How to Visit the English Cathedrals

by Esther Singleton

“Having thus done their work on the floor below, they are now at leisure to look up at the windows above.

“Now the windows of this church were very fair, being adorned and beautified with several historical passages out of Scripture and ecclesiastical story; such were those in the body of the church, in the aisles, in the New Building, and elsewhere. But the cloister windows were most famed of all, for their great art and pleasing variety. One side of the quadrangle containing the history of the Old Testament; another, that of the New; a third, the founding and founders of the church; a fourth, all the kings of England downwards from the first Saxon king. All which notwithstanding were most shamefully broken and destroyed. Yea, to encourage them the more in this trade of breaking and battering windows down, Cromwell himself (as ’twas reported) espying a little crucifix in a window aloft, which none perhaps before had scarce observed, gets a ladder and breaks it down zealously with his own hand.

“Thus, in a short time, a fair and goodly structure was quite stript of all its ornamental beauty, and made a ruthful spectacle, a very chaos of desolation and confusion, nothing scarce remaining but only bare walls, broken seats and shattr’d windows on every side.”—(P.)

The old story of neglect—“scarce any cathedral in England is more neglected,” wrote Browne Willis in 1742—is told of Peterborough in the Eighteenth Century; but in 1764-1791 Dean Tarrant collected all the fragments of stained glass and inserted them in the two central windows of the apse. They deal chiefly with scenes in the life of St. Peter. The late history of the Cathedral is only that of repairs, restorations, and gifts.

We enter the Minster Precincts by the western gateway, built by Abbot Benedict, in the Norman style, in the Twelfth Century. It was altered at the end of the Fourteenth Century. The approach is monastic in the extreme. The room over the gate was once the Chapel of St. Nicholas. After passing through this gate, on the left hand we see all that remains of the Chapel of St. Thomas of Canterbury (Fourteenth Century). The various gateways, doors, arcades, and remains of ancient buildings harmonize well with the venerable and elegant Cathedral.

“A fine view of the best feature of Peterborough, the west front, is immediately opened with a foreground of smooth turf. The great portico, with its three arches, eighty feet high, of pure Early English style, is unlike anything else in England, and inspires universal surprise and admiration. It was built on the old Norman church, but does not actually touch the western walls.

“The spires of the portico are of different sizes and designs. The northern does not group well with the transeptal tower behind it, and there is a certain confusion to the eye when so many towers are in our view. The southern transeptal tower was never carried above the roof. The central tower over the choir after being repeatedly repaired and restored, fell in 1884, destroying the interior fittings and stalls, but, on the whole, doing less damage than might have been expected. The tower has been rebuilt, but not to the old pattern, and the four corner turrets have disappeared.”—(W. J. L.)

The West Front, with its three magnificent doorways and original wooden doors, was the work of Abbots Zachary and Robert of Lindsay (about 1200 to 1222).

“Immediately before us we see the noble West Front ‘the pride and glory of Peterborough,’ the finest portico in Europe. With the exception of the porch, the style is pure Early English. On the north and south are two lofty turrets, flanked at the angles with clustered shafts, and crowned with spires. Between these are three pointed arches, supported by clustered shafts, six on each side with foliated capitals. The central arch is narrower than the rest, but its mouldings are ornamented with crockets and dog-tooth. A string-course runs along the top of the arches, and the spandrels have trefoils, quatrefoils and niches with statues. Above the string-course is a series of trefoiled arches, some of which have statues. Between the three gables are pinnacles much ornamented. The gables have circular windows of beautiful design and a cross on the apex; they are ornamented with dog-tooth and have niches with statues—St. Peter in the centre, with SS. John and Andrew on either side. The turrets on the north and south have six stages panelled with arches. The spires are good examples of the difference between those of the Early Decorated and Perpendicular periods. The south spire is connected with the pinnacles of the tower by clustered pinnacles springing from an arch; these are decorated with crockets, and the spire belongs to the early Fourteenth Century; whereas the spire on the north has no such connection and is Early Perpendicular.

“We now notice the Porch with the parvise over it. This was built late in the Fourteenth Century in order to give additional strength to the west front and act as a kind of buttress to the piers of the central arch. The design is very beautiful. The entrance has an obtuse arch, and above a Perpendicular window with elliptical arch. Buttresses empanelled with niches stand on each side. It has a stone vault of good design. One boss is curious, representing the Trinity. The attitude of the Saviour shows that the figure was designed by a freemason, and bears witness to the antiquity of that fraternity. The parvise is now a library.”—(P. H. D.)