LADY-CHAPEL.
The Central Tower fell in 1107. Its fall was regarded as a judgment; William Rufus having been buried under it in 1100. The piers, as strengthened, are “most unwieldy and intrusive from their excessive size and squareness of form; the largest tower-piers in England in proportion to the span of the arches that rest upon them.” The tower-windows could formerly be seen from below, as well as a grand specimen of late Norman arcading: now hidden from view by the wooden fan-vault erected in 1634. The eastern and western arches of the tower are left wide, so as not to interfere with the principal vista of the cathedral; the northern and southern arches are contracted to gain strength. The northern and southern sides of the piers were designed nearly flat, so as not to interfere with the stall-work of the monks. This is one of the cathedrals where the choir occupies, in part, its original position, and has not been moved eastward into the sanctuary. But originally the monastic choir of Winchester extended still farther to the west, occupying not one, but three bays of the nave; and was separated from the western bays of the nave by a great rood-screen. The old arrangement has been preserved at Norwich and Gloucester, and has been restored at Peterborough. Before leaving the south transept, the northern bay of the western triforium should be noticed. It has been only partially transformed into Perpendicular after the style of the nave; for the semicircular upper arch of the triforium can still be seen. This helps us to restore in imagination the original triforium of the whole Norman nave.
STALLS.
Of the Transitional period of our architecture, 1145 to 1190, only two traces seem to remain at Winchester. One is the doorway below the triforium-bay mentioned above. Its zigzag ornament is of Norman character, but the obtusely pointed arch shows that it is subsequent, yet not much subsequent to 1145. This doorway, with its queer fluted pilasters, may have been built by Henry de Blois (1129-1171) when he walled off this western aisle to serve as a treasury. If so, it is the only trace in the structure of this, the greatest of all Winchester’s bishops. The other is the font.
Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre.—Now we return to the north transept, which is cut off from the choir by a massive stone wall, the object being to keep the pilgrims out of the choir, and, perhaps, to support organs. At the end of the twelfth century a curious chapel was built on to this wall: it contains frescoes representing the Passion of our Lord.
Retro-Choir.—Traversing the north choir-aisle, we reach the largest retro-choir in England; it consists of three bays, with an east end originally consisting of three chapels all of the same length. The central chapel was elongated in the fifteenth century. This retro-choir was built by Bishop Godfrey de Lucy, between 1189 and 1204, and therefore, with the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, is the earliest Gothic work in the cathedral, and but few years later than St. Hugh’s work at Lincoln. De Lucy’s work is not very ambitious, nor very rich, nor artistically on a plane with the early English work at Lincoln, Beverley, and Ely. The great defect is that, in relation to its area, it is so miserably low. To get it high, the architect would have had to sacrifice the east windows of the clerestory of the choir; and this he was not allowed to do. The retro-choir was serviceable in providing room for processions round the high altar, and space for shrines, and in giving additional chapels and altars. Probably, also, the reversion to the favourite square east-end of English church architecture was popular in itself. Almost every Norman cathedral ended in an apse; and in the apse, high raised behind the high altar, sat the Norman bishop, facing the congregation; the hateful symbol of Norman domination. The destruction of the Norman apse may well, then, have been popular. The best part of the design is seen in the southern wall of the Lady chapel, and in the charming vaulted staircases which lead out of the side chapels to the roofs of the retro-choir and choir, and to the clerestory of the choir, from which a good view of the interior and of the interesting vault and glass of the choir is obtained. At the north-east corner of the retro-choir is an effigy in a vesica: it commemorates Bishop Ethelmar or Aymer, whose heart was buried at Winchester in 1261.
The Stalls.—These are in the Geometrical style (1245-1315), and were executed about the middle of the period. “The beauty and variety of the carvings are wonderful. There is no repetition; and the grace and elegance, as well as the fidelity, with which the foliage is represented, are nowhere to be surpassed. The human heads are full of expression; and the monkeys and other animals sporting among the branches have all the same exquisite finish. Here are also interesting misereres” (Murray).
