Now we come to the Central Tower. Four massive piers carry the four arches from which it rises. Foliage decorates the top of each arch. The spandrels are ornamented by two rows of arcading with slender-clustered shafts. The vaulting is of the Fourteenth Century. The iron rings on the piers were placed there for the purpose of fastening the bell-ropes of the “Lady Bells” that once hung in this tower.
A beautiful stone Rood-Screen, Decorated in style and dating from the end of the Thirteenth Century, fills the eastern tower arch, and marks the boundary of St. Hugh’s Choir. Traces of colour and gilding reveal themselves to an earnest scrutiny.
“On either side of the central doorway are four deep arches supported by detached pillars, decorated with grotesque heads and small figures of bishops. The wall behind is richly carved with diaper designs, shewing much freedom and variety. This screen was once decorated with colours and gilding, traces of which are still visible. It appears to have suffered a good deal at the hands of iconoclasts; many statues have doubtless been removed, and one must be very cautious with regard to the decoration which remains, as it was considerably restored by a mason named James Pink during the second half of last century. The screen now carries the organ erected in 1826.
“The two side doorways leading into the north and south aisles of the choir are somewhat earlier than the screen between them. They are beautiful examples of carving, dating from the end of the Early English period. The exquisite openwork foliage which runs round the arch is executed with the utmost skill and care, and is without the laboured effect of so much of our later stone-work. The injured parts were carefully restored about 1770 by James Pink, who was also employed by Essex on the canopy of the reredos. The doorways have modern iron gates.”—(A. F. K.)
The Choir now includes St. Hugh’s Choir and two bays of the Angel Choir beyond.
St. Hugh’s Choir is the earliest example of pure Gothic in the world. People are frequently disappointed in it because of its low vault and squat arches; but it must be remembered that the fall of the central tower in 1237-1239 greatly damaged this part of the building. In order to strengthen the choir some heavy columns without capitals replaced the original slender shafts. The arches were also partly reconstructed. Arcaded screens between the piers divide the choir from the aisles north and south, and aid in the support.
“The foliage of the capitals is exquisitely beautiful, and though distinguished technically by the name of stiff-leaf foliage, because there are stiff stalks to the leaves rising from the ring of the capital, the leaves themselves curl over in the most graceful manner, with a freedom and elegance not exceeded at any subsequent period. The mouldings are also as bold and as deep as possible, and there is scarcely a vestige of Norman character remaining in any part of the work.”—(R.)
Viollet-le-Duc, who fixes the date of St. Hugh’s Choir at 1220 or 1210 at the earliest, says:
“We have in Normandy, especially in the cathedral of Rouen and the church of Eu, architecture of the date of 1190; it is purely French, that is to say, it corresponds exactly with the architecture of the ‘Isle de France’ except in certain details. At Eu, at the cathedral of Le Mans, at Seez, we have architecture which resembles that of the choir of Lincoln, but that architecture is from 1210 to 1220, it is the Norman school of the Thirteenth Century. There is, indeed, at Lincoln, an effort at, a tendency to originality, a style of ornament which attempts to emancipate itself; nevertheless the character is purely Anglo-Norman.
“The construction is English, the profiles of the mouldings are English, the ornaments are English, the execution of the work belongs to the English school of workmen of the beginning of the Thirteenth Century.