THE CHAPTER-HOUSE.
(THE NORMAN PORTION.)
Library at the beginning of the present century. This transcript was made by Dr. Hall, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford. There are others in the library of Queen’s College, Oxford, and in the British Museum).—A Register of Documents relating to the Abbey, also made by Abbot Froucester; and another Register, compiled by the last abbot, Parker, or Malvern.
XX. Returning to the exterior of the church, the west front (Abbot Morwent’s work, 1420-1437, see §§ IV., V.) may first be visited. This is not very rich or striking, but the pierced buttresses of the window, and the parapets of open-work below and above, should be noticed. The composition of Abbot Thokey’s south aisle, with its massive buttresses and deeply recessed windows, is unusually fine. On the upper part of the buttresses is a series of figures, finely designed, and well deserving attention. At the transept commences the Perpendicular transformation. The turrets at the angles are Norman, with interlacing arcades above; the cappings are later. The gables are filled with a series of round-headed arches, rising one above another; and traces of the original Norman window-openings remain in the walls. The parapets and windows shew the later alterations. Buttresses of the central tower pass across the east and west sides of the transept.
The polygonal shape of the radiating chapels—very unusual in Norman architecture—should here be noticed from the exterior; as well as the manner in which the Lady-chapel is connected with the choir. At the north-west angle of this chapel is a fragment of the original Norman work which belonged to the central apse, and was turned to account in Abbot Horton’s rebuilding of the east end. The light buttresses which support the great east window are pierced so as not to obstruct the light. The central gable of the open parapet above the window retains a figure of our Lord on the cross.
The last bay of the Lady-chapel has an open passage below it, which was rendered necessary at the time of the building of the chapel, from the fact that the boundary wall of the monastery passed north and south in a line with the extreme eastern buttresses. (The marks of this wall may still be seen on the buttresses.) The archway is picturesque in itself. A very striking view of the north-east portion of the cathedral opens beyond it; full of varied and intricate outlines formed by the projecting chapels and the walls of the cloister and chapter-house, and crowned by the great mass of the central tower with its deep shadows and its fretwork of grey stone.
The tower (see § III.) was (as appears from the inscription within, § X.) the work of Abbot Seabroke, (1450-1457,) and was, said one of the monks to Leland (temp. Hen. VIII.), “a pharos to all parts of the hills.” The singular beauty of its pinnacles of open-work has already been noticed.
A passage called the Abbot’s Cloister separates the chapter-house from the north transept. The cloister itself, however, extended beyond this passage eastward. The inner walls alone remain. The eastern wall has entirely disappeared; and beyond it are some transitional Norman arches, which belonged to the infirmary of the monastery.