A Short Account of King's College Chapel Part 3

WINDOW XIX.

1. The Return of the Prodigal 2. The meeting of Jacob and Joseph.

Son.[P]

3. The Incredulity of St. 4. Christ appearing to the Apostles Thomas. _without_ Thomas.[Q]

[P] In the upper part of the left hand light is depicted the killing of the fatted calf.

[Q] This subject and its type ought to precede numbers 1 and 3.

WINDOW XX.

1. Elijah carried up to 2. Moses receives the Tables of Law.

Heaven.[R]

3. The Ascension of Christ. 4. The Descent of the Holy Ghost.

[R] He casts his mantle, represented by a lovely piece of ruby gla.s.s, down to Elisha.

WINDOW XXI.

1. Peter and John heal the 2. The Apostles arrested.[S]

lame man at the gate of the Temple.

3. Peter and the Apostles 4. The Death of Annanias.[U]

going to the Temple.[T]

[S] In the background, Peter and John are seen bound to a pillar and scourged.

[T] In the background, Peter preaching inside the building.

[U] In the background is seen his body being carried out for burial.

WINDOW XXII.

1. The Conversion of St. Paul. 2. Paul conversing with Jews at Damascus.[V]

3. Paul and Barnabas at 4. Paul stoned at Lystra.

Lystra.

[V] In the background he is seen being let down in a basket from a window. In this and the preceding window figures of St. Luke, habited as a doctor, with his ox by him, alternate with figures of angels in the central light.

WINDOW XXIII.

1. Paul and the Demoniac 2. Paul before the Chief Captain Woman. Lysias at Jerusalem.

3. Paul saying farewell at 4. Paul before Nero.

Philippi.[W]

[W] In this subject is a beautiful specimen of a late fifteenth century s.h.i.+p. The s.h.i.+p has her sails furled, and is anch.o.r.ed by her port anchor as her starboard anchor is fished (_i.e._ made fast with its shank horizontal) to the s.h.i.+p's side by her cable. An empty boat is alongside.

At the top of the mainmast is a fighting top from which project two large spears.

An excellent article on this s.h.i.+p was contributed by Messrs. H. H.

Brindley, M.A., and Alan H. Moore, B.A., and read to the members of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society in 1909.

WINDOW XXIV.

1. The Death of Tobit. 2. The Burial of Jacob.

3. The Death of the Virgin. 4. The Funeral of the Virgin.

WINDOW XXV.

1. The Translation of Enoch. 2. Solomon receives his mother Bath-Sheba.

3. a.s.sumption of the Virgin. 4. The Coronation of the Virgin.[X]

[X] She kneels in the centre, full face. On right the Son, seated; on left the Father, crowning Mary. The dove between. Angels playing music in front.

WINDOW XXVI.

The _West Window_ was filled with stained gla.s.s depicting the Last Judgment, by Messrs. Clayton and Bell, of London, in 1879. There is no doubt that in the original scheme of the windows this was intended to be the subject of the west window.[8] Like the east window, it consists of nine lights, divided by a transom into two tiers. The general idea is to set forth the scene of the Judgment as within a vast hall of semi-circular plan. In the central light of the upper tier is seated the figure of our Lord on the throne of judgment. On each side of the princ.i.p.al figure are groups of angels jubilant with trumpets and bearing emblems of the Pa.s.sion.

On the right and left, each in three divisions, are seated figures of Apostles and other Saints. In the three lights below the figure of our Lord are St. Michael and two other angels, the one on the dexter side (the left side as you look at it) bearing a Lily, the other on the sinister (right) holding a flaming sword. St. Michael in the centre is in full armour. He carries the scales of judgment, and rests one hand on a cruciferous s.h.i.+eld.

The lower portions of the lights show, on the one side, the resurrection of the blessed, with angels receiving them. A special feature of the design is seen in the lowermost portion near the centre. Here appears the figure of the founder, King Henry VI. He rises from his grave gazing upward, and bearing in his hands a model of the chapel itself. On the other side the lost are shown, driven out by angels threatening them with flaming swords.

In the tracery are arranged various s.h.i.+elds and heraldic devices, which comprise the arms of Queen Victoria, Henry VI, Henry VII, Henry VIII, the Provost (Dr. Okes), the Visitor (the Bishop of Lincoln, Chr.

Wordsworth), F. E. Stacey, Esq. (the Donor), with those of King's College, Eton College, and the University.

The question has often been asked, How did the windows escape during the _Civil War_? There is one story that the west window was broken by Cromwell's soldiers (who certainly were quartered in the chapel), and that the rest of the gla.s.s was taken out and concealed inside the organ screen. Another, which appears in a small book called "The Chorister,"

is that all the gla.s.s was taken down and buried in pits in the college grounds in one night by a man and a boy. Both these stories are entirely fict.i.tious. The best answer to the question may be found in the words of the Provost of Eton (Dr. M. R. James), who says, in one of his addresses on the windows: "It is most probable that Cromwell, anxious to have at least one of the universities on his side, gave some special order that no wilful damage should be wrought on this building, which, then as now, was the pride of Cambridge and of all the country round." The windows have been taken out and re-leaded at various times--first between 1657 and 1664; next in 1711-1712; thirdly in 1725-1730; fourthly in 1757-1765; fifthly in 1847-1850; and fourteen of them (one in each year) in a period extending from 1893 to 1906, by the late Mr. J. E. Kempe, when several mistakes which then existed were put right.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] This window from its base to the top of the arch is 53 feet and 25 feet wide.

[8] This window is 49 feet from its base to the top of the arch and 33 feet 6 inches in width.