The North Transept, built by Herbert, has good Norman arcading, and a vault erected by Nykke. The clerestory resembles the nave. There was at the east an apsidal chapel dedicated to St. Anne, but it is now closed and used for baser purposes. A processional path runs round the presbytery. On the north side is a curious bridge, which was connected with the Reliquary Chapel, now destroyed, situated on the exterior of the church. This bridge was an ante-chapel to that in which the relics were stored, and is adorned with mural paintings. Probably relics were exhibited here for the worship of the pilgrims, who went in procession along the path below.
Bridge
North Aisle of Presbytery.
The curiously-shaped Chapels—the Jesus and St. Luke's—with their Norman arcading are next seen. In the former there is some mural painting much restored—a facsimile of the ancient picture—and over the chapel is a museum. The latter is a parish church for the precincts. The windows are sham Norman, having been inserted in the last century. There is a mutilated font of fifteenth century, carved with Crucifixion and Seven Sacraments. Above it is the treasury. Here is a curious oil painting accidentally discovered by Professor Willis, which was part of a reredos, converted into a table after the Puritan outbreak. It is sometimes attributed to an Italian artist of 1370, but there is no reason to suppose that it was not the production of genuine English art of that period. Even Dean Stanley attributes the Eleanor bronze to an Italian, Torel, and Professor Freeman calls De Noyer of Lincoln a "crazy Frenchman," and others ascribe the Exeter chancel-screen to French workmen. This error of attributing pure English work to foreign artists has caused a very unjust depreciation of the skill and genius of our native craftsmen. The subjects of these paintings are the last scenes of our Lord's life. Other mural paintings are:—On ceiling of sacrist's room of late thirteenth century—subjects: Virgin, SS. Catherine, Margaret, Andrew, Peter, Paul, and Richard of Chichester. On south wall of south aisle—SS. Wulstan, Edward the Confessor, and others.
The Lady Chapel has been destroyed, as we have said, by Dean Gardiner in Elizabeth's reign, but happily the doorway remains, the only part of the Cathedral of Early English workmanship. The profusion of the dog-tooth ornament is evident. The doorway is formed of a double arch, with clustered shafts, and was built, together with the Lady Chapel, about the middle of the thirteenth century by Bishop Walter de Suffield. Stone was brought from Caen and Barnack for the purpose. The destruction of these Lady Chapels was a sign of the decay in the worship of the Virgin, which was so extensively followed in mediæval times.
There is another chapel on the south; that of St. Mary-the-Less, now used as the consistory court, built by one Bauchun in the fourteenth century. An ecclesiastical lawyer, Seckington, added the groined roof in the fifteenth century. The altar has been displaced by a doorway. The sculptured bosses represent the legendary history of the Virgin.
We enter the South Transept by a Tudor doorway, over which is some rich open screen work of fifteenth-century design, under the original Norman arch. This transept, built by Herbert, is fine Norman work, with good arcading, the vault being added by Bishop Nykke. This transept has the oldest coloured glass in the Cathedral, a copy of Raphael's Ascension, erected by Dean Lloyd in 1790. Here we see the following Monuments:—
Bishop Bathurst (d. 1837), by Chantrey; and memorial tablets to East Anglian heroes who fell in China and Afghanistan.
The Cloisters are extremely interesting and beautiful. We enter them by the Prior's Door, a fine Decorated work, having four columns on each side, with archivolt mouldings, in front of which are seven canopied niches, with richly-sculptured crockets, containing figures. The Norman cloisters, probably constructed of wood, were destroyed in 1272, at the time of the citizens' revolt. The east walk was rebuilt by Bishop Walpole (1289-1299) in Early Decorated style. His successor, Bishop Salmon, built the south walk, the windows of which show a great advance in the same style, the windows having flowing tracery. The west walk has also Late Decorated work, and the north walk has at the east end an Early Decorated window, at the west end two Late Decorated, while the other five are Perpendicular in their tracery. This part was finished by Bishop Alnwyck (1426-1436). The slype and chapter-house have both been destroyed. The usual plan of Benedictine monasteries was followed here. The dormitory was on the east side, the refectory on the south, with entrance at south-west corner, and near to this is the monks' lavatory, the kitchen being further west. Carved figures representing the Temptation of Adam and Eve are above this door leading to the refectory. The locutory or parlour of the monks was on the west side of the cloisters and the hospitium, and from this walk the Monks' Door leads us back to the Cathedral. The bosses are extremely interesting. In the east walk the subjects are foliage, the four Evangelists, the Scourging, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ, and Nebuchadnezzar eating grass. In the south and west, scenes from the Book of the Revelation of St. John; and in the north, legends of the saints—Christopher, Laurence (being burnt on a gridiron); the dancing of Herodias's daughter before Herod, which represents her as tumbling rather than dancing, in accordance with the usual conceptions of mediæval artists.
Dimensions