S. B. Bolas & Co., Photo.]
A stone in the pavement in front of the chapel containing the effigy of Bishop Kaye, marks the position of the tomb of Grosseteste. Leland, in the time of Henry VIII., mentions that "Robert Grosted lyethe in the hygheste South Isle with a goodly Tumbe of Marble and an Image of Brasse over it." The monument was wrecked in the wars of the following century. Fragments of the stone canopy are still preserved; they are now deposited in the northernmost semi-circular chapel of this transept.
The general effect of the interior of the minster would undoubtedly have been better, had the original apse of St. Hugh still remained; the monotony of the continuous line of vaulting, carried to such a great length at an almost uniform height, would then have been avoided. But, taken by itself, there is no structure of modest dimensions in the whole range of Gothic architecture which is more beautiful in its details or more majestic in its effect than Lincoln's Angel Choir. Architecture and sculpture of the highest excellence are here united in a single work. Sir G. G. Scott in his Lectures on Mediæval Architecture, speaks of the angel choir in the following words:—"It is the most splendid work of that period which we possess, and, did it not lack internal height, I do not think it could be exceeded in beauty by any existing church." The period during which it was in great part erected (1256-1280) was favourable to such an undertaking. The primitive simplicity of the Early English Gothic was giving way to the more elaborate forms of the Decorated period. During this time, when tracery had not yet reached the flowing lines of the later phases of Decorated work, Gothic architecture, and in fact Gothic art generally, was at its best in our land. The angel choir was called by Fergusson "the most beautiful presbytery in England." It is in five bays, carried eastward at a uniform height and breadth with the choir of St. Hugh. Lincoln stone is used throughout; relieved with shafts and capitals of Purbeck marble. A better idea of the piers can be gained from the accompanying illustration than from any description. The spandrels of the great arches, which are plain in other parts of the building, are here decorated with sunk geometrical forms. Each bay of the triforium is divided, as elsewhere, into two arches, both of which enclose two sub-arches; but the details are richer than in the earlier parts of the minster. The clerestory has one window of four lights in each bay, with an eight-foil and two trefoils in the head. The compartments of the vault were originally coated with plaster, which has been scraped away so as to shew the stone surface underneath. It is a question whether it does not now look better than with the old plaster, and the gaudy colouring which once, most probably, decorated it. The springers of the vaulting are supported by slender shafts, which rest on elaborately foliaged corbels in the spandrels of the great arches. The beautiful foliaged bosses along the ridge rib are best seen from the triforium or the clerestory.
The great east window is considered to be the finest example of its style in the kingdom. It is of eight lights, "formed by doubling the four-light," and has a great circle in the head, filled with a six-foil surrounded by half-a-dozen quatrefoils. "Bar-tracery being fully developed," we read in a note to Rickman's "Gothic Architecture," "the general appearance of the window is rather Decorated than Early English, but the mouldings still belong to the earlier style." "This window ... together with the whole of that part of the choir is singularly and beautifully accommodated to the style of the rest of the building."
The aisle windows are each of three lights, with three circles in the head, two filled with cinquefoils and one with a quatrefoil. The two east windows of the aisles are similar to the others. The wall below the windows is decorated all round with arcading of a richer design than that in the nave. Two trefoiled arches are included in a larger arch, with a quatrefoil within a circle filling the head. The spandrels have sunk trefoils. The bosses of the stone vaults to the aisles are carved with sacred subjects, foliage, and grotesque figures.
