Photo of detail of cathedralWatson, Ripon, Photo.]TRANSITIONAL VAULTING CORBEL. CHOIR AISLE.
Watson, Ripon, Photo.]
TRANSITIONAL VAULTING CORBEL. CHOIR AISLE.
In the two easternmost bays the Decorated string-course is of a different pattern and at a slightly higher level; and herethe jambs of the windows are moulded with a hollow continued from the arch; while the rim of the latter has upon it a large filleted round flanked by hollows and supported on shafts with polygonal plinths and circular bases and capitals, the latter enriched with foliage. The east window, however, is not splayed, and has a deep rear-vault and a flat sill, while its rim is more elaborately moulded and there are shafts to the inner as well as to the outer arch. Except in the two easternmost windows on the north side, the glass is very poor. The Decorated vaulting-shafts are again in clusters of three, but rise from the bench-table and break the string-course. They have polygonal plinths, and their capitals are adorned with rather ill-cut foliage. In the north-east corner there is a single shaft having a fillet, and adjoining it is a round-headed doorway, which once opened into the angle staircase. In this aisle the panelling is carried two bays westwards.
It should be noticed that toward the aisle the choir arches have one more order in the three Decorated bays than they have in the rest. In the Decorated vaulting several chamfers are introduced among the mouldings of the cross-springers, and both in these and in the groin-ribs the most prominent moulding has a fillet. Otherwise the roof roughly matches that of the older bays. The older and the later period meet in the fourth bay from the west, where two of the groin-ribs have the fillet, while the other two are without it. In the two easternmost bays there are fine bosses at the crown of the vault.
It is thought that the Shrine of St. Wilfrid was in the east end of this aisle.[103]Unfortunately Leland’s wordsS. Wilfridi reliquiae sub arcu prope magnum altare sepultaeare too vague to decide its exact position.
The South Choir Aisle.—This aisle, in some respects, has been altered more than the other, but the south wall is Archbishop Roger’s work as far as the end of the fourth bay, if not farther. About 14 feet from the west end occurs that‘straight joint’ in the masonry which shows the separation of this aisle from the Mallory Chapel to have been an afterthought; and a little further east a round-headed doorway, moulded with the edge-roll and retaining a panelled door of some age, opens into the Chapter-house. There was evidently a second and similar doorway a few yards further on, but it has been blocked (doubtless when the cross-wall was built at the back of it between the Chapter-house and vestry), and a square-headed doorway has been made to open into the latter. To the right of this entrance is a square-headed lavatory with a projecting rectangular basin and a hole knocked through into the lobby behind. This lavatory is of course an insertion, probably of the fifteenth century; indeed the whole of this part of the wall has been much repaired with limestone. The aisle is somewhat darkened by the fact that its first four windows look into the Lady-loft. Fortunately the three westernmost are original. They are as usual round-headed and plainly splayed, and their sills descend to the string-course in steps. Archbishop Roger’s vaulting-shafts here are in better preservation than in the other aisle. The original vaulting itself must of course have been taken down when the three westernmost columns of the choir-arcade were rebuilt, but in the reconstruction the old ribs seem to have been used again. The groin-ribs have no room to descend upon the Perpendicular choir-capitals, and end prematurely upon corbels carved into faces.
The westernmost bay of the aisle has been divided into two storeys, the upper of which now contains part of the mechanism of the organ, but is thought to have been once a chantry chapel. This curious chamber is reached through a pointed doorway at the top of the Library staircase in the south transept. Its roof is of course formed by the aisle-vault, which originally extended, doubtless, as far westwards in this aisle as in the other. The space, however, has been shortened by the great thickness of a Perpendicular cross-arch, which, though its southern respond obtrudes into the aisle below, is itself only visible from this chamber. When, therefore, the vaulting here was rebuilt, it had to be adapted to the shortened space, and the groin-ribs, which are very much of Archbishop Roger’s pattern, spring from Perpendicular corbels carved into faces. The wall which separates this bay of the aisle from the choir was said above, quitetruly, to be Perpendicular, but on this its southern face the masonry is apparently Archbishop Roger’s. It is of gritstone, and behind the organ-bellows there remains a corbel like those of the cross-arch that props the vaulting in the corresponding bay of the north aisle. The presumption therefore is that the original vaulting was similarly propped here, and that the wall on which this corbel remains was built to block or strengthen the first choir-arch, and has survived the arch itself. To the west of the door a small square window looks into the Mallory Chapel.
In its eastern portion this aisle resembles the other, but the bench-table here is only carried two bays westward, and the panelling only one bay. In the fifth bay from the west the window is shortened to about half the length of the others, and the string-course (which is of Archbishop Roger’s pattern) is correspondingly raised, possibly because a longer window would have come below the springing of the vestry roof (in the period when there was no Lady-loft), or possibly (though this is less likely) to make room for the monument underneath, which, though placed here by Sir Gilbert Scott, who found it in pieces, may have occupied this position before. The monument is that of Moses Fowler, first Dean of Ripon (d. 1608), and the effigy is not a favourable example of English sculpture in the seventeenth century. Of the stained glass, that in the last window on the south side is of some merit. The capitals of the Decorated vaulting-shafts are better executed in this aisle than in the other. Here, as there, the Decorated vaulting begins in the middle of the fourth bay, where the fillet is again found upon the two eastern groins only. At the south-east corner of this aisle are the remains of a piscina—a fragment of a basin resting on a shaft—which probably belonged to one of the many chantries. The staircase at this corner affords the best access to the turret cell described in the last chapter, and to the attic over the choir, where the framing of the roof is a very remarkable specimen of modern joinery.
On account of the alterations that have taken place at different periods in the part of the Cathedral south of the choir, it will be well to examine the crypt under the Chapter-house before examining either the latter itself or the Library.
The Norman Crypt.—A round-headed doorway in the west wall of the Chapter-house admits to a staircase which,roofed with a sloping barrel-vault and descending southwards, turns eastwards, under another round arch, into the crypt. The age of this staircase is uncertain, but its west wall is of course the east wall of Archbishop Roger’s transept, and its barrel-vault is under his buttresses which will be seen in the Library. The crypt is divided by a cross-wall with a round arch in it into two portions, each having the vaulting supported on pillars along the middle; but half of the first and third bays of the western portion has been walled up in modern times for burial-vaults. The width of the crypt is about 18 feet and the total length about 68 feet.
Photo of the cryptWatson, Ripon, Photo.]THE NORMAN CRYPT.
Watson, Ripon, Photo.]
THE NORMAN CRYPT.
This part of the church was assigned by Walbran to Thomas of Bayeux (1070-1100), and by Sir Gilbert Scott to Thurstan (1114-1141); but it is quite possible that both these Archbishops, if not Oda or Oswald before them, may have had a share in its construction. Much of the work atany rate belongs to a Norman church which preceded that of Archbishop Roger.
In the vaulting (which by-the-way has had to be proppedat some period by two rude pointed limestone arches at the west end) the chamfered groin-ribs seem to have been added later for strength, probably when the storey above was remodelled; but the vaulting itself, with its square pillars, its plain round arches from pillar to pillar and from pillar to walls, and without ribs upon the groins (such having been its original condition, apparently), seems pure Norman work.[104]The traces of painted decoration remaining upon both pillars and vaulting are probably original. Along the walls the arches spring, not from corbels, but from short strings of the same pattern with the impost-moulding on the pillars—a pattern not of very early character. The north and south walls must, perhaps, be as old at least as the vaulting which rests against them; nor does the former wall seem quite on the same plane with the portion of Archbishop Roger’s choir foundations visible outside (between the present choir and the apse), he having perhaps built his wall against this one. The large limestone buttress against this wall, and another buttress which rises from the east wall but is hidden by the vaulting, were added in the Decorated period, and can be followed up through the two storeys above. They terminate in the pinnacles of the flying buttresses that span the choir-aisle. The south wall may perhaps be definitely placed somewhat early in the Norman period, since the windows are splayed both internally and externally.[105]Of equal age, probably, is the cross-wall (which, to judge from the mass of masonry that spans the present passage of communication between the two parts of the crypt, is very thick) since allowance is made for its thickness in the spacing of the windows.[106]It is at least as old as the vaulting, whose bays are arranged to suit it; and moreover the half-pillar against its eastern side has never been a whole pillar, as the capital plainly shows. This last remark applies also to the half-pillar against the extreme west wall, which therefore may perhaps be taken as marking the westward limit of the crypt at the time when the vaulting was constructed; while the east wall (excludingthe apse) probably marks the contemporary eastward limit—if, that is to say, the eastern portion of the vaulting has not undergone alteration. That eastern portion is clearly planned for an apse or chancel of some kind. The arch that rises eastward from the last pillar is stopped half-way in its course by a cross-arch opening into the apse, and the two last groin-ribs are carried from the pillar to the abutments of the cross-arch, being obliged by this contraction of span to form the only pointed arches in the whole vaulting. Such an arrangement—a ‘nave’ terminating in an apse, and at the same time divided by a row of pillars along the middle—is somewhat unusual. The present apse is of uncertain date. Part of it may be Norman. Its window indeed is of early Norman type: yet its wall seems of softer stone than the rest of the crypt,[107]and the string which runs along the east wall of the latter and round the responds of the cross-arch is there broken off: moreover, the cross-arch itself is clearly not of the same date or construction with the two ribs of the apse-roof, which ribs may possibly be of the same date as the groin-ribs; and lastly, it will be remembered that the shafts on the exterior had something of the appearance of Archbishop Roger’s work. The floor of the apse is raised on two steps, but there is no trace of an altar.
It will be noticed that at the south-east corner there is no apsidal chamber to correspond to that in the storey above. There is, however, an unsavoury hole from which have been extracted a number of skulls. Indeed, this crypt formerly contained huge piles of bones, which had probably been brought here by the sixteenth century builders from the foundations of their new nave-aisles,[108]and which were removed in 1865 to a pit in the graveyard. Among the stone relics which have found a resting-place here, the most interesting are a sarcophagus, the head of a cross of Saxon character, and a group of coffin-lids near the north wall. Most of these last are perhaps of the thirteenth century.[109]At the west end of the crypt is preserved Blore’s reredos.
The Chapter-houseis 22 feet wide from wall to wall and 35 feet long, but it was evidently once open to the vestry, and the dividing wall, which with its bench-table is of limestone, was erected in the Decorated or in the Perpendicular period. In both rooms, as also in the storey above, the original floor was perhaps of stone or tiles, but if so, it has been covered or superseded by wooden planking.
The Chapter-house is marked as such by the stone benches which are carried in two tiers along the north and south walls. On the north side the upper tier is interrupted by the piers of an arcading of plainly chamfered round arches, the central bay of which contains a fine mediæval cupboard with iron scroll-work. The doorway into the choir is very curiously treated on this side. It is surmounted first by a lintel, the stones above which are wedges forming a ‘flat arch,’ and then by a round arch so high as to run up behind the westernmost arch of the arcading. The very fine vaulting, although some have ascribed it to the Early English period, belongs more probably to the time of Archbishop Roger. Unlike that over the choir-aisles and the Markenfield chapel, however, it has all its arches rounded, and is without wall-ribs. It springs from five-sided corbels which, like the corbels of the old nave, are finished off with scrolls, and which on the north side are placed against the piers of the arcading; and in the middle of the room it is supported on two cylindrical and monolithic pillars. The bases and capitals of these are circular, and the former are almost pure Early English, the plinth having a round moulding at the bottom, and the base proper consisting of two round mouldings separated by a hollow, with one or two beads or fillets. The capitals are less advanced in style, as the part just above the bell is not moulded and the abacus retains the square edge. All the eight ribs that rise from each pillar resemble the groin-ribs in the crypt.
Interior of the chapter-houseTHE CHAPTER-HOUSE.
THE CHAPTER-HOUSE.
The arcade against the north wall is continued in the vestry, and it has been thought that it is Norman, and that its arches were once open.[110]But had this ever been the case the pierswould surely have been narrower, and would have had capitals. Indeed, it is doubtful whether the arcade is Norman at all: for if it were, its bays might be expected to agree in span and number with the (presumably Norman) bays of the crypt, whereas there are five bays there and only four here occupying the same total length. Secondly, the set-off on which its piers stand is probably Archbishop Roger’s work, as will appear later; and the piers themselves seem to be of the same construction with the wall behind them, which again is almost certainly his. Moreover, it is significant that the arches agree in span with those of his choir, and that their piers are back to back with his vaulting-shafts in the choir-aisle. Lastly, these piers correspond in width with his buttresses on the north side of the choir. In fact it is difficult to resist the conclusion that they are Archbishop Roger’s south choir buttresses in disguise,[111]and that the arches between them were thrown across merely to form a straight boundary for the vaulting, and to carry a ledge which (when there was no storey above) might support the external roof. The piers indeed are carried up, with a ‘straight joint’ on either side, above the springing of the arches, and the latter are constructed as if they had been let into the piers as an after-thought.[112]
As the bays of this arcade, to which the vaulting is adapted, do not agree with those of the crypt, it follows that the two cylindrical pillars here do not stand exactly over the pillars below—which strengthens the presumption that the vaulting there is of earlier date, and that its groin-ribs were added later for strength: nor does the dividing wall here stand exactly over the cross-wall below, so that the strain on the crypt roof must be considerable.
The two round windows are very widely splayed, and the uppermost part of their rim has a different curvature from the rest, as if they had once been straight-sided and round-headed. In their present form they are of uncertain date. The most conspicuous instance of the employment of this rare type of window—viz., the nave of Southwell Cathedral—ispure Norman, but the received opinion ascribes these Ripon examples to the time of Archbishop Roger, and it will be observed that their position harmonizes with the bays of the vaulting, which is presumably his, but has no relation externally to the spacing of the windows of the crypt, which, moreover, have an external splay. The third window was once circular like the rest, for a portion of the rim may still be traced; but as it would otherwise have been bisected by the cross-wall, the later builders have blocked half of it and squared the rest, splaying it at the same time like a squint. The date of the south wall itself is doubtful. It is thinner here than in either the vestry or the crypt.
Photo of sculptureWatson, Ripon, Photo.]The Resurrection. St. Wilfrid. The Coronation of the Virgin.ANCIENT SCULPTURES PRESERVED IN THE CHAPTER-HOUSE.
Watson, Ripon, Photo.]
The Resurrection. St. Wilfrid. The Coronation of the Virgin.
ANCIENT SCULPTURES PRESERVED IN THE CHAPTER-HOUSE.
Near the modern hearth is a case of curiosities found about the church, among them several fourteenth or fifteenth century reliefs in alabaster, representing the Resurrection, the Coronation of the Virgin, the story of Herodias, and the figure of a bishop, probably St. Wilfrid, with a curious P-shaped implement on his arm.
At the north end of the cross-wall it will be observed that the blocked doorway noticed in the choir-aisle was not round-headed on this side, but segmental. The square-headed doorway in the cross-wall itself is modern, and opens into a lobby, the opposite side of which is formed by the Decorated buttress whose lower portion was noticed in the crypt, while on the left is the doorway into the choir, and on the right another square-headed doorway, opening into the vestry.
The Vestry.—Before the erection of the cross-wall the vaulting evidently extended eastward continuously to the apse, which still contains a fragment of it with two corbels, while further traces, including another corbel, may be seen upon the south wall. Its removal may have taken place either when the two Decorated buttresses were introduced, or at the erection of the Lady-loft, or possibly much later; but was doubtless contemporaneous with the building of the cross-wall, which was evidently intended not only as a partition, but as a ‘stop’ for the portion of the vaulting that was retained. The present ceiling was put up by Sir Gilbert Scott, who, it is said, would have restored the vaulting had funds allowed. Of the buttresses, that adjoining the doorway has in its front, as well as in the side toward the lobby, a small trefoiled and moulded recess. These two buttresses are built against the piers of the arcading, part of the last arch of which is visible behind the cupboard.
In the same cupboard may be observed, scarcely above the floor, a wide stone ledge with a bold moulding worked along the front. If the floor can ever have been lower than it is now, this ledge may have been used as a bench. In itself, it is of course the set-off on which the piers of the arcading stand. Now it will be remembered that the portion of Archbishop Roger’s wall-base visible from the graveyard (between the choir and the apse) has at the top a wide set-off or slope. This ledge in the vestry, then, seems to be level with the base of that slope, where moreover there is a moulding similar to that found here; also the front of the ledge here seems to be flush with Archbishop Roger’s masonry there.
If, then, the work there is his,[113]the above considerations afford some reason surely for the belief that this set-off onwhich the piers of the arcading stand, and perhaps also the uppermost courses of the wall beneath it, are Archbishop Roger’s work. Nor is it improbable that this set-off once had a slope, of which that above-mentioned was the continuation, and out of which the buttresses (i.e., the arcade piers) rose after the manner of those on the other side of the choir—in fact, that Archbishop Roger intended to make this wall the exterior of his church by demolishing the crypt, vestry, and Chapter-house; and that it was only after some such idea had been conceived and abandoned, that the arches were thrown across from buttress to buttress, the vaulting constructed against them, this ledge formed (by cutting away the slope of the set-off), and the stone benches carried along the wall of the Chapter-house.
The arch above the ledge has been mutilated to make way for a modern spiral staircase of wood leading to the Library. Half-way up this staircase there remain upon the wall and upon the buttress (if it may now be so called) portions of a string-course which may be taken perhaps as additional evidence for the theory that Archbishop Roger at first intended to demolish the vestry and Chapter-house.[114]It does not, however, match the external string on the other side of the choir, but resembles the internal string in the choir-aisles.
The single window in the south wall is round-headed internally, and is partially splayed on one side and not at all on the other: indeed the wall here appears to have undergone some alteration. In this room this wall is of the same thickness with the corresponding wall of the crypt, which is not the case in the Chapter-house.
East of the above window a square-headed doorway opens into the apsidal chamber enclosed by the corner buttress. This curious little chamber was probably a sacristy or treasury. It has a recess in the west side, and seems to have communicated directly with the graveyard. In the roof is a slab which has a small cross graven upon it, and which may have formed part of an altar.
The projection at the south side of the apse was probably one of the responds of an arch against which the vaulting abutted, as in the crypt. Under the east window the curve of the wall has been flattened, probably to afford a better back for the altar, of which the step remains. On the north side is anaumbry, with a recess adjoining it in the side of the buttress; and on the south side is a smaller aumbry, and a piscina with a projecting basin and a semicircular head, the latter cut apparently in one stone. This again is probably one of the earliest piscinæ in existence. The curve of the apse is wider in this storey than below, which partly accounts for the fact that the adjoining Decorated buttress protrudes here into the room. There is also a difference in the stone used, and in several other particulars,e.g., the two windows here have very little external splay—all of which may or may not indicate a difference in date between the apse in this storey and in the crypt. The hand of Archbishop Roger seems traceable here not only in the external shafts and corbel-table, but also in the trefoiling (externally) of the east window. The two vaulting-corbels at any rate seem to be his, as well as the piscina. The upper part of the apse has lost its semicircular shape and been squared, and some masonry has been thrown across from its wall to the Decorated buttress, the motive having been perhaps to make a better support for the rectangular east end of the Lady-loft. The oak table in this room was probably the Communion-table of the church during the period following the Reformation.
The question now arises how long the vestry and Chapter-house have served their present purpose. Of the arrangements in this storey before the time of Archbishop Roger nothing can be recovered with certainty, but the (presumably Norman) wall between the two parts of the crypt suggests by its thickness that it was intended to support a division of some kind above. After being remodelled in the time of Archbishop Roger, however, this upper storey was evidently open from end to end, and its apsidal termination, containing both piscina and altar-step, indicates that it was a chapel: indeed, as has been well suggested, it was probably the original Lady Chapel. Nevertheless, in an age when every action of life was invested with a religious character, the western part may have been used for capitular purposes even without a dividing wall, and the gritstone benches, so significant of those purposes, are doubtless of considerable age. The statement in the old Records that the trial of 1228[115]was heldapud Rypon in Aulâ Capituliis definite enough to show thatthere was a recognised place for Chapter meetings; nor is it improbable that the reference may be to the present building. Some doubt is thrown upon this conclusion by a proclamation of Archbishop Lee in 1537 sequestrating the Common Fund on the ground that “the Chapter-house is ruinous in walls, roof, and stonework generally, so that it is likely to fall.” These words, it has been thought, can never have been applicable to the present Chapter-house, and it has been suggested therefore that there may have been another which has disappeared. Archbishop Lee’s words, however, are perhaps not irreconcilable with the present building. They may refer to the serious settlement which necessitated the huge Perpendicular buttress at the corner of what is now the vestry. There is, it is true, some difficulty in the fact that it is not the vestry but the Chapter-house which is mentioned, and in the allusion to a dilapidated roof (tectura); but it is conceivable that there was as yet no dividing wall, that the vaulting of what is now the vestry was still standing, that it had been injured by the settlement above-mentioned—in fact that its removal and the erection of the dividing wall took place in the time of Archbishop Lee. His direction for repairs may also account for the presence of limestone in the north wall of the Chapter-house, and for the propping of the vault at the west end of the crypt.[116]As has already been shown, the history of the vestry is bound up with that of the Chapter-house. At what period services ceased to be held at the altar in the apse, it is difficult to say; perhaps on the completion of a Lady Chapel above, perhaps on the erection of the dividing wall,[117]perhaps through the advent of the Reformation. At any rate, it was probably not before this part of the church had ceased to be used for services that it began to be recognised as a robing-room. There is an allusion to a recognised vestry in Leland, and very possibly the present room is meant; if so, it would seem from his account to have been used also as a library. But the fact remains that the church possesses no vestry except what is obviously a disused chapel.
The Lady-chapelor Lady-loft is 23 feet 3 inches wide, and 68 feet long.[118]Its west and north sides, being formed by what was once the exterior of the church, display not only windows and buttresses, but also a string-course with gargoyles. From the west wall projects one of Archbishop Roger’s buttresses, terminating in a slope, between the two blocked windows of the Mallory Chapel, which resemble the aisle windows of the other transept. The window on the right, mutilated by the insertion of the doorway, has lost its shafts, and retains only their capitals. The other window is partly cut off by the south wall, and is now a cupboard.
In the north wall, the first three bays are Archbishop Roger’s, and the windows resemble in their treatment the two just described, and are separated from each other by two buttresses which terminate, like those on the opposite side of the choir, in two slopes one close below the other. There is a third buttress, terminating in a single slope, at the angle formed with the transept. The Decorated window in the fourth bay is treated in the same manner as the rest of those in the eastern portion of the choir-aisles, and the Decorated buttresses which flank it are those which have been followed up from the crypt. The rich string-course or cornice along the top of this and the west wall corresponds with that on the other side of the church. The gargoyles are of course Decorated, and so is the string-course itself, eastwards at any rate of the second gargoyle on the north wall, for here one of the mouldings has a fillet upon it. Whether the rest of the string is Archbishop Roger’s work or not, it is difficult to decide.
The large windows in the south and east walls are surmounted by square labels ending in heads. Above the modern fireplace is the defaced monument of Anthony Higgin, second Dean (d. 1624), the founder of the present library; and further east, under the small lancet window (which is filled with fragments of stained glass), is an arched recess of considerable size, and a trefoiled piscina, each surmounted by a gable moulding with a finial. The piscina probably belonged to the chantry of Our-Lady-in-the-Lady-loft. A large stone bracket, supported by a grotesque figure, projects from the east wall, and the east window is bright with armorial bearings of benefactors of the church. This glass, which is mostly of the eighteenth century,was once in the great window of the choir. The north side of the recess in which the east window is set, is partially splayed outwards to join the last Decorated buttress, which with its neighbour have been cut back in this storey to the plane of the pinnacles above—doubtless when this Lady-loft was added.
The present pinewood ceiling was put up by Sir Gilbert Scott, but most of the carved angle-pieces in the panels came from an older roof of oak.
Photo of the libraryRonald P. Jones, Photo.]THE LIBRARY.
Ronald P. Jones, Photo.]
THE LIBRARY.
The history of the library begins with the MS. of the Gospels given by St. Wilfrid; and the ascription to him of various other gifts, which occurs in the writings of Peter of Blois (a Canon of Ripon in the twelfth century), implies at any rate that there was a library when Peter wrote. In 1466 money was bequeathed by William Rodes, a chaplain,ad fabricam cujusdam librarii in ecclesiâ construendi, words which may refer to the screening off for books of a portion of this chapel; but inLeland’s time books were apparently kept in the vestry, though it is not certain that the present vestry is meant.[119]Except a few MSS. of Chapter Acts, Fabric Rolls, etc., none of the books now here are known for certain to have belonged to the church before the Reformation;[120]indeed the present collection began with the bequest of his books by Dean Higgin in 1624. The books were in this chapel in 1817, but in 1859 they were at the Deanery. There are now over 5000 volumes, including seven MSS., of which one of the most notable is the Ripon Psalter (1418), containing the special offices for St. Wilfrid, and many printed books of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, among them two fine Caxtons. Many of the books have beautiful old bindings in stamped leather. The most interesting items in the collection are exposed in a glass case at the east end of the room.[121]Near the opposite end is another case containing the bones recently dug up under the site of the mediæval altar in the Saxon crypt.
Drawing of the chapelTHE OLD CHAPEL OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE’S HOSPITAL.(From a pen-drawing by the author.)
THE OLD CHAPEL OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE’S HOSPITAL.
(From a pen-drawing by the author.)
[55]This is what was meant by saying inChapter II.that in each tower one side is older than the others.[56]In the interior of these towers the courses run level with those of Archbishop Roger’s work—a fact which has been taken as indicating that the lowest portion of the towers internally (but not, of course, the tower arches) may be actually his work. The theory that his west front was flanked by towers or chambers of some kind is not improbable.[57]A triforium is properly a gallery, open to the church, between the internal and external roofs of the aisles, but here there were no aisles, and the gallery or passage is in the thickness of the wall.[58]This term will be used wherever the usual term ‘vaulting-shaft’ is inapplicable.[59]The earth here has apparently been brought in from outside. Can it have come from some sacred spot abroad? The original floor, if not earthen, may possibly have rested on the set-off.[60]It has been suggested, however, that they may be relics of a feast buried here to defile the site of the altar. The bones in question are now in the Lady-loft.[61]With one of the deposits was found a brass bodkin of the type used in the sixteenth century.[62]It was Walbran, again, who gave these reasons for assigning the crypt to Wilfrid. Before his time it was thought to have been built during the Roman Occupation.[63]See article by Mr. J. T. Micklethwaite, V.P.S.A., inArchæol. Journ., vol. xxxvii. p. 364.[64]Aconfessio, it need hardly be said, has nothing to do with a confessional. The word is probably to be explained as meaning the tomb of one who had been a witness orconfessorof the Faith.[65]In making excavations for laying the wind-trunk of the organ the exterior of this wall was laid bare and appeared extremely rough. This, however, does not prove that it had never been meant to be seen. It may have been faced with smooth stones, which, just because they were exposed, attracted attention, and were removed by later masons for use elsewhere.—Mr. Micklethwaite.[66]Among the five known Saxon crypts (all of theconfessiotype) Ripon and Hexham alone show this peculiarity.[67]SeeProceedings Soc. Antiq., 16th June 1892.[68]In making the above-mentioned excavation in 1891, Mr. Micklethwaite found what was presumably the floor of the body of Wilfrid’s church. It was of plaster 3 inches thick, and was 1 foot 7 inches below the floor of the present Cathedral.[69]The explanation of the crypt as aconfessiois due to Mr. Micklethwaite, and is ably set forth, with its consequences, inArchæol. Journ., vol. xxxix. p. 347.[70]The square termination of the crypt is in favour of a square presbytery; while his Roman proclivities are perhaps slightly in favour of an apse, and of aisles.[71]Surtees Soc., vol. lxxiv. p. 83.[72]It is certainly true that numerous whitetesseræof Italian character, such as Wilfrid might have used, have been dug up on this site (Murray’s Cathedrals, Pt. 1, p. 172, n. 1). They may, however, mark the site of the domestic buildings and not of the church. Or they may be relics of the Roman Occupation.[73]By Walbran inProceedings Archæol. Inst., York Vol. 1846 (pub. 1848).[74]There is an interesting suggestion inMurray’s Cathedrals, Pt. 1, p. 172, n. 2, that the church of which the crypt formed a part was built not by Wilfrid but by Eadhead, who, as the supplanter of Wilfrid, would probably be excluded from Wilfrid’s monastery, but who may, nevertheless, have employed his workmen. The western position of the altar, however, is against placing the work as late as the episcopate of Eadhead.[75]The suggestion is Mr. Micklethwaite’s.Altarewould, of course, mean the high altar in the presbytery above.[76]A third font (modern) formerly stood in the north-west tower.[77]It is curious that the same story should be told of Roger de Mowbray, founder of Byland Abbey in this same county. (Murray’s Cathedrals.)[78]Another suggestion is that the subject has some connection with the history of the Disobedient Prophet.[79]Surtees Soc., vol. lxiv. p. 92.[80]But for the label, these arms resemble those of John of Eltham (brother of Edward III.), who died without issue in 1334.[81]It is pleasant to find in the church several indications of aid received from the other great ecclesiastical foundation in the neighbourhood.[82]Taken by itself, the coarseness of the work in the tower and transept would suggest that these parts were later, and not earlier, than the nave. But (not to mention documentary evidence), if they were later, then the Rood Screen must be later also, which can hardly be the case, the stalls against it being dated 1489.[83]Probably (as Walbran suggested) with money subscribed for the tower, the completion of which was perhaps the less pressing necessity.[84]In the large mediæval churches there was usually an altar at the east end of the nave.[85]It may have been put here at the time of the building of the present nave, than which it is perhaps slightly earlier.[86]The Markenfields were one of the principal families in the neighbourhood from the fourteenth century onwards, until in the reign of Elizabeth they ruined themselves by taking part in the Rising in the North. Their ancient moated Manor-house, in which both the knights sculptured on these altar tombs must have lived, is still standing, about three miles from Ripon, towards Harrogate.[87]This aisle was also the site of the chantry of St. Andrew.[88]In these pages this term is used to describe round mouldings which are brought to an edge without actually having a fillet upon them.[89]By Mr. Francis Bond.[90]In spite of Sir G. Scott’s conjectural plan. (Seep. 67.)[91]It is possible that the screen there mentioned may be the present structure, or may have been incorporated into it. In 1408 the accident to the tower had not yet occurred, and the piers that now flank the screen had therefore not yet been built. There is a not very credible story that the present screen came from Fountains Abbey.[92]This peculiarity is found at some other places—e.g., St. Cross, Winchester.[93]This column and that opposite to it on the north side have been regarded as entirely Decorated imitations of Archbishop Roger’s columns, but surely without sufficient reason.[94]See also the account of the East End in Chapter II., pp.60-63.[95]Two holes have been drilled through the rear-vault from the attic above, but for what purpose it is hard to say.[96]It appears from the Fabric Rolls that a new high altar was begun in 1522. The work seems to have lasted four years, and apparently included a carved wooden reredos.[97]Subtus altaresuggests a crypt, but there seems to have been no crypt under the choir. Perhaps thealtaremeant may have stood over the Saxon or the Norman crypt.[98]Mention may be here made of the Communion plate, some of which is as old as 1676 and has upon it representations of the church, very incorrect but showing the spires; also of the mace which is now borne before the Dean, and which has been assigned to the fifteenth century and may possibly have been once borne before the Wakeman. Upon the top has been engraved anAgnus Dei, the cognizance of the church.[99]A piece of woodwork, however, which was in the north aisle at the time of the last restoration, is said to have borne the date 1397.[100]The old miserere was probably removed when the Throne was made to comprise two stalls. (Seep. 111.)[101]It has been supposed that these niches were for figures of St. Peter and St. Wilfrid, and that the same was the case with the two niches which form the ends of the lower tier in the Rood Screen, and also with those which flank the west doors. It may also have been the case with the two eastward projections (if there were two) from the western piers of the Central Tower.[102]Below the string-course there is a certain amount of limestone in the wall, but this hardly accounts for the language of a Chapter minute which records a meeting in 1546 to consider the repair of certaindefectus et ruinositates apertae tam campanilis quam muri lapidei insulae borealis.[103]Above the shrine there hung, apparently, a gilded crescent like that above the site of St. Thomas’s shrine at Canterbury. The bones were enclosed in a splendid coffer with poles attached, and on solemn occasions this ‘feretory,’ besides being carried in procession, was sometimes placed under a tent in the fields. It was also very elaborately renewed in 1520(Surtees Soc., vol. lxxxi. p. 204, n., etc.). Portions of the shrine exist, perhaps, in the alabaster bas-reliefs in the Chapter-house, as well as in the base of the railing in the north aisle of the nave.[104]It may, however, be later than the main walls.[105]The lower portion of this wall seems to be of an even earlier type of masonry than the upper. A somewhat similar difference between the upper and lower portions may be observed in the east and north walls also.[106]The late doorway approached by four steps, east of the cross-wall, occupies the place of one of the windows.[107]Three kinds of stone occur in this crypt: a sandstone, a fine gritstone, and a coarser and harder gritstone.[108]There are numerous entries in the Fabric Rolls, from 1512 onwards, relating to expenses ‘for the carriage of the bones.’[109]One has a sword graven upon it, another a pair of shears (closed), another a book and a chalice, the latter slightly tipped, while a gravestone lying in the apse has upon it a dagger, and a pair of shears open.[110]Since it is probable that the axis of the church has always, at all periods, passed over the Saxon crypt, the Chapter-house and vestry can hardly have been the south aisle of the choir before the time of Archbishop Roger (as Walbran supposed), for they are too far south; indeed, they would seem rather to have been a chapel thrown out from such an aisle.[111]In the storey above will be found certain buttresses which are clearly his, which stand exactly over these piers, and of which the latter are probably merely the lower portions.[112]The supposition that the arches were added afterwards would explain why the westernmost of them cuts off the top of the arch over the door.[113]That it is his can hardly be doubted. The moulding and slope at the top resemble those which characterize the wall-base throughout his work.[114]Murray’s Cathedrals, Pt. 1, p. 180.[115]SeeChapter I.[116]A view of the crypt as it was before the removal of the bones represents the vaulting as propped also by certain pillars of Perpendicular character. These may have been removed by Sir Gilbert Scott.[117]I.e., if that wall was not erected contemporaneously with the said Lady Chapel.[118]For its date seeChapters I.andII.[119]Can Leland mean that the books, then as now, were in the Lady-loft, and that part of it was used as a vestry?[120]In 1567 a number of books were found in ‘a vawte’ of the church, where they had been concealed for safety (Surtees Soc., vol. lxxxi. p. 344).[121]For a full account of this interesting library, see the monograph by the Rev. Canon Fowler, F.S.A., of Durham, by whom the books were arranged in 1872. A copy is kept in the room.
[55]This is what was meant by saying inChapter II.that in each tower one side is older than the others.
[56]In the interior of these towers the courses run level with those of Archbishop Roger’s work—a fact which has been taken as indicating that the lowest portion of the towers internally (but not, of course, the tower arches) may be actually his work. The theory that his west front was flanked by towers or chambers of some kind is not improbable.
[57]A triforium is properly a gallery, open to the church, between the internal and external roofs of the aisles, but here there were no aisles, and the gallery or passage is in the thickness of the wall.
[58]This term will be used wherever the usual term ‘vaulting-shaft’ is inapplicable.
[59]The earth here has apparently been brought in from outside. Can it have come from some sacred spot abroad? The original floor, if not earthen, may possibly have rested on the set-off.
[60]It has been suggested, however, that they may be relics of a feast buried here to defile the site of the altar. The bones in question are now in the Lady-loft.
[61]With one of the deposits was found a brass bodkin of the type used in the sixteenth century.
[62]It was Walbran, again, who gave these reasons for assigning the crypt to Wilfrid. Before his time it was thought to have been built during the Roman Occupation.
[63]See article by Mr. J. T. Micklethwaite, V.P.S.A., inArchæol. Journ., vol. xxxvii. p. 364.
[64]Aconfessio, it need hardly be said, has nothing to do with a confessional. The word is probably to be explained as meaning the tomb of one who had been a witness orconfessorof the Faith.
[65]In making excavations for laying the wind-trunk of the organ the exterior of this wall was laid bare and appeared extremely rough. This, however, does not prove that it had never been meant to be seen. It may have been faced with smooth stones, which, just because they were exposed, attracted attention, and were removed by later masons for use elsewhere.—Mr. Micklethwaite.
[66]Among the five known Saxon crypts (all of theconfessiotype) Ripon and Hexham alone show this peculiarity.
[67]SeeProceedings Soc. Antiq., 16th June 1892.
[68]In making the above-mentioned excavation in 1891, Mr. Micklethwaite found what was presumably the floor of the body of Wilfrid’s church. It was of plaster 3 inches thick, and was 1 foot 7 inches below the floor of the present Cathedral.
[69]The explanation of the crypt as aconfessiois due to Mr. Micklethwaite, and is ably set forth, with its consequences, inArchæol. Journ., vol. xxxix. p. 347.
[70]The square termination of the crypt is in favour of a square presbytery; while his Roman proclivities are perhaps slightly in favour of an apse, and of aisles.
[71]Surtees Soc., vol. lxxiv. p. 83.
[72]It is certainly true that numerous whitetesseræof Italian character, such as Wilfrid might have used, have been dug up on this site (Murray’s Cathedrals, Pt. 1, p. 172, n. 1). They may, however, mark the site of the domestic buildings and not of the church. Or they may be relics of the Roman Occupation.
[73]By Walbran inProceedings Archæol. Inst., York Vol. 1846 (pub. 1848).
[74]There is an interesting suggestion inMurray’s Cathedrals, Pt. 1, p. 172, n. 2, that the church of which the crypt formed a part was built not by Wilfrid but by Eadhead, who, as the supplanter of Wilfrid, would probably be excluded from Wilfrid’s monastery, but who may, nevertheless, have employed his workmen. The western position of the altar, however, is against placing the work as late as the episcopate of Eadhead.
[75]The suggestion is Mr. Micklethwaite’s.Altarewould, of course, mean the high altar in the presbytery above.
[76]A third font (modern) formerly stood in the north-west tower.
[77]It is curious that the same story should be told of Roger de Mowbray, founder of Byland Abbey in this same county. (Murray’s Cathedrals.)
[78]Another suggestion is that the subject has some connection with the history of the Disobedient Prophet.
[79]Surtees Soc., vol. lxiv. p. 92.
[80]But for the label, these arms resemble those of John of Eltham (brother of Edward III.), who died without issue in 1334.
[81]It is pleasant to find in the church several indications of aid received from the other great ecclesiastical foundation in the neighbourhood.
[82]Taken by itself, the coarseness of the work in the tower and transept would suggest that these parts were later, and not earlier, than the nave. But (not to mention documentary evidence), if they were later, then the Rood Screen must be later also, which can hardly be the case, the stalls against it being dated 1489.
[83]Probably (as Walbran suggested) with money subscribed for the tower, the completion of which was perhaps the less pressing necessity.
[84]In the large mediæval churches there was usually an altar at the east end of the nave.
[85]It may have been put here at the time of the building of the present nave, than which it is perhaps slightly earlier.
[86]The Markenfields were one of the principal families in the neighbourhood from the fourteenth century onwards, until in the reign of Elizabeth they ruined themselves by taking part in the Rising in the North. Their ancient moated Manor-house, in which both the knights sculptured on these altar tombs must have lived, is still standing, about three miles from Ripon, towards Harrogate.
[87]This aisle was also the site of the chantry of St. Andrew.
[88]In these pages this term is used to describe round mouldings which are brought to an edge without actually having a fillet upon them.
[89]By Mr. Francis Bond.
[90]In spite of Sir G. Scott’s conjectural plan. (Seep. 67.)
[91]It is possible that the screen there mentioned may be the present structure, or may have been incorporated into it. In 1408 the accident to the tower had not yet occurred, and the piers that now flank the screen had therefore not yet been built. There is a not very credible story that the present screen came from Fountains Abbey.
[92]This peculiarity is found at some other places—e.g., St. Cross, Winchester.
[93]This column and that opposite to it on the north side have been regarded as entirely Decorated imitations of Archbishop Roger’s columns, but surely without sufficient reason.
[94]See also the account of the East End in Chapter II., pp.60-63.
[95]Two holes have been drilled through the rear-vault from the attic above, but for what purpose it is hard to say.
[96]It appears from the Fabric Rolls that a new high altar was begun in 1522. The work seems to have lasted four years, and apparently included a carved wooden reredos.
[97]Subtus altaresuggests a crypt, but there seems to have been no crypt under the choir. Perhaps thealtaremeant may have stood over the Saxon or the Norman crypt.
[98]Mention may be here made of the Communion plate, some of which is as old as 1676 and has upon it representations of the church, very incorrect but showing the spires; also of the mace which is now borne before the Dean, and which has been assigned to the fifteenth century and may possibly have been once borne before the Wakeman. Upon the top has been engraved anAgnus Dei, the cognizance of the church.
[99]A piece of woodwork, however, which was in the north aisle at the time of the last restoration, is said to have borne the date 1397.
[100]The old miserere was probably removed when the Throne was made to comprise two stalls. (Seep. 111.)
[101]It has been supposed that these niches were for figures of St. Peter and St. Wilfrid, and that the same was the case with the two niches which form the ends of the lower tier in the Rood Screen, and also with those which flank the west doors. It may also have been the case with the two eastward projections (if there were two) from the western piers of the Central Tower.
[102]Below the string-course there is a certain amount of limestone in the wall, but this hardly accounts for the language of a Chapter minute which records a meeting in 1546 to consider the repair of certaindefectus et ruinositates apertae tam campanilis quam muri lapidei insulae borealis.
[103]Above the shrine there hung, apparently, a gilded crescent like that above the site of St. Thomas’s shrine at Canterbury. The bones were enclosed in a splendid coffer with poles attached, and on solemn occasions this ‘feretory,’ besides being carried in procession, was sometimes placed under a tent in the fields. It was also very elaborately renewed in 1520(Surtees Soc., vol. lxxxi. p. 204, n., etc.). Portions of the shrine exist, perhaps, in the alabaster bas-reliefs in the Chapter-house, as well as in the base of the railing in the north aisle of the nave.
[104]It may, however, be later than the main walls.
[105]The lower portion of this wall seems to be of an even earlier type of masonry than the upper. A somewhat similar difference between the upper and lower portions may be observed in the east and north walls also.
[106]The late doorway approached by four steps, east of the cross-wall, occupies the place of one of the windows.
[107]Three kinds of stone occur in this crypt: a sandstone, a fine gritstone, and a coarser and harder gritstone.
[108]There are numerous entries in the Fabric Rolls, from 1512 onwards, relating to expenses ‘for the carriage of the bones.’
[109]One has a sword graven upon it, another a pair of shears (closed), another a book and a chalice, the latter slightly tipped, while a gravestone lying in the apse has upon it a dagger, and a pair of shears open.
[110]Since it is probable that the axis of the church has always, at all periods, passed over the Saxon crypt, the Chapter-house and vestry can hardly have been the south aisle of the choir before the time of Archbishop Roger (as Walbran supposed), for they are too far south; indeed, they would seem rather to have been a chapel thrown out from such an aisle.
[111]In the storey above will be found certain buttresses which are clearly his, which stand exactly over these piers, and of which the latter are probably merely the lower portions.
[112]The supposition that the arches were added afterwards would explain why the westernmost of them cuts off the top of the arch over the door.
[113]That it is his can hardly be doubted. The moulding and slope at the top resemble those which characterize the wall-base throughout his work.
[114]Murray’s Cathedrals, Pt. 1, p. 180.
[115]SeeChapter I.
[116]A view of the crypt as it was before the removal of the bones represents the vaulting as propped also by certain pillars of Perpendicular character. These may have been removed by Sir Gilbert Scott.
[117]I.e., if that wall was not erected contemporaneously with the said Lady Chapel.
[118]For its date seeChapters I.andII.
[119]Can Leland mean that the books, then as now, were in the Lady-loft, and that part of it was used as a vestry?
[120]In 1567 a number of books were found in ‘a vawte’ of the church, where they had been concealed for safety (Surtees Soc., vol. lxxxi. p. 344).
[121]For a full account of this interesting library, see the monograph by the Rev. Canon Fowler, F.S.A., of Durham, by whom the books were arranged in 1872. A copy is kept in the room.
The Deanery, a stone house with two gabled wings, stands opposite to the north transept. It was built in or about 1625. The front bears the royal arms, and the hall contains some paintings of the kings and queens of England, which are more curious than valuable, and are probably of no very great age. Before the house is an ancient stone wall with strongly-marked base, gable coping, and a doorway whose trefoil head was apparently not made for its present position. This may perhaps be part of Abbot Huby’s wall, or of the boundary-wall of either the Palace or the Bedern.
Near the south-west tower is a fine red-brick house which doubtless remembers the Georges, or even Queen Anne. It has all the air of a prebendal residence, but if it was ever connected with the church, that connection has long ceased.
Another red-brick house of some age, adjoining the picturesque ascent from High St. Agnesgate to the south transept, was the Canons’ Residence up to 1859, when was bought the present Residence near the north-east corner of the graveyard.
High St. Agnesgate contains several interesting buildings, foremost among which isSt. Anne’s Hospital,[122]formerly called ‘The Maidens’ Due’ (Maison de Dieu), with its interesting ruined chapel. This is the only one of the three hospitals which was never affiliated to the Collegiate Church. The date of its origin has been placed shortly before 1438, in which year a chantry was founded in its chapel. The hospital foundation was for four poor men and four poor women, and there were also two beds for ‘casuals’; and the little community was under the charge of a priest. There was apparently no endowment. The domestic portion of the building was pulled down in 1869. Though it had been divided into cottages some time before that date, the original arrangements have been recovered from an old document and from certain indications that hadsurvived in the fabric itself. Joined to the west end of the chapel was a sort of nave, divided down the middle by a partition, on one side of which were the beds for the men, on the other those for the women, while at the west end were two rooms for the priest. This ‘nave’ was probably open to the chapel, as the large size of the western arch of the latter seems to indicate, and possibly the infirmer inmates could attend the service without leaving their beds.[123]
To pass to the chapel itself—a window in the north wall has been blocked with masonry, upon which is a shield of arms, thought to be those of Sir Solomon Swale of South Stainley, and surmounted by a Maltese cross with the letters S.S. and the date 1654 upon it. The west gable has once been crowned by a bell-cote, and attached to the south-west corner of the chapel are the remains of an arched doorway. The western arch of the building, curiously enough, is not in the middle of the wall. It is recessed and chamfered, and rests upon two semi-cylindrical responds, whose rather curious capitals do not follow the form of the shaft, but are triple and rectangular. The chapel internally is 20 feet 10 inches long and 11 feet 6 inches wide, and is not at right angles to its western wall, but inclines considerably toward the south. In the middle of the entrance is an octagonal basin, supported on a pedestal and having a shield on each of its sides. This is thought to have been a stoup for holy water. It is not, perhaps, in its original position, and the pedestal does not seem to belong to it. Opposite to the blocked window already mentioned, which has an aumbry east of it, there is a late square-headed window of two lights, whose arches do not reach quite up to the lintel, but are connected with it by short perpendiculars. East of this is a piscina with projecting semi-octagonal basin, trefoil head, and ogee hood, and with a small square window above and to the left of it. The stone slab on two stone supports against the east wall is probably the original altar, and tradition says that the ransom of a Scottish prince was paid down upon it. On either side of the altar is a stone bracket, that on the north side bearing a shield of arms.[124]The east window, which is blocked, isdivided into two lights, and the head is almost filled by a large quatrefoil, of which the uppermost and lowermost foils are ogees. This window, and the piers and capitals of thewestern arch, give the impression that the chapel is of a date earlier than that usually assigned for the foundation of the hospital. The modern cottages are inhabited by eight women.