Although Bath Abbey is full of monuments (there are over six hundred memorial tablets besides statues), the only tombs that deserve attention are those of Bishop Montague, in the fourth arch of the nave on the north side, and Lady Waller’s Monument under the southern window of the transept. The figure of her husband, Sir William Waller, who commanded the Parliamentary army in the Battle of Landsdown, near Bath, clad in mail, gazes down upon his dead wife. Two weeping children kneel at her feet.
Between the choir and the south-aisle Prior Birde’s Chantry occupies two bays. It is a most elaborate piece of carving. The rebus of the founder (a bird and a W) appears frequently. Fan-tracery decorates the vault.
The very fine organ is placed in the transept. The bells of Bath are famous.
BRISTOL
Dedication: The Holy Trinity. A Church served by Augustinian Canons.
Special features: East Window (tracery and glass); Chapter-House; Great Gateway.
The West Front of Bristol gives us a slight suggestion of a French cathedral, for here we find a rose window and a large doorway, at the side of which rise two square towers. The balustrade above the crocketed gable of the doorway partly hides the rose-window.
The towers were built in 1887 and 1888: the north-west is Bishop Butler’s Tower and the south-west, the Colston Tower. The Butler tower is enriched with statues of St. Michael, St. Gabriel and the Angel of Praise; the Colston, with the Angel of the Gospel, St. Raphael and the Angel of the Sun. On our right is the Great Gateway.
The exterior of Bristol is not very striking. The buttresses of the Elder-Lady-Chapel are Decorated and of the same date as the east window of the same chapel. We should also view the great east window of the Lady-Chapel from without and the Central Tower.
“Early in the Fifteenth Century a central tower was added. Here again one is struck by the originality of the British people: it is as beautiful as it is original. The designer had noticed how beautiful is the effect of a close-packed range of tall clerestory windows, such as those of Leighton Buzzard Church. So instead of restricting himself on each side of the tower to one or two windows, he inserts no less than five. The range of clerestory windows, which the Fourteenth Century builder refused to the choir, becomes the special ornament and glory of the tower.”—(F. B.)