Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Carlisle Part 3

The #Font#, standing on a fine marble flooring close to the west window, has bronze figures of St. John Baptist, the Virgin and Child, and St.

Philip. It was designed by Sir A. Blomfield, and presented by Archdeacon Prescott 1891.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LONGITUDINAL SECTION, NORTH.]

The #Organ.#--The former organ built by Avery, London, has been given to Hexham Abbey Church. The present one extends from one side of the eastern tower arch to the other. It was built by Willis (1856), and the diaper work was executed by Hardman. About the year 1877 it was enlarged at a cost of nearly 1000.

#North Transept.#--The transept is very lofty and very dark. It is about 22 feet wide, and its length from north to south is nearly 114 feet.

Standing near the entrance to the north choir aisle, looking southwards and across the nave, a capital general view of the remains of the Norman portion of the cathedral can be obtained.

This end of the transept was rebuilt after the fire of 1292. Having been greatly injured by another fire that broke out about a hundred years later, Bishop Strickland rebuilt it (1400-19.) During the restoration of the cathedral it was once again rebuilt.

On the west side is a Norman arch, the entrance to the north aisle of the nave. The sinking of the tower piers has partly crushed it out of shape. The portion of an arch visible above, acts as a b.u.t.tress to the tower arches. To the right is a late thirteenth-century window filled with gla.s.s in memory of the Rev. Walter Fletcher, Chancellor of Carlisle (died 1846). This window exhibits plate tracery--tracery cut, as it were, out of a flat plate of stone, without mouldings, not built up in sections. It is the transitional link between the lancet and tracery systems.

The doorway in the corner communicates with the transept roof.

The north window is very large, and is filled with stained gla.s.s in memory of five children of A.C. Tait, Dean of Carlisle, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. They all died of scarlet fever in the short s.p.a.ce of five weeks, 6th March to 9th April 1858.

This end of the transept was till quite recently railed off, and used as the consistory court of the Chancellor of Carlisle.

Originally the transept had a chapel on the eastern side opening with a single arch, similar to St. Catherine's Chapel in the south transept.

The opening to the north choir aisle is Decorated in style; above this is a portion of an arch for b.u.t.tressing the tower-arches.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VIEW ACROSS THE TRANSEPTS IN 1840. From Billings.]

To the right is the blocked-up entrance of the old Norman choir aisle, an exact counterpart of the present south choir aisle entrance.

The roof is now an open timber one of the original pitch.

Near the north-east pier of the tower is a well, completely covered over. This, it is said, was done by a former dean, on the supposition that the well, or the water, in some occult fas.h.i.+on, affected the music in the cathedral.

The #Tower# was rebuilt by Bishop Strickland (1400-19), who used the Norman piers, and placed upon them other columns of about the same length. The Early Norman piers have square-fluted capitals and are a little higher than the arches of the nave. The added columns have capitals carved with birds and foliage, and are carried up to the arches of the tower. This rebuilding was rendered necessary by the s.h.i.+fting of its foundations. The piers sank nearly one foot, and the arches near them have been to some extent distorted. Springs of water are said to run across the transept from north to south, and this may explain the sinking, which probably happened before the erection of the present choir.

Cl.u.s.tered columns uphold the transept arches, but the western and eastern arches are supported on each side by a single column terminating in a bracket at about the level of the base of the triforium. This was arranged so as to increase the width of the pa.s.sage between the piers from the choir to the nave.

The decoration of the eastern arch capitals consists of the badges of the Percy family--the crescent and fetterlock. Hotspur was Governor of the town and Warden of the Marches under Henry IV., and it is probable that he aided in the work of the bishop. The western arch capitals have, as decoration, the rose and escallop sh.e.l.l alternately--badges of the Dacres and Nevilles, who also may have been benefactors to the cathedral.

Across the north transept from the upper capitals is a depressed arch of stone with Perpendicular tracery.

#South Transept.#--With the exception of the wall itself, the south arm of the transept is modern. The ancient wall, eight feet thick, is quite suitable for a fortress. A richly-decorated modern doorway has been made, and above it is a window by Powell, representing the "Days of Creation."

[Ill.u.s.tration: PART OF SOUTH TRANSEPT AND ST. CATHERINE'S CHAPEL. From Billings.]

The west wall is out of the perpendicular through the s.h.i.+fting of the tower piers, and the Norman arch, opening to the south aisle of the nave has also been distorted. To the left is a round-headed window, filled with gla.s.s in memory of the Rev. W. Vansittart, canon and prebendary of Carlisle 1824.

The triforium has a plain rounded opening.

The clerestory is very much like that of the nave, but is not so regular in construction, the architecture being merely ma.s.sive and dest.i.tute of ornament, except in the case of the capitals, which are very sparingly decorated.

On the east side of the transept, the second arch from the doorway, is the entrance to the south choir aisle. It is Norman, ornamented with a simply executed but very pleasing zigzag: the capitals of the piers are cus.h.i.+oned. On the whole, it is much the same as the arch immediately opposite, opening on the south aisle of the nave.

All this side of the transept, with the exception of the small doorway (which was built a few years later), dates from about 1101.

#St Catharine's Chapel.#--Between the choir aisle entrance and the modern doorway is another Norman arch, which is the entrance to St.

Catherine's Chapel--a chantry of Early Decorated style erected on the walls of a former Norman building.

Jefferson says: "In most large churches, altars, distinct from that in the chancel, were founded by wealthy and influential individuals, at which ma.s.ses might be sung for the repose of the dead; the portion thus set apart, which was generally the east end of one of the aisles, was then denominated a chantry: in it the tomb of the founder was generally placed, and it was separated from the rest of the church by a screen. In the fourteenth century this custom greatly increased, and small additional side aisles and transepts were often annexed to churches and called mortuary chapels; these were used indeed as chantries, but they were more independent in their const.i.tution, and in general more ample in their endowments. The dissolution of all these foundations followed soon after that of the monasteries.

"In the year 1422 Bishop Whelpdale at his death left the sum of 200, for the purpose of founding and endowing a chantry for the performance of religious offices for the souls of Sir Thomas Skelton, knight, and Mr. John Glaston, two gentlemen with whom he had been on terms of intimate friends.h.i.+p, and who were buried in the cathedral. Nicholson thinks it probable this was the chantry of St. Roch; its revenues were valued at 2, 14s. per annum.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ONE BAY OF THE NAVE.]

"There was another chantry dedicated to St. Cross; but the period at which, and the person by whom it was founded are not known. It was granted by Edward VI. 'with all messuages, lands, tenements, profits, and hereditaments belonging thereto,' valued at 3, 19s. per annum, to Henry Tanner and Thomas Bucher.

"The chapel of St. Catherine in the Cathedral of Carlisle was founded at an early period by John de Capella, a wealthy citizen, and endowed by him with certain rents, lands, and burgage houses. In the year 1366 a portion of its revenues being fraudulently detained, Bishop Appleby commanded the chaplains of St. Mary's and St. Cuthbert's to give public notice that the offenders were required to make rest.i.tution within ten days on pain of excommunication with bell, book, and candle. Its revenues, according to the rotuli, called the king's books, which were made up in the reign of Henry VIII., were valued at 3, 2s. 8d. per annum."[3]

[3] "History of Carlisle," page 158.

Some very fine foliated brackets can be seen in the arch between this chapel and the choir aisle.

Dividing the chapel from the transept and aisle is some exquisite carved screen-work (Late Decorated) dating from the latter part of the fifteenth century, and attributed to Prior Gondibour. Its great beauty, and the skilful variations of the designs, will repay careful inspection. The chapel now serves as a vestry for the clergy: but it is to be regretted that it cannot add to the beauty of the cathedral by being utilised for its proper purpose.

The pointed doorway on the left, originally opened on to a well which was closed in the course of the restoration of the building. The position of Carlisle on the border making it liable to sudden attacks in early times, it is probable that the inhabitants may have taken sanctuary in the cathedral many a time, when a well of water would be of great advantage to the refugees.

#Monuments in the Transepts.#--North Transept. Near the entrance to the north choir aisle stands the altar-tomb of Prior Senhouse. It is covered with a slab of dark blue marble. An inscription runs thus: "The tomb of Simon Senhouse, Prior of Carlisle in the reign of Henry VII. The original inscription being lost, the present plate was subst.i.tuted by the senior male branch of the Senhouse family, A.D. 1850. Motto, 'Lothe to offend.'"

It was on this tomb that the tenants of the priory were accustomed to pay their rents.

South Transept.--On a stone in the west wall (now covered with a pane of gla.s.s) is an inscription which was discovered in 1853. It is written in Norse runes, and is as follows:--

"Tolfihn yraita thasi rynr a thisi stain."

"Tolfihn wrote these runes on this stone."

The runes are Norse, not Anglo-Saxon. The latter are not often found, but the former are scarcer still. The runes, perhaps, date from the eleventh century.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SCREEN--ST. CATHERINE'S CHAPEL. From Billings.]

There is also a marble tablet containing a medallion likeness of George Moore.

"A man of rare strength and simplicity of character, of active benevolence and wide influence.

A yeoman's son he was not born to wealth but by ability and industry he gained it, and he ever used it as a steward of G.o.d and a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ for the furtherance of all good works."

George Moore was born at Mealsgate, c.u.mberland, the 9th April 1806. He went to London in 1825. Two years later he was working for Fisher, Stroud & Robinson, lace merchants, as town traveller, and, soon after, as traveller in the north of England. He was so successful that he was nicknamed "The Napoleon of Watling Street." When he was twenty-three he accepted an offer from a firm of lace merchants, Grouc.o.c.k & Copestake, to become a partner. He gave up travelling for orders in 1841, but soon suffered in health. As a remedy he took to following the hounds, and later (in 1844) went on a three months' trip to America. On his return he started on his career of philanthropy which has made him famous. A few of the inst.i.tutions for which he worked, and to which he contributed largely, may be mentioned; the c.u.mberland Benevolent Society, the Commercial Travellers' Schools, the British Home for Incurables, the Warehous.e.m.e.n and Clerks' Schools, the Royal Free Hospital, and the London City Mission. Various c.u.mberland charities found in him a generous supporter. He met with his death in Carlisle. Knocked down by a runaway horse, 20th November 1876, while on his way to attend a meeting of the Nurses' Inst.i.tution, he died the next day from his injuries.

The following was a favourite motto with him:--

"What I spent, I had, What I saved, I lost, What I gave, I have."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CHOIR, LOOKING WEST. _A. Pumphrey, Photo._]