History and Details.
I. Until the year 1539, Gloucester Cathedral was the church of a mitred Benedictine abbey, which ranked among the wealthiest and most important in England. In 1539 the abbey was surrendered; and in 1541 its church became the cathedral of the newly established bishopric of Gloucester.
The single authority for the architectural history of Gloucester Cathedral is Abbot Froucester’s (1381-1412) Chronicle of the abbey, including lives of the twenty abbots after the Conquest. Of this Chronicle transcripts exist in the Chapter Library at Gloucester; in the Library of Queen’s College, Oxford; and in the British Museum. The original MS., which was preserved at Gloucester, disappeared mysteriously from the Chapter Library during the present century. An ancient copy, however,—if it be not the original Gloucester MS.,—was recently discovered in a vault under the Rolls Chapel; and is about to be published in the series of Chronicles edited under the direction of the Master of the Rolls[1].
A nunnery was founded at Gloucester in the year 681, by Osric, a “minister” or “sub-regulus” of Ethelred, King of Mercia. Three abbesses ruled it successively until 767, after which the convent was dispersed. Beornulph of Mercia refounded it, about 821, for secular priests,—who, in 1022, were replaced by Benedictine monks. The Saxon Chronicle (A.D. 1058) records the “hallowing” of the monastery by Ealdred, Bishop of Worcester. In 1088 this building was destroyed by fire, and a new church was commenced by Abbot Serlo, which was completed and dedicated in 1100[2]. Two years afterwards this church suffered much from fire; and still more in 1122, when the Saxon Chronicle asserts that “in Lent-tide ... the town of Gloucester was burnt while the monks were singing their mass, and the deacon had begun the gospel ‘Præteriens Jesus.’ Then came the fire on the upper part of the steeple, and burned all the monastery, and all the treasures that were there within, except a few books and three mass-robes.” This injury, according to Froucester’s Chronicle, was repaired by the offerings of the faithful; but the abbey suffered again from fire in 1179 and 1190. The church was re-dedicated to St. Peter, in 1239, by Walter de Cantilupe, Bishop of Worcester. In 1242 the nave roof was completed. Abbot Thokey (1306-1329) built the south aisle of the nave in 1318. It was during his abbacy that the body of Edward II. was interred in the church; and it was owing to the great value of the offerings made at his tomb that a series of works was commenced, which form one of the most peculiar features of this cathedral. Under the succeeding Abbot, Wygemore, (1329-1337,) the Norman walls of the south transept (called St. Andrew’s aisle) were cased with tracery; Adam de Stanton, abbot from 1337 to 1351, constructed the vaulting of the choir, and the stalls on the prior’s side; and Abbot Horton (1351-1377) completed the high altar with the choir, and the stalls on the abbot’s side; together with the casing of St. Paul’s aisle, (the north transept). This abbot also commenced the great cloister, which Walter Froucester (1381-1412) completed. Abbot Morwent (1420-1437) erected the west front, the south porch, and two western bays of the nave. Abbot Seabrooke (1450-1457) built the existing tower. Abbot Hanley (1457-1472) began the Lady-chapel, which Abbot Farley (1472-1498) completed.
Notwithstanding the long siege of the city, Gloucester Cathedral suffered but little during the Civil War. Within the last ten years (1853-1863) extensive restorations have been made within and without the cathedral, under the superintendence of Mr. F. S. Waller. These consist chiefly of the clearing and draining of the crypt; the restoration of the west front, the south aisle of the nave, the chapter-room, the library and sacristies, portions of the cloisters, the whole of the east end of the choir, and the interior of the nave: to which must be added the alterations entailed in forming and laying out the grounds round nearly the whole of the cathedral; several houses and yards having been removed, and hundreds of loads of soil, the accumulation of years, taken away from against the walls.
II. The ground-plan of the Norman church embraced nave and aisles, choir and sanctuary, short transepts with apsidal eastern chapels, and a choir-aisle, or “procession path,” terminating in three eastern chapels, also apsidal. (The plan of Norwich may be compared.) With the addition of the Lady-chapel and the cloisters, this ground-plan still remains, as in the early part of the twelfth century. The Norman work throughout the building belongs either to this original church, built by Abbot Serlo, and dedicated in 1100; or to the restorations after the fire of 1122. All of it, but especially the great piers of the nave, which remain unaltered, is very interesting and important; but the great peculiarity of Gloucester Cathedral is the later work, ranging from 1329 to 1377, with which the original Norman walls and piers of the transepts and choir are cased and transformed. The manner in which this transformation is effected not only differs altogether from that in which other Norman buildings (the nave of Winchester for example) were re-cased and altered, but the work at Gloucester affords us perhaps the earliest example of English Perpendicular; since it exhibits far more characteristics of this style than of even the later Decorated, which from the date of the work we should expect to find. The Perpendicular work thus begun, is continued through a series of magnificent examples,—the cloister, (1377-1412); the great tower, (1450-1460); and the Lady-chapel, (1457-1498,) almost to the last days of Gothic architecture.
III. The best general views of the cathedral will be obtained from the north-west and from the south-east; but there are many excellent points of view from the lawn by which the building is now happily surrounded. The outlines—owing greatly to the Lady-chapel with its projecting chantries, to the eastern chapels of the transepts and choir-aisles, and to the open-work of parapets and pinnacles—are unusually varied and picturesque. The manner in which the exterior mouldings of the great east window, of the west window, and of the openings in the tower, are carried upwards, so as to form a kind of gable, is a marked feature, which first appears within, in the beautiful arches across the transepts, on which the groining drops; and which was adopted, apparently from them, by the designers of the succeeding work. But the light and graceful tracery of the parapets, and of the pinnacles of the tower, is that which gives especial character to the exterior of Gloucester. Against a clear, mid-day sky this open-work is sufficiently striking; but when its tracery is projected against the red glow of sunset, an effect is produced which is altogether unrivalled. The tower of Gloucester may be compared with the central tower of Canterbury Cathedral, of later date, (Gloucester 1450-1460, height 225 feet; Canterbury 1495-1517, height 235 feet,) and of more massive character. Both towers form admirable centres to the masses of building clustered round them; and well illustrate the great advantage (which English architects alone seem to have appreciated) of “placing the principal features of their churches on the intersection of the nave with the transept[3].” At Gloucester, even more than at Canterbury, the various lines of the Lady-chapel, the transepts, the choir-aisles, and the choir-roof with its eastern gable, lead the eye gradually upwards to the great tower, with its crowning pinnacles. This effect is perhaps increased by the shortness of the transepts,—which here and at Worcester (the parent cathedral of Gloucester) are of the same dimensions, (128 feet from north to south[4]).
IV. For a more particular notice of the exterior,
THE NAVE.