The Three Choirs: A Handbook to the Cathedrals of Gloucester, Hereford, and Worcester / A Complete Description of the Buildings, a History of Each Diocese and Biographical Notices of the Bishops

by R. J. King

The monument itself consists of an altar-tomb with effigy, canopied by a mass of exquisite tabernacle-work, which fills up the entire arch. The great Norman piers on either side have been cut away, to give room for the lower part of the tomb, which has canopied niches for figures no longer existing, and on the side toward the choir-aisle (at which the oblations were made) a bracket for light. The effigy is of alabaster, and the King’s features were possibly chiselled from a waxen mask, taken after death. The head is very fine, and should be compared with those of Edward III. at Westminster, and of the Black Prince at Canterbury. In all these Plantagenet effigies there is a striking resemblance. The arrangement of the hair and beard should be noticed. At the head are angels, and a lion at the feet, finely rendered. On the side of the tomb (toward the aisle) is a shield, with an inscription recording the restoration of the monument by the society of Oriel College, Oxford, of which Edward II. was the founder, at the instance of his Almoner, Adam de Brome:—“Hoc fundatoris sui monumentum, situ vetustatis deformatum, instaurari curaverunt Præpos. et Soc. Coll. Oriel, Oxon. A.D. 1737-1789-1798.”

The capitals of the great piers are painted with the device of Richard II., the white hart, chained and collared. Hence a tradition has arisen that the body of the King was drawn by stags from Berkeley to Gloucester.

(3.) The chantry, with effigy, of Abbot Parker, (the last Abbot of Gloucester,) 1515-1539. The chantry has been converted into a pew. The screen enclosing it has a good frieze of vine-leaves and grapes; and the niches for statues at the angles should be noticed. The effigy, of alabaster, has been much cut and injured. The Abbot wears the chasuble and jewelled mitre, (Gloucester ranked as the eleventh of the twenty-seven mitred English abbeys); the top of his staff is broken. There are small figures in the portion left. The base of the monument has shields with the Abbot’s arms, and others bearing the emblems of our Lord’s Passion.

XIII. The north choir-aisle is entered from the choir through a Perpendicular doorway in the bay below Abbot Parker’s chantry. The aisle itself is Norman, of the same date as the choir, but has the windows filled with Perpendicular tracery. The low enormous piers of the choir are here well seen, and the monuments already described should all be noticed from this side.

At the north-east angle of the aisle is one of the apsidal chapels, three of which terminated the Norman choir. The chapel forms a pentagon, the place of the altar being, very unusually, north-east. The whole chapel was altered as a memorial of Abbot Boteler, (1437-1450). It is enclosed by a Perpendicular screen, and the windows are filled with Perpendicular tracery. Behind the altar is a very rich Perpendicular reredos, having one central and eight smaller niches. Some of the small figures of the Apostles in the canopies above

TOMB OF ROBERT, DUKE OF NORMANDY.

are perfect; and there are also many shields of benefactors to the monastery. The whole is richly painted.

On the step of the altar is the effigy of Robert Courtehose, [Plate VII.,] eldest son of the Conqueror, who died in 1134, at the castle of Cardiff, where he had been a prisoner twenty-six years. He had been a great benefactor to the monastery at Gloucester, and was interred here before the high altar. His monument continued entire until 1641, when it was broken to pieces by Cromwell’s soldiers. The pieces were bought by Sir Humphrey Tracy, of Stanway, who kept them until after the Restoration, when they were put together, and replaced in the cathedral. The monument now consists of a high tomb or chest (on wheels), of Irish oak, on which is laid the effigy, also of oak. The shields on the tomb, and the figure itself, were partly re-coloured, and the former very improperly, during the present century. The tomb has a border of leafage, of late Decorated character. The effigy itself may be of the same period (since the material is the same), and may perhaps have been copied from an earlier figure. It is cross-legged, and has a surcoat and a coronet. Whatever may be its real date, it cannot possibly be older than Henry II.