“Though it awakens our recollection of a feeble-minded king, and his barbarously brutal murder, it also compels our admiration at the beauty of the work. It has been restored, renovated or re-edified, but in spite of that, appeals to us from the wealth of very highly ornate tabernacle work, the richness, and at the same time the lightness and elegance of the whole. The details too are well worth careful examination. It may be, judging from the expression of the face, that there has been some attempt at portraiture, but repair and restoration have practically made it impossible to settle what would otherwise be an interesting question. The superb canopy has suffered much at the hands of restorers—e.g. in 1737, 1789, 1798 and in 1876.”—(H. J. L. J. M.)
The next monument is to King Osric, erected in “late dayes,” i.e. in the time of Abbot Parker, whose arms are in the spandrels of the canopy (1514-1539).
The Norman piers, cut away to receive the tomb, are decorated on their capitals with the white hart chained and gorged, with a ducal coronet, the device of Richard II. Osric is represented as clad in tunic, laced mantle and a fur hood or collar, bearing the model of a church in his left hand.
The next tomb westwards is, as Leland says, that of “King Edward of Caernarvon (who) lyeth under a fayre tombe, in an arch at the head of King Osric tombe.”
The transepts and ambulatory of the choir are usually entered through the iron gateway in the south aisle of the nave.
These Ambulatories, or aisles, have nothing uncommon in their form or arrangement below, but above occurs the great peculiarity of this church. The upper range of chapels surrounding the Choir is perhaps not to be met with in any other church in Europe.
Another peculiarity of the Choir is its six-light west window. This was rendered necessary by the difference in height of the Nave and Choir; for the vaulting of the choir is about twenty feet higher than that of the Nave. The glass consists chiefly of patchwork from other windows in the Cathedral. It represents a figure of our Lord, with angels on either side. Below angels play musical instruments.
The Triforium of the Choir is considered by some critics the finest in existence.
“It occupies the space over the ground floors of the aisles or ambulatory of the choir, and originally extended of a like width round the east end of the Norman Church, but at the time when the Fourteenth-Century work of the present choir was executed, the whole of the east end of the old Norman choir, with the corresponding part of the triforium, was removed in order to make room for the existing large window, the small east chapel being allowed to remain.”—(F. S. W.)
The Triforium is reached by the staircases in the western turrets of the two transepts and by arcaded passages passing under the great windows of the transepts.