College chapel

“ The manner in which this magnificent group of horse-chestnuts 264 sprawls about over the grass, out into the middle of the lawn, is one of the most heart-shaking features of the garden of Trinity Hall. Of course the single object at Cambridge that makes the most abiding impression is the famous chapel of King’s College—the most beautiful chapel in England. The effect it attempts to produce within is all in the sphere of the sublime. The attempt succeeds, and the success is attained by a design so light and elegant that at first it almost defeats itself. ”

“ A large range of building, similar in style to the Fellows’ building, was erected in 1889, and in 1895-97 Messrs. Bodley & Garner enlarged the old library, and altered and refaced the street front, extending the building to Christ’s Lane, and thus added much to the dignity of the College buildings, as seen from S. Andrew’s Street. The “re-beautifying the chappell,” as the then Master, Dr. Covel, called it, took place in 1702-3, when it was panelled by John Austin, who did similar work about the same time in King’s College chapel. The chapel has no remarkable or beautiful features. ”

“ The river front is pure Palladian, and the effect of [46] the order of pilasters which runs through the two upper stories is very harsh. The northern face of the court is good, solid, ugly Queen Anne work, which has, of late years, been spoiled rather than improved. On this side is the Hall with great sash-windows, which the famous Clare creeper does not succeed in hiding. The Chapel is a plain building of excellent proportions. Internally, it has most of the virtues and faults of a Georgian college chapel: the domical antechapel is an original feature. ”

“ King’s College Chapel
[101]
There are a thousand things to notice other than the windows. I have mentioned the roof. To understand its construction it is necessary to pay a visit to the space between the roofs, where the whole skeleton of the vaulting is to be seen and its wonderful engineering appreciated. The woodwork of the chapel is good, especially the screen, a very fine and graceful example of that Italian style which filtered into England through the court of Francis I. It bears the love-knot and twisted initials of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn. ”

“ Architectural splendour was not at first considered any necessary part of a collegiate foundation, but the various tenements purchased by Bishop Merton were reduced to a regular quadrangular form, and a college chapel was included in the original design, two chaplains being appointed for “the ministration of Divine service.” In 1265, the parish church of St. John Baptist was made over to the founder by the monks of Reading, and granted to the perpetual use of the scholars. ”

“ In 1895, however, one of the wishes of the college was fulfilled, and the present noble Chapel was erected from Sir Arthur Blomfield’s design. It stands north of the Master’s Lodge, and is a very large and lofty building of red brick, with freestone dressings. The style is a free adaptation of English Perpendicular, the admirable window tracery being a remarkable feature. The interior is very good, and the very complete set of stalls, with their grotesque carvings and modern misereres, would do honour to a medieval collegiate church. ”

“ In respect of collegiate chapels we are certainly far in advance in England, but one great chapel, very nearly completed, yet lingers on in an unfinished state, when a little effort might render it available for divine service, and, in the meantime, many students must quit the college without that true love of ecclesiastical art that is only imparted {118} to the soul by a devout assistance at the functions of religion in these solemn edifices. ”

“ The same may be said of that most picturesque feature of the turret staircase leading from the master’s rooms to the hall, parlour, and garden, which we shall find repeated in the plans of S. John’s, Christ’s, Queen’s, and Pembroke Colleges. About the same period (1450) the range of chambers on the north side of the court was at its easternmost end connected by a gallery with the Church of S. Mary, which remained in use as the College chapel down to the seventeenth century. ”

“ The building has always been used for various secular purposes, such as elections to scholarships and fellowships; the admission of scholars, fellows, and officers; the affixing of the College seal to documents, and the delivery of declamations by students. Within recent years lectures in the antechapel and an oration in the chapel have been delivered. I believe the view that a church or chapel is intended only for the performance of religious services is modern and unwarranted by history: at any rate our records give no authority for it. ”

“ John Proctor Carter, sometime Fellow of King's and Eton, in writing a history of the chapel, published in 1867, writes thus: "So many learned authors have been at fault when they have ventured into the obscurity which envelops the history of the Freemasons, by a gang of whom this chapel, in common with, at all events, a large number of mediaeval buildings were erected, that to say a word upon the subject may seem presumptuous. ”

“ But though poverty and custom unite in making our colleges conservative, their growth in numbers demands, from time to time, new and more generous accommodations for public worship; and so the little buildings of an earlier day are either torn down or kept for other and more ignoble uses, like Holden Chapel at Harvard. This quaint little structure was built in 1744, and is now used for recitation-rooms, but at one period in its career it served as the workshop of the college carpenter. ”

“ It is really wonderful that the cathedral of an English diocese, and the chapel of one of our greatest colleges, should remain in a condition which would disgrace the meanest hamlet. In the first place, it will hardly be credited by those whose eyes have not witnessed the sacrilege, that a portion of the church is actually desecrated. In so vast a college the hire of a single room cannot be dispensed with, but the House of God must be defiled; a bay of the south transept and one of the adjoining chapels are blocked off to form a residence for the verger. ”

“ Augustus Austen Leigh, Provost of the College from 1888 to 1905, in writing a history of the College, says: "Like other really great works, King's Chapel produces an impression which is instantaneous, and at the same time permanent. It does not disarm criticism, but [44] it compels admiration. ”

“ All the colleges have chapels, but all have not organs; nor, amongst those which have, is the same large use made of the organ. Some preserve the full cathedral service; others do not. Christ Church, meantime, fulfilled all conditions: for the chapel here happens to be the cathedral of the diocese; the service, therefore, is full and ceremonial; the college, also, is far the most splendid, both in numbers, rank, wealth, and influence. ”

“ The characteristic of the whole is a very striking dignity. Internally, the chapel is less interesting, but the stained glass, representing noteworthy members of the college, such as Sancroft, William Law, and some of the Cambridge Platonists, is thoroughly suited to the fine, plain windows. The northern gallery is the picture-gallery of the Master’s Lodge as well as an approach to the chapel, and contains a number of fine portraits, including a Lely, two Gainsboroughs and two Romneys. ”

“ As at Hereford, therefore, a covered way existed between the cathedral and the college.
To the north of the cloisters was the square occupied by the college; on the north side of which, again, was the principal entrance. And on the south side of the square stood the chapel of which we now see the remains, showing that it must have been a very fine building of its kind. The elegance of the proportions and subtlety of the detail betray the hand of a very skilful architect. The dimensions of the chapel are 69 ft. ”

“ To the right on entering the great gateway is the chapel, a late Tudor building begun by Queen Mary and finished by her sister Elizabeth about the year 1567. The exterior is quite mediaeval, and all the internal woodwork, including the great baldachino of gilded oak, the stalls and the organ screen dividing the chapel into two, dates from the beginning of the eighteenth century. In the ante-chapel the memory of some of the college's most distinguished sons is perpetuated in white marble. ”

“ An existing hostel formed one side, but the others were all erected for the special purpose of the college. A hall and kitchen were built to the east, and on the street side opposite was a gateway placed between students' rooms. Marie de St. Paul also received permission from two successive Avignonese Popes to build a chapel with a bell tower at the north-west corner of the quadrangle, and to some extent these exist to-day, incorporated in the reference library and an adjoining lecture-room. ”

“ Directly we enter the chapel our eyes are raised to look at the roof which necessitated that stately row of buttresses, but for a time it is hard to think of anything but the splendour of colour and detail in this vast aisleless nave, and we think of what Henry's college might have been had the whole plan been carried out in keeping with this perfect work. ”

“ A list of the service-books, plate, copes and other vestments, altar-cloths, curtains, gold embroidery, etc., kept in this oratory in 1479 is given in my booklet of 1917 on King’s Hall. The building was small and the Society continued to use All Saints’ church for its more important services.
The desirability of having a chapel large enough [86] for all college purposes was obvious, and in 1464 the Society began the erection of such a building, on ground beyond the eastern extension of the cloister court. ”

“ The original foundation consisted of a warden, 15 fellows, 15 scholars, with 2 chaplains and 2 clerks. It now consists of a warden, 8 to 10 fellows and 18 scholars. The college, which has its frontage upon Parks Road, occupies the site of the house of the Austin Friars. No part of their buildings is retained. The erection of the college occupied the years 1610–1613, and while the buildings are in the main an excellent example of their period, the chapel (as distinct from the ante chapel) is of peculiar interest. ”

“ Equipment comprises ten white marble buildings for school and house purposes, chapel seating 1600, and other buildings, also plant for heat, light, and power, inclosed on forty acres with a ten-foot high stone wall. Endowment now about $29,000,000. Soldiers’ and sailors’ monument on campus, in memory of the graduates who served in the Civil War; sculptor, J. Massey Rhind. Clergymen are excluded by Girard’s will, “that the boys might be kept free from denominational controversies.” Bible has always had a foremost place in the teaching of the college ”

“ The roof of the chapel, which is a kind of hammer-beam with fan-vaulting above, was brought from the chapel of St. Mary’s College, which formerly stood in the Corn Market, and which was founded by Henry VI. in 1435. This kind of vaulting seems to have retained its hold longer than any other feature of the Gothic styles, unless it be the windows. It is extensively used in Oxford under gateways and other small spaces,{249}
Side Window, St. ”

“ At the top of the great staircase that ascends from the entrance of the Audience Chamber there was recently “unearthed,” or unwalled, the main doorway to the chapel above. This had been built over so completely by the military that its presence was for years unsuspected. It has suffered much damage, but what remains gives indication of the rich beauty it once possessed. The Chapel has no pillars, being one great nave, its vault springing from engaged clustered columns, that run up the walls between the windows. The capitals of these columns are the only carving in this vast airy hall. ”

“ The tapestry waves dark round the dim-lighted hall;
With scutcheons of silver the coffin is shielded,
And pages stand mute by the canopied pall;
Through the courts, at deep midnight, the torches are gleaming,
In the proudly arched chapel the banners are beaming,
Far adown the long isle sacred music is streaming,
Lamenting a chief of the people should fall.
But meeter for thee, gentle lover of nature,
To lay down thy head like the meek mountain lamb ”

“ The sublime usually has more of a frown and straddle, and it is not until after you have looked about you for ten minutes that you perceive that the chapel is saved from being the prettiest church in England by the accident of its being one of the noblest. It is a cathedral without aisles or columns or transepts, but (as a compensation) with such a beautiful slimness of clustered tracery soaring along the walls, and spreading, bending and commingling in the roof, that its simplicity seems only a richness the more. I stood there for a quarter of an hour on a Sunday morning ”

“ We embarked at Westminster Bridge and landed close by the church in Southwark, and we were so fortunate as to get permission to enter it without a guide. The oldest part of it is the Lady chapel—which, in English cathedrals, is almost invariably placed behind the choir. Through this we strolled, alone and in silence. Every footstep there falls upon a grave. The pavement is one mass of gravestones; and through the tall, stained windows of the chapel a solemn light pours in upon the sculptured names of men and women who have long been dust. ”

“ Over the chimney-piece is a mirror, the frame of which is composed of handsomely-clustered pillars, pinnacles, and crocketed canopies, the whole being richly decorated with gilding, and minutely carved.
The tenants’ hall is under the library, and corresponds with it in extent. The windows are enriched with tracery, and four massive clustered pillars sustain the arches and groins of the ceding, which is remarkably flat, when the breadth of its span is taken into consideration.
The chapel is a small, beautifully-proportioned edifice. ”