and stowed away in the triforium, unless these enthusiasts would prefer to revert to an organ-gallery blocking up one of the transepts. Secondly, the stalls would have to be mutilated and rearranged. Certainly, the cathedral would resemble a parish church in some respects, but at a tremendous cost. There would be a vista, too, but the effect of the lofty choir would be lost entirely without the presence of the screen and the organ, and the nave would look more dwarfed in height. There is one more point, too, always forgotten by these enthusiasts--viz. this, that the building was not designed by Henry VIII. at the Dissolution as a parish church. He laid down quite clear and simple rules for the regulation of the cathedral foundation, and he intended the choir to serve, as it had served for the monks before, as the private chapel of those on his new foundation.

The #Choir Screen# was erected in 1820 by Dr Griffiths, to whose memory a tablet has been inserted in the north-west tower pier. Though this screen has its defects, it superseded one by Kent, erected in Bishop Benson's time (1741), of which Bonner, who seems to have appreciated the stucco front applied by the same good bishop to the reredos in the Lady Chapel, says in his "Itinerary" (1796) that it combined the characteristics of the various orders of architecture without any of their good points.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NAVE.

Drawn by F. S. Waller, F.R.I.B.A., from Brown Willis' Survey of Gloucester Cathedral (1727).]

To give an idea of the original screen arrangement, Mr Hope's description is here quoted:--

"The quire proper is under the Tower, a not unusual Benedictine arrangement. The original screens at the west end have unfortunately been destroyed, but from plans made by Browne Willis (_vide supra_, where Mr Waller's drawing of Browne Willis' plan, made in 1727, is given) and Carter, while some remains of them existed, the arrangement can be approximately recovered. I have advisedly used the plural word 'screens' because they were two in number. The first consisted of two stone walls--the one at the west end of the quire, against which the stalls were returned; the other west of it between the first pair of pillars. There was a central door, which was called the quire door. The western wall was broader than the other, and had in the thickness of its southern half an ascending stair to a loft or gallery above, which extended over the whole area between the two walls. This loft was called in Latin the _pulpitum_, and it must not, as it often has been, be confounded with the pulpit to preach from. It sometimes contained an altar, as apparently here at Gloucester, and on it stood a pair of organs.

From it also on the princ.i.p.al feasts the Epistle was read and the Gospel solemnly sung at a great eagle desk. On either side of the _pulpitum_ door was probably an altar.

"The double screen I have just described was built by Abbot Wigmore, who is recorded to have been buried in 1337, 'before the Salutation of the Blessed Mary in the entry of the quire on the south side,' which he himself constructed with the _pulpitum_ on the same place _ut nunc cernitur_ says the 'Chronicle,' and parts of it are worked up in the present screen. The north side of the quire entry, or perhaps the north quire door, was ornamented with images with tabernacles by Abbot Horton."

"The second screen, all traces of which have long disappeared, stood between the second pair of piers--_i.e._ a bay west of the _pulpitum_.

It was a lofty stone wall, against which stood the altar of the holy cross, or rood-altar, as it was more commonly called, and upon it was a gallery called the rood-loft, from its containing the great rood and its attendant images. The rood usually stood on the parapet or front rail of the loft, but sometimes on a rood-beam crossing the church at some height above the loft. Such an arrangement seems to have existed at Gloucester, for in the sixth course from the top a new stone has been inserted in both pillars exactly on the line where the ends of the rood beam would be fitted into, or rested on corbels, in the pillars."

On either side of the rood altar the screen was pierced by a doorway for processions, and the altar itself was protected by a fence-screen a little farther west.

After showing how the counterpart of these arrangements existed at Durham (_vide Arch. Journ._ liv. pp. 77-119), and describing the Durham nave altar and rood, Mr Hope points out that at Gloucester, as at Durham, "the eastern of the two doorways between the nave and the cloister was shut off by the screen and reredos of a chapel adjoining it on the west. The monks could therefore freely pa.s.s through the cloister door without being interrupted by strangers. This eastern door was not only the ordinary entrance from the cloister, but through it pa.s.sed the Sunday and other processions that included the circuit of the cloister and buildings opening out of it. The procession always returned into the church by the western cloister door, and, after making a station before the great rood, pa.s.sed through the rood doors in single files, and entered the quire through the pulpitum or quire door."

In the chapel, on the north side (which was perhaps dedicated to St.

Thomas the Martyr), was formerly, as shown in the plan by Brown Willis, the Blackleech monument, now in the south transept.

When the Benson screen was put up three Abbots were found interred in their robes, and another coffin with two skulls in it. This fact gave a possible clue to the ident.i.ty of one of the Abbots. One probably was Abbot Gamage, and the two skulls probably belonged to his brother, Sir Nicholas Gamage, and his wife, who were buried near the Abbot.

The present #Organ# was built originally during 1663-1665 by Thomas Harris, the father of the celebrated Renatus or Rene Harris, and the cost was defrayed by public subscription, to which, however, the inhabitants of Gloucester contributed but little. The contract was for the sum of 400, exclusive of the sum for the building of the organ-loft, and the decoration of the pipes and the case. The gilding and painting was entrusted to Mr Campion in November 1664, and the work was finished in December 1666. This artist was celebrated as a painter of heraldic subjects, and the work done by him, chiefly on the large pipes of the Great, is particularly beautiful.

The shield, which has been removed from the west front of the case, was undoubtedly that of Charles II., and two of the large pipes facing the nave bear the letters C.R., with a crown over them. Other arms represented are those of James, Duke of York (king in 1685), and his first wife, Anne Hyde.

The organ was repaired by Bernhard Schmidt before 1683. It was formerly in the gallery of the south transept, over the stalls, but was placed on its present screen in 1820 by Dr Griffiths.

It was improved by Willis in 1847, and again in 1888-89, and further additions are contemplated. The case is of oak, and is a fine piece of Renaissance work. A good view of it can be obtained from the triforium, looking across from south-east to north-west.

The following is a specification (kindly sent by Mr A. H. Brewer, the organist of the cathedral), from which it will be seen that the instrument is worthy of the cathedral:

GREAT ORGAN.

CC to A, 58 Notes.

1. Double Open Diapason 16ft.

2. Open Diapason, No. 1 8ft.

3. Open Diapason, No. 2* 8ft.

4. Claribel Flute 8ft.

5. Flute Harmonique 4ft.

6. Princ.i.p.al 4ft.

7. Twelfth 3ft.

8. Fifteenth 2ft.

9. Mixture 10. Trombone 16ft.

11. Trumpet 8ft.

12. Clarion 4ft.

SWELL ORGAN.+ CC to A, 58 Notes.

13. Double Open Diapason 16ft.

14. Open Diapason* 8ft.

15. Vox Angelica 8ft.

16. Salcional 8ft.

17. Lieblich Gedact 8ft.

18. Gemshorn 4ft.

19. Fifteenth 2ft.

20. Mixture 21. Contra Posaune++ 16ft.

22. Hautboy 8ft.

23. Clarionet 8ft.

24. Cornopean 8ft.