There to reigne in Joy and Blyss with them eternally!
Amen."
The South-east Transept, lying between the retro-choir and the chapter-house, into which it opens, is in the main Decorated, though its window tracery is perhaps somewhat later, being almost flamboyant in character. It was altered from the original Norman apse, and in the walls bases of the[pg 058] earlier work remain. It has an eastern aisle, separated from it by a single octagonal pillar.
Before the aisles were added the now open window looking into the Lady Chapel formed part of the outside wall of the chapel, and was glazed. There is a lovely view from this transept, looking slantwise into the Lady Chapel. In this transept are a number of fragments of brasses, mouldings, stone, etc. The chief monument is that to Bishop Lewis Charleton, 1369. His effigy lies under the wall dividing the transept from the vestibule of the Lady Chapel. Above it is a fine monument, restored in 1875, to Bishop Coke, died 1646. This bishop was brother to Sir John Coke, Secretary of State to Charles I. His coloured shield is borne by two angels.
A black marble slab, in excellent preservation, marks the spot where the remains of Bishop Ironside were laid on Christmas Eve, 1867, in presence of the dean, archdeacon, and praecentor, in a vault specially prepared for them; and there is a small brass on the wall. Gilbert Ironside, D.D., Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, was Vice-Chancellor of the University in 1687, when James II. seized upon the venerable foundation of Magdalen College and sent his commissioners to Oxford to expel the Fellows.
In his replies to the king, Dr. Ironside showed a firm and resolute spirit in defence of the rights of Oxford. His refusal to dine with the commissioners on the day of the Magdalen expulsion is described thus by Macaulay:—"I am not," he said, "of Colonel Kerke's mind. I cannot eat my meals with appetite under a gallows."
The brave old Warden of Wadham was not left to "eat his meals" much longer in his beautiful college hall. William III., almost immediately after his accession, made him Bishop of Bristol, whence he was translated to Hereford, and, dying in 1701 at the London residence of the Bishops of Hereford, in the parish of St. Mary Somerset, was buried in that church.
It was at the instigation of the Warden and Fellows of Wadham College that the Dean and Chapter of Hereford consented to the proposal that the remains and marble slab should be removed to the precincts of their cathedral.
St. Mary Somerset, Thames Street, was the first church closed under the Bishop of London's Union of Benefices Act, and when it was dismantled and the dead removed from their[pg 059] vaults in the autumn of 1867, the remains of Bishop Ironside were found encased in lead only, all the outer coffins in the vault having been previously removed or stolen.
For the purpose of identification the lead coffin was opened by the Burial Board authorities, "and," says Mr. Havergal, "so perfect were the remains that the skin was not broken, and the features of the placid-looking bishop were undisturbed." In a square recess on the east wall is a bust which has been taken by various critics to be Hogarth, Cowper, Garrick, and others, but is in reality a portrait of a Mr. James Thomas, a citizen of Hereford, who is buried near this place. Under it is a brass to Sir Richard Delabere, 1514, his two wives and twenty-one children; the inscription is as follows:—