The Cathedral Church of York Part 7

The clerestory windows are Perpendicular in style, and contain five lights. Though the design is not beautiful in itself, like that of the great east window, it makes an admirable frame for gla.s.s. There are certain differences in detail between the windows of the eastern bays and those of the western. The windows of the eastern bays are almost transitional. Certainly their Perpendicular character is not fully developed. Thus some of their upper compartments diverge to the left and right, whereas the windows in the choir itself are made up of parallel and vertical divisions. In the eastern windows, also, a transom runs through the upper lights of the windows, which is not found at the western. The tracery of the eastern window is even more filled with transitional characteristics. As a pattern of tracery, it is wanting in coherence and subordination, and these faults are painfully evident outside. But it is so vast, and filled with such magnificent gla.s.s, that the tracery seen from the inside seems hardly more important than the leads of the gla.s.s, and the whole is to be judged simply as a great wall of gla.s.s supported where necessary by stonework made as un.o.btrusive as possible.

There are differences also in the eastern and western windows of the aisles, especially in the interweaving and subordination of the lines of the mouldings, but these differences are not so obvious as in the clerestory.

The change in the placing of the clerestory window and of the triforium pa.s.sage has been pointed out.

Among other and minor differences the following may be remarked:--In the eastern bays the capitals of shafts in the triforium run round the shafts of the main arch of the window.

In the western bays the arches between the mullions of the triforium are cinquefoiled (they are trefoiled in the eastern bays), and the bases are much shorter.

All the mullions of the clerestory windows have capitals. The two central mullions, as in the nave, are thicker than the rest. They rise also to the head of the arch. The two outer lights are coupled by an arch above them. The upper lights are broken up into a number of divisions, vertical and parallel in the choir proper, slightly varied in direction in the retro-choir. The mouldings are as elaborate and as carefully subordinated as in the earlier work of the nave.

Below the transom dividing triforium from clerestory is a row of panelling divided by the mullions of the triforium, which, as in the nave, are merely a continuation of the mullions of the clerestory. The arches of the triforium are not ornamented with a gable, as in the nave, but with a moulding decorated with crockets and ending in a rich finial.

The capitals of the main vaulting shafts are very curious. They consist of an ordinary row of carved foliage with three pendants ending in small carved figures with cinquefoiled arches between them. The outer mouldings of the main arches are cut short by the small outer vaulting shafts. A little way below them are small heads, as in the nave. The capitals of the main arches are like those of the nave, but their foliage is more disconnected. On the north side of the choir are figures on the capitals. Mr Browne, the enthusiastic and laborious historian of the minster, has supposed these figures to represent scenes in the rebellion in which Scrope took part. If the ordinary date given to the choir be accepted, it was built before that rebellion. But Mr Browne has endeavoured to prove that the choir was built later than is usually supposed. It is impossible in this book to do more than mention the controversy started by him, and to say that, in the opinion of Professor Willis and others, he has not made out his case. In the four eastern bays brackets and canopies for statues are attached to the vaulting shafts below the capitals of the piers. Those east of the altar were badly altered and restored after the fire of 1829. It should be mentioned two eastern bays are narrower than the rest for the better support of the eastern wall of gla.s.s, and the western bays for that of the tower. In the spandrels of the main arches are coats of arms, mainly of benefactors. The following is a list of these, taken from Murray's handbook to the minster, and beginning at the north-east end of the choir:--

1. Two keys in saltire--Chapter of York.

2. Six lions rampant--Ulphus.

3. Three lions pa.s.sant guardant, a label of three points, each charged with three fleur-de-lis--Thomas, Duke of Lancaster.

4. Three lions pa.s.sant guardant, a border--Edmund of Woodstock.

5. A bend between six lions rampant--Bohun.

6. Checky, a fess--Clifford.

7. A cross flore--Latimer.

8. Barry of ten, three chaplets--Greystock.

9. The instruments of the Pa.s.sion.

10. Three estoiles of six points, a border--St. Wilfrid.

11. Two keys in saltire, a border engrailed--St. Peter.

12. Two swords in saltire, a border engrailed--St. Paul.

13. Seven lozenges conjoined, 3, 3, and 1--St. William. (Archbishop and Patron Saint.) 14. On a bend, a lion rampant--Musters.

15. A chief, three chevronelles interlaced in base--Fitz-Hugh.

16. On a saltire, a crescent--Neville.

17. 18. A fess dancette--Vavasour.

Those on the south side, beginning at the west end, are as follows:--

1. A cross--St. George.

2. A cross flore between five martlets--Edward the Confessor.

3. Three crowns, 2 and 1--King Edwin.

4. Barry of six, on a chief, two pallets between as many esquires based--Mortimer.

5. Six lions rampant, 3, 2, 1, with a horn on the west side of the shield (referring to the famous gift of lands)--Ulphus.

6. A lion rampant--Percy.

7. Quarterly, 1 and 4 a lion rampant for Percy, 2 and 3 three luces hauriant for Lucy--Percy.

8. A bend, a label--Scrope of Masham.

9. Six osier wands interlaced in cross--Bishop Skirlaw.

10. A bend, a border charged with mitres; over all a label--Archbishop Scrope.

11. Three water bougets--Roos.

12. A saltire--Neville.

13. On a cross five lions pa.s.sant guardant--City of York.

14. Three fusils in fess--Montague.

15. A fess between six cross crosslets--Beauchamp.

16. A lion rampant--Percy.

17. France (ancient) and England (quarterly), with a label of three points--Edward, Prince of Wales.

18. France (ancient) and England (quarterly).

The vault of the choir is of wood, like that of the nave; it is an imitation of the vault destroyed by the fire of 1829. It is covered with a network of ribs that obscure the main structural lines of the vaulting.

The aisles of the choir are of much the same size, design, and proportion as those of the nave. Their vault is of stone. The windows are filled with tracery of an unusual transitional character, and altogether more beautiful and interesting than that of the clerestory.

They are divided into three lights, each terminating in a very obtuse arch. Above these arches are three others, also obtuse and hardly pointed. Short mullions run from the points of the lower arches to the points of the upper. Above the upper arches are three irregular-shaped openings, arranged pyramidally, the two lower being quatrefoiled, the upper s.e.xfoiled. The whole is a curious mixture of vertical and flowing lines. They represent a design, as it were, of which the tracery is arrested half-way in its process of stiffening from the curved lines of the Decorated style to the straight of the Perpendicular. Here, as in the clerestory, the mouldings are delicately varied. The central shafts alone of the mullions have capitals. On each side of every window are three shafts, all with capitals.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Choir in 1810.]

Below the windows runs an arcade of very simple panelling, four divisions to each window, and two trefoiled arches in each division.

There is also panelling of the same character on each side of the vaulting shafts between the windows. The windows of the eastern bays are more sharply pointed than the others. The vaulting shafts of the aisles have capitals of carved foliage and wings of leaf.a.ge on a level with the top of the arcade below the windows. The windows next to the east end have only two lights.

The eastern transepts stand between the four western and the four eastern bays. They mark the position of the eastern transepts and towers in Roger's Norman choir, and are of rather unusual design. They are of only one bay in width, and do not extend beyond the aisle walls. They therefore represent a bay of the choir, of which the clerestory and triforium are removed, and the aisle roof is raised to the height of the roof of the choir itself. Both outside and inside their effect is magnificent. Their north and south walls are filled with enormous windows, containing splendid gla.s.s. Of these windows, that on the north contains scenes from the life of St. William, and is known as the St.

William window; that on the south, scenes from the life of St. Cuthbert, and is known as the St. Cuthbert window. Both have had their mullions recently restored.

These windows are divided into five lights, and are crossed by three transoms. Below these transoms, in each light, are cinquefoiled arches.

The upper lights closely resemble those of the clerestory in design, and are of the same size. The main arch in these transepts remains, and is of the same character as that of the other main arches. Above it in each case is a gallery with panelled openings. Above the main arch, on each side of the transept openings, are thick cl.u.s.ters of shafts. The lower part of the windows has double tracery, like the great east window, and the east windows in the Chapel of Nine Altars at Durham, the inner tracery consisting of open lights about a foot off the actual tracery, containing the gla.s.s, and of exactly the same design. On each side of the windows are five canopies and brackets. The arches east and west of the transepts and opening into the aisles are of the same character as those opening into the choir. Above them are windows of the same size and design as those of the clerestory.

In the spandrels of the arches are coats of arms as follow:--

#North Transept--East Side.# 1. A chief, three chevronelles interlaced in base--Fitz-Hugh.

2. A bend, a label of three points--Scrope of Masham.

#North Side.# 1. Three escallopes--Dacres.

2. A fess between six cross crosslets--Beauchamp.

#West Side.# 1. On a saltire, a martlet--Neville.

2. A bend--Scrope of Masham.

#South Side.# 1. Checky, a fess--Clifford.

2. A cross flore--Latimer.

#South Transept--East Side.# 1. A lion rampant--Mowbray.

2. A lion rampant--Percy.

#West Side.# 1. A fess dancette--Vavasour.

2. A blank shield.

#North Side.# 1. A fess between three cross crosslets--Beauchamp.

2. Three escallopes--Dacres.

The stone carving of the retro-choir, as the earlier work cast of the transepts is generally called, was greatly injured by the fire. After the fire five of the canopies on the piers were renewed by the mason of the minster, who treated them according to his own sweet will. The canopies on the piers next to the altar screen remain untouched. The eastern bays of the aisles are of the same character as the rest. The east end of the choir is chiefly filled by the great east window, which fits into its position better than the west window of the nave, but not entirely satisfactorily. The mouldings of its arch are decorated with niches containing figures, and following the curve of the arch. This curve does not run parallel to that of the vault, which is less acute.

The window itself is set back a little way from the wall, and on each side of it are mouldings with occasional niches. The outside mouldings of the window run straight up through the outside mouldings of the arch, and are cut short by the ribs of the vault. This inter-penetration of mouldings is found also on the aisle side of the main piers of the choir, and is more characteristic of later German Gothic than of English. The wall between the outer mouldings of the window and the boundaries of the choir is filled with shallow niches, two rows to each side and four niches to each row. These perhaps were never meant to contain figures, and are more like panelling than niches. The upper outside niches on each side are cut into by the ribs of the vault. Below the east window is a row of quatrefoils, and below them nine divisions of panelling, in unequal portions, and of the same simple character as that in the aisles. The upper halves of the three central panels are filled with niches with rich canopies, each canopy being divided into three parts. The east end below the windows is now chiefly filled with uninteresting monuments of the later archbishops. There is no doubt that the aisles of the choir and the whole of the retro-choir could be better without the greater part of the monuments in them. The magnificent tomb of Archbishop Bowet is almost the only fine one to be found in the retro-choir.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Virgin and Child (a Carving behind the Altar).]

There has been a considerable controversy about the position of the Lady Chapel founded by Archbishop Th.o.r.esby. This controversy, in which Mr Browne has endeavoured to prove that Th.o.r.esby's Lady Chapel was placed on the north side of the nave, is far too long and intricate a business to find a place in this book. It is enough to say that the other authorities seem unanimously to be of the opinion that the altar of the Lady Chapel was under the great east window, where an altar, used for Holy Communion, is now placed. Thither, it is said, Th.o.r.esby removed the bodies of certain of his predecessors. And the tombs of six of these were existing in the seventeenth century, when drawings were made of them by Torre, the antiquary.