Manchester: Nave, east
modern pulpit and then an ancient rood-screen with three wide openings and double doors.
Passing through the screen, we enter the Choir, sometimes called the Radcliffe Choir, because members of this family were buried here.
The Choir-stalls date from the early Sixteenth Century and resemble those in Ripon Cathedral and Beverley Minster.
“There are twelve stalls on either side, and three on each side of the entrance through the rood-screen facing east. The stalls are furnished with misereres, which, in common with many others both in England and on the Continent, represent all manner of quaint subjects, monsters, animals, hunting scenes, etc.
“The carved elbows of the stalls and the end of the book desks are also worthy of careful examination, especially the Eagle and Child and general carving of the Dean’s Stall, which is a marvel of beautiful workmanship, and said by high authorities to be unequalled.
“Between the stalls the floor is one step higher than that of the nave, and at the east end of the stall, there is a further rise of two steps as we pass into the presbytery. Here, on the south side, we see the bishop’s throne—modern work, carved with a view to be in harmony with the stalls, but comparing unfavourably with them in execution. There is a rise of two more steps into the sanctuary, and the altar itself is raised two steps higher; this gives a good effect. Behind the altar is an elaborately carved wooden reredos of modern work, richly painted and gilt.”—(T. P.)
A fine ancient screen runs across the arch at the opening of the Lady-Chapel.
Along the south side of the south-choir-aisle we first come to the vestry, then to the Jesus Chapel (now a library), separated from the aisle by a handsome screen of the Sixteenth Century. Then we reach the fine entrance to the Chapter-House, beneath a large arch. At the end is the Fraser Chapel, with an altar cenotaph to the second Bishop of Manchester, James Fraser (died 1885), buried elsewhere.