South Transept.—The next thing seems to have been to complete the south transept in the Perpendicular style; and also the easternmost bay of the nave, which was needed to give abutment to the rising tower. To this period, perhaps the fifteenth century, may be assigned all those Perpendicular windows which are cusped, in the transepts, the nave, the refectory, and elsewhere.
Nave.—The final operations comprised all those windows which are without cusps—e.g., the clerestory windows and the north aisle windows of the nave; also the south porch and west front and the commencement of a south-west tower, and the fine wooden roof of the north transept. All this was done early in the sixteenth century. Perhaps piety had waxed cold, and pilgrims’ offertories were less productive. At any rate, all the upper part of the interior of the nave is bare, bald, and poverty-stricken. For the beautiful triforium of the choir we have here a blank wall; unhappy, too, in proportions, the nave of Chester is one of the least satisfactory designs of the Middle Ages. In the south-west tower is the Consistory Court, with good Jacobean woodwork.
One other alteration had to be made. There was no access to the Lady chapel except through the one arch at the east end of the choir. When St. Werburgh’s shrine was placed at the entrance of the Lady chapel in the fourteenth century, it was awkward to have but a single approach to the Lady chapel; so the eastern apses of the two choir aisles were pulled down, and two Perpendicular aisles added, one on each side of the Lady chapel. (The one on the north is still allowed to exist; the one on the south was pulled down by Scott). Thus the west window on either side of the Lady chapel was converted into a doorway, and a convenient processional path was provided round St. Werburgh’s shrine.
To the late Perpendicular or Tudor period belong the eastern, northern, and western walks of the cloister, which should be visited next. In part of the west walk, and in the new south walk, there is a double arcade; dividing the walks into a series of separate compartments or studies for the monks. An analogous arrangement occurs in the cloisters of Gloucester. Notice, also, the insouciance with which these Tudor builders dropped the ribs of their vaults down on earlier doors and arches. Similar reckless disregard of the good work of preceding builders occurs at Canterbury, where the most beautiful doorway in the Cathedral is cut into by later vaulting.
North Aisle of Nave.—This has been recased, and provided with rich vaulting. It was to provide abutment for this new vault that the south walk of the cloister was rebuilt. The nave and choir have been vaulted in wood; following the precedents of York Minster and Selby Abbey.
The exterior is, to all intents and purposes, nineteenth-century work. The original design had almost wholly disappeared through the decay of the soft sandstone. It is, however, very handsome and effective; especially in contrast with the exterior, equally new, of Worcester.
NAVE, NORTH SIDE.
Of minor work the chief objects of interest are the Byzantine font, perhaps of the eighth century; the remains of the fourteenth-century shrine of St. Werburgh and the contemporary sedilia; the fine misereres and stalls (Perpendicular); the Renaissance gates of Spanish ironwork, and the Renaissance candelabra (Italian); the epitaphs of John Lowe, tobacconist, John Paul, publican, and John Phillips, merchant, in the south transept; those of Mayor Green, and an American loyalist, on the south-west pier of the tower; the tablet of Randolph Caldecott and the pretentious monument of Bishop Pearson in the north transept; the tablet of Dean Arderne in the south aisle of the choir; and in the north aisle those of Subdean Bispham and Bishop Jacobson, and the epitaph on the gravestone of E. P. Gastrell. The new organ rests on five Renaissance columns brought from Italy; the communion table is of wood from the Holy Land. On the wall near the west door is a tablet to Bishop Hall, and another