Durham Cathedral

“ The traveller northward by the East Coast Route cannot fail to be struck by the beauty of the city of Durham, with its red-roofed houses nestling beneath the majestic site of the cathedral and castle. For splendid position the Cathedral of Durham stands unequalled in this country; on the Continent, perhaps that of Albi can alone be compared with it in this respect. The cathedral and Norman Castle are upon the summit of a lofty tongue of land which is almost surrounded by the River Wear. In parts the banks are rocky and steep, in others thickly wooded. ”

“ There is no country in Christendom where so many screens are still preserved and standing, as in England. Till within a very recent period, every cathedral church had retained its ancient separation between the nave and choir; but sad to relate, one of the most venerable of our churches is now denuded of this most essential and ancient portion of the fittings of a cathedral. I refer to Durham: where choir and nave are thrown into one great vacant space, and all the dignity and reverence of choir worship, suited to a capitular body, destroyed. ”

“ It is true that Durham Cathedral stands upon a noble cliff overhanging a ravine, while Reading Abbey stood upon a small and irregular hill which hardly showed above the flat plains of the river meadows, but in massiveness of structure and in type of architecture Reading seems to have resembled Durham more nearly than any other of our great monuments, and to emphasise its parallelism to Durham is perhaps the best way to make the modern reader understand what we have lost. ”

“ If the exterior of Durham is in any way disappointing, the interior more than compensates for its shortcomings. The general impression on entering the church is one of simple dignity and solemnity. The great massiveness of the structure and absence of elaborate ornament no doubt contribute to this feeling. The pious builders of old have certainly contrived to stamp on their work their own feeling of awe in the presence of the All-Powerful and Eternal God. Whatever has been lost through vandalism and the restorer, this remains unaltered. ”

“ DURHAM CATHEDRAL has one advantage over the others which I have seen, there being no organ-screen, nor any sort of partition between the choir and nave; so that we saw its entire length, nearly five hundred feet, in one vista. The pillars of the nave are immensely thick, but hardly of proportionate height, and they support the round Norman arch; nor is there, as far as I remember, a single pointed arch in the cathedral. The effect is to give the edifice an air of heavy grandeur. It seems to have been built before the best style of church architecture had established itself ”

“ The transepts had each two chapels, and adjoining the north wing, a tower of four stages was built in the 15th and 16th centuries by Abbot Marmaduke Huby. John of York built the aisleless choir in the 15th century. Beyond it is the magnificent Lady chapel, 150 feet in length, in which Abbot John of Kent placed nine altars as in Durham Cathedral. The great east window, now a blank, is of Perpendicular work. In addition to the church are many most interesting buildings. Foremost among these are the celebrated cloisters on the western side of the cloister garth. ”

“ A precipitous rock rises out of the flats, with the Lahn rushing beneath, and all up one side the picturesque old black and white houses of the town, while growing out of the bare rock, its front almost on the precipice, like Durham, towers the magnificent cathedral, one of the oldest in Germany, abounding in all those depths and contrasts of colour which make the old German churches so picturesque—each window having its different moulding of blue, yellow, and red stone: and reflected in the clear water beneath. ”

“ The earlier history of the see of Durham has already been referred to in order to lead up to the founding of the cathedral. We have seen how the bishop and monks of Lindisfarne fled and wandered with the relics of their beloved S. Cuthbert, eventually settling at Chester-le-Street, until, in the year 990, Bishop Aldhun, in terror of the Danes, again fled southward to Ripon. ”

“ The transepts of Peterborough Cathedral, built by Abbot Waterville between A. D. 1155 and A. D. 1175, exhibit vaulting-groins faced with roll mouldings, and other details of an advanced stage; whilst the Galilee, Durham Cathedral, built by Bishop Pudsey, A. D. 1180, is remarkable for the lightness and elongation of the piers, which are formed of clustered columns; and the semicircular arches which spring from [73] these are enriched both on the face and soffits with the chevron or zig-zag moulding. ”

“ It is altogether a remarkable and interesting structure. With its lightness and loftiness contrasting grandly with the massive Norman nave and choir, its clustered columns of polished marble alternating with stone, its fine bold sculpture, its splendid vaulted roof and rich arcading, it forms a perfect example of the Early English style. Though regular and symmetrical in general design, the detail shows great variety, and even irregularity, a quality so often present in old work, and so much to its advantage. ”

“ Durham Cathedral only, of all those in England, excels that of Lincoln in the beauty of its situation, for even Ely on its island hill, overlooking the wide Cambridgeshire fens, must be content to take a lower place. Like Durham, Lincoln occupies a site which seems to be indicated by Nature for a place of defence and offence in war, for a centre of commerce and industry in peace. ”

“ In a pamphlet published in 1703, 'Jest' asks 'Earnest' whether he has been at St. Paul's, and seen the flux of people there. 'And what should I do there,' says the latter, 'where men go out of curiosity and interest, and not for the sake of religion? Your shopkeepers assemble there as at full 'Change, and the buyers and sellers are far from being cast out of the Temple.' [876] At Durham there was a regular thoroughfare across the nave until 1750, and at Norwich until 1748, when Bishop Gooch stopped it. The naves of York and Durham Cathedral were fashionable promenades. ”

“ Scarcely less interesting historically, than the Lindisfarne Gospels is the Book of the Benefactors of Durham Cathedral. Their names are written in alternate lines of bold and silver, the binding being also originally of gold and silver, to which fact a Latin couplet in verse testifies. As time went on it was carelessly kept by the monks of Durham, but entries were made up to the eve of the dissolution of the monastery. The book has been published by the Surtees Society under its name of Liber Vitae, and edited by the Rev. ”

“ The south doorway of the church on the opposite side from the porch is a late work. There appears to have been another south doorway at the east end of the nave, but it is now built up. The whole of the aisle walls are arcaded in the interior (Fig. 208) up to the height of the window sills, but the arcade has been partly cut away for monuments.
The general design of the nave recalls that of Durham Cathedral, at the founding of which King Malcolm Canmore was present. ”

“ The twin-towers rise to a height of two hundred feet and are ornamented with windows, battlements, and pinnacles.
The Central Tower at the crossing of the transepts, built in 1410-1433, Perpendicular, is also two hundred feet high. It is the largest in England, and is considered not only one of the triumphs of Fifteenth Century architects, but one of the finest towers in the world. Much of it is supposed to be the work of Walter Skirlawe, Bishop of Durham, and its resemblance to the central tower of Durham Cathedral justifies the assumption. It has never been finished. ”

“ Durham, on the contrary, grows out of the cliff itself, and it is hard to say where the natural architecture terminates, and art begins.
I heard the service, in the cathedral, and it was effectively performed. From preference, I occupied the extremity of the nave, and enjoyed its distant effect. The Episcopal throne, in this cathedral, is a great curiosity. Had I not been told it was a throne, I should have said it was a gallery, or orchestra. Its style is altogether curious, and unique; but I should think his Lordship would prefer any place in the cathedral, to such a strange eminence. ”

“ He is described, also, as zealous in restoring to its former state Divine worship at Durham Cathedral, in reforming irregularities which had prevailed under the Usurpation, in filling up the number of the Minor Canons, and of the members of the Choir, and in restoring discipline throughout his diocese. Further, it is recorded of him, that he was a [480] man of great reading, and a lover of books for their own sakes, expending large sums upon his library with the enthusiasm of a true Bibliophilest. ”

“ Fig. 269.—Plan, Durham Cathedral.
{127}
an unworldly ecclesiastic, but one would regret to attribute a work so noble to the unscrupulous and wicked agent of the oppressions of Rufus.
In plan (Fig. 269) , the church, being arranged in coupled bays, two such couplets are given to its choir and two to either transept (the latter much narrower than the former) . The nave consists of three couplets, after which comes a single bay, and then the bay which represents the western façade ”

“ The canon of 1603 must not, therefore, be understood as confining the use of the cope to the celebrant, but only as providing that the celebrant, at least, must, in cathedrals, be so [54] apparelled. It may be added, that the copes still preserved in Durham Cathedral, and only disused [30] within a century, are a proof that, in this point at any rate, it is but very recently that the Edwardian "ornaments" ceased to be used in the English Church in our cathedrals ”

“ We have now reached a period when the glories of Gothic architecture were fading, during which many of our finest churches suffered considerably. Durham is no exception to the rule, and we find during the next two centuries a long record of destruction and so-called improvement. This, perhaps, reached its worst stage during the time of Wyatt, who in 1796 pulled down the magnificent Norman chapter-house. ”

“ Lucy, bishop here from 1189 to 1205, erected a new Lady Chapel and made other alterations. At Hereford, too, operations were going forward almost throughout the century, the bishops Reynelm (1107–1115) and Betun (1131–1148) being especially energetic in pressing them on; and the closing years of this period saw the rearing of the eastern transepts. At this time also the beautiful Galilee Chapel was added to Durham Cathedral; Ely was consecrated in 1106, and towards the end of the century received its central tower and other additions ”

“ It was this double necessity that made the bishops of Durham until our own time bishops-palatine; princes of the State as well as of the Church, and in the old days men of the sword as well as of the pastoral staff; and their cathedral shadows forth these conditions of their being in no uncertain way. There is no finer pile of Norman masonry in this country than this great edifice, whose central tower and east end are practically the only portions not in that style, and of these that grand and massive tower, although of the Perpendicular period, is akin to the earlier parts in feeling ”

“ Bishop Hoadly, writing against the Ritualistic practices of some congregations, speaks of 'the over-altars and the never-lighted candles upon them.' [921] In Durham Cathedral, which by traditional custom retained throughout the century a higher Ritual in some respects than was to be found elsewhere, the 'tapers' of which Thoresby speaks [922] were probably more than two in number. ”

“ On the conclusion of the inspection of the castle, the Dean of Durham, Dr. Lake, gave, in the nave of the cathedral, a short résumé of its history and a glance at its chief associations. This he did with great skill and taste, touching on the successive eras through which the monastery had passed before it was crowned by the present majestic structure—one which no less an authority{140} than Dr. Freeman had declared to be the finest church in Christendom, except the cathedral of Pisa, and scarcely inferior even to that. ”

“ Many legends cluster round this return, but in any case the fact is clear that the Bishop and his company took up their abode, not at Chester-le-Street, but on the rocky peninsula of Dun-holm, or Durham, which the River Wear nearly encircled. In this way the seat of ecclesiastical authority was changed for the second time, and Durham City now became the centre of the still-expanding Bishopric. Great prestige gathered round the Saxon cathedral in which the shrine of the saint was placed, for Kings and Princes vied with one another in doing honour to it. ”

“ The reply was that her cow was in Dunholme; and, to the relief of the monks, they and their precious charge soon safely arrived there. In grateful 36 commemoration of the incident Flambard erected this monument of a milkmaid and her cow. (See p. 9.)
The Exterior, from the South-east.
The exterior of Durham Cathedral as a whole may at first sight be disappointing to the visitor. Seen from a near view there is a certain flatness of effect and want of light and shade which is, perhaps, slightly unpleasant. ”

“ Early in the fourteenth century a new chancel was built, the aisles rebuilt and extended to the west end, and two new arches added to the west end of the nave arcades. In the early part of the fifteenth century a clerestory and open parapet were added, and a new oak roof placed over the nave. This was most probably a hammer-beam roof, and was coloured and gilded and decorated with angels holding shields. The only parts remaining at the present day are the grotesque carved corbels, and the angels. The tower was also constructed at this time. ”