Roberts' Chester Guide [1858]

by Hugh Roberts

The pillars of the nave are clustered, and have rich bases and foliated capitals, and the arches are pointed. In this part of the Cathedral and the north transept are several monuments worthy the attention of visitors. A pyramidical monument by Nollekens, representing a female figure resting on a rock, against which is placed a broken anchor; erected by Captain John Matthews, R.N., to the memory of his wife. One, in white marble, by Banks, representing the Genius of History weeping over an urn, having three vols., inscribed ‘Longinus,’ ‘Thucydides,’ ‘Zenophon,’ placed by it; erected to the memory of Dean Swift, the learned translator of those works. One to the memory of Mrs. Barbara Dod, erected by the minor canons. One to Captain John William Buchanan, of the 16th Light Dragoons, slain at the battle of Waterloo. One of Cavalier Sir William Mainwaring, killed at Chester during the great civil war, 1644. Against the north wall a handsome monument, enclosing a bust of Sir J. G. Egerton, Bart., erected by subscriptions of the citizens of Chester, in memory of their honourable and independent representative. One in memory of Major Thomas Hilton, who died at Montmeir, in the Burmese empire, 2nd February, 1829. One to Augusta, the wife of the Rev. James Slade, Canon of the Cathedral, and daughter of Bishop Law. One of Captain John Moor Napier, who died of Asiatic cholera, in Scinde, July 7th, 1846, aged 28 years: this monument was executed by Westmacott; the inscription was written by his uncle, the gallant Sir Charles Napier, and is as follows:—

“The tomb is no record of high lineage;
His may be traced by his name.
His race was one of soldiers:
Among soldiers he lived, among them he died,
A soldier, falling where numbers fell with him,
In a barbarous land.
Yet there died none more generous,
More daring, more gifted, more religious.
On his early grave
Fell the tears of stern and hardy men,
As his had fallen on the grave of others.”

“To the memory of their comrade, the officers of the General Staff in Scinde erect this cenotaph.”—[The above was executed by Westmacott.]

In the north transept is a piece of very fine tapestry, executed after one of the cartoons of Raphael, representing the history of Elymas the sorcerer. Wright, in his travels through France and Italy, expresses his opinion that this is much superior to any of the tapestry which he saw in the Vatican. There is also a well-executed stone monument to Roger Barnston, Esq.; and a tablet in memory of good Chancellor Peploe. A beautifully executed marble monument has lately been placed on the wall of the north transept to the memory of Colonel T. Graham Egerton, of the 77th Regiment, who fell at the siege of Sebastopol, in April, 1855.

The choir well merits the attention of every visitor of taste. From the organ-loft to the Bishop’s throne, the sides are ornamented with rich spiral tabernacle work, underneath which are massive and highly ornamented stalls. The choir is separated from the nave and broad aisle by a Gothic stone screen; there are five pointed arches on each side; above them is an arcade of pointed arches, resting on slender shafts, and above it are the clerestory windows. The pavement of the choir is of black and white marble. At the west end of it are four stalls on each side of the entrance, and there are twenty others on each side of the choir; over these are rich canopies, with pinnacles and pendants in great profusion. Above the stalls on the right hand, opposite the pulpit, is the Bishop’s throne, which formerly stood at the east end in St. Mary’s Chapel, and is said to have been the shrine of St. Werburgh, or, as suggested by Pennant, the pedestal on which originally stood the real shrine which contained the sacred relics. At the Reformation it was removed to its present position, and converted into a throne for the Bishop. It is a rich specimen of Gothic architecture, decorated with carved work, and embellished with a range of thirty curious small statues, variously habited, holding scrolls in their hands, and originally inscribed with their names, but now defaced. Dr. Cowper published, in 1799, an elaborate history of these figures, and was of opinion that they represented kings and saints of the royal Mercian line, ancestors or relations of St. Werburgh. Very great improvements have recently been effected within the choir. The restoration of the Bishop’s throne was effected by the munificence of the Rev. Canon Slade, as an obituary testimonial to his late father-in-law, Bishop Law, in memory of whom the following incription, engraven upon a brass plate, is affixed to the throne:—

In gloriam Dei hanc cathedram reficiendam curabit A.D. MDCCCXLVI. Jacobus Slade, A.M. hujus ecclesiae Canonicus. Recnon in piam memoriam Georgii Henrici Law, S.T.D. per xii. annos Episcopi Testriensis, dein Bathoniensis.

At the back of the throne is a magnificent stone screen, the gift of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The altar screen was presented by the Rev. Peploe Hamilton, of Hoole, near Chester; the chair within the communion table by the Rev. Canon Blomfield; the new Bible desk, of carved oak in the form of an eagle, by the Rev. Chancellor Raikes; the new stone pulpit, from a beautiful design by Mr. Hussey, was the liberal gift of Sir Edward S. Walker, of Chester. Towards the restoration of the Cathedral, Her Majesty the Queen also contributed a donation of £105, in the name of the Prince of Wales as Earl of Chester.

Under the east window is an arch opening to the Lady Chapel, which consists of a middle and two side aisles, the stone vaulting of which is adorned with richly carved key-stones. The side aisles are divided from the middle portion of two arches, sprung from a massive pier on each side, apparently part of the original building, cut down and crusted over with clusters of light pillars, terminated in elegant pointed arches, with quatrefoils inserted in the mouldings. On the north side of the chancel, which extends beyond the side aisles, are two elegant pointed arches: one contains two piscinas; the other was apparently a seat for the officiating priest; another pointed arch appears also on the opposite side.

The cloisters are on the north side of the Church, and form a quadrangle of 110 feet square. Originally there were four walks, but the south walk is destroyed. The general style of the cloisters is that of the fifteenth century, with carved cornice key-stones at the intersections of the vaulting; the arches of the windows are depressed. A lavatory projects from the west walk of the cloisters, and did extend along the south walk; over the east walk was a dormitory, which was some time ago destroyed, much to the injury of the appearance of these venerable conventual ruins. It is obvious that the present cloisters are only a restoration of an earlier one. In the east walk of the cloisters is the entrance into the Chapter House. The stone vaulting rests in clusters of slender shafts, with foliated capitals; notwithstanding the soft nature of the stone, the carving is all in a good state of preservation. The Chapter House was built in the beginning of the twelfth century, by Randle, Earl of Chester, who removed hither, from the churchyard, the body of his uncle, Hugh Lupus, whose remains were found enclosed in a stone coffin in 1723, by persons employed in digging in the Chapter House. The skull and bones were entire, and lay in their proper position, enveloped in an ox-hide. On the breast was a piece of cloth, the texture of which could not be ascertained. Mr. Asphitel considers the Chapter House, with its singularly tasteful vestibule, to be the finest in the kingdom.

We now direct the visitor’s attention to a portion of the Norman edifice, which has of late excited very great interest, the Promptuarium, lately excavated: “the chamber is a sort of gallery or cloister on the ground floor, about ninety feet long by forty feet wide, traversed in the centre by a row of pillars (with one exception cylindrical), which divide it into six double bays, from which pillars, and four corresponding ones at each side, spring the intersecting arches by which the building is vaulted. The side pillars are as entirely Norman in their character as the centre ones, being simply the square pier, on each face of which is the pilaster attached; the groining of the roof is without the finish of ribs at the joints, a finish characteristic of a later period. The chamber, which has at present only a borrowed light from the cloisters on the east, was originally lighted from the west side by a window in each bay, except the second bay from the south end, in which was a principal entrance. This doorway and the windows are now all choked up by the adjoining garden. On the same side, and at the north end, is a very large chimney and fire-place. A glance at the groining and arches at the north end informing us that the chamber did formerly end here, I was induced to think, by this situation of the fire-place, that its length was originally very much greater. I have since found the termination of the chamber in the cellars of the present Registry, where the groining is supported by corbels, which show that the vaults extended there, but no further. One double bay, therefore, added to the present remains, gives us the entire length of the building—about 105 feet. In this last bay, on the east side, is a principal doorway (four inches wider than the one on the west side), leading towards the Refectory. On the east side also, and near the north end, is a postern from the cloisters and a spiral staircase, partly constructed in the thickness of the wall, leading to the chamber above, of which there are now no remains. Two small archways at opposite sides of the chamber, precisely similar in form and size, and rising from beneath the level of the floor, seemed to indicate a subterranean passage connecting them. An excavation round each has, however, discovered no channel between them. In considering the character and situation of this vaulted chamber, it should be borne in mind, that though now apparently subterranean, it is only so with reference to the west side, the level of the floor being four feet above the level of the nave of the Cathedral. The ground, which now rises above it on the west side, is all made ground of late date, belonging to the Palace, the original level of which is identical with this chamber, as shown by the area round the present Palace kitchens, and by those apartments belonging to the Abbot’s residence, which yet remain.” [75]

Mr. Asphitel, in his able lecture on Chester Cathedral, bestowed the name of Promptuarium on this Norman cloister: he says—“These are vaulted apartments of early Norman work, and are described in the charter of Henry Eighth, by which he divides the properties between the Bishop and Dean, promptuaria et pannaria, the former derived from a word denoting a butler or steward, probably a buttery; and the latter, from pannus, a cloth, probably the place for clothing.”