Transept, Winchester Cathedral, A.D. 1079-1093.
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A. Pier-arches. B. Triforium, or Blind-story. C. Clear-story, or Clere-story. | N.B. It may be noted that the pier-arches, triforium, and clerestory, are all nearly of equal height, which is frequent in Roman basilicas and in the Norman style, but not afterwards. |
on a cart, to the cathedral of Winchester, the blood dripping from it all the way. Here it was committed to the ground within the tower, attended by many of the nobility, but lamented by few. The next year [1097] the tower fell; though I forbear to mention the different opinions on this subject, lest I should seem to assent too readily to unsupported trifles; more especially that the building might have fallen through imperfect construction, even though he had never been buried there.” That this was really the case, the building itself affords us abundant evidence, and proves that even the Normans at this period were still bad masons, and very imperfectly acquainted with the principles of construction. The tower which was rebuilt soon after the fall is still standing, and the enormous masses of masonry which were piled together to support it, and prevent it from falling again, shew such an amazing waste of labour and material as clearly to prove that it was the work of very unskilful builders.
This example is valuable to us also in another respect: the two transepts were only partially injured by the fall of the tower; the greater part of both of them belongs to the original work; the junction of the old work and the new can be distinctly traced; and here we begin to find a difference of character in the new work, and a mark by which we can
Bay, Winchester Cathedral, c. A.D. 1095.
The window is an insertion of the fourteenth century in the Decorated style.