How to Visit the English Cathedrals

by Esther Singleton

Many fine views can be had of the East Front. The splendid Decorated window is always the most conspicuous object. The window above it is also Decorated and nearly fills the gable. In the trefoil over the top circle is a figure of the Virgin. The richly crocketed pyramids of the turrets on either side make a beautiful effect. The aisle windows are separated from the big window by bold buttresses. Around the base runs the arcade that we constantly find at Lincoln. The Chapter-House with its sharply-pointed pyramidal roof groups beautifully with the rest of the Cathedral.

Next we look at the Angel Choir, with its crocketed gables and pinnacles, its elaborate tracery, and panelled buttresses that divide it into five bays. Grotesque figures project from all of these gables. One represents an Imp on the back of a Witch. Large windows with rich tracery fill the wall spaces here.

Next we reach the beautiful South Doorway with the Russell and Longland chantries (Perpendicular) on either side.

“It was probably constructed, like the Galilee doorway, as a state entrance for the bishop. The porch fills the third bay, and projects as far as the buttresses; its sides recede inwards to the pair of doors giving access to the Angel Choir. Although the doorways of our cathedrals, as a rule, cannot in any way be compared with the magnificent portals to be seen in France, yet this single example of Lincoln would be quite enough to prove that English architects were capable of designing a really magnificent doorway. In the tympanum is the subject of the Last Judgment in relief. The archivolt is richly decorated with sculpture. In the inner band is a row of niches with twelve seated figures, apparently kings and queens: next a double band of delicate open-work foliage; outside this a row of sixteen slender standing figures enclosed by interlacing stems, richly decorated with foliage. The doorway is formed of two cinquefoiled arches, separated by a central pillar having the canopy and base for a figure of the Virgin, which has been removed. On either side of the doorway is a triple canopy for statues, and behind this a row of slender columns with foliated capitals.”—(A. F. K.)

Next come St. Hugh’s two semicircular chapels, and then St. Hugh’s transept, slender and filled with so many windows that the wall space is nearly taken up by them. On top of each of the two turrets, surmounted by pyramidal roofs, stands an angel. Next comes the Canon’s Vestry and then the western transept with the conspicuous Bishop’s Eye. We pause to admire this beautiful window from the outside and then look above it at the horizontal band of seven elaborately carved quatrefoils. Above this again is a Fourteenth Century window with flowing tracery. Around the gable runs a border of open Gothic tracery. The peak bears a cross.

Next comes the Nave, the seven bays of which are separated by buttresses. Over the roof of the aisle flying buttresses are thrown. A slender buttress also separates the windows of the aisle. The clerestory windows are in groups of three. Over the clerestory is a wavy parapet of the Fourteenth Century, where stand canopied niches for statues. Grotesque figures project from their bases. Grotesque figures also project from the crocketed roofs of the pinnacles of the great transept.

The chapel, used as the Consistory Court, follows with two windows facing south and two east. On the east end of the latter, in front of the windows, our eyes are arrested by the grotesque Devil Looking over Lincoln. The sculptured figures near by are pilgrims. Next comes St. Hugh’s Chapel, or the Ringers’ Chapel, with one window facing the south.

From the road at the north-east corner we get a good general view of the Cathedral and the Chapter-House. St. Hugh’s transept is hidden, but we can see the end of the western transept with the Dean’s Eye—the large quatrefoil encircled by sixteen small circles. The lancet window of five lights in the gable above it is also visible.

The second bay on the north side of the Angel Choir contains the Fleming Chantry, on which the two chapels on the south side were modelled. Then we come to the north doorway of the Angel Choir, corresponding to the more ornate entrance on the south.

We have now completed our survey of the Cathedral and have not yet noticed the Central Tower, considered by many critics the finest tower in England. It rises to a height of 271 feet. Two lofty windows adorn each side of the upper story with their crocketed pillars and canopied heads. Octagonal panelled turrets, surmounted by pinnacles, ornament the four corners. Grosseteste’s lattice-work pattern covers the lower part within and without. The tower in its present state dates from 1775, when James Essex built the parapet and advised battlements and pinnacles instead of a spire. The tall spire of timber, coated with lead, that completed the tower of 1311, was blown down in 1547, carrying the parapet with it; and again in 1715 three of the pinnacles were blown down and replaced in 1728. In 1883 the western side was damaged by a storm, but was repaired. Here “Great Tom of Lincoln,” the fourth largest bell in England (5 tons, 8 cwt.), seven feet in diameter, hangs. Too large to ring, the hours are struck on it with a hammer.