R. J. King

“ Bloxam is the earliest episcopal effigy in the cathedral, is assigned by him to Bishop William of Blois, (died 1236,) who laid the foundation of this part of the church. “The effigy is sculptured in low relief, on a coffin-shaped slab, and was probably set originally on the stone coffin which contained the remains of the Bishop.... On the head is the low mitre; about the neck is seen the amice. In front of the breast, on the chasuble, is a lozenge-shaped ornament like a morse, in which stones, glass, or paste have been inserted.” ”

“ The west side of the transept (which is of two bays beyond the aisle passage) is entirely filled by two very lofty windows, of three lights each. The heads of the narrow lights are sharply pointed; and the tracery above is formed by three circles enclosing trefoils. These windows are set back within triangular-headed arches. On the north side is a double window of the same character, divided by a group of banded shafts. The triple lights on either side of these shafts, and the foiled circles above them, precisely resemble the windows on the west side of the transept. ”

“ The Early English portion of the cathedral (the whole of the church east of the central tower) is by far the most interesting, and affords some very good examples of design and sculpture. On the whole, however, although the entire building deserves, and will repay, careful examination, it can hardly be said to rank among English churches of the first class. The Norman cathedral, which covered nearly the same ground as that which now exists, terminated eastward (as appears from the crypt, § XXII.) in a broad apse, with small apsidal chapels attached at the sides. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Those below are richer, with ornamented headings. In the wall below the window is a plain arcade of foiled arches, with a quatrefoil above. The narrow bit of wall which remains in each bay is panelled with tracery corresponding to the divisions of the windows; and in the three principal tiers has brackets and rich canopies for figures. The brackets are angels bearing scrolls. Vaulting-shafts run up between these panels; and above is a superb lierne roof,—one of the best and purest examples of such a roof in the Perpendicular period. The bosses are entirely of leafage, and are very numerous. ”

“ Swinfield, who had been the constant companion of Cantilupe, and many of the contemporary chroniclers, bear witness to the purity and excellence of the Bishop’s life, and his tomb soon became distinguished by miracles. The first of these, according to the annalist of Worcester, occurred in April, 1287; at the time, apparently, of the removal of his remains from the tomb in the Lady-chapel to the shrine which had been provided for them in the north transept. The number of marvels increased daily; for, “superstition,” in Fuller’s words, “is always fondest of the youngest saint;” ”

“ Such a transept, “equal in height to the central alley of the presbytery, is only to be found elsewhere in England in the late Norman of Canterbury (c. 1096) , and York (c. 1160) ; and in the Early English of Lincoln (c. 1186) , Salisbury (c. 1220) , Beverley, and Rochester. On the Continent the only known examples of this feature are S. Benoit sur Loire (c. 1080) , and Cluny (c. 1089) , the former of which was doubtless the prototype of the English examples.”—Willis’s Architectural History of Worcester Cathedral. ”

“ Nevertheless, the men of his household went out with a few men from the castle, and through God’s mercy, and through the Bishop’s deserts, slew and captured five hundred men, and put all the others to flight [109] .” Wulfstan died, at a great age, in 1095, and was interred in his new cathedral. He was unquestionably one of the best and worthiest of the later Saxon bishops. The fullest and most important life of Wulfstan is that by William of Malmesbury, printed in the second volume of Wharton’s Anglia Sacra. ”

“ The monument, with effigy, in the most eastern bay on this side, is that of Joanna de Bohun, Countess of Hereford, (called Joanna de Kilpeck, from her castle there,) (died 1327) . It has been painted in accordance with the remains of colour on its several portions; but with very indifferent success. The effigy is a good example of costume. Male and female heads project at the angles of the canopy; and the border of the slab on which the effigy rests has small human heads and roses with their leaves, alternately. The will of the Countess bequeaths a considerable estate to the cathedral. ”

“ It is not so valuable for the architectural history of Worcester as the Annales Ecclesiæ Wygorniensis, which will be found in the first volume of Wharton’s Anglia Sacra.
Professor Willis’s most valuable and elaborate “Architectural History of Worcester Cathedral” will be found in the twentieth volume of the Journal of the Archæological Institute. In the “Gentleman’s Magazine” for October, 1862, is printed Mr. Bloxam’s paper on the “Sepulchral Remains and Monuments” in the cathedral. ”

“ It has been truly said that the whole of the choir, as it at present exists, is a memorial of the murdered King; since the alterations in it were commenced after his interment here, and their cost was mainly defrayed from the rich offerings made at his tomb. The tomb itself, however, is not unworthy a greater king than Edward II.
It was on the 21st of September, 1327, that King Edward was murdered in Berkeley Castle. The monasteries of Bristol, Kingswood, and Malmesbury refused to receive his body for interment, fearing the displeasure of the Queen and her party ”

“ All the arches are enriched with foiled openings, and with intricate and very beautiful leafage. There are Purbeck shafts at the angles, heads at the spring of the arches, and a series of seated figures, under canopies, much mutilated, between the outer arch at the entrance and the trefoil within. Inside, the three divisions are groined, with bosses at the intersections; and each bay has three blind arches in the wall, between which piers project to some distance. ”

“ I. The very interesting cathedral of Hereford, which represents an episcopal see existing, it is possible, before the arrival of St. Augustine, (see Pt. II.,) has suffered much from the hand of time, and more perhaps from so-called restoration. On Easter Monday, 1786, the western tower (a later erection than the Norman nave) fell, carrying with it the west front, and greatly injuring the first bay of the nave. The architect Wyatt was then at work on Salisbury Cathedral; and the restoration of Hereford was unhappily placed in his hands. With Wyatt, restoration meant destruction. ”

“ The transept, like the rest of the church, is narrow (32 feet) in proportion to its height (66 feet) , and projects only 28 feet beyond the aisle wall. Like the transept at Gloucester, it is without aisles. The circular staircase-turrets which project into the transept at the north-west and south-west angles are peculiar, and are far more decided features than those at Gloucester (see the Handbook for that Cathedral) in the same situations. These are Norman as high as the clerestory, where the change to Perpendicular is marked by a difference of masonry. ”

“ 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 ”

“ In both the Norman and the Early English presbyteries the shrines of the two saints “were deposited in front of the high altar, in{W-31} the same manner as St. Dunstan and St. Elfege in the cathedral of Canterbury [76] .” In either case the King might be said to have been laid “between” them. King John died at Newark, October 19, 1216, commending his body and soul to God, and to St. Wulfstan, the last great English saint who had been canonized. His body, arrayed in royal apparel, was accordingly conveyed to Worcester, where it was interred by the Bishop, Silvester of Evesham [77] . ”

“ He bought for the see a house in London, together with the advowson of the adjoining church, St. Mary Monthalt. In 1239 Bishop Ralph resigned his see, and became a Franciscan at Oxford, whence he afterwards passed to the house of the Franciscans at Gloucester, where he died.
[A.D. 1240-1268.] Peter d’Acquablanca, whose fine tomb remains in the cathedral, (Pt. I. § XIII.,) was one of the intruding “foreigners” by whom England was oppressed during the long reign of Henry III., and whose exactions and tyranny were among the chief causes of the rising of the barons under Simon de Montfort. ”

“ An account of this synod, drawn up by Wulfstan himself, is printed in the Anglia Sacra. The Dean of Chichester thus translates the commencement:—“I, Wulfstan, by the grace of God Bishop of Worcester, determined to hold a synod in the Minster of St. Mary’s, in the crypt of the church, which I built from the foundations, and by the mercy of God afterwards consecrated. This synod was held in the year of our Lord 1092, the fifteenth indiction. There were assembled all the wisest men invited from the three shires in our diocese, Worcester, Gloucester, and Warwick ”

“ The south aisle has this great advantage, which other altered buildings do not possess;—in other buildings the proportions very often constrain the designs in the new work, and give it a mixed character, spoiling both,—giving, for example, heaviness to the Norman, and flimsiness to the Decorated. ”

“ In the cloister are placed monuments for—Dr. Matthews, (with sculptured figures) ; Bishop Huntingford, (died 1832) ; and Bishop Grey, (died 1837) .
Between the cloister and the Bishop’s Palace, a remarkable chapel, which seems to have been early Norman, existed until it was pulled down by Bishop Egerton, (1724-1746) . It had an upper and a lower story, in which were altars dedicated respectively to St. Mary Magdalene and to St. Catherine. One wall alone remains, and deserves notice.
From the east walk of the cloister a door opened to the vestibule of the chapter-house. ”

“ Bloxam, is late in the fourteenth or early in the fifteenth century. In the third bay, within a Decorated recess, is the effigy of Bishop Parry, (1610-1616,) “wearing the rochet and the chimere, the latter reaching a little below the knees;” in the fourth is a Perpendicular altar-tomb, with panelled front, of some unknown personage; in the fifth is the tomb of Thomas Littleton, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, died Aug. 23, 1481. The brass, which represented him in his robes as Judge, was destroyed in the civil wars of the seventeenth century. ”

“ Here three flying buttresses should be remarked, which spring from the outer walls of the cathedral at the bend of the apse, and meet in a point behind the wall of the choir. These really sustain the weight above the triforium, so that the slight Perpendicular pier below (§ XIII.) is not called upon to do more than half the duty. In the Whispering Gallery much Norman stone-work has been re-used—a practice of common occurrence throughout the cathedral. ”