Two other Side Chapels deserve to be mentioned, viz. the two eastmost on the north side, which were the first roofed with lierne vaulting. The one furthest east has been lately restored to use for early celebrations of the Holy Communion and other devotional services. Visitors should pay special attention to the lovely doorway in stone through which you enter, and the one on the opposite side. In the apex of the arch are the arms of Edward the Confessor, on the left those of East Anglia, on the right those of England. On that of the opposite side is a figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the top, flanked on the right by one of St. Margaret, and on the left by St. Catherine. These figures have been defaced, probably by William Dowsing, who is said to have gone about the country like a lunatic, breaking windows, etc. He visited the College in 1644.
The Ante-chapel is profusely decorated with the arms of Henry VII, with a dragon and greyhound as supporters, "the dragon of the great Pendragonship" and the greyhound of Cecilia Neville, wife of Richard Duke of York in every severy, and with crowned roses and portcullis alternating with each other, intimating that, as the portcullis was the second defence of a fortress when the gate was broken down, so he had a second claim to the crown through his mother, daughter of John de Beaufort. After the accession of the Tudor dynasty there arose a mania for heraldic devices; in some cases an unsatisfactory mode of decoration, but in this building one that possesses not only historical interest, but great decorative value.
During the time when these styles of Gothic architecture prevailed that are now called the Decorated and the Perpendicular, the roof,[14] the columns, the stained glass windows, the seats, altar, tombs, and even the flooring, were filled with emblasonment. Nor was heraldic ornament confined to architecture; it formed the grand embellishment of the interior of palaces and baronial castles.[15]
In the middle of one of the roses at the west end, toward the south, may be seen a small figure of the Virgin Mary, about which Malden says: "Foreigners make frequent enquiries, and never fail to pay it a religious reverence, crossing their breasts at the sight, and addressing it with a short prayer." I cannot say that, in my long experience, I have ever observed an instance of this.