Ely Cathedral Part 15

The position of the Lady Chapel here is rather unusual, it is generally placed at the east end of the Church; but in some few instances that honourable position was appropriated to the shrine of the local saint; here it was occupied by the shrine of St. Etheldreda, whose final resting place was within the apse of the original Choir, before the Presbytery was built.

+The Upper parts of the Church.+

To those who may feel disposed to explore the upper parts of the church, facilities are afforded by a staircase commencing at the south-west Transept leading to the western Tower; and by another leading from the north Transept; but permission must be obtained, for which an application should be made to the Verger in attendance. The ascent, though tedious, is not dangerous, if due caution be used. Many parts will be found worthy of attention; the timber work of the Octagon is a very curious piece of carpentry executed in English oak, and very ma.s.sive. A fine view of the interior may be had by standing against the upper tier of the windows at the east end, and looking westward; and another from the great Tower, by looking eastward through one of the openings near the clock face in the Nave. An extensive view of the surrounding country may be obtained from the summit of the Tower, exhibiting a complete panorama of the district, with several churches peeping from among the trees, and the river Ouse tracing its meandering course towards the sea, while corn-fields, meadows, and pastures contribute towards the beauty of the scene.

+Exterior of the Cathedral.+

After a careful examination of the interior, the visitor will do well to look round the exterior. We will continue our observations for his guidance and a.s.sistance, starting from the western front where we began; or by leaving the Cathedral by the north door into the church-yard, we turn to the left hand towards the north-west corner of the building, and proceed eastward.

While we are on the spot it may be well to observe the burial-ground near us, where lie the remains of generation after generation of former inhabitants of the town. Reader, let thy foot tread lightly hereabout, for the dust it presses on is all that remains of the earthly portion of creatures once breathing and living like yourself.

What a lesson is afforded us when we contemplate, on the one hand the works of men of ages long past, but still standing as monuments of their skill and piety, and on the other the graves of the silent dead; the heads which planned and the hands which executed, where are they?

Long since consigned to earth. All must feel, more or less, the influence of impressions to which such thoughts and scenes give rise, and may such feelings cause us to remember that we are but dust, and that we must, perhaps soon, become as those who lie beneath our feet!

"Our time is fixed, and all our days are numbered, How long, how short, we know not."--_Blair_.

The church-yard has been closed from burials for some years, and a cemetery has been formed a short distance from the town for the use of both parishes, as well as for the precincts which are extra-parochial.

Many of the gravestones have been laid down, others removed, but a few inscriptions might be found which would afford food for meditation to those who may feel inclined to examine them.

At the commencement of our survey we examined the western front, and will now turn our attention to the remains of the north-west Transept.

Some persons have doubted whether this wing ever existed, but Sir.

G.G. Scott, in his able Lecture on the Cathedral, delivered at the Etheldreda Festival in October, 1873, gave good reasons for believing that it was built at the same time as the Tower and the south wing; and we cannot but think the ruins give strong evidence of its having been similar in all respects to that on the south side. There is in this, as in the other, a grand semicircular arch on the eastern side, and portions of another which probably communicated with some chapel, of which however there are neither remains nor record. It would appear that after the fall of the original wing a new building was begun on the same spot, not however of the same dimensions, and carried but a few feet and then discontinued. A band of panelling in the western face of the b.u.t.tress corresponds with the work on the monument of Bishop Redman, who died in 1505, but the fall of the Transept took place some years, probably a century, before that. The arches built within the original arches of the Tower to afford additional support are believed to have been erected in the early part of the fifteenth century.

We have reasons to hope that steps will ere long be taken to raise a fund towards rebuilding this Transept;[52] which would indeed be a grand improvement, and worthy the support, not only of the Diocese of Ely but of the nation at large.

[Footnote 52: At the meeting of the Diocesan Conference at Ely, in July, 1874, the subject of the Restorations of the Cathedral was discussed, and the following Resolution pa.s.sed unanimously.--"That it is desirable that a Diocesan Committee of Clergy and Laity, with Branch Committees in each Archdeaconry, be formed to co-operate with the Bishop, Dean, and Chapter, for raising funds to carry on the Restoration of the Cathedral by rebuilding in the first instance, after the completion of the works now in hand, the north-west Transept."--_Ely Conference Report, 1874._]

A good view of the Nave may be obtained as it is un.o.bstructed through its whole length. A band of treble billet moulding runs under the lower windows; a double hatched moulding under the second tier; and immediately below the parapet is the ornament called the corbel table; these with the billet moulding round the clerestory windows, are in excellent preservation. The parapet on the wall of the aisle is embattled, that above the clerestory windows is plain. Although at one time battlements ran the whole length on both sides, those on the north were removed nearly one hundred years ago. The windows in the clerestory retain their original form, but those of the two lower tiers have been altered. Over one of the lower windows there appears a date (1662), probably referring to the period of some important repairs or alterations on this side. The removal of the ruins of the old Church of St. Cross, which stood near this spot, took place in the reign of Elizabeth, when the use of the Lady Chapel was granted to the parish of Holy Trinity.

We next turn our attention to the Octagon, which forms a grand central point from which radiate the four princ.i.p.al parts of the church--the Nave, the Choir, and the north and south arms of the Transept. Here originally stood a large square Norman Tower, which fell down in 1322, and was replaced by the present building; it is not an exact octagon, having four longer sides adjoining the four main portions of the building, and four shorter sides at the angles. The design was a grand one, but whether it was ever fully carried out is somewhat doubtful, the stone-work is carried up to a height a little above the roof of the Nave, &c., but the Lantern above is of English oak covered with lead. From a strong b.u.t.tress, surmounted by a pinnacle, at each of the angles formed by the walls of the Nave and Choir aisles with those of the Transept spring two ma.s.sive flying b.u.t.tresses, ab.u.t.ting octagonal turrets at each angle of the Octagon; these turrets were probably originally designed to be finished with pinnacles, and thus form a corona; between them runs a pierced parapet formerly surmounted by a bold cresting of leaves and other ornaments; and there are bases of pillars at the cardinal points. These pinnacles with the cresting have just been completed in Clipsham stone, by Mr. Wood, of Ely, in a manner highly creditable to his skill, and greatly to the improvement of the appearance of the building. Beneath the parapet, instead of a corbel table, there is a deep hollow, with running leaves, and small ball flowers at intervals. The sides of the Octagon are adorned with an arcade of pointed arches, some of which are pierced and glazed to admit light; the longer sides have six, and the shorter three, of these arches. In each of the turrets is a winding stair communicating respectively with the main parts of the building. The Lantern above is of two stories, the lower, (which is open to the interior of the Octagon) is lighted by windows a.s.similating with the large windows in the angles of the Octagon; the upper story is lighted by louvres as adapted to a belfry, for which purpose this chamber was originally designed; the lower windows have been reconstructed, a series of flying b.u.t.tresses (which had been taken away) have been re-placed against the angle divisions, which are finished with embattled turrets instead of pinnacles, and between them runs an open-work parapet. The whole of the Lantern has been repaired, and the exterior wood work re-covered with lead.

The portion of the north Transept which fell down in 1699, although soon afterwards carefully restored, and the mouldings and ornaments nicely replaced, may yet be distinguished from the old work: the Tuscan door-arch, however, in its northern face, is quite out of place here, not according with the style of the building in which it is placed. The restorations were executed under the directions of Sir Christopher Wren. The northern face of the Transept shows two pairs of Norman windows, the second pair being longer than those in the lower tier; above these is an arcade of small arches, and over these are two high Perpendicular windows, which reach partly into the gable. Over the doorway in the eastern aisle is an original Norman window, and in the western aisle is a replaced one.

The west front of the Lady Chapel[53] is richly decorated with niches, and has a n.o.ble window, under which is an arcade of small arches formed entirely in the thickness of the wall, in the back of some of which may be seen traces of coloured decoration; the gable point is adorned with a niche rising above the pierced parapet running up the sides. On each side of the building are five large windows, the tracery of which is much decayed, having been executed in a softer kind of stone than the walls. Between each two windows is a deep projecting b.u.t.tress surmounted by a crocketed pinnacle; at the angles are double b.u.t.tresses, on which are two kinds of tabernacles, both are square and occupy the breadth of the b.u.t.tress, the upper one is recessed in the body of the b.u.t.tress, the lower one is open on three sides, and had small pillars at the front angles rising from the set-off and carrying the projecting canopy; the tops being finished with crocketed pinnacles. The east end is not so richly ornamented as the west; the window is a very fine one but not so large as the western one, and there are no niches on the sides nor beneath it.

[Footnote 53: Now in course of restoration.]

The north side of the Choir is somewhat hidden by the Lady Chapel, which stands parallel to it, although the latter is much shorter; but a better view may be had by going between them. An opportunity is also thus afforded of observing the original Norman windows of the triforium of the Transept.

The windows of the aisle are uniform in size and shape, those of the triforium are nearly similar, but all were originally lancet-shaped, but altered to their present form in the latter part of the fifteenth century. The aisle roof of the two western bays of Bishop Northwold's work (the six eastern bays) was perhaps originally as high as the other parts, but altered at a later period; the tracery of these windows on the north side remains, but on the south side there is a difference which should be noticed. The lighter style of architecture and the large windows of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries made the support of b.u.t.tresses necessary, in this instance they are deep, and surmounted by crocketed pinnacles; on the sides of many of them are gargoyles, or water-spouts of grotesque figures; flying b.u.t.tresses are sometimes used in addition, reaching from the side b.u.t.tresses to the clerestory walls, thus forming an important addition to the support as well as to the external beauty of the fabric: of this the exterior of the Choir of Ely Cathedral is a splendid proof.

The east end of the Cathedral is one of the finest specimens extant of an Early English east front. It is divided into three stories; the lowest has three lancet windows of nearly equal height; the next tier has five windows of the same shape, side by side, the centre one being higher and those on the sides gradually lower; the third story, which is within the gable, contains three lancet windows, not seen in the Choir, but giving light to the s.p.a.ce between the ceiling and the roof.

There are several niches for statues, but no figures; and the spandrils of the window arches are relieved by quatrefoils and other ornaments. The gable point is adorned with an ornamented cross, which has been restored at the expense of Lady Mildred Hope; and a crocketed pinnacle at the south-east corner has been given by A.J.B. Beresford Hope, Esq. Rather more than a century ago this end was about two feet out of the perpendicular, but was skilfully restored by Mr. Ess.e.x, the architect.

The eastern faces of the aisles appear as wings to the end of the Choir, and are flanked with double b.u.t.tresses at the angles, upon which are set larger pinnacles crocketed. The windows lighting the two chapels at the end of the aisles were probably inserted when the chapels were erected; that in the north aisle is set in the wall, while that in the south aisle projects beyond the wall nearly to the depth of the b.u.t.tress.

The south side of the Choir is similar to the north, with the exception before mentioned--the two western bays of Bishop Northwold's work, in each of which the opening in the triforium is formed into two arches of a style differing from the adjoining portion of the building, but which have the appearance of originality. The walls of the triforium, both in the Choir and Nave were not originally so high as we now see them, but no doubt were heightened when the larger windows were inserted.

The south end of the Transept differs from the north in the arrangement of the windows; in the gable is a low Perpendicular window of seven lights, sunk within a deep recess; the north end has in the upper tier two large Perpendicular windows side by side. There is also a difference in the gable and pinnacles. Some corbels in the lower part of the wall would indicate the former existence of an adjoining structure but what it was we cannot undertake to say.

Considerable anxiety has been felt as to the stability of some portions of the south side, and it has been found necessary to underpin some of the b.u.t.tresses of the Choir and the walls of the Transept with large slabs of Yorkshire stone. It has also been deemed desirable to circ.u.mscribe the two round towers of the south west Transept with iron bands.

The south entrance to the Cathedral is through a portion of the eastern side of the +Cloisters+. The arch of entrance however, does not harmonise with the other portions of the Transept, and was doubtless an insertion, probably at the same time as a similar one in the north Transept, and by the same architect. It pa.s.ses through a beautiful Norman door-arch in the south wall of the Nave, as described in p. 41. Near this are the remains of an enriched arch, recently discovered when the wall was repaired; if it is in its original position it must have formed a communication from the Cloisters to that portion of the western aisle of the south Transept which now forms the Vergers' vestry.

The south side of the Nave is nearly similar to the north, but there is no corbel table under the embattled parapet of the aisle: the aisle windows have, with one exception, been restored to their original form; those in the second tier retain their altered shape; but those of the clerestory, as on the north side, are original.

The apsidal +Chapel of St. Catharine+, adjoining the south-west Transept, has been rebuilt in accordance with the original structure.

+Dimensions of the Cathedral.+

INTERIOR.

Ft. In.

The Galilee, or Western Portico 42 0

The Tower 40 4

The Nave 208 0

Crossing the Octagon 71 5

The Choir 123 0

Retro-choir 35 10

The whole length, from west to east 520 7

The length of Transept from north to south (including the Octagon) 178 6

Breadth of the Nave with the Aisles 77 3

Breadth of the Transept with the Aisles 73 0

Breadth of the Choir with the Aisles 77 3

Height of the walls of the Nave 72 9

Height of the ceiling from the floor, at the east end of the Nave 86 2

Height of the Pillars which support the Dome and Lantern 62 0

Perpendicular height of the Dome, springing from the capitals of the pillars, to the aperture of the Lantern 32 0