“The cloister which was added in the Fifteenth Century is of a peculiarly irregular shape, and encloses the south transept within the paradise. It has been much restored at different times. The present roof is of tiles and is carried on common rafters. Each has a cross tie, and the struts are shaped so as to give a pointed arch form to each one. The old Fifteenth Century wooden cornice still remains in some sections. The tracery is divided into four compartments by mullions, and each head is filled with cusped work. Round the cloister are placed the old houses of the Treasurer, the Royal Chaplains, and Wiccamical Prebendaries. Above the door leading to the house of the Royal Chaplains is an interesting monument of the Tudor Period. It is a panel divided into two compartments by a moulded stone fragment. Leading out of the south walk is a doorway, through which the deanery may be seen beyond the end of a long walled passage known as St. Richard’s Walk. Looking back northwards, there is fine view of the spire and transept from the end of this walk.”—(H. C. C.)
In the south-east corner the Cloister passes under the west end of St. Faith’s Chapel, founded in the Fourteenth Century.
SALISBURY
Dedication: St. Mary; a Church served by Secular Canons.
Special features: Spire; Chapter-House.
Salisbury, on the edge of the great Salisbury Plain, haunted by Ingoldsby’s “Dead Drummer” and not far from weird Stonehenge, is famous for its beautiful Early English Cathedral.
“The visitor who sees it first on a bright day can never forget the impression it has made on his mind. Unlike the architects of the so-called ‘Great Gothic Revival,’ the builders of Salisbury put their trust in proportion. Incidentally they made their details as elaborate and as perfect as possible; but they were subordinated to the general effect, and when, during the frightful ravages of the ‘restorers,’ let loose upon the church in the past and present centuries, many of the best and most precious of these details and ornaments perished or were renewed, the main building survives, raising its exquisitely graceful spire into the blue sky, its thousand pinnacles all pointing upward and gleaming white against the deep green of the old trees and the emerald turf of the surrounding close. England can show no fairer sight. ‘How long,’ asked an American visitor, ‘does it take to grow such turf?’ ‘Oh! not long,’ was the reply; ‘only a couple of centuries.’ One feels at Salisbury that whether the answer was given there or at Oxford, of no place could it be more true. Though, when we look near enough, we can see that fresh and white as is the general effect, the masonry of Salisbury is of great antiquity, except of course where it has been restored; and antiquity adds another charm, for Salisbury was the first complete cathedral built after the Romanesque tradition had died out, as St. Paul’s is the first built after it had been revived. In other cathedrals there are fragments of the same style, and they are always the most
Chichester: Screen