West of the Saint’s tomb lies Walter de Merton, founder of Merton College, Oxford, and Bishop of Rochester from 1274 to 1277. His tomb is a very beautiful example of Early Decorated.
The present arrangement of the east end is the work of Sir G. Scott. The Choir-stalls were designed by Sir G. Scott, who incorporated as much of the old work as possible.
Just behind the Altar, above which is a picture of The Angels appearing to the Shepherds, by Benjamin West (placed there in 1788), is a fine Piscina. Opposite three stone Sedilia (late Perpendicular) deserve notice.
In the railed-off transept aisle, known as St. John the Baptist’s Chapel, or Warner Chapel, because of the monuments to members of the Warner family (“Palladian” in style, 1666-1698), there is an old weather-worn statue which tradition says is a portrait of Gundulf.
In the eastern aisle of the north-east transept is the Tomb of Bishop John De Sheppy (1353-1360). It is
“probably the most perfect specimen of ancient colour-work now existing in England. It had been bricked up within the arch where it still remains, and was discovered during the repairs in 1825. The colours and monuments deserve the most careful attention, as well for their own beauty as for their great value as authorities. In the maniple held over the left arm, some of the crystals with which it was studded still remain. Remark the couchant dogs at the feet. About their necks are scarlet collars, hung with bells. An inscription with the Bishop’s name surrounds the effigy.”—(R. J. K.)
The short sacrarium, or chancel, east of the transepts, probably formed part of William de Hoo’s work. The beautiful windows at the east end are Decorated. In the south side of the sacrarium, next the altar, a tomb of plain marble is thought to be that of Gundulf.
In the east wall of the south-choir-transept we come to one of the finest pieces of English Decorated in existence,—the Chapter-House Doorway. It dates from the middle of the Fourteenth Century.
“The full-length figures, one on each side of the door, symbolising the Church and the Synagogue, were both headless when Mr. Cottingham restored the doorway, between 1825 and 1830. Much fault has been found with him for turning the first, which is thought to have been like the other, a female figure, into a mitred, bearded bishop holding a cross in his right hand and the model of a church in his left. The blindfolded ‘Synagogue,’ by her broken staff and the tables of the law held reversed in her right hand, typifies the overthrow of the Mosaic dispensation. Above are figures, two on each side, seated at book-desks under canopies. These are supposed to be the four great Doctors of the Church: Saints Augustine, Gregory, Jerome and Ambrose. Quite at the head of the arch, under a lofty pyramidal canopy, we see a tiny nude figure which represents, probably, a pure soul just released from Purgatory. If this is so, it would account for the flames from which the angels, on each side, bearing scrolls, seem to be rising. It has been suggested likewise that the distorted heads, which alternate with squares of foliage in the wider inside moulding of the doorway, typify the sufferings of the soul in its passage. The outside moulding is also interesting, being a wide hollow in the bottom of which circular holes are cut at intervals. Through these can be seen the broad stem from which spring the leaves that ornament the intervening spaces. The arch-head is ogee-shaped outside, with large external and smaller, but not less rich, internal crockets. The square back to it, and the spaces beneath the corbels, on which the Church and Synagogue figures stand, are filled with noteworthy diapers. The first is divided diagonally into sunken squares, each containing a flower; and the others have lion masks in quatrefoils, with five-petalled roses in the alternate spaces.”—(G. H. P.)
A steep flight of stairs leads from this Transept to St. Edmund’s Chapel, south of the Choir. From this we enter the Crypt,