CHANTRY OF PRINCE ARTHUR.
transept, is well seen. It is of late Norman character. A doorway in the south wall, close to this arch, now opens to the apartments formerly used as treasuries, over the narrow ‘slype’ or passage between the great south transept and the chapter-house.
XII. A descent of five steps, indicating the termination of the crypt, which extends only beneath the choir and its aisles, leads into the south-east transept. The bay on the north side is filled by the screen of Prince Arthur’s Chapel. The transept itself is Early English, of the same general character as the choir. The northern bay is precisely similar to the choir in the arrangement and design of its lower arches (opening to the aisles east and west), the triforium, and clerestory. The southern bay has its three sides pierced with two tiers of triple lancet windows set back in the wall, with a passage through the jambs. The inner arches are supported by clustered shafts of Purbeck marble, ringed. An arcade, with sculptures in the spandrils, runs below the windows. The vaulting is quadripartite, with bosses of leafage, of unusual beauty, at the intersections.
The south, east, and west walls, with the windows of this transept, were in so ruinous a condition before the late restoration, that it was found necessary to take it entirely down. Every stone was marked, and it has been rebuilt precisely as before. The sculptures in the spandrils of the arcade were also much shattered, and those on the east side are in effect modern works by Boulton of Worcester. They are, however, direct reproductions of the old ones, as far as they could be deciphered. It has been suggested, and apparently with truth, although the arrangement is by no means clear, that the entire series was intended to represent the life present, and that to come. Beginning at the north-west angle, the subjects are—A bishop giving his benediction; knights fighting with lions and centaurs, (the world and its temptations); St. Michael weighing souls; demons torturing souls over flames, (purgatory); the mouth of hell—demons drawing in souls. North side—Two figures carrying a body, (the burial of Adam?); the expulsion from Paradise; an angel dismissing souls to punishment(?). (From this point the figures look in the opposite direction.) The Resurrection; the dead breaking their coffin-lids; an angel sounding a trumpet; an angel bearing the cross; the Saviour in judgment. East side—An angel with a trumpet; a seraph; an angel with a lute; the coronation of the just(?); St. Gabriel with a lily; St. Michael with the dragon; an angel bearing a crown.
The sculptures may be compared, for both design and execution, with those on the west front of Wells Cathedral, which are nearly of the same date. The imagery used here is not of so refined or dignified an order as that at Wells, but the whole work deserves careful attention.
There is a piscina in the south wall, and aumbries remain in the walls east and west.
XIII. Against the south wall of this transept, and connected with the arcade in a remarkable manner, is the effigy of a knight, on a raised tomb of comparatively recent date. The effigy is that of a knight of the Harcourt family, and belongs to the early part of the fourteenth century. The armour is of ringed mail, with the exception of the poleyns at the knees, which are of plate. The shield has the arms of Harcourt—Gules, two bars or. The small brass plate below, with the inscription “Ici gist sur Guilliamme de Harcourt,” is not coeval with the effigy, which is slightly raised on the left side.
In the centre of the transept is a high tomb, of good character, from which the brasses had been removed, for Sir Gryffyth Ryce, (died 1523). The ancient inscription remains; and brasses by Hardman have taken the places of the originals.