The south-choir-aisle contains the Tomb of Saint William Bytton, at which (the oldest incised slab in England) offerings were made by those suffering from toothache, as we have already seen. Further away is the Tomb of Beckington, surrounded by a beautiful iron-screen of the same date as the tomb (1452). The carving is very fine, especially the wings of the angels. A little colour is left here and there. His effigy rests upon it, with old and wrinkled face. This bishop said mass for his own soul here in January, 1452, thirteen years before he died.
In the south-east transept, we find the Chapel of St. John Baptist, where a Decorated piscina with canopy deserves attention.
At the extreme end of the north-choir-aisle is Saint Stephen’s Chapel and at the extreme end of the south-choir-aisle is the corresponding Saint Catherine’s Chapel. Both contain effigies of bishops, tombs and monuments. Between and back of these is the Lady-Chapel.
We now return to the Retro-choir. Four slender piers of Purbeck marble bear up the vault. The arrangement of the columns should be particularly noticed here. It is hard to realise that this Retro-choir was merely a device for connecting the Lady-Chapel with the Choir, it seems so entirely a part of the scheme.
“The beauty of the retro-choir, or ‘procession aisles,’ the arrangement of its piers and clustered columns, and the admirable manner in which it unites the Lady-chapel with the choir should be here remarked. It is throughout Early Decorated. The foliage of the capitals and the bosses of the vaulting will repay careful examination. Many of the vaulting ribs appear to spring from two grotesque heads—one on either side of the low choir-screen—which hold them between their teeth. The four supporting pillars and shafts are placed within the line of the choir-piers, thus producing the unusual intricacy and variety of the eastward view from the choir. At Salisbury, and in all other English cathedrals, the piers of the procession-aisles are placed in a line with those of the choir.”—(R. J. K.)
Mr. Bond thinks the Wells architect got his idea for the octagonal Lady-Chapel by tacking on the elongated octagonal of the Lichfield Chapter-House to the rectangular retro-choir of Salisbury.
“The Lady-chapel is an early work of the Curvilinear period; for it seems to have been complete in 1324. The windows have beautiful reticulated tracery of early type. There is lovely carving in the capitals, bosses, reredos, sedilia and piscina. The Curvilinear foliated capitals here and in the choir should be compared with the somewhat earlier capitals of the chapter-house, with the early Geometrical capitals of the staircase, the Lancet capitals of the west front and the late Transitional ones of porch, nave and transepts. The ancient glass here and in the Jesse window of the choir is superb in colour.
“As every one knows, it is the most beautiful east end we have in England. It may be worth while to see how this design was arrived at—a design as exceptional as it is effective. The simplest form of an east end in English Gothic is seen at York and Lincoln: it consists merely of a low wall with a big window above it. The next improvement is to build an aisle or processional path behind the east end; at the same time piercing the east wall with one, two or three arches. This was done at Hereford about 1180; and on a magnificent scale in the Chapels of Nine Altars at Durham and at Fountains early in the Thirteenth Century. But the French apsidal cathedrals—of which we have an example in Westminster—have not only an encircling processional aisle, but also a chevet of chapels radiating out from it; thus providing ever-changing vistas of entrancing beauty. The next step in England also was to provide our rectangular choirs with a chevet as well as with a processional aisle. An early example of this plan is to be seen at Abbey Dore, in Herefordshire, about 1190. It occurs early in the Thirteenth Century on a still grander scale at Salisbury, where one finds not one but two processional aisles, as well as chapels to the east of them; and, in addition, a Lady-chapel projecting still farther to the east, thus producing a design of great complexity and beauty. Nevertheless, at Salisbury, since the chief supporting piers of the retro-choir and the chevet are in a line with those of the choir, there is by no means the same changeful intricacy of vista that affords one ever fresh delight in an apsidal church. At Wells, however, the architect attained all the success of the Continental builder simply because he built his Lady-chapel not rectangular but octagonal. For to get this octagon, of which only five sides were supported by walls, he had to plant in the retro-choir two piers to support the remaining three sides; and these piers are necessarily out of line with the piers of the choir. He had got the Continental vista. He saw it; but he saw also that it could be improved upon. And he did improve it, by putting up an outer ring of four more piers round the western part of the octagon of the Lady-chapel. It was an intuition of genius: it makes the vistas into the retro-choir and the Lady-chapel a veritable glimpse into fairyland; and provides here alone in England a rival to the glorious eastern terminations of Amiens and Le Mans. And that is not all. We saw in the chapter-house the grand effect of the central stalk branching upward and outward in all directions, like some palm tree transmuted into stone. This beautiful effect he transfers to the retro-choir, but multiplied—four palm trees in place of one; for each of the four external piers of the octagon emulates the chapter-house’s central stalk.”—(F. B.)
The large windows are filled with fine specimens of Fourteenth Century glass unfortunately now jumbled together. The East Window is composed of odd pieces put together by Willement. David and other patriarchs occupy the upper tier, and the Virgin, Eve and the Serpent and Moses and the Brazen Serpent, the lower tier. The upper lights display angels with the instruments of the Passion, emblems of the Evangelists and busts of bishops and patriarchs.
“From the south-west transept we pass into the CLOISTERS, which occupy an unusual amount of space, but have only three walks instead of the usual four.