Externally, a peculiarity occurs at Durham in the gabled roofing originally covering the aisles ([Fig. 272]). This does not now exist, but the evidences of it are indisputable.
Fig. 272.—Durham Cathedral. Gabled roofing to the Aisles.
The awful grandeur of the interior of this cathedral, and its noble effect from without,—standing, as it does, on a rocky promontory nearly surrounded by the deep ravine of the river, and, as a quaint old writer says—“So envyroned with hilles, that he that hath seen the situation of this city hath seen the mapp of Sion, and may save himself a journey to the Holy Land,”—must ever cause it to rank among the grandest of our Mediæval remains: and its influence seems to have been proportioned to its merits; for, as Sir Francis Palgrave tells us, it “became the normal model of ecclesiastical architecture throughout the ancient diocese of Aidan and Finan, far beyond the Tweed.”
I will only notice one more building in the present lecture, and that in the farthest south; and I make this long stride,—from the Wear to the New Forest,—for the sake of noticing the other great work of the notorious prime minister of Rufus. Mr. Ferrey, who has every right to judge of all that relates to Christchurch, has traced out certain resemblances between Christchurch and Durham. The difficulty in connecting such resemblances with the influence on each of Bishop Flambard, is (as I have before said) that Durham was commenced, and had made great progress before his succession to the see. I am, however, disposed to think that it was Durham that influenced Christchurch,—as it was not while dean, but subsequently, when patron of Christchurch, that Flambard rebuilt that church; and this was contemporaneous with his holding the see of Durham.
Flambard’s Church is extremely bold and simple in its parts, and well studied in its proportions. The clerestory and vaulting are of a later date; but Mr. Ferrey gives reasons for thinking the latter to have been from the first intended. The details are good and well considered; the capitals are of the cushioned form, and of that type noticed in the Tower of London and elsewhere. Some appear to have been subsequently carved with exquisite taste, in a manner which reminds one of Greek foliage. The windows of the triforium gallery, with the corbel tabling over them, still remain, and are of excellent, though simple, design; while the beautifully arcaded stair-turret to the northern transept is one of the choicest relics of the Norman style ([Fig. 273]).
Fig. 273.—Stair-turret, North Transept, Christchurch, Hants.