In both aisles there is an interesting series of modern windows intended to memorialise the great names associated with the Church, the Borough of Southwark, and the history of England—all excellent specimens of the revived art of glass-staining, and all at present designed by Mr. C.E. Kempe. The visitor will find it convenient to begin his examination of the interior at the North Aisle. The window at the extreme west end of this aisle contains a figure of St. Augustine of Hippo, as Patron of the Augustinian Canons, introduced early in the twelfth century, when the Collegiate Church was transformed into a monastery.
The next three windows are at present vacant, but they are already destined for three great names included in the memorial scheme, viz.: Oliver Goldsmith, Dr. Johnson, and Dr. Sacheverell, each of whom has a place in the history of Southwark entitling him to commemoration in the church. Goldsmith once set up as a medical practitioner at Bankside. His friend Dr. Johnson was on friendly terms with the Thrale family, whose successors (Messrs. Barclay, Perkins and Co.) still retain the Doctor's chair on their premises. Dr. Sacheverell was Chaplain at St. Saviour's from 1705 to 1709, and appears to have engaged Johnson's attention, as a preacher, in his childhood.[22]
Beneath the Goldsmith window there is a fine relic in the shape of a late Norman Recess, which has escaped serious mutilation. A segmental arch, surmounted with a simple chamfered moulding with quirks, supported at each end by a column with moulded base and capital, would seem to indicate a seat rather than a tomb, and the date as about the end of the twelfth century. Beneath the Johnson window there is another Norman relic, of about the same date, in the outline of the old Canons' Doorway, formerly connecting the aisle with the cloisters. The extreme plainness of the moulding will be contrasted with the elaborate work in the Prior's entrance further east, on the exterior of the same wall. The next window contains a memorial to Alexander Cruden, compiler of the Scripture Concordance, who died on 1st November, 1770, and was buried in the parish. This window is the gift of Mr. W.H. Francis.
John Bunyan is commemorated in the window beyond it, as having preached and worked in Southwark, and as author of the immortal "Pilgrim's Progress." The cost was defrayed by subscriptions from children of the parish.
The next bay is occupied by a short two-light window (at present plain), and by John Gower's Tomb in the space below. This fine monument was removed to the east side of the south transept during the destructive alterations of the early nineteenth century, but had been worse treated by its friends in 1748, when a large sum was spent on its "embellishment." Its history, combined with that of the Priors who erected it, may be summed up in the opening words of the inscription which was placed in a marble tablet at the back of the tomb to commemorate the embellishment referred to, not without a touch of sarcasm, though, of course, unintentional: "Hoc viri inter inclytos memorandi." Gower died in 1408, eight years after his friend Chaucer. He had been a liberal benefactor to the Church, and founded a chantry in the Chapel of St. John the Baptist, where he was eventually buried. The chapel and chantry are no more, but the monument marks the spot, having been restored in 1894 to its first position. It is in the Perpendicular style, and consists of an altar-tomb, with a dado, ornamented by seven panels in front, on which lies the effigy of the poet, surmounted by a canopy of three ogee arches, with an inner order of five cusps, and terminating in crocketed pinnacles. There is a pilaster set angle-wise at each end, banded at the separate divisions of the monument, and also rising into crocketed pinnacles. There are similar pinnacles between the arches of the canopy. Behind the canopy is a screen, divided into open panels of three trefoil-headed lights. The cornice at the top is modern, and the hands and nose of the figure are restorations.
The poet is represented lying on his back, with his hands joined in prayer, and his head resting upon the three volumes on which his fame depends, the "Speculum Meditantis," "Vox Clamantis," and "Confessio Amantis." He is vested in a long dark habit, buttoned down to the feet, after the manner of a cassock, the ordinary dress of an English gentleman at the time. There is a garland of four roses round his head, and at his feet a lion couchant. The SS collar adorns the neck, with a pendant jewel, on which a swan is engraved—the device of Richard II, to whom Gower was Poet Laureate. On the wall of the canopy, at the foot of the tomb, there is a sculptured and coloured representation of the poet's own shield of arms, crest, and helmet. On the back wall of the recess, above the effigy, there were formerly three painted figures, representing Charity, Mercy, and Pity, each bearing a scroll with an invocation, in Norman-French, for the soul of the departed. After undergoing repainting more than once, with modifications, the figures were scarcely recognisable in 1832, when the monument was repaired, but the figures were unfortunately obliterated. The inscription along the ledge of the tomb, which had also been destroyed, is now replaced: "Hic jacet I. Gower, Arm. Angl: poeta celeberrimus ac hoc sacro benefac. insignis. Vixit temporibus Edw. III, Ric. II, et Henri IV." The short window above Gower's tomb is not without suggestion in its vacancy. The last bay of the aisle was occupied by the Prior's doorway, the existing fragments of which are preserved in situ on the exterior.
The window above it is most appropriately dedicated to Gower's contemporary, Chaucer. It was presented by General A.W. Pigott in memory of his sister, and was unveiled by the present Poet Laureate on 25th October, 1900, the fifth centenary of Chaucer's death. The artist has succeeded in compressing a rather large subject into the single lancet. The middle compartment depicts the pilgrims setting out from the old "Tabard" inn, above which (in the upper division) rise the tower of St. Saviour's and the spire of Canterbury, the starting-point and the goal of the pilgrimage. The compartment beneath contains a full-length figure of Thomas Becket, a study in ecclesiastical vestments, his right hand raised in blessing, the left holding the archiepiscopal cross. The whole is crowned with a medallion portrait of the author of "The Canterbury Tales."
If the visitor will now turn to the right and take up a position outside the chancel railings, he will probably be at the best point for seeing the East Window, unless a strong light happens to be behind it to bring out the details at a distance.
