CHAPTER III
Description of the Interior
If the exterior of Durham is in any way disappointing, the interior more than compensates for its shortcomings. The general impression on entering the church is one of simple dignity and solemnity. The great massiveness of the structure and absence of elaborate ornament no doubt contribute to this feeling. The pious builders of old have certainly contrived to stamp on their work their own feeling of awe in the presence of the All-Powerful and Eternal God. Whatever has been lost through vandalism and the restorer, this remains unaltered. The general design of the church, exclusive of detail, which, of course, changed and developed with the progress of Gothic art, has undoubtedly been carried out on the plan intended by Bishop Carileph, the only important variation being the addition of the transept at the east end, known as the Nine Altars Chapel. The original plan consists of a nave and aisles, transepts with aisles on their eastern side, a choir also with aisles, and the three apses of the east end, with a central tower over the junction of transepts, nave, and choir, and towers flanking the west end.
Each bay of the Nave is divided into two sub-bays. The main bays have massive piers with engaged shafts on the recessed faces. The bases of these are cruciform in plan, though the arms of the cross are very short. At the height of the springing of the arch the shafts are surmounted by plain cushion capitals. The division into sub-bays is effected by the introduction midway of a massive round column on a square base. These columns are ornamented in various ways, by channels cut on the face. Some take the form of a zig-zag, some a spiral, others a spiral in two directions, forming a trellis-like pattern, and others again are reeded vertically. Their capitals are octagonal cushions. The arches of the sub-bays are recessed square, with the usual Norman roll moulding, decorated with chevrons, and on the wall face a square billet. The chevron ornament is absent in the earlier work in the choir and transepts. The triforium is almost uniform throughout the whole church. In each sub-bay it consists of two small arches under one larger one, with the tympanum solid. Here also the capitals are cushions and perfectly plain.
Above the triforium is the clerestory, which contains one light to each sub-bay, and surmounting all is the vaulting, which springs from the piers and from grotesquely carved corbels between the triforium arches. The vaulting ribs are ornamented with chevrons on either side of a bold semi-circular moulding. So much for the general arrangement of the bays. Some idea of the massiveness of the structures may be gathered when it is known that each group of the clustered pillars separating the bays covers an area of two hundred and twenty-five square feet at its base, while those of the cylindrical columns of the sub-bays are twelve feet square, and the columns themselves have a circumference of over twenty-three feet. There is little room to doubt that the effect obtained by the old builders of Durham was intentional. The masterly way in which great masses of solid masonry, greater than was constructively necessary, are handled, and the reticence and delicacy of the ornament combine to prove this. There is in the whole scheme a delightful union of great power and vigour in the masses, and of tenderness and loving care in the detail.
The Choir is the earliest part of the church. Its two western bays show Carileph's work, but the eastern piers have been considerably altered owing to the addition at a later period of the eastern transept, when Carileph's apses were taken down. This bay contains some very rich and beautiful detail. The piers on either side of the choir are decorated with arcades, the lower stage having six arches, and the upper three, all richly carved with foliage in the caps and hood moulds, and with heads and half figures. There is also a square aumbry on each pier. Above the upper arcade, which breaks through the level of the triforium string course, which is also carried round it, there is on each pier a figure of an angel beneath a canopy. These are the only two figures remaining of many which formerly added to the beauty of the interior of the church. The vaulting of the choir is thirteenth-century work, quadripartite, the ribs decorated with dog-tooth ornament and square leaves, and has fine bosses at the intersections of the diagonal ribs. The choir of Durham is especially interesting to the student of architecture, showing as it does the Early Norman work of Carileph, combined with the Early English and Early Decorated work of the newer eastern portion.
