SALISBURY THE CATHEDRAL AND SEE

"CSf CATHEDRAL SERIES
^^^^^^^^-4 PLAN AND ILLUSTRATIONS

IL

BELL'S CATHEDRAL SERIES.
EDITED BY
GLEESON WHITE AND EDWARD F. STRANGE.

SALISBURY.

First Edition, December, 1896.
Second Edition, revised, and with Eighteen additional Illus
trations, 1898.

ifewf^^. 4

SALISBURY CATHEDRAL FROM THE BISHOPS PALACE.

THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF
SALISBURY
A DESCRIPTION OF ITS FABRIC
AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE
SEE OF SARUM

BY GLEESON WHITE

WITH FIFTY

ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1898

CHISWICK PRESS :— CHARLES WHIT TIKGU AM ANU CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONUU.M.

GENERAL PREFACE.
This series of monographs has been planned to supply visitors
to the great English Cathedrals with accurate and well illus
trated guide books at a popular price. The aim of each writer
has been to produce a work compiled with sufificient knowledge
and scholarship to be of value to the student of archaeology
and history, and yet not too technical in language for the use
of an ordinary visitor or tourist.
To specify all the authorities which have been made use of
in each case would be difficult and tedious in this place. But
amongst the general sources of information which have been
almost invariably found useful are : — firstly, the great county
histories, the value of which, especially in questions of
genealogy and local records, is generally recognized ; secondly,
the numerous papers by experts which appear from time to
lime in the transactions of the antiquarian and archaeological
societies ; thirdly, the important documents made accessible in
the series issued by the Master of the Rolls ; fourthly, the well-
known works of Britton and Willis on the English Cathedrals ;
and, lastly, the very excellent series of Handbooks to the
Cathedrals, originated by the late Mr. John Murray, to which
the reader may in most cases be referred for fuller detail,
especially in reference to the histories of the respective sees.
Gleeson White.
Edward F. Strange.
Editors of the Series.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
The authorities consulted in the preparation of this book are
too numerous to quote in detail. But the admirable works by
the late Rev. W. H. Jones have been proved so full of useful
information that the service they rendered must be duly ac
knowledged, although in almost every instance further reference
was made to the building itself — or to officially authenticated
documents. Nor must the help of one of the cathedral cice-
rones be overlooked, in spite of his desire to remain anony
mous ; for his knowledge of the building served to correct
several mistakes in the first edition. One moot point concerning
the bishop commemorated by an efiigy in the North Choir
Aisle is left an open question. Local authorities insist that
it should be attributed to Bishop Poore, antiquarians of dis
tinction affirm that it represents Bishop Bingham.
The illustrations, with the exception of a few details from
liritton and Carter, are from photographs most courteously
placed at my disposal by Mrs. H. Snowden Ward, or from
the series published by Messrs. S. B. Bolas and Co., Carl
Norman and Co. (now The Photochrom Company, Ltd.),
Poulton and Sons (of Lee) and Witcomb and Son, of Salis
bury, in each case duly acknowledged below the engraving.
G. W.

CONTENTS.

History of the Cathedral .
Description of the Exterior
Tower and Spire
^\'est Front
North Porch
Nave and Clioir
Description of the Interior — Plan
NaveTransepts Monuments in the Nave .
,, of the Boy Bishop
Clioir Screen .
Organ Choir and Presbytery
Koof Paintings .
Choir
Choir Stalls
]<eredos .
High Altar
liast Transept
Kastern Aisle .
l.ady Chapel .
Monuments in Choir, etc.
Chapter House
The Cathedral Precincts .
Cloisters . ' . .
Library ....
Muniment Room
The Close
Bell Tower
Plungerford Chapel .
Beauchamp Chapel
The Stained Glass .
History of the See .
The Diocese of Sanun
List of the l^ishops .
'I'he Close and Churches .

PAGE I
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. 18
25

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Salisbury Cathedral, from the Bishop's Palace .
Arms of the Cathedral ....
Salisbury Cathedral, the West Front
Salisbury, irom Walpole's " British Traveller "
The Cathedral from the South .
The Cathedral and BeU Tower, from an old print
Portals of the West Front
Details of Main West Portal
One Bay of the Nave, Exterior
The Choir Screen . .
The Nave — looking West
The Nave — South Side
North Aisle
Nave Transept
Effigy of a Bishop .
The Choir — looking West
The Reredos and Fligh Altar
The Choir — looking East
Portion of the old Organ Screen
Piscina in South Choir Aisle
Altar and Triptych Reredos in Lady Chapel
South Choir Aisle, showing Lady Chapel
,, ,, showing Hungerford Chajxl
Chantry of Bishop Bridport
The Chapter Flouse — Interior .
,, ,, Exterior, and Bosses
,, ,, Details of Sculpture
,, ,, Painted Decoration
Tomlj of Sir John Montacute .
The Cloisters .
,, looking Xnrlh .
Rings found in the Lady Chapel
Hanging Parapet in the Close
Old Wall Painting, " Death and the Gallant" .
Interior of the demolished Beauchamp Chapel ,
Fragments of old Stained Glass
Tomb of William Longespee, Ist Eail of Salisbury
Tomb of the Boy Bishop . . ' .
Monument attributed to Bishop Poore
North Choir Aisle with Bingham Monument .
Brass of Bishop Wyville . ...
The High Street Gate, North and South Fronts
The Church House .
The Poultry Cross .
Old Plan of Salisbury
Plan of the Cathedral

Frontispiece Title Face

Face

face
Face

Fat c

lace

SALISBURY. THE WEST FRONT.
From a Photograpli by Carl Norman and Co.

HISTORY OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF
S. MARY.

I HERE is probably no cathedral church in
Europe, certainly no other English one, that
has such a clear record of its history as Salis
bury. Whereas in almost every other instance
we have only vague legendary accounts of the
original foundation of the building, in this
case there is a trustworthy chronicle of its
first inception and each successive stage of its progress extant.
Owing to reasons noted in another chapter, the former
cathedral at Old Sarum was condemned to be abandoned, and
a new site chosen for its successor ; Bishop Richard Poore,
through whose efforts the change of locality was effected, is
said to have hesitated long before he could find one suitable.
Wilton, then a place of some importance, attracted him first.
There is a more or less accurate MS. extant which pro
fesses to give an account of his tentative attempts to induce
the Abbess of Wilton to permit him to build his church in
a meadow of her domain. An old sewing-woman (quaedam

The headpiece is from an engraving in Walpoole's
Traveller. "

'¦ British

2 Salisbury Cathedral.
vetula filatrix) is said to have attributed his frequent visits to
quite another motive; she inferred that the Bishop had a
papal dispensation to marry, and was a suitor for the hand
of the Abbess. The negotiations failed : " Hath not the
Bishop land of his own that he- must needs' spoil the Abbess?
"Verily he hath many more sites on which he may build his
church than this at Wilton," was the reply of the Abbess to
his demand. During his period of indecision the Virgin ap
peared to him in a vision, and commanded him to build his
new church in a place called Myr-field, or, as some accounts
have it, Maer-field. He searched vainly for a piece of ground
by that name, that he might obey the supernatural edict, until
by chance he overheard a labourer (or a soldier, the legends
vary,) talking of the Maer-field, and then having, as he thought,
identified the place, which appears to have been within his
own demesne, he commenced to plan the present building.
Another tradition ignores the dream, and says the site of the
cathedral was determined by an arrow shot from the ramparts
of Old Sarum.
Misled by the similarity of sound, the name Maer-field has
been, naturally enough, interpreted to mean Mary-field. The
apparently obvious form "Miry-field," — as, according to Leland,
it appears on an old inscription, — in spite of the marshy nature
of the site, is probably a mere coincidence. Nor is Thomas
Fuller's " Merry-field, for the pleasant situation thereof," better
worth attention. The generally accepted theory at present is
that maer, the Anglo-Saxon word for a boundary, supplies the
clue. A hamlet, Marton, near Bedwin, another of the same
name now corrupted to Martin, near Damerham, might each
be truly described as boundary-towns. In Wiltshire to-day
' mere-stone ' is the local idiom for a boundary-stone. Mere is
alike the name of a hundred and of a parish in Wilts, both
near its borders. The site of the present cathedral is at the
junction of three ancient hundreds — Underditch, Alderbury,
and Cawdon — the south-east wall of the close being the boundary
line which divides the cathedral precincts from Cawdon.
Not only from the fact that the site was given by the bishop
may we infer that the Poores were a wealthy family ; but his
brother Herbert, who was his immediate predecessor in the see,
is described in the Osmund Register, as dives et assiduus (rich
and painstaking), and Richard Poore before his enthronement

THE CATHEDRAL FROM THR SOUTH.
From a Photograph by Messrs. Poulton.

History of the Cathedral. 5
was a benefactor to the monastery of Tarrant, in Dorsetshire,
his native village. Later we find he gave a large estate at
Laverstock to his new cathedral. Hence the old theory that
his name was derived from Poor or Pauper, as it appears in
several old chronicles, is untenable. Possibly like the Irish
Poer or Power, it may be traced to the word puer, used in a
restricted sense to denote the sons of royal or noble families
not yet in possession of their heritage. A Prince of Wales in
past times has been known as Puer Anglicanus, the Spanish
"Infanta," the prefix "Childe," have all been cited in support
of this theory. It is said indeed that the Childes trace their
descent from the Le Poers, and Childe-Okeford and Poorstock,
two villages in Dorset are quoted in evidence.'
Whatever the origin of his name there is little doubt that the
Bishop was wealthy, and absolute certainty that he was a
powerful and capable ruler — the whole story of his successful
efforts to carry out his scheme proves this much, were other
testimony wanting. Even his choice of a site is justified by
results, although earlier accounts unanimously agree in saying
it was little better than a swamp. That such descriptions of
the place were true is evident enough; the subsidence of the
tower piers show that their foundation was insecure, and the
curious feature of a continuous base to the piers of the nave
prove also that provision was taken from the first to overcome
this obstacle. We have frequent records of floods to the extent
at times of causing the daily service to be suspended owing to the
water actually being within the building itself ; as late as 1763
there is an account of a specially high one thus interrupting
the daily ritual. The whole valley of the Salisbury Avon
to its sea-mouth at Christchurch, about twenty-nine miles
distant is still under water for months at a time during a wet
winter. Of course the abundance of water has evoked the usual com-
p. /ison with Venice. Thomas Fuller, who for the sake of his
usual sagacity may be forgiven an allusion so unfounded, says:
" This mindeth me of an epitaph made on Mr. Francis Hill, a
native of Salisbury, who died secretary to the English liege at
Venice — " ' Born in the English Venice, thou did'st die, dear
Friend, in the Italian Salisbury.' "
' A paper on this subject was printed in the Wiltshire Archfeological
Mag., No. Ivi.

6 Salisbury Cathedral.
One of the reasons most frequently alleged for the abandon
ment of Old Sarum was its lack of water; but if it was deemed
unadvisable to acknowledge the political and administrative
reasons which really decided the change, it is just possible
that the superfluity of water was found useful as a plausible
explanation of the removal on hygienic grounds ; or it may
even be that the whole story of the scarcity of water at Old
Sarum was a later invention to excuse its unwelcome abun
dance in the new locality. Bishop Douglas is credited with
the saying, " Salisbury is the sink of Wiltshire plain, the
close is the sink of Salisbury, and the bishop's palace the
sink of the close." Certainly the site lacks the natural dig
nity of position such an edifice demands, and which Lincoln,
Durham, Ely, and many another Enghsh cathedral, show was
frequently deemed essential. Thomas Fuller, who occupied a
stall at Salisbury, has written, " The most curious and cavilling
eye can desire nothing in this edifice except an ascent, seeing
such as address themselves hither can hardly say with David,
' I will go up to the house of the Lord.' "
The temporary chapel of wood, commenced on the Monday
after Easter in 12 19, must have been a modest structure, since
on the next Trinity Sunday the Bishop celebrated mass, and
the same day consecrated a cemetery there.
In the MS. by William de Wanda, precentor and afterwards
dean of Sarum, preserved in the Cathedral Library, we have a
record of the very first ceremonies connected with the
Cathedral, which being probably trustworthy in the main is so
curiously interesting in itself, that it deserves quoting freely,
from the version given by Francis Price, clerk of the works
to the Cathedral, and author of a very interesting monograph
upon it, published in the latter part of the last century. We
find that in the year a.d. 1220, on the day of St. Vitalis the
Martyr, being the fourth of the calends of May (which was the
twenty-eighth of April), the foundations were laid by Bishop
Richard Poore. " On the day appointed for the purpose the
bishop came with great devotion, few earls or barons of the
county, but a great multitude of the common people coming in
from all parts ; and when divine service had been performed,
and the Holy Spirit invoked, the said bishop, putting off his;
shoes, went in procession with the clergy of the church to the
place of foundation singing the litany ; then the litany being

History of the Cathedral. 7
ended and a sermon first made to the people, the bishop laid
the first stone for our Lord the Pope Honorius, and the second
for the Lord Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury and
Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, at that time with our
Lord the King in the Marches of Wales ; then he added to
the new fabric a third stone for himself ; William Longespee,
Earl of Sarum, who was then present, laid the fourth stone, and
Elaide' Vitri, Countess of Sarum, the wife of the said earl, a
woman truly pious and worthy because she was filled with the
fear of the Lord, laid the fifth. After her certain noblemen,
each of them added a stone ; then the dean, the chantor, the
chancellor, the archdeacons and canons of the church of Sarum
who were present did the same, amidst the acclamations of
multitudes of the people weeping for joy and contributing
thereto their alms with a ready mind according to the ability
which God had given them. But in process of time the
nobility being returned from Wales, several or them came
thither, and laid a stone, binding themselves to some special
contribution for the whole seven years following."
Another account, differing from the more generally accepted
version just quoted, says that : Pendulph, the Pope's legate, in
12 16 laid the first five stones; the first for the Pope, the
second for the King, the third for the Earl of Salisbury, the
fourth for the countess, and the fifth for the bishop. This
statement is wrong in date, for Bishop Poore was not translated
to the see of Sarum until the year 1217. In the charter of
Henry I. the first stone is mentioned as having been laid by
the king, i.e., in his name.
"On the 15th of August, 1220, at a general chapter when
the bishop was present, it was provided that if any canon of the
church failed paying what he had promised to the fabric for
seven years, that next after fifteen days from the term elapsed,
some one should be sent on the part of the bishop and chapter
to raise what was due from the corn found on the prebend, and
so long as he should remain there for that purpose he should
be maintained with all necessaries by the goods of the said
prebend. But if the prebend or any person failing in the pay
ment of what was promised be in any other bishopric than
Sarum, such canon should be denounced to that bishop by the
letter of the bishop and chapter for his contumacy, either to be
suspended from entering the church, or from celebration of
' So misspelt in the text quoted.

8 Salisbury Cathedral.
divine service, or excommunicated according as the chapter
shall judge it."
In the year 1225, Richard Poore, Bishop of Sarum, "finding
the fabric of the new church was by God's alliance so far ad
vanced that divine service might be conveniently performed
therein, he rejoiced exceedingly, since he bestowed great pains
and contributed greatly towards it. Thereupon he commanded
William the Dean to cite all the canons to be present on the
day of S. Michael following, at the joyful solemnity of their
mother church, that is to say, at the first celebration of divine
service therein. According on the vigil of S. Michael, which
happened on a Sunday, the bishop came in the morning and
consecrated three altars, the first in the east part, in honour of
the holy and undivided Trinity and All Saints, bn which hence
forth the mass of the Blessed Virgin was appointed to be said
every day. And the said bishop offered that day for the
service of the said altar and for daily service of the Blessed
Virgin, two silver basons and two silver candlesticks which were
bequeathed by the will of the noble lady Gundria de Warren to
the church of Sarum. Moreover the bishop gave out of his
property to the clerks that were to officiate at the said mass
thirty marks of silver a year until he settled so much in certain
rents, and likewise ten marks every year to maintain lamps
round the said altar. Then he dedicated another altar in the
north part of the church in honour of St. Peter, the prince of
the apostles, and the rest of the apostles ; he also dedicated
another altar in the south part thereof to St. Stephen and the
rest of the martyrs. At this dedication were present.: Henry,
Bishop of Dublin, Stephen, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury."'
We read further in the same chronicle that the bishops and
their retinues were entertained for a week by Bishop Poore at
his sole charge.
The next day, the feast of SS. Michael and All Angels, the
Archbishop of Canterbury preached to a large company in
cluding many English and foreign prelates, Otto, the Pope's
nuncio, and others. On the Thursday following, " Our Lord
the King and Hubert de Burgh the justice came to the church
and the King there heard the mass of the glorious Virgin and
offered ten marks of silver and one piece of silk, and he granted
to the same place that every year there should be a fair. The
same day the justice made a vow that he would give a gold

History of the Cathedral. 9
text set in the precious stones and the relics of divers saints in
honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the service of the new
church ; afterwards the King went down with many of his
nobles to the Bishop's palace and were entertained. On the
Friday following Hubert de Burgh offered his " texte after
John, gilt with gold and having precious stones and rehcs of
divers saints."
"On the Nativity of our Lord following, the King and his
justice Hubert de Burgh came to Sarum on the day of the
Holy Innocents, and there the King offered one gold ring with
a precious stone called a ruby, one piece of silk, and one gold
cup of the weight of ten marks ; and when the mass was
celebrated the King told the dean that he would have that
stone which he had offered and the gold of the ring applied to
adorn the text which the justice had before given ; and then
the justice caused the text which he had given to be brought
and offered with great devotion on the altar."
On the loth of January, 1226, William Longespfe, Earl of
Salisbury, returned from Gascoigne, where he had resided
twelvemonths with Richard, the King's brother, for the defence
of Bordeaux (after three months on the channel between the
Isle of Rhe and the coast of Cornwall, owing to the tem
pestuous weather, that so long delayed his landing), "and the said
Earl came that day after nine o'clock to Sarum, where he was
received with great joy, with a procession for the new fabric."
The scandalous account of his death (as given by Stow), which
occurred at the castle of Old Sarum, on the 7th of March
in the same year, and the part played in the transaction by
Hubert de Burgh cannot be told here, beyond the fact that the
justice was strongly suspected of poisoning him. On the Sth of
March, at the same hour of the day on which he had been
received with great joy, he was brought to New Sarum with
many tears and lamentations, and honourably buried in the new
church of the Blessed Virgin. Matthew Paris gravely records
that at his funeral, despite gusts of wind and rain, the candles
furnished a continual light the whole of the way. Of all secular
figures connected with this cathedral his is perhaps the most
prominent, nor is his fame merely local. He was active in
public affairs during the reign of King John, and one of the
noticeable heroes in an expedition to the Holy Land in 1220,
when, at the battle of Damietta, Matthew Paris tells us, he re-

IO Salisbury Catliedral.
sisted the shock of the infidels like a wall. He fought both in
Flanders and in France, was at his King's side at Runnymede,
and a witness to Magna Charta — a copy of which famous
charter, made probably for his special use, is still preserved
in the cathedral library.
In 1226, on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, which was then the
I Sth day of the calends of July, the bodies of the three bishops,
Jocelin, Roger, and Osmund (the latter not yet canonized), were
brought from Old Sarum. Whether their tombs were also
brought, is not said, nor is any mention made of Herman, who
by popular report is credited with a monument in the cathedral.
A Charter of Henry III., dated 30th of January, 1227, gives
certain powers to make new roads and bridges, to inclose the
city of New Saresbury, to institute a fair from the Vigil of the
Assumption of the Blessed Mary to the octave of the same feast,
etc., etc. This development of the city, more especially by its
roads and bridges, is held to have been fatal to the prosperity of
Wilton, which from that time ceased to progress, and was over
shadowed by the now rapidly increasing New Sarum.
Bishop Poore was ably supported in his great undertaking by
a group of notable men, among whom were: William de Wanda,
the Dean, who threw his whole soul into the work, and traversed
the diocese of London to collect alms in its behalf, besides
leaving us most elaborate accounts of the various ceremonies ;
and the Precentor, Roger de Sarum, a man of some weight, who
soon after became Bishop of Bath and Wells ; Henry de
Bishopston, a learned man and a scholar, should also be re
membered, and, if Leland could be credited, we should need
to add another member to this group, and find in Robert Hilcot,
of Sarum, the author of the "Philobiblon" so generally attri
buted to Richard de Bury.
After Bishop Poore was translated to Durham, his three suc
cessors, Bishops Robert Bingham (1229-1246), William of
York (1247-1256), and Giles of Bridport (1257-1262), con
tinued the works of the new building with great energy. In
1258 it was consecrated — some accounts say by Bishop Giles of
Bridport, "who covered the roof throughout with lead," but
more probably by Boniface of Savoy, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Henry III. and his queen were present at the consecration ;
and as indulgences of a year and forty days were offered to all
who should be present during the octave of the dedication, vast

History of the Cathedral., 1 1
crowds visited it. It was not entirely completed according to
a note in a Book of Statutes, until 1266, and it has been said
that with all our modern appliances we could hardly shorten the
forty-six years it occupied. The cost of the whole building,
according to ancient authority, was about 40,000 marks, equal
to ;jf 26,666 \y. 4d., of the money of that day, and probably
equivalent roughly to half a million in our own time. Among
many benefactors, one. Lady Alicia Bruere, who according to
Leland contributed the marble and stone for twelve years,
deserves to be mentioned. The cloisters and chapter house
were not commenced until the episcopate of Bishop Walter de
la Wyle (1263-1271) and possibly not completed until some ten
years later. From the will of Robert de Careville, the treasurer
in 1267, we find that there were seven altars in the church at this
date ; he bequeathed seven pounds to provide fourteen silver
phials (each bearing a representation of three keys) in order that
each altar might have two. The erection of the spire, evidently
not included in the original plan, is often erroneously assigned to
Wyville (1336-1375), who certainly completed the wall of the
close, and enlarged the cloisters. The King granted him a
charter for this purpose, and also gave him the stones of the
old Cathedral, many of which, with the Norman work upon
them, may be seen plainly at the present time. (See p. 22.)
It is interesting to note that not only is Salisbury the most
complete example of its period in this country, but is also the
first important building carried out entirely in the style we now
know as early English. Henry III. is believed to have been so
enthusiastic in his admiration of Bishop Poore's new Cathedral
that he set about the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey, which
was commenced in 1245 and completed in 1269, as far as the
east end of the choir. The early EngUsh work at Salisbury has a
certain poverty of detail when compared with Westminster, and
the "Angel Choir" of Lincoln undoubtedly surpasses both;
yet the effect of Salisbury has a character of its own and a purity
in its ornament that is in itself a distinction. The Cathedral of
Amiens, of exactly the same date, covers 71,000 square feet,
Salisbury but 55,000; the vault of Amiens is 152 feet high,
Salisbury only 85 ; but, as Fergusson observes in his " Handbook
of Architecture," the fair mode of comparison is to ask whether
the Cathedral of Amiens is finer than Salisbury would be if the
latter were at least twice as large as it is.

12 Salisbury Catliedral.
There has long been a tradition that Elias de Dereham was
the architect of this stately pile, and the information gathered
together by the Rev. J. A. Bennet, in a paper read before the
British Archseological Association at Salisbury on August 5th,
1SS7, certainly does much to strengthen the belief. From this
account, and other sources, we find that Elias de Derham
is first mentioned in the Rot. Chartarum, Ap. 6 (6 John, 1208) ?
where he is described as one of the King's clerks and Rector of
Meauton. In 1206 he appears to have been a royal official.
In 1209 he is reported to have been the architect for the repairs
of King John's palace at Westminster. In 12 12 he attached
himself to the opposite party, but was taken again into the
King's favour in the following year, ^^'e have specially inter
esting notice of his work in 1220, when he was engaged upon
the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury. Matthew Paris,'in his
account of the translation of St. Thomas, distinctly states that
the shrine was the work of that incomparable officer, Walter de
Colchester, Sacrist of St. Albans, assisted by Elias de Dereham,
Canon of Salisbury. Leland mentions, in an extract from an
old " Martyrologie " of Salisbury, that he was rector — or director
— of the new church for twenty-five years from the beginning,
whether he means architect or clerk of the works is not so
clear. His name, as one of the Canons of the Cathedral,
occurs eleven times in the "Osmund Register " at Salisbury.
There are also references to him in the " Book of Evidences "
(I-iber Evidentiarum) among the bishop's muniments, as the
builder of the original Aula Plumbea — Leden-hall — a famous
old house in the close. The document is entitled " Scriptura de
domibusde Leden-hall per Eliamde Dereham sumptiioseconsii'iictis"
" a deed concerning the house called Leden-hall, built at great
expense by Elias de Dereham." This residence house remained
six centuries after in the gift of the Bishop of Sarum.
During the year in which he accompanied Bishop Poore
in his translation to Durham, and from 1230 to 1238, he was
employed upon some architectural work connected with Durham
Cathedral, which, when Bishop Poore accepted it was a stately
Norman fane with an apsidal choir ; he removed this east end,
and remodelled it in the early English manner. The chapel of
the Nine Altars, as this portion is called, is remarkably similar
in its details to much of the work at Salisbury. It is curious
that two southern churches so near as SaHsbury and Christ-

History of the Cathedral. 1 3
church Priory should be found influencing or influenced by the
great northern cathedral, but the likeness between Flambard's
Norman work at Christchurch and the same bishop's work at
Durham is as strongly marked as the Early English of Bishop
Poore at both the churches in which he was enthroned. That
Elias de Dereham is responsible for much of the work of both
cathedrals is also a fair assumption. Curiously enough his
name, hitherto hastily assumed to be equivalent to Elias of
Durham, has probably no connection with that city ; whether,
however, his patronym should be traced to the Norfolk Dere
ham, or the Gloucester Dyrham, it is impossible to say with
any certainty. On somewhat insufficient grounds it has been
hazarded that his portrait may be found in a figure on the east
side of the staircase buttress of what was formerly the great
entrance to Wells Cathedral.
Owing to the fact that the original design of the building
was fully carried out, with the addition of a tower and spire, its
architectural history ceases just where most others begin their
chequered career. At the time of the Reformation it suffered
but little, except in the wholesale destruction of its stained
glass. Dr. Pope, in his " Life of Bishop Ward," says that
even during the Civil War, when it was abandoned, workmen
were engaged to keep it in repair, who when questioned as to
the authority by which they worked, said, " Those who em-
ploy'd us will pay us ; trouble not your selves to inquire who
they are. Whoever they are, they do not desire to have their
names known." We find as evidence of the secret influence
exerted in its behalf that when one of Waller's officers sent up
to the Parliament certain plate and a pulpit cloth from Salisbury
Cathedral, he was ordered to restore them, as it was considered
that he had overstepped his commission ; all that was retained
being certain copes, hangings, and a picture of the Virgin.
At the Restoration, Bishop Ward, after a great thunderstorm
in 1668, when fears were entertained for the safety of the spire,
called in Sir Christopher Wren, who, after examining the tower,
expressed his belief " that a spire was not contemplated by its
builders;" that "out of fear to overburden the four piers of the
tower, its inside was carried for 40 feet above the. nave with a
slender hollow work of pillars and arches, nor hath it any but
tresses ; the spire itself is but 9 inches thick, though the height
be above 150 feet." This work of pillars and arches led him to

14 Salisbury Catliedral.
conclude that the architect laid his first floor of timber 40 feet
higher than the vault beneath.
Dr. Walter Pope, in his " Life of Bishop Seth Ward," 1697,
describes the restorations accomplished by this excellent pre
late : " There being, therefore, not much to be done as to re
paration, he employ'd himself in the Decoration of the Cathe
dral : First, at his proper charges Paving the Cloyster. I mean
that side of it which leads out of his garden into the church.
At his exhortation, and more than proportinable (sic) expence
the Pavement of the Church was mended where it was faulty,
and the whole Quire laid with white and black squares of
marble. The Bishops, Deans, and all the Prebendaries Stalls
made New & Magnificent, and the whole church was kept so
clean, that anyone who had occasion for Dust to throw on the
Superscription of a Letter, he would have a hard task to find
it there  His next care was to repair, I might almost say
rebuild his Palace, which was much ruined, the Hall being
pulled down, & the Greater part of the House converted to an
Inn .... what remained of the Palace was divided into small
Tenements and let out to poor Handicraft-men. This dilapi
dation was the work of one Van Ling, a Dutchman, by trade a
Taylor, who bought it of Parliament when Bishop's lands were
exposed to sale."
In the minutes of the chapter for August 26th, 1789, we find
instruction given to Wyatt "to make new Canopies to the
Stalls, to build a new Pulpit and Bishop's Throne, to put new
Iron Rails to the Communion, with coping thereon, and set
new blue stone steps to receive the same, to put two Wainscot
Screens across the Aisles, to lay blue stone paving in the Lady
Chapel, in squares to be cut out of the old gravestones, and
enrich the side walls according to the drawings, to clean and
colour the church from the East end of the Transept, and make
the Screen to the Western Side of the organ." They also ordered
" the beam in the choir to be removed, the North and South
Porches to be taken down, the south door near the Verger's
house stopped up, and another opened near the Chapter Vestry,
to open out the Chapel in the great North and South Transepts,
and to convert the north-east transept into a morning chapel,
to remove certain monuments in consequence of alterations in
St. Mary's Chapel, & to take down the Beauchamp & Hunger-
ford Chapels, on the plea that they were in a state as to greatly

History of the Cathedral. 1 5
exceed any ordinary or possible means of repair." These
formal instructions were not merely obeyed but exceeded, and
the deinolitions of that time confront the student of the build
ing in all his researches. Of late years many minor alterations
have been carried out, with a view to restore monuments to
their original site, and, as far as possible, to obliterate Wyatt's
damage ; but the two superb chantries, the bell tower, the
painted glass, and many other important features are hope
lessly effaced, and the cathedral, spared by its avowed foes, has
met with its greatest disaster from the hands of former guardians.
For the last thirty years the work of restoration has been
gradually carried on until its recent completion. An arrange
ment was made in 1862 by which the Ecclesiastical Commis
sioners permitted the Dean and Chapter to spend ^10,000 on
the building, as part of a payment in lieu of transfer of their
property. Sir G. Gilbert Scott had control of the restoration.
Owing to the necessary work proving far" more costly than the
sum allowed was able to effect, a public meeting was held, sub
scriptions were started, and ultimately sufficient money raised
to repair thoroughly the exterior of the building. The tower
and spire were strengthened by an ingenious system of iron ties
planned by Mr. Shields, the well-known engineer. The west
front was restored, and more than sixty statues placed in its
vacant niches. In the interior the Lady Chapel was restored,
and its floor laid with encaustic tiles from the designs of
ancient examples in various parts of the cathedral. The walls
were cleaned, and the paintings of the roof reproduced by
Messrs. Clayton and Bell. The choir was restored in memory
of Bishop Hamilton, and the old choir stalls cleared. The organ-
screen built by Wyatt out of fragments of the Hungerford and
Beauchamp chapels was removed. Throughout the building the
Purbeck marble shafts have been most carefully preserved and
repolished. Besides this much decorative work of various sorts,
including some excellent examples of modern stained glass
and metal work, has been added from time to time. At pre
sent the interior has less obvious evidence of age than any
other English building of its date, but for this the modern
restorer is not entirely responsible, as Wyatt rendered much
alteration needful, and the design of the work has, as we have
remarked elsewhere, a curiously modern quality in its finish
and symmetry which is apt to mislead a casual observer.

1 6 Salisbury Cathedral.

THE CATHEDRAL— EXTERIOR.

'ALIS BURY stands alone among English cathe
drals for unity of design. To own its possession of
this quality, which is undoubtedly both the earliest
and the most mature impression the cathedral im
parts, is by no means equivalent to unqualified
praise. There are buildings of equal and less im
portance, whence illustrations might be taken for a complete
history of every period of Gothic architecture; here the examples
would be limited not only to one style, but if we except the
upper stories of the tower and its spire, the cloisters, and a few
minor additions, to a very restricted use of Early English, as it
was practised from a.d. 1220 to 1258.
Another uncommon feature not so apparent at first sight,
but yet almost, if not quite as rare, is that the present building
was erected on a virgin site. It is hard to find a mediaeval
church of any importance in England that is not only upon
the self-same site, but more often in part upon the actual
foundation of an earlier edifice. Consistency is the especial
character of Salisbury, and now, owing to Wyatt's iconoclastic
destruction of the two later chapels at its east end, we have
in Salisbury "the most typical English cathedral," which is
also our most complete example of Early English.
That this artistic unity is as interesting as a design subse
quently modified by other influences, may be an open question.
There a,re those who think Salisbury "faultily faultless, icily
regular, splendidly null," yet they would hardly dare to, continue
the quotation and say it was " dead perfection, no more." Even
at a time when mediaeval art was not generally appreciated in
England, this cathedral won admiration from chance visitors
such as Evelyn, who saw it in July, 1654, and pronounced it

Exterior. 1 7
"the completest Gothic work in Europe." Pepys, who also
left his impressions of it, says: "The minster most admirable,
as big I think and handsomer than Westminster, and a most
large close about it and ofifices for the officers thereof, and a fine
palace for the bishop." In later times Motley, the historian,
thought it " too neat." Henry James calls it "a blonde beauty
among churches," and even hints that it is a little banal.
Another American critic, Mrs. Van Rensselaer, in a sympathetic
study of the cathedral which appeared in "The Century
Magazine," says : " If we think it feeble, it will be because we
cannot see strength where it has been brought to perfect poise
and ease. If our verdict is ' banal,' it will be because we
cannot tell the commonplace from the simply and exactly
right, or we do not know how rare the latter is — because we long
for eccentricity as a proof of personality, and need what the
French call emphase to impress us ; there is no over-emphasis
about Salisbury, neither in its effect as a whole, nor in any of its
parts, neither in its design, nor in its treatment. But just in
this fact lies its greatest merit, and just by reason of this fact,
joined to its mighty size and its exceptional unity, it is in
tensely individual, personal, distinct from all other churches in
the world."
Dean Stanley, in comparing it with Westminster Abbey,
hardly overpraised it in saying : " Salisbury is all-glorious
without, Westminster is all-glorious within." Canon Venables
considers it "as an architectural composition, more especially
as seen from the outside, the most perfectly designed building
in the world." Elsewhere he speaks of it as "presenting none
of those architectural problems so baffling and perplexing at
Canterbury, Lichfield, or Lincoln." Its appearance from a
distance has been the theme of poets, and a favourite subject
for artists. Constable especially delighted to paint it. Among
several of his different versions of the theme, the view from the
meadows (with the rainbow), made popular by Lucas' mezzo
tint, is perhaps the best known.
Studying the building more closely one feels it is not acci
dent that gives to it its peculiar charm, but pre-arranged
design ; the idea of one conception carried to its logical com
pletion. This striking unity (despite the afterthought of the
spire) certainly helps to impart an air of modernity to the
building, that is lacking in far less ancient work, for oddly
c

1 8 Salisbmy Cathedral.
enough it is often the decaying features of the latest decorated
style that impress the vulgar by their apparent age. The ex
treme care in the masonry has imparted a machine-like finish.
As Professor Willis wrote : " The regularity of the size of the
stones is astonishing. As soon as they had finished one part,
they copied it exactly in the next, even though the additional
expense was considerable. The masonry runs in even bands,
and you may follow it from the south transept, eastward, round
to the north transept, after which they have not taken such
great pains in their regularity. It is almost impossible to dis
tinguish where they could have left off, for it is hardly to be
supposed they could have gone on with all at the same
time." If at first sight this regular and symmetrical detail offers a
suspicion of mere mechanism, yet it is no less evident that
after longer study the charms of this exquisite structure tell with
a lasting power. Too subtle to extort admiration at first, it
bewitches a student of architecture who notes the scholarly
reticence of its detail, the masterly way in which, as a rule, the
construction is legitimately ornamented and the decoration
made an integral part of the whole design.
The Tcwer, with its famous spire, needs no apologist
to justify its claim to be considered the most beautiful, not
merely in England, but in Europe. From the time Leland
naively wrote, " the tower of stone and the high pyramis of
stone on it is a noble and memorable ' peace ' of work," every
critic of the cathedral praises the tower unreservedly, although
Defoe was anxious to improve it, for he said : " The beauty
of it is hurt by a thing easily to be remedied, which is this.
The glass in the several windows being very old, has con
tracted such a rust, that it is scarcely to be distinguished
from the stone walls ; consequently, it appears as if there were
no lights at all in the tower, but only recesses in the stone,
whereas could the windows be glazed with squares and kept
clean, which might be done, they would be plainly visible at a
distance, and not only so, but from the adjacent hills you
would see the light quite through the tower, which would have
a very fine effect." It is curious to remember that perfectly as
it accords with the rest of the pile, so that it seems the very
central motive of the whole scheme, yet it is really an addi
tion. Like the touch of genius which by one word changes

SALISBURY CATHEDRAL AND BELL TOWER.
From an old Engraving.

Exterior. 2 1
a good poem to a flawless lyric, so the creator of this crown
to an already beautiful building by his final touch seems to
have imparted additional beauty to that which already existed.
The first idea was doubtless to add a lantern after the style of
Ely, or at most a wooden spire. That the lower part of the tower
is part of the original design, and intended to be open to the
church, is proved by the presence of a series of detached Purbeck
marble columns in the style of the rest of the internal masonry,
which, hidden by the groining, or half-concealed by later
masonry, were obviously meant to be part of the decoration of
the interior, but again, the original plan of the tower made
no provision for the huge weight of a stone spire. Indeed, it
is quite doubtful if in its first state it was able to support itself,
for curiously designed abutments are built in the triforium and
clerestory of the nave, choir, or transepts on each of its four
sides. The stonework of these is Early English, which if
slightly later than the first story of the tower, is yet con
siderably earlier than its two upper stories. Notwithstanding
the faulty construction that needed additional work so soon
after it was erected, about fifty years later a daring architect
super-imposed two stories, and adde'd the lofty spire, which still
stands, despite an early settlement which deflected it 23 inches
out of the perpendicular. But its stability can hardly be reckoned
a tribute to the judgment of the architect, for many times since
complex arrangements of iron bands and ties have been added
to ward off such a disaster as that which lost Chichester
its spire in 1861, and has caused many others to be rebuilt
from the very foundations. By a report of Sir Christopher Wren
made in the time of Bishop Seth Ward, two hundred years ago,
it is evident that in his time the deflection was not increas
ing, nor do quite recent observations show any reason for
serious anxiety. This haunting fear, however, has led to
curiously precise experiments for ascertaining the state of the
spire. Francis Price, at the end of the last century, describes
many of these, especially one carried out in the presence of
the bishop, on July 18th, 1717 ; he also iflustrates an elaborate
system of additional bands and ties in his time. During the
restorations that were begun in 1863, a further arrangement of
iron bands, planned by Mr. Shields, the engineer, was intro
duced into the lantern story of the tower.
Parker, in his "Glossary," believes the date of the spire to

22 Salisbury Cathedral.
be about 1300; other authorities fix it thirty years latc"
Certain deeds in the " Book of Evidences " preserved among
the Cathedral muniments show that in 1326 Edward III.
granted a hcense for surrounding the close with a wall, and in
1331 authorized the bishop and canons to use the stones of the
church of Old Sarum for that purpose. But against the theory
that the material thus obtained was used in the tower also,
there is the patent fact that while on many stones in the wall
there are traces of Norman mouldings and other evidence of
former use, neither in the tower nor spire do the stones betray
any such origin. Modern antiquaries are wellnigh agreed
upon the earlier dates ; for in the Capitular Register, begun in
1329, there is no mention of the spire, which could hardly
have escaped record had so important a work been then in
progress. In support of this theory it is urged that from 1258
to 1297 the deans were men who took great interest in the
fabric and are entered in its calendar of benefactors. Three
of these became successively Bishops of Salisbury. But the
deans who were appointed after 1297 were chiefly foreigners,
several being cardinals and relatives of the Pope, whose duties
elsewhere would have left them little but a purely temporal
interest in the building. One of them, Peter of Savoy, was in
conflict with his bishop, and evaded an episcopal admonition
ordering him to residence.
Bishop Godvi'in, in his " Catalogue of Bishops," notes that in
1258 the cathedral was rehallowed by Boniface, Archbishop of
Canterbury, and this fact is the basis of most of the argu
ment for the earlier date of the spire, the completion of
which, according to some, could alone have justified the
ceremony. Remembering that Winchester had lost its central tower,
which fell in x 107, we can understand the reasons which induced
the original architect to distrust a spire, and to adopt a
lantern in its place. If, however, rimidity delayed it at first,
when it was undertaken, its builder left it not only the most
lofty in England then and since, but in actual effect the most
lofty in the world. This is claimed in spite of its 404 feet
being exceeded by Amiens (422 feet), and Strasburg (488 feet),
and although it might appear special pleading to urge such a
theory against contradictory facts, yet since at Amiens the nave
roof is 208 feet high, against the 115 feet of Salisbury, it is

Exterior. 2 3
obvious that the apparent height of the latter exceeds its French
rival. At Strasburg the excess of elaboration in the ornament
is detrimental to the effect of height, and the same may be said
of Antwerp or Mechlin, where the whole effect is not so much
that of a spire, as of an elaborately fretted finial, insubstantial
if exquisite in itself, but merely an added ornament, not appear
ing part of the solid structure.
Despite the somewhat ornate details of the upper stories and
spire, they accord well with the rest of the building, and, although
typical Early Decorated of the time of Edward IIL, fail to
clash with the more severe Early English work. These two
stories have elaborately canopied arcades running round them,
the windows being pierced through two of the arches on each
fagade and not emphasized by any special treatment. Above
each story is a traceried parapet of lozenge decoration, the
same design being repeated in the two bands that encircle the
spire itself. At each of the four angles of the tower is an
octagonal turret with crocketed spire. Amid a coronet of
decorated finials the great octagonal spire grows naturally with
no abrupt revelation of its change of plan. The whole cresting
of the tower, and the perfectly natural way in which its lines
continue easily into the graceful spire itself, are triumphs of
successful design. The silhouette of the mass against the sky
so precisely reaches the ideal effect that it is difficult to restrain
oneself to sober criticism in describing it, yet the result is
achieved so naturally that until we compare it with others,
especially with modern ones, we hardly do justice to the subtle
beauty that gives it a right to the supremacy it has won. The
timber framework erected as a scaffold during the progress of
the building still remains inside the spire and helps to impart
strength to it ; those curious in such matters will find a mass
of information and many plans and drawings of its internal
construction in Francis Price's "Antiquities of Salisbury, 1774."
In 1762, during the progress of some repairs to the capstone
and the addition of a new copper vane, the workmen discovered
a wooden box, and inside it a round leaden one 5^ inches in
diameter and 2^ inches deep, which contained a piece of woven
fabric' This was conjectured to be a relic of the Virgin Mary,
the patron saint of the church, which had been deposited
there to guard the lofty spire from danger by lightning or
tempest. When tested on the 6ooth anniversary of the
' This was carefully replaced in its original position inclosed in a copper
cylinder.

24 Salisbury Cathedral.
building the spire showed, it is said, no further deflection from
that registered two centuries earlier. Consequently the settle
ment in the two western piers being so long at a standstill,
and the repeated additions of metal work to strengthen the
spire being apparently entirely successful, there seemed no
reason to doubt but that in the natural course of events it
would remain for many centuries a landmark to its neigh
bourhood and one of the greatest triumphs of English
mediaeval workmanship.' Richard de Farley, a Wiltshire man,
is supposed to have been the architect of the spire ; that his
artistic instinct was right is evident to-day, but his engineering
foresight seems less certain, as in all probability the settlement
began almost immediately after the erection. Indeed it is said
that the efforts to obtain the canonization of Osmund were
started in 1387 to increase the popularity of the cathedral as a
place of pilgrimage, and thereby to augtnent its revenue, so
that funds might be forthcoming for the additional work needed
to support the tower. Frequent references to miracles at his
shrine show that the saint was popularly adored long before
his canonization in 1456. A local superstition says the tower
was builded on woolpacks. According to Phny's account, the
temple of Diana of Ephesus was made firm with coats or fleeces
of wool ; but it is inconceivable that bags of wool were em
ployed in either case for the foundation. ' At Rouen in Nor
mandy a similar legend refers to butter as the foundation of one
of the western towers, which tradition, absurd though it be,
supphes the idea of a butter tax, which in turn suggests a wool
tax, that in such a district as this would have been naturally a
profitable source of revenue.
Probably because of the early trouble with the foundation of
the great tower, there was from the first no intention of making
it a belfry. Even before the spire was decided upon, the oscilla- .
tion of a mass of swaying bells was obviously too dangerous to be
seriously considered. A special campanile, as at Chichester,
was therefore built at the north west corner of the close. Its
style was evidently similar to that of the cloisters and the chapter
house. Multangular in form, an early historian calls it, but the
engravings still existing show it to have been a somewhat ordinary
specimen of Early English design. Its special feature was a single
central pillar of Purbeck marble that supported the weight of the
bells and belfry. The spire was doubtless of wood, and, appa-
' Recently, however, anxiety has been again aroused, and the spire has
been once more strengthened.

Exterior. 25
rently, the upper lantern-like tower also.' Although its destruc
tion is not ordered in the official document wherein the Chapter
gave Wyatt authority to do so much mischief, on some pretext,
probably his craze for what he called " vistas," it was demolished
in the terrible destruction of 1789, opening up a view of the
Cathedral that was entirely unnecessary, and wilfully destroying
a feature of the close that could ill be spared.
The custom of climbing the spire during the Whitsun fair, to
which Francis Price, in a naive description, attributes much
damage to the leadwork of the roofs, has only ceased in recent
times, some sixty or seventy years ago. Arnold, a watch
maker, wound up his watch while leaning actually against the
vane. When a lad, during a royal visit, stood on his head on
the capstone, George III. refused to reward him, saying that he
was bound to provide for the lives of his people. On June 26th,
1741, the timber braces of the spire were found to be on fire.
According to Francis Price, " there was, about ten o'clock the
night before in a very great storm, a particular flash of lightning
observed by many of the inhabitants to strike against the tower
with a sort of smacking noise, and then to have been lost. . . It
may well be Called dreadful since, had it continued half an hour
longer, all the assistance on earth could not have prevented the
total destruction of the pile."
The West Front of the Cathedral was, beyond doubt,
the last portion of the original design to be carried out, for
among its details the ball-flower, a typical feature of the
decorated style, frequently occurs. The governing idea of its
fa9ade is indefensible. Not merely because in common with
Wells, Lincoln, and other churches, it does not emphasize the
construction of the nave and aisles, and hides them by a screen,
but because the screen itself poses as an integral part of the
building. Even considered solely as an architectural composi
tion, without regard to the building it professes to decorate
rather than hide, it is hardly good. The two western towers it
unites are, in themselves, not sufficiently important in com
parison with the rest of the edifice; in fact, they are little more
than finials to the screen. In many similar structures the unity
of effect gained at the expense of theoretical consistency justi
fies the departure ; here it is merely a huge surface adapted to
display a great number of statues. Rich as it appears now that
its long empty niches are again repeopled, it is of no remarkable
^ This lantern story was removed in 1757 by order of the Dean and
Chapter.

26 Salisbury Cathedral.
excellence either in mass or in detail. Its worst fault, how
ever, is that unlike Exeter, it does not content itself by frankly
assuming to be nothing more than a screen, but at first sight
appears to be the legitimate finish of the nave and aisles. A
recent critic, defending the fagade in spite of its architectural
isolation from the building in its rear, points out that the chief
objection to the west front is that it is wanting in that
repose and refinement of detail which characterize the rest
of the building, and that its design is entirely out of keeping
therewith, and also complains that " the ragged outline at the
angles produced by the high relief and rather clumsy sections of
the decorative detail has a very bad effect." It has been sug
gested that as from the position of the site there was never
a chance of the building being seen from a distance — owing to
the level country around it, the projection of the transepts
and the group of the whole pile could never tell out as they
would had it been on a hill, therefore the form chosen was
deliberately adopted to give a factitious importance to the west
front on its own merits. The continental builders with much
more lofty nave and aisles, and with their habit of making the
west door the principal entrance, were able, by enriching
its portal and decorating the natural divisions of the building,
to attain a stately form that honestly fulfilled its purpose ; here
the magnificence is secured by masking the low aisles of the
nave with a wall that is a mere theatrical adjunct, its simulated
windows and its stringcourses marking stories that do not
exist. Apart from theoretical criticism, it is not quite admir
able in itself; the three doorways are hardly of sufficient im
portance, the central window is somewhat larger than it should
be to accord with the scale of the whole fagade, while the
apparently built up windows above the genuine windows of
the nave aisles, whose roofs have their apex about on a level
with the sills of the large central lancets, are as much frauds
as any of those sham windows in symmetrical Renaissance
work, which so excite the ire of ardent champions of Gothic
purity. It consists of five bays, of which the lateral ones are square
turrets, covered with arcades, and terminated by sjjires. The
lower story of the central bay is composed of three pedimented
porches deeply recessed, each with a niche in its gable. Above
these is a story of canopied trefoiled arches, with quatre-

PORTALS OF THE WEST FRONT.
From a Photograph by S. B. Bolas and Co.

Exterior. 29
foil lozenges in their centres. Over this arcade is the large
west window, a triplet of lancets with slender shafts and chevron
ornament. Above this again is a band of quatrefoils at the foot
of the gable, which is filled with double couplets of lancets with
quatrefoils above their heads ; and in the upper spandrils is a
quatrefoiled aureole. The buttresses flanking this central bay
have similar arcading continued around them. The side bays
each have a triple porch, a two-lighted window with a quatre
foil in the head, with a window of the same form above it, and
higher still the arcading continued from the towers.
In 1863 the hundred and odd niches designed to contain
statues were either despoiled or had never been occupied, with
the exception of eight which held figures mutilated beyond
certain recognition. Mr. Cockerell conjectured that two on
the buttress of the south tower represented St. Peter and St.
John the Baptist, on that to the north St. Paul and St. John
the Evangelist, while a figure facing north on the same buttress
he believed to represent Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Can
terbury. Other figures are supposed to commemorate Bishop
Poore, William Longespee, 1st Earl of Salisbury, St. Stephen,
and Bishop Giles de Bridport.
A sketch by Hollar, dating from the beginning of the
seventeenth century, shows the niches completely filled ; and
Hatcher claims from this evidence that we are warranted in
assuming that the figures were destroyed by Ludlow's troopers
when he garrisoned the belfry. But such an assumption requires
many facts to support it which are not forthcoming. We have no
proof that Hollar's sketch was intended to be a literal transcript
of what he saw ; it is quite possible that for the sake of effect
he preferred to complete the design according to the supposed
intention of its builders. We are not certain that the niches were
all filled originally ; it is quite possible that some were purposely
left vacant for future benefactors. We know also that during
the Civil War the whole fabric of the Cathedral escaped serious
injuries. The Hyde family, powerful at that time, had friends
on both sides, and we find record of certain articles sent up to
Parliament by one of Waller's officers were ordered to be re
stored. On the other hand, the Visitation of Cathedrals, ordered
and undertaken during the reign of Edward VI., had especial
instructions to remove images. In addition to these objec
tions to attributing the destruction of the figures to the Ludlow

30 Salisbury Cathedral.
soldiers, there is also to be considered the natural decay of
carving exposed to the open air, which might reasonably ac
count for the dilapidation of a certain number.
However, whether wantonly destroyed or not, it is certain
that the present figures must be all regarded as modern, since
the eight actually left have been, with the exception of St.
John the Baptist, very much restored. Redfern, the well-
known sculptor, is responsible for the present statues. If not
possessing the vigour of the old work, which from fragments in
other parts of the building was certainly superior to these
modern additions, yet they are creditable in design and
scholarly in treatment.
The arrangement is probably in harmony with the original
scheme. It represents the orders of terrestrial and celestial
beings mentioned in the four verses of the hymn, " Te Deum
Laudamus." In " The Legend of Christian Art," by the Rev.
H. T. Armfield, Minor Canon of Salisbury (published in
1869), the symbolism and history of the whole design is given
at great length. Here it must suffice to quote a few of the
more salient points.
The statues are arranged in five horizontal lines from north
to south, exclusive of the figure in the " vesica," the oval above.
In the principal niches of the top row is a. tier of angels, below
this a tier of Old Testament patriarchs and prophets, then a
tier of doctors, virgins, and martyrs, and lowest of all a tier of
worthies, including princes, martyrs, bishops, and founders
connected with the diocese and the Cathedral.
The Vesica contains a figure of our Lord seated, known
technically as a " Majesty." In the tier of angels below, noting
them from left to right, are the celestial hierarchies. Seraphim,
Cherubim, and Thrones; Dominions, Powers, and Authori
ties ; Principalities, Archangels, Angels. The Old Testament
prophets are : David with the harp, Moses with the Tables of
the Law, Abraham with the knife, Noah with the ark, Samuel
with a sceptre, and Solomon with a church. The eight vacant
niches should contain figures of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Elijah, Melchi-
zedek, Enoch, Job, Daniel, and Jeremiah. The tier with the
Apostles observes this order : On the northern turret St. Jude
with a halberd, St. Simon Zelotes with a saw, St. Andrew
with the cross that bears his name, St. Thomas with a builder's
square ; on the north buttress St. Peter with the keys ; on the

DETAILS OF MAIN WEST PORTAL.
From a Drawing by H. P. Clifford.

Exterior. 3 1
southern buttress St. Paul with a sword (both these are
restorations of ancient figures) ; on the southern turret
St. James the Less with a club, St. James the Greater with a
pilgrim's staff, St. Bartholomew with the knife of his martyr
dom and St. Matthias with a lance.
The tier of the doctors, virgins, and martyrs, keeping to the
same order, shows : St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, with a
scourge in his right hand, and a bishop's staff in his left ;
St. Jerome in a cardinal's hat, with a church in his right hand
and a bible in his left ; St. Gregory in papal tiara, the legendary
club on his shield, his pastoral staff doubly crossed, and a
book, typical of his writings, on his left. On the smaller north
buttress, near the turret, is a restored figure removed from its
original place, which represents St. Augustine, wearing a bishop's
mitre, and holding his hand as in the act of benediction. On
the greater north buttress is the figure of St. Mary the Virgin,
to whom the church is dedicated. This figure is also re
stored. In the eleven niches over the central door are, with
their various symbols : St. Barbara, St. Catherine, St. Roche,
St. Nicholas, St. George of England, St. Christopher, St. Sebas
tian, St. Cosmo, St. Damian, St. Margaret, and St. Ursula.
On the greater south buttress is St. John the Baptist, and on
the lesser an old figure unrestored, supposed to represent
St. Bridget. On the southern turret are St. Mary, St. Agatha,
St. Agnes and St. Cecilia, each wearing the martyr's crown.
The tier of worthies comprises : Bishops Giles de Bridport
and Richard Poore, and King Henry III. as a founder.
Bishop Odo, with a wafer in his hand, commemorating the
legend of his miraculous proof of the transubstantiation of
the Blessed Sacrament ; St. Osmund, Bishop Brithwold, St.
Alban, St. Alphege, St. Edmund, and St. Thomas of
Canterbury. Another figure on the north side of the north-west turret, for
some time assumed to be St. Christopher, is now assigned to
St Birinus, or possibly with more truth to St. Nicholas, who
had an altar dedicated to him, " probably just at the back of
this spot."
On the apex of the west front is an ancient carving of a
bird on a scroll, which has puzzled many specialists. Mr.
Armfield believes it to be intended for a dove, the emblem of
the Holy Spirit, in a scroll to -typify The Word, and thus

32 Salisbury Cathedral.
with the " Majesty " near, to be a representation of the three
persons of the Trinity, in a mode in accordance with English
taste. The North Porch is a massive structure of two stories.
The upper, now used as- the dean's muniment room, has,
like a similar example at Christchurch, Hants, no certain
indication of its original use. Whether it was a dwelling for
sacristans, a school, or a library, was doubtful ; but later opinion
thinks it was unquestionably used by the sacristans, since it is
said that " the sub-treasurer of Sarum, who was usually one
of the vicars choral, pledged himself to see that the clerks
told off for given duties slept in the church in their accus
tomed places ; and for himself he promised that unless lawfully
excused, he would sleep each night in the treasury." Against
this theory, however, it might be urged that the muniment
room at the angle of the south-east transept is identified as
the ancient treasury.
This porch, sometimes called the Galilee, was possibly a
place where penitents met, and from which they were expelled
from the church on Ash-Wednesday until Maundy Thursday.
FJxternally, although of exquisite proportions, it has no very
important details, yet its pinnacles deserve notice ; but the
interior is very beautiful, the walls have sunk panelling, a base
arcade of foliated arches, and in the upper tier large foliated
circles with sub-arches, each comprising two trefoiled arches
with quatrefoil heads. Mr. G. E. Street, who thoroughly
appreciated this particular period of English Gothic as his
work at the New Law Courts proves, just before his death
restored this part of the cathedral admirably.
Another porch, formerly the entrance to the north transept,
removed by Wyatt for the most trivial reason, is now in tfie
grounds of the college which occupies the site of the secular
buildings belonging to the church of St. Edmund, founded in
1268. The Exterior of the Nave is simple, but with excellently
disposed features. The triple lancets of the clerestory occur
in pairs between flying buttresses with tall finials ; below these,
in the aisles, are two two-light windows, divided by lesser
buttresses terminating in gables.
The fronts of the main transepts show four stories, the two
lower being divided into three bays by buttresses, and flanked

Exterior.

33

by pinnacled buttresses at each
side. The doors that had a
ritual use have long since been
walled up both on the north and
south sides. A triplet window is
in the lower stage, three-light
windows with quatrefoil heads
occupying the second, while the
third has an arcade of six lancets
below a floriated circle flanked
by sunk panels and quatrefoils.
The windows in the gable con
sist of two lesser windows, two-
light, with quatrefoil heads, be
neath a large octofoil, the whole
grouped with blank panels at
the side, beneath a cinquefoil
moulding. The aisle has flying
buttresses reaching to the clere
story, and good angle-pinnacles.
The choir transept has no divid
ing buttresses, and a different
grouping of windows. In the
lower stage is a triple lancet ;
there is a group of three two-light
windows in the story above, and
in the upper one an arcade of
four lancets grouped under a
comprising arch with a quatre
foil in the head. The gable is
lighted by a triplet window
flanked with blind lancets, and
terminates in a cross.
The transepts differ slightly in
detail on their north and south
fronts. It has also been pointed
out that while in the one transept
the lancet form rules, in the other
the free employment of the circle
and the quatrefoil almost fore
shadows the Early Decorated

ONE BAY OF THE NAVE (EXTERIOR),
NORTH SIDE.

34 Salisbury Cathedral.
style. The windows of both are so singularly pure in design
and beautiful in proportion, that they have often been selected
as typical examples of the best work in their style.
The east front of the choir is flanked with square pinnacled
buttresses. Above the Lady Chapel isan arcade with five members
pierced with three windows, and in the gable a similar arrange
ment of five lancets, three being windows, arranged in harmony
with the triangular space it fills. The flying buttresses on the
south side were added by Bishop Beauchamp in 1450-58.
The east front of the Lady Chapel is divided by buttresses into
three bays, and has crocketed gables to, each. The aisles show a
lancet in the lower story, with a blind couplet beneath a quatrefoil
in the gable; the central compartment has a triplet in each story.
The south side corresponds in character to the north, but is
partly hidden by the chapter house, the muniment room, the
library, and cloisters. The walls of the latter are high, and the
quadrangle they inclose entirely separated from the building,
the long narrow space between being known as the Plumbery.
Many consecration crosses of beautiful design are to be found
on the building marking the spots touched by the oil of unction
at the dedication of the edifice. (See initial letter, page i.)
The cathedral is built of freestone from the Chilmark quarries
twelve miles distant, with a lavish use of Purbeck marble in its
interior. The grey colour of the leaden roofs and the pure
unstained tone of its walls, impart a quasi-modern aspect to it,
which, no matter how little justified by facts, always presents
Salisbury to one's mind, as a late addition to the superb array
of English churches; yet considering that as we see it from
the Close no portion (except possibly the spire) later than the
twelfth century comes into the picture, there is no other
cathedral that so little justifies such an impression, and one
cannot escape a return to the first reason advanced, namely,
that its singular unity has given it an aspect of perpetual
youth.

THE CHOIR SCREEN.
From a Photograph by Carl Norman and Co.

Interior.

37

THE INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL AND
CHAPTER HOUSE.

. HE ground plan of Salisl;)ury is a well-
proportioned double cross with the
arms, of the choir transepts, more im
portant than usual. Indeed, the exqui
sitely proportioned and balanced sym
metry of every portion, as of the whole,
which almost places Salisbury among
classic buildings, is as marked in iis
ground plan as in any part of the build
ing. As an appreciative student of the
building has written: "This is the great beauty of Sahsbury,
the composition of its mighty body as a whole. So finely pro
portioned and arranged are its square masses of different
heights and sizes, so splendid are the broad effects of light and
shadow they produce, so appropriate is the slant of the roof
lines, and so nicely placed and gracefully shaped are the simple
windows, that for once we can give no thought of regret either
to the circling apses of continental lands or the rich traceries
and surface carvings and figures — sculptures of later genera
tions. The whole effect is in the strictest sense architectural.
Few large buildings teach so clearly the great lesson that beauty
in a building depends first of all upon composition, not deco
ration ; upon masses, not details ; upon the use and shaping,
not the ornamentation of features ; and very few show half so
plainly that mediaeval architects could realize this fact. We
are too apt to think that Gothic art cannot be individual with
out being eccentric, or interesting without being heterogeneous
.... but Salisbury is both grand and lovely, and yet it is

38

Salisbury Cathedral.

quiet, rational, and all of a piece, clear and smooth, and
refined to the point of utmost purity. No building in the
world is more logical, more lucid in expression, more restful
to the mind and eye." '
The number of its pillars, windows, and doorways is sa'id to
equal the hours, days, and months of the year; hence the local

THE NAVE, LOOKING WF,ST.
From a Photograph by Alessrs. Poulton.
rhyme, attributed, on the authority of Godwin, to a certain
Daniel Rogers :
"As many days as in one year there be.
So many windows in this church we see ;
As many marble pillars here appear
As there are hours throughout the fleeting year ;
As many gates as moons one year does view —
Strange tale to tell ! yet not more strange than true."
Fuller, speaking of these, by a curious lapse falls into the
vulgar error of believing Purbeck marble to be an artificial product

"The Century Magazine," March, li

Interior. 39
melted and poured into moulds, says : " The cathedral is
paramount of its kind, wherein the doors and chapels equal
the months, the windows the days, the pillars and pillarets of
fusile marble (an ancient art now shrewdly suspected to be
lost) the hours of the year ; so that all Europe affords not such
an almanac of architecture. Once walking in this church
(whereof then I was prebendary) I met a countryman wonder
ing at the structure thereof. 'I once,' said he to me, 'ad
mired that there could be a church that should have so many
pillars as there be hours in the year, and now I admire more,
that there should be so many hours in the year as I see pillars
in this church.' "
The Na've. — The first glimpse as we enter by the west door
is undoubtedly impressive, notwithstanding the absence of
colour and the lack of mystery for which the complete vista
obtained at such a cruel cost by Wyatt is insufficient compensa
tion. The whole scheme of decoration in its pristine state must
have been extremely beautiful. " If you can imagine it with the
walls and piers exhibiting strong contrasts of colour in the dark
and polished Purbeck shafts and the lighter freestones, the
arches picked out with colours, the groining elaborately deco
rated, and the whole lighted by brilliantly painted windows
with a preponderance of dark blue and ruby, together with a
flood of white light showing through the lancet of the centre,
we may be allowed a doubt whether Tintern or York could
have compared with it." Add to this picture the movable
hangings and decorations of its many altars, and we cannot
honestly attribute the coldness of the present effect to any
fault in the original design. Elsewhere this austerity of mono
chrome is modified to a great extent by the variety (ana
chronisms though they be) of later architectural insertions.
Salisbury, through the very purity of its design, especially
suffers from its translation from chromatic harmony to mono
tone, for although possibly the architectural details are thereby
rendered more apparent, yet the exaggeration of what is after
all but the skeleton of the building, destroys the effect of the
whole as its architect imagined it.
Clustered columns of unpolished Purbeck marble on a
quatrefoil plan, with smaller detached shafts of lustrous marble
at the cardinal points, support, on either side, the ten great
arches of the first story of the nave. These polished shafts are

40

Salisbury Cathedral.

ML N.'-E— SOUTH SIDE.

generally in two pieces, with a
brass ring covering the joint ;
Francis Price discusses, at
great length, this constant
feature of the whole building,
and points out, that although
most of the shafts were pro
bably not in place until after
the masonry was fairly set, yet
frequently subsequent settle
ment has crushed them ; al
though, in the nave, the main
piers in small blocks laid ac
cording to the natural bed of
the stone, are still perfectly
sound. The large arches are
gracefully moulded with masses
of carved foliage at the inter
sections. In the nave of this cathedral
we have a very uncommon
feature in the connected base
of the main columns, which
was doubtless introduced to
aid in distributing the weight
over a larger surface, and so
to overcome the treacherous
character of the foundation.
The triforium, which, from
its style, naturally suggests
comparison with Westminster,
and the Angel Choir of Lin
coln, is simple, but extremely
bt.-'autiful. Each of its rather
flat-pointed arches, equalling
in span that of the main arch'
below, is subdivided into
pairs, which again each inclose
two smaller ones. These are
decorated with trefoils and
quatrefoils, alternately with

Interior.

41

cinquefoils and octofoils. Immediately above the carving,
at the intersection of the main arches, is a corbelled head, from
which rises a triple vaulting-shaft with foliated capitals, on a
line with the base of the clerestory. This upper story has, in
each bay of the vaulting, simple lancet windows grouped in
threes. The arches here, as in almost every, instance through
out the building, are
supported by Purbeck
marble shafts. The nave
aisles are lighted by
double lancet -windows
in each bay. The most
noticeable feature of
these aisles is the stone
bench which extends the
whole length of the build
ing on both the north
and south sides.
The west wall is pa
nelled in three main
arches, with an upper
story reaching to the
height of the triforium
base, and containing an
arcade of four arches,
subdivided each into two
smaller trefoiled ones,
with cinquefoil heads.
Above these is the triplet
lancet of the great west
window. The effect of
the nave looking west
is clearly shown in the
photograph here reproduced.
Of the chapels and altars once existing we have records in
various documents. In the "Sarum Processional" twelve
altars are mentioned, dedicated respecrively to SS. Andrew,
Nicholas, John the Baptist, Margaret, Mary Magdalene, Lau
rence, Michael, Martin, Catherine, Edward, Edmund the King,
and Edmund, Archbishop of Canteibury. The sites of these
so far as they can be traced appears to have been : St. Cathe-

NORTH AISLE.

42 Salisbury Cathedral.
rine and St. Martin in the north choir transept, St. Nicholas
and St. Mary Magdalene in the south, and St. Edmund of
Canterbury and St. Margaret respectively in the north and
south great transepts.
Throughout the nave it is evident that the first plans were
rigidly obeyed, although the severity of the eariy years of the style

NAVE TRANSEPT.
had become much modified before the work was finished. The
absence of ornate decoration, the simplicity of the moulding-:,
and the plate-tracery of the triforium all indicate the first period
of " Eariy English."
The dimensions of the nave are: 229 feet 6 inches long, 82
feet wide, and 81 feet high. The aisles are 17 feet 6 inches
wide, and 39 feet 9 inches high.
The Nave Transepts are in three stories, with eastern

Interior. 43
aisles divided into three bays. The screens inclosing chapels in
these were demolished by Wyatt. Above the entrances to the
great transepts are arches inserted by Bishop Beauchamp (1450-
1481) to withstand the side thrust of the great tower. These
are of perpendicular work, with their spandrils panelled
and their cornices battlemented, as shown in the engraving.
Canterbury and Wells, in a far more prominent fashion, have
similar features; in this instance the addition appears to have
succeeded in its purpose to insure the stability of the tovt'er.
In the choir transepts these additional features take the form
of an inverted arch, above the main arch. The vaulting of the
tower roof is also in the perpendicular style and shows excel
lent groined work. Both Sir Christopher Wren and Francis
Price, call its four main pillars the legs of the tower.
Of the transept Fuller says : " The cross aisle of this church
is the most beautiful and lightsome of any I have yet beheld.
The spire steeple (not founded on the ground, but for the
main supported by four pillars,) is of great height and greater
workmanship. I have been credibly informed that some
foreign artists beholding this building brake forth into tears,
which some imputed to their admiration (though I see not how
wondering could cause weeping) : others to their envy, grieving
that they had not the like in their own land."
Monuments in the Nave.' — The peculiar arrangements
of the ancient monuments in two long rows on the continuous
plinth that connects the bases of the pillars on each side of the
nave is another of Wyatt's freaks during his terrible innovations
in 1789. Not only did he sever the historical associations of
centuries by these arbitrary removals, but paid so little atten
tion to consistency that portions of monuments belonging to
entirely different periods were combined with curious re
sults, and remains transferred to other "receptacles" than those
designed for them. It is true that the effect of the present
arrangement is not entirely bad, but it was not worth achieving
at such a cost.
The first monument on the south side as we enter by the
great west door, is in memory of Thomas Lord Wyndham of
Finglass, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, (i) who died in 1745;
the marble figure of Hibernia which surmounts it is by Rys-
^ The numerals in brackets refer to the position of each monument as
shown on the plan.

44

Salisbury Cathedral.

brack. At the western base of the first south pillar is a Purbeck
marble slab, (2) coffin-shaped, probably the oldest monument
in the building. This is usually assigned to Bishop Herman,
whose tomb it is supposed to have covered in Old Sarum ; but
no evidence exists to support this theory. In the first place
his original burial-place is entirely unknown, and William de
Wanda, who chronicles minutely the removal of the bodies of
other bishops from the old cathedral, does not even mention
Herman's name.
The next (3) is an effigy of a bishop in full pontificals, also
believed to have been originally at Old
Sarum. The carving is rich, and the design
a fine example of the early Norman style.
The chasuble is decorated with stars, and
the dalmatic has a rich border. Elaborately
carved foliage, with birds, frames the figure,
which has its right hand raised in the attitude
of benediction, and grasps a pastoral staff
in the left. It is usually believed that it
commemorates Bishop Jocelin, who died in
1 1 84, and was probably removed from Old
Sarum at the translation of the bodies of the
three bishops. The head of the effigy is
evidently a much later restoration, probably,
from the style of the richly ornamented
mitre, about the time of Henry IIL or
Edward I. As the face is cleanly shaven,
while the seal of Bishop Joct^lin depicts him
as bearded, some antiquaries hold this monument to belong
to Bishop Roger, and assign to Bishop Jocelin the one formerly
attributed to Bishop Herman. If, however, differences of
opinion exist concerning the identity of these two effigies, they
are as nothing compared to the uncertainty regarding the next,
(4) which represents a bishop holding a pastoral staff. Down the
front of this cope are the words, " Affer opem devenies in
idem." Hatcher and Duke beUeve that it represents Bishop
Jocelin. Britton, Gough and Planche, prefer to think that it
commemorates Bishop Roger. Its inscription on the edge of
the slab runs :
"Flent hodie Salesberie quia decidit ensis
Justitic, pater ecclesice Salisberiensis

Interior. 45
Dum viguit, niiseros aluit, fastusque potentum
Non timuit, sed clava fuit terrorque nocentum
De Ducibus, de nobilibus primordia duxit
Principibuc, propeque tibi gemma reluxit."
A v3rsion given in the Wilts Archeo. Mag. vol. xvii. runs :
"They mourn to-day at Salesberie because there has fallen the
sword of justice, the Father of the Church of Salesberie. While
he lived he sustained the oppressed and wretched, and feared
not the arrogance of the powerful, but himself was the scourge
(literally, the club) and terror of the guilty. He traced his
ancestry from dukes and noble princes, who shone near thee as a
preciousgem." Anotheritem ofindirectevidence supplied by this
inscription is worth noting, namely, the "1 " in Sa/isberie. The
period when this letter superseded the "r" was about the time
of Jocelin's death. Only a single coin of Stephen's has the " 1."
To Bishop Roger reference is made on page loo, and it is '
evident that even the fulsome praise of an epitaph would hardly
go out of its way to describe him as "sprung from dukes and
noble princes." Planchd, despite this objection, does not deem
it convincing, as poor priests were often of noble fineage. If,
however, we assume it represents Bishop Jocelin, one of the
house of Bohun, a great Norman family, and compare the
effigy with the seal of that bishop, the later theory that deprives
Bishop Roger of this much discussed monument will probably
be chosen as the most acceptable. In a record at least three
centuries old his burial-place is said to be near the chapel of
St. Stephen; and in a plan of the Cathedral, dated 1773, and
in Price's account, 1774, a plain slab with a cross upon it, in a
shallow recess of the wall east of the north aisle, is assigned to
Bishop Roger.
But this and the other disputed monuments are undoubtedly
genuine memorials of the earliest bishops, and not merely
interesting for that reason, but as (with the exception of two
slabs dated 1086 and 1172 in Westminster Abbey) the earliest
examples of their class in England. Although the question of
their identity of the individuals they commemorate were best left
to those few who are pecuharly concerned with the history of the
period that includes them.
Near these effigies is a slab with faint traces of an incised
figure, which may possibly have represented an abbot or prior.
It can hardly be intended for a bishop, as no mitre can be

46 Salisbury Cathedral.
traced, and the staff is held in the right hand. The monument (5)
on the plinth under the next arch is also beyond identification.
Next in order comes the altar tomb (6). which now contains
the remains of Bishop Beauchamp, who died in 1481. When
this was removed from the aisle at the north end of the great
transept it was empty, and showed no trace of its original dedica
tion. During the wanton demolition of the Beauchamp chantry,
where, "in marble tumbes," with his father and mother on either
hand, the remains of Bishop Beauchamp had been unmolested
for over three hundred years, his own tomb was " mislaid" and
never recovered. It is pleasant to note that even the apologists
for Wyatt felt this incident was beyond their sympathy. Dods-
worth naively rem.arks, " After this the greatest possible care
was taken that nothing of the kind should again occur," and so
far as we know, not even a prior was subsequently lost. Of
this bishop much is said elsewhere in this book, and his beautiful
chantry described on page 90.
The elaborate effigy (7) beneath the next arch represents
Robert Lord Hungerford clad in a superb suit of fifteenth
century plate armour, with the collar of SS. round his neck, and
with " his hair polled " in the fashion of Henry V. A superbly
decorated sword and dagger hang from his jewelled girdle at
his side, while his feet rest upon a dog wearing a rich collar.
This monument was placed originally between the Lady Chapel
and the (Hungerford) chantry founded by Margaret, his widow.
By his will Lord Hungerford directed that his body should be
interred before the altar of St. Osmund. The tomb beneath
the effigy is made up from portions of the chapel.
The monument known as Lord Stourton's (8), removed
from the east end of the Cathedral, is next in order. Its three
apertures on each side are said to be emblematic of the six
sources of the river Stour, which rises at Storrhead, the ancient
family seat, from whence the name is derived. The whole
shape of the tomb is so unusual that in spite of the theory that
it represents the six sources of the Stour, the curious arched
openings appear as if pierced to exhibit something behind them.
Yet this could not have been an effigy, for the interior is
divided by a solid partition of stone. The pillars which stood
between the arches are gone. Lord Stourton, to whom it is
attributed, was hanged with a silken cord on March 6th, 1556,
in the Salisbury market-place. The tragedy is too long to

Interior. 47
give in detail, as it is told in the country histories and else
where, here a brief summary must suffice : — When his mother
became a widow Lord Stourton attempted to induce her to sign
a bond promising that she would never re-marry. The family
agents, a father and son named HartgiU, sided with Lady
Stourton and seemed to have influenced her in declining to
assent to the scheme. The Hartgills after much physical
m£iltreatment at the hands of Lord Stourton's mercenaries, took
legal action against him, with the result that he was fined and
imprisoned for awhile in the Fleet. When let out on parole
he invited the Hartgills to meet him that he might pay them
the fine. Upon their appearance at Kilmington Churchyard,
the appointed place, they were seized by armed men, carried
away and murdered in cold blood in full sight of Lord Stourton
himself the same night. For this he was committed to the
Tower, tried at Westminster and hanged with four of his men
at Salisbury. So late as 1775 a wire twisted into a noose was
suspended above his tomb.
The mutilated effigy (9) of Bishop de la Wyle (died 1271) rests
on a base made up ofportionsof later work. The last monument
on this side (10) is of the famous William Longespee, ist Earl
of Salisbury, the natural son of Henry II. by Fair Rosamond.
This effigy still shows traces of the gorgeous ornament in gold
and colours with which it was originally decorated. Westmacott,
the sculptor, says : " The manly, warrior character of the figure
is particularly striking even in its recumbent attitude, while the
turn of the head, and the graceful flow of lines in the right
hand and arm, with the natural heavy fall of the chain armour
at the side, exhibit a feeling of art that would not do discredit
to a very advanced school." The figure is clad in mail armour,
which covers the mouth in a peculiar fashion, and wears a sur
coat falling in simple folds, almost Greek in feeling, that are
somewhat curious in connection with the rich mediaeval luxu
riance of the surface ornament. On his shield are borne six
heraldic leopards or lions. The slab and effigy are stone, but
the base is of wood encircled by an arcade of trefoiled arches.
One of its compartments protected with glass yet shows a piece
of the beautiful diaper work, in silver overlaid on white linen,
remains of the rich colourings of two successive periods are
present on the effigy itself. (See p. 94.)
Crossing the nave, and following the northern base of the
E

48 Salisbury Cathedral.
pillars, we find a very beautiful alabaster .monument (ii), with
the effigy of Sir John Cheyney (died 1509) clad in military garb,
and wearing the collar of SS. with the portcullis badge of
Henry VII. suspended therefrom. Sir John Cheyney was the
standard-bearer of Henry of Richmond at Bosworth Field. To
qtiote from Hall's "Chronicle" — "King Richard set on so
sharply at the first brount that he ouerthrew th'erle's standard
ard slew Sir William Brandon, his standard-bearer, and matched
hand to hand with John Cheynye, a man of great strength, who
would have resisted him, and the said John was by him man
fully ouerthrowen." Wyatt, in his ghouhsh explorations ex
humed Sir John's bones, and confirmed the legend of his
gigantic stature ; the thigh-bone was found to be twenty-one
inches in length, four inches more than the standard average.
His original tomb was destroyed with the rest of the Beau
champ chapel, and his remains now lie beneath this effigy.
Under the next arch to the westward are two tombs (12, 13)
deprived of the brasses they once bore, which represented
Walter, Lord Hungerford, and his first wife, Catherine Peverell.
The famous iron chapel has been removed to the choir by
their descendant, the Earl of Radnor, who converted the
monument into a family pew.
The plain altar tomb of St. Osmund, that, moved hither by
Wyatt, stood until 187S below the next arch of the nave; is
now replaced in the Lady Chapel on its former site.
The effigy of Sir John de Montacute (14) (died 1389) clad
in mail and chain armour, is, according to Meyrick, " a good
specimen of highly ornamented gauntlets, of a contrivance for
the easier bending of the body at the bottom of the breast
plate, and of the elegant manner of twisting the hanging sword
belt, pendant frorn the military girdle, round the upper part of
the sword." The head of the figure reposes on a helmet, a
Jion couches at his feet. Armorial bearings appear on shields
at the sides of the tomb. (See p. 79.)
Then we come to Chancellor Geoffrey's tomb (15), and the
next (16) has not been identified. The larger effigy (17)
on the last portion of the northern plinth is of William
Longespee, fourth Earl of Salisbury; the figure wears chain
armour, and lies with its legs crossed and hands grasped upon his
sword. He was twice a Crusader, in 1240-1242, and in 1249,
when he served with St. Louis of France at Damietta, he fell in
battle near Cairo in 1250, and was buried in the church of the

Interior. 49
Holy Cross near Acre. The night he was killed, according
to Matthew Paris, his mother, the Countess Ela, saw in a
vision " the heavens opened, and her son armed at all points,
with the six lioncels on his shield, received in triumph by a
. company of angels." Many strange marvels were reported to
have been worked by his bones.
The Boy Bishop. — Near this monument is the one (i8)
¦ known as the " Boy Bishop." Hidden for a long time underneath
some seats near the pulpit, it was brought to light in i6So, and
moved to its present position. At first it was covered with a
wooden box ; for which later on, owing to the great curiosity
shown by the public, the strong iron grating which now protects
it was substituted. (See p. 98.)
Notwithstanding that the ceremony of the Boy Bishop was
observed at Salisbury for many centuries, there is no reason
able proof that this effigy has any connection therewith. Even
John Gregory, whose famous treatise on the Boy Bishop is
printed in " Gregorii Posthuma," 1649-1669, admits there that
it might well seem impossible to everyone that either a bishop
should be so small in person or a child so great in clothes.
Thomas Fufler also echoes the same objection when he writes :
" But the curiosity of critics is best entertained with the tomb
in the north of the nave of the church, where lieth a monument
in stone of a little boy, habited all in episcopal robes, a mitre
upon his head, a crozier in his hand, and the rest accordingly.
At the discovery thereof, formerly covered over with pews,
many justly admired that either a bishop could be so small in
person or a child so great in clothes ; though since all is un
riddled ; for it was then fashionable in that church (a thing
rather deserving to be remembered than fit to be done), in the
depth of Popery, that the choristers chose a boy of their society
to be a bishop among them from St. Nicholas' till Innocents'
day." If the effigy represents a boy it is hard to explain why it
is not life-size. Stothard in his " Monumental Effigies," in com
mon with most later authorities, favours the idea that it is a
miniature representation of a real bishop. Canon Jones- sug
gests probably Walter Scammel, Henry de Braundeston, or
William de la Corner. Mackenzie Walcott inclined to the
belief that it represented Bishop Wykehampton, who died
1284. A small figure of Bishop Ethelman, 1260, about the
same date, is in Winchester Cathedral; there is also one

50 Salisbury Cathedral.
141 inches long in Abbey Dore Church, Herefordshire, one
at Ayot, St. Lawrence, Herts, 2 feet 3 inches, and other small
effigies of knights and civilians elsewhere. According to
Digby Wyatt the custom of burying different portions of the
body in different places was common in the twelfth and thir
teenth centuries ; from which he infers that probably these
figures commemorated the place of sepulture of the heart.
Whether the monument in question be connected with the
Chorister Bishop or not, there are so many records of the
function with which popular credence has associated it, that a
short digression is almost unavoidable. The pamphlet by
John Gregory is elaborately minute and much too long to be
quoted fully, yet some of the facts he brought together may be
briefly noted. It seems that on the feast of St. Nicholas, the
patron saint of children, the choir-boys ' elected one of their
number, who from that day to the feast of the Holy Innocents,
December 28th, bore the rank and exercised the functions of a
bishop, the other choristers being his prebendaries. During
his term of office he wore episcopal vestments. On the eve of
the Holy Innocents he performed the entire office, excepting
the mass, as a real bishop would have done. At Salisbury on
that day the boy-bishop and his boy-prebendaries went in
procession to the altar of the Holy Trinity, taking precedence
of the dean and resident canons. At the first chapter after
wards the boy bishop attended in person and was permitted to
receive the entire Oblation made at the altar during the day of
his procession. The names of many of the choristers and the
amounts of the oblations offered for the boy-bishops are the
subject of many entries in the capitular registers of both
English and continental churches. Bishop Mortival in his
statutes, still preserved among the cathedral muniments,
orders that the bishop of the choristers " shall make no visit
(some commentators consider this has been misinterpreted, to
infer that elsewhere he held visitations), nor keep any feast,
but shall remain in the Common Hall, unless he be invited to
the table of a Canon for recreation." The order of service in
use in this diocese has been preserved (MS. No. 153 of the
Cathedral Library) ; in it we find as a special collect, " O
^ In 1448 Nicholas Upton the precentor tried to limit the choice of the
choristers to three candidates selected by the chapter ; but this attempt to
curtail their privilege was successfully resisted by the boys.

Interior. 5 1
Almighty God, who out of the mouths of babes and sucklings,''
etc., not, however, quite in the form in which it appears in the
Prayer Book of Ed. VI.
The spectacle was so popular, and attracted such great
crowds, that by special edict it was prescribed that the penalty
of the greater excommunication should be incurred by those
who might interrupt or press upon the boys during their pro
cession or in any part of their service.
In spite of the doubts thrown upon the monument at Salis
bury, it is distinctly recorded that if a boy-bishop died during
his term of power, he was to be buried in his vestments and
have his obsequies celebrated with the pomp pertaining to an
episcopal funeral.
This custom was not confined to this cathedral, but practised
at many others in England and on the Continent, where we find
records of much greater power being exercised by the boy-
prelate, extending even to the presentation to prebends. At
Winchester it was certainly observed. So far back as 1263
we find it described at St. Paul's Cathedral as an ancient
custom. Several sermons preached by the boy-bishops are
StiU preserved ; one is reprinted in the Camden Society's
" Miscellany," vol. vii. Dean Colet (once a prebendary of
Sarum) in his statutes for St. Paul's school directs : " AU these
children shall every Childermas day come to Paules Church,
and here the ChUde-bishoppes sermon, and after be at high
masse so each of them offer one peny to the childe bishoppe.
And with the maisters and surveyors of the scoole in general
procession when they be warned they shall go tweyne and
tweyne togither soberly, and not singe oute, but saye devoutly
tweyne by tweyne seven psalmes with letany." (Add. MS.
6174.) At York the mock prelate held office longer, and
wielded far more power than his feUows of Sarum.
In 1299, on December 7th, a boy-bishop at Hoton, near
Newcastle-on-Tyne, said vespers before Edward I., then on his
way to Scotland.
At Salisbury in 1542 Henry VIII. forbade the ceremony by
royal proclamation. It was revived under Queen Mary, and
finally abolished on the accession of Queen Elizabeth.
Not entirely ahen to the subject is the office of the bishop's
boy, which is probably peculiar to Salisbury. His duty is to
call at the palace before every service and inquire if the bishop

52 Salisbury Cathedral.
will attend. He is formally appointed by the bishop, who
lays his hands upon him, and repeats a prescribed office.
A nameless tomb (19), and a memorial (20) to Dr. Daubigny
TurberviUe, an oculist of SaHsbury, who died April 21st, 1696,
complete the more important monuments of the nave. Several
mural tablets on the aisle walls are of hardly sufficient general
interest to need description. In Price's " Antiquities of SaHs
bury," and many of the numerous works devoted to the
cathedral, copies of nearly aH the epitaphs are given, but,
except in very special instances, they form pecuharly de
pressing reading.
The Choir Screen was given as a memorial of the late
Mr. Sidney Lear by his wife, to whom the cathedral is indebted
for many of its modern enrichments. It is entirely of wrought
metal, by Skidmore, of Coventry, and a good example of its
class. It replaced the organ screen compiled by Wyatt from
fragments of the Hungerford and Beauchamp chantries ; to
erect which he removed the original screen of exquisite work
manship, as may be seen by portions now placed along the
west wall of the north-east transept.
The Organ, that stood on the old screen until lately,
was built by Green, of Isleworth, and a gift from King
George III. in his capacity as " a Berkshire gendeman," that
county being included in the diocese of Sarum until 1836. It
was given by the Dean and Chapter to the church of St.
Thomas. The present organ, a fine instrument, built by Willis,
was the gift of Miss Chafyn Grove, is placed in the second
arcade on each side of the choir, the necessary connecting
mechanism being in a tunnel below the pavement, while the
larger pipes and the bellows are inclosed within a screen in the
north transept. The oak case is from a design by the late
Mr. Street.
The Choir and Presbytery are very similar to the
nave in the main features of their design. The piers show a
different plan, which provides for eight shafts of Purbeck
marble to each. The inner mouldings of the arches exhibit
the "dog-tooth" ornamentation of their period. The tri
forium and clerestory differ slightly from the correspond
ing parts of the nave. In each of the last two bays of the
presbytery the triforium has five small cinquefoU arches. At
the east wall of the choir above the reredos is an arcade of

Interior. S3
five simply-pointed arches, below a triplet window in the gable.
which is filled with stained glass, given by the Earl of Radnor
in 1781, and representing "The Brazen Serpent," after a de
sign by Mortimer.
The choir stiU bears traces of Wyatt's destruction. He
removed the original reredos behind the high altar and the
screen before the Lady Chapel, so that both, with the low
eastern aisle, were thrown into the choir. He shifted the high
altar from the choir to the extreme east end of the Lady
Chapel, sacrificing several chantries and tombs to do so.
Views of the cathedral after his reign of terror fail to show any
gain to compensate for so much loss ; the extreme length is
not apparently an advantage, while the bare look of the
interior seems decidedly intensified by the increased vista that
he was so dehghted to obtain, and for which with a light heart
he effaced the silent records of dead centuries.
The Decorations of the Roof of the choir and pres
bytery are reproductions by Messrs. Clayton and Bell of the
original paintings, which dated probably from the thirteenth
century. The series, commencing from the west, shows
twenty-four prophets and saints, all, with the exception of
St. John the Baptist, selected from the Old Testament.
Taking them in lines parallel with the choir screen, the first
row contains (reading from the left, as one faces the altar) :
Zechariah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and St. John the Baptist ; the
second : Zacharias, Joel, Hosea, and Zephaniah ; the third :
Job, Habakkuk, Nahum, David ; the fourth : Moses, Micah,
Jonah, and Jacob ; the fifth : Malachi, Obadiah, Amos, and
Isaac ; and the sixth : Haggai, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Abraham.
In the square of the transept crossing are (following the same
order) : St. Thomas and St. Andrew, St. Matthew and St. John,
St. Philip and St. Simon, St. Bartholomew and St. Matthias.
At the left the last panel on that side contains St. Peter and
St. Andrew, while another in the opposite corner has St James
and St. John. In the centre is a figure of Christ, in majesty,
surrounded by the four evangelists.
From this point to the east the panels are devoted to secular
subjects typifying the twelve months, " The signs of the Zodiac,"
Price calls them : January, warming at a fire ; February, drinking
wine ; March, delving ; April, sowing ; May, hawking ; June,
flowers ; July, reaping; August, threshing ; September, fruit ;

54 Salisbury Cathedral.
October, brewing ; November, cutting wood ; December, killing
the fatted pig. The originals were white, or father buff-washed,
in the last century. Owing to the tenacity of this wash, and
the friable non-adhesive quality of the paint it covered, it was
found impossible to remove the additional coating without
destroying the original paintings. Tracings of some of them
were made by Messrs. Clayton and Bell ; but although the
semi-transparent character of the buff wash allowed the sub
jects to be discerned from below ; on nearer inspection the
details became blurred and shapeless.
The theory that the paintings of the choir had been re
painted before their defacement by buff wash seems hardly
likely from the state reported by the restorers. The idea
probably arose from an extract, itself possibly interpolated,
frequently quoted from one edition of Defoe's "Tour through
the Island of Great Britain:" "The choir resembles a theatre
rather than a venerable choir of a church ; it is painted white
with the panels golden, and groups and garlands of roses and
other flowers intertwined run round the top of the stalls ; each
stall hath the arms of its holder in gilt letters or blue writ on
it; and the episcopal throne with Bishop Ward's arms upon it
would make a fine theatrical decoration, being supported by
gilt pillars and painted with flowers upon white all over. The
roof of the choir hath some fresh painting, containing several
saints as big as life, each in a circle by itself and holding a
label in their hands telling who they are. The altar piece is
very mean, and behind this altar, in the Virgin Mary's Chapel,
are some very good monuments." But in the first edition of
the same book Defoe himself says : " The inside is certainly
hurt by the paltry old paintings in and over the choir, and the
whitewashing badly done, wherein they have very stupidly
everywhere drawn black lines to imitate joints of stone." In
another edition of 1724 the passage reads : "The painting in
the choir is mean and more like the ordinary method of Common
Drawing Room or Tavern painting than that of a church."
Whatever be the actual value of the painting on its own merits,
as a record faithfully transcribed of very early roof-decoration,
it has an interest of its own far beyond much more important
work of later periods.
The Choir. — In the second bay from the east, on the
north side of the choir, stands the chantry of Bishop Audley,

THE CHOIR, LOOKING WEST.
From a Photograph by Messrs. Carl Norman and Co.

Interior. 5 7
who died in 1524. This excellent example of late Perpendicular
work was built by the bishop himself in 1520. Its style is not
uilike the chantry of Bishop Fox at Winchester with octagonal
shafts, (similar to those of the Salisbury Chapel at Christchurch,)
which impart a semi-Oriental touch that is so characteristic of
this final development of Gothic art. The images it once
enshrined are' lost, but the original rich colouring is still dis
tinguishable on the fan tracery of the roof. The arms and
initials of its founder are borne on the shields of the cornice.
In the corresponding bay on the south side is the chantry
founded by Walter Lord Hungerford, in 1429, and removed
from the nave in 1778 by his descendant, the Earl of Radnor,
who converted it into a family pew. It has been re-decorated,
and new emblazonments added. The arms of its founder and
his two wives appear on the base. The superstructure is of
iron, and a fine example of its class, which includes among the
few still extant the chantry of Edward IV. (died 1483) at
Windsor, and that of Henry VII. at Westminster Abbey (died
1509). The Audley and Hungerford chantries are the most
important left in a cathedral once rich in their kind, as the
report of the alienation of their endowments proves.
Of modern fittings, the Brass Lectern was given by members
of the late Dean Lear's family. A brass eagle is mentioned by
Price, and said to have been given in 17 14 at a cost of £,^()o.
The pulpit is modern, with carved medallions on its sides.
The bishop's throne, a lofty modern structure, made by
Earp of Lambeth, was presented by those clergymen who had
been ordained in the cathedral. It replaced one given in
1763. The Choir Stalls are made up from work of different
periods, the seats and elbows being probably part of the
original work ; the poppy heads of the benches are of the time
of Henry VIIL Much later Sir Christopher Wren added to
the stalls, and still later Wyatt placed canopies over them,
which have since been removed. The dean's seat has been
said to be of the time of Charles I.
The Reredos is modern. It was given by Earl Beauchamp
in memory of Bishop Beauchamp (1450-81), whose chantry
Wyatt swept away. Its design is adapted from the old choir
screen, now in the Lady Chapel, and the monument of Bishop
Bridport. A large centre panel, eight feet in height, has abas-relief

58

Salisbury Cathedral.

of the Crucifixion, with the Virgin and St. John ; in the head of
the central arch are angels amid foliage. On each side are two
storied canopied niches, containing statues of the two Maries,
and of St. Osmund and Bishop Beauchamp. The whole rises
up to a gable terminating in a gemmed and floriated cross. The
back facing the Lady Chapel is richly panelled. The sides
are also elaborately decorated with birds. The design by Sir

THE HIGH ALTAR AND REREDOS.
From a Photograph by Messrs. Poulton.
Gilbert Scott was executed at a cost of about ;^r,8oo by
Messrs. Farmer and Brindley.
The High Altar, the credence table, and sedilia, are excel
lent examples of modern work. The altar itself is of English
oak. Its design comprises an arcade with seven openings,
divided into three panels, with much elaborate carving. It was
given by those who had received confirmation at the hands of
Bishop Hamilton. The altar cloths, worked and given by
Mrs. Sidney Lear, are highly finished examples of modern
ecclesiastical needlework. The credence table, of somewhat

THE CHOIR, LOOKING EAST.
From a Photograph hy Messrs, Poullon.

Interior. 6i
elaborate design, is of carved oak with a marble top. The altar
rails are of brass, the griUs of wrought iron, at each side of the
reredos screen the choir partially from the Lady Chapel.
The definitely planned order of the subjects of the ceiling
decoration is held to indicate originally a different place for the
high altar than its present site, which is the same as that reported
by Leland two hundred years ago, and until attention was
drawn to this fact was generally accepted as its original posi
tion. From the rood screen the sequence of the figures of the
patriarchs and prophets leads up to the climax of " Our Lord
in Glory." At this point the capitals of the Purbeck shafts
surrounding the pUlars supporting the arch on which this
figure is painted, are carved in foliage, unlike the others
throughout the building, which are invariably moulded only.
The whole subject is discussed at length in a paper printed
in the " Wilts Archseological Magazine," vol. xvii., in a way
that supports the hypothesis advanced. A somewhat impor
tant piece of circumstantial evidence came to light during the
late restoration, namely a windlass close to the pier on the north
side of the supposed original site of the altar, which was possibly
intended to raise and lower a baldichino, or ciborium that hung
originally over the altar, or still more probably the pyx, which
as many instances show was usually suspended above it.
Possibly the altar was moved when, owing to the early settle
ment of some of the piers, it was found necessary to wall up
the space between the arches opening into the choir transepts,
and insert the perpendicular arches as a counter thrust to the
strain of the central tower. It is hardly c6nceivable that the
evidence offered by the roof paintings, and the sohtary instance
of carved capitals, can be misleading on this point.
The East (or Choir) Transept, which on the north side,
screened as it is from the aisle, is used and known also as the
Morning Chapel, has on its west wall a portion of a very beau
tiful screen of Early English work. Of this John Carter, from
whose pages the accompanying sketch of a portion is repro
duced, says that it was moved during Wyatt's restoration,
as he na'ively puts it, " during the late dilapidations innova
tions, and modern fanciful introductions so fatal to our study
of antiquities." Other authorities consider its original position
uncertain. Yet since its architecture is obviously coeval with
that of the building, and the arches inserted by Bishop Beau-

62

Salisbury Cathedral.

champ show proof of having been planned to rest on some
thing at the base of the tower piers, there can be little doubt
that when Wyatt removed the screen to re-erect a medley of
his own composing made of fragments of the demolished chan-

^' 'i

PORTION OF THE OLD ORGAN SCREEN.
From a Draiving by H. P. Clifford.
tries, he disturbed one more of the original features of the
cathedral. A curious double aumbry in the north wall of this chapel is
unusual, not merely in the pitch of its arches, which are tri
angular gables, but also in the solid stone shelves dividing its.
space into six compartments ; other aumbries in this church
show similar features, but this alone retains its original wooden
doors. The superb brass of Bishop Wyville (illustrated on p. 1 14)

Interior.

63

is in the pavement of this transept. It is Ulustrated in almost
every work on monumental brasses as a notable example. A
canopied lavatory of beautiful design is upon the east wall to
the right, the altar being not in the centre, but almost in the
corner on the left-hand side.
The Eastern Aisle is not so important as similar " pro
cessionals " at Exeter, Winchester, and some other English
churches ; still, the grace of its clustered columns, Hke those
of the Lady Chapel, give it a character of its own.
The Lady Chapel, originally separated from the choir,
thrown into the presbytery by Wyatt for the sake of his much
overrated vista, is once again
partially hidden by the reredos
and, the grille work of the screen
on either side. As the earliest por
tion of the building, and the only
part Bishop Poore lived to see
completed, it would not lack
interest, were it commonplace in
character ; but it is on the con
trary a particularly graceful ex
ample of its time. The whole
chapel is divided into a nave and
side aisles by single and clustered
shafts of Purbeck marble. These
extremely slender shafts look un
equal to the heavy groined roof
they support; for although nearly
thirty feet high, the four largest
are not quite ten inches in diameter, while the clustered ones are
mere rods. Francis Price, whose interest in the building, as
he showed throughout his monograph, was that of a practical
builder, was "amazed at the vast boldness of the architect, who
certainly piqued himself on leaving to posterity an instance of
such small pillars bearing so great a load. One would not
suppose them," he says, " to stand so firm of themselves as
even to resist the force of an ordinary wind." The modern
colouring of this part of the building, including the low eastern
aisle immediately behind the reredos, is claimed to be an exact
restoration of the original, but it is hardly agreeable. The black
of the newly polished marble shafts, the dull green of other

PISCINA IN THE SOUTH CHOIR
AISLE.

64 Salisbury Cathedral.
parts, with the red, green, and white of the vaulting ribs, is
more bizarre than beautiful. In regarding traces of mediseval
colouring one often forgets that time has blended harmoniously
a scheme otherwise entirely crude, and to modern taste un
pleasing. How far in English instances this is emphasized by
the absence of rich hangings, carpets, vestments, and pictures,
it is not within our subject to inquire ; but since such restora
tion of the primitive colouring offends one less in churches
that still preserve the more ornate furniture of the Roman
Ritual, it is at least a moot point.
The triple' lancet east window at the end of the Lady Chapel
was filled formerly with stained glass, representing " The Re
surrection," after a design by Sir Joshua Reynolds ; it is now
replaced by modern glass in memory of the late Dean Lear.
An altarpiece, composed of fragments of the destroyed Hun
gerford and Beauchamp Chapels, was set up here by Wyatt. It
has lately been replaced by a triptych designed by Sir, Arthur,
Blomfield, with very beautiful panels painted by Mr. Buckeridge.
The seven-branched candlesticks in black-wood, silver mounted,
are by the same architect. The altar frontal, designed by Mr.
Sidney Gambier Parry, and worked by Mrs. Weigall, is so good
that it must not be overlooked. The altar itself is of stone
from an old altarpiece. Under the windows runs a series of
niches, once in the Beauchamp Chapel. Above these rich and
delicate canopies, with foliage and fan-tracery springing from
corbelled heads, runs an exquisitely sculptured frieze.
In this place, after he was canonized in 1456, the shrine of
St. Osmund was erected. His supposed tomb, moved by
Wyatt to the nave, is now replaced between the Lady Chapel
and the southern aisle. Of the shrine no trace remains ; but
legends of the miracles worked at it, and the special indulgences
granted to the pilgrims who visited it, prove that it existed on
this spot. The date MXCIX. inscribed , upon this slab has
been questioned, on the authority of a diary made by Captain
Symons (in 1644), now in the British Museum, in which an
entry occurs with reference to this inscription, " a blew stone
rising four ynches from the ground, the east end narrower than
the west, this lately written Anno MXCIX.," but whether he
means to infer that it was lately restored, or that the date itself
was a later addition, is not quite clear. The characters of the
inscription Planch^ pointed out correspond in form with those
at the time of William the Conqueror, and as sepulchral effigies

ALTAR AND TRIPTYCH REREDOS IN THE LADY' CHAPEL.
From a Photograph by Witcotnb and Son, Salisbury.

Interior. 65
are uncommon untU the middle of the twelfth century, the
presumption is in its favour ; still it is somewhat pathetic to
find that the evidence which serves, to connect this otherwise
unknown monument with the famous St. Osmund, the greatest
figure, not merely of the cathedral, but of the English Church
of his time, is not absolutely beyond suspicion. Yet even if the
Roman numerals were a later addition, it is hardly credible
that the shrine of so popular a saint could have been wrongly
identified. When Wyatt, according to his usual habit, explored
the interior of the tomb, nothing was found within it.
In 1540 Leland saw here a " ballet," which he transcribes for
his Itinerary, with an inscription commanding the faithful to
pray for the repose of the soul of Richard Poore.
Monuments in the Transept, Choir and Lady
Chapel. — The most important on the west wall of the north
great transept is a brass (21) in memory of John Britton,
who did so much to revive a taste for archeology and eccle
siastical art by his splendid series of monographs on the
cathedrals, and his topographical works. A fine monument of
its class is one by Bacon (22), which represents Moral Philo
sophy mourning over a medallion of James Harris, author of
"Hermes "and father cf the first Earl of Malmesbury; to
whose memory close by is a full-length portrait figure by
Chantrey. A figure (23) of Benevolence lifting the veil from
a bas-relief of the good Samaritan, by Flaxman, commemorates
William Benson Earle, Esq., of the Close, Salisbury. On
the north wall of this transept is a canopied effigy (24) of
a bishop said to represent John Blythe, who died in 1499.
It was originally in the ambulatory of the Lady Chapel,
behind the high altar, until Wyatt removed it to its present
site. In this transept is the statue (25) to Sir Richard Colt
Hoare, author of the " Histories of Modarn and Ancient
Wiltshire," and other works. It is a seated figure not without
dignity, by R. C. Lucas, a native of Salisbury. A portrait bust
to Richard Jefferies, with a long and eulogistic inscription, is
upon a bracket on the west wall.
Two other monuments by Flaxman deserve notice. That to
Walter Long, Esq. (26), a medallion supported by two figures
representing Justice and Literature, and one (27) to his brother,
William Long, in florid Gothic style, with figures of Science and
Benevolence. Dr. Waagen, in his " Art Treasures of Great

66 Salisbury Cathedral.
Britain," says : " The three monuments by Flaxman (in Salis
bury) two of which are in Gothic taste, prove that he was
superior to most English sculptors in knowledge of the archi
tectonic style. There is nothing extraordinary in the design,
but the workmanship is good, and there is real feeling in the
heads." In the north choir aisle, at its junction with the great tran
sept, is a large Purbeck marble altar tomb (28), with panels and
tracery, despoiled of the brass legend and armorial bearings it
fc rmerly exhibited. This is supposed to have commemorated
Bishop WoodviUe, who died 1484. Two marble slabs that
until 1778 were in the floor of this side beneath the first arch
of the choir, and in the corresponding place on the south side,
have been also stripped of their bras-ses which showed them
to belong to Bishop Simon of Ghent, 1315, and Bishop
Mortival, 1330.
On the bench of this aisle is a figure (29) of a skeleton said to
represent a man named Fox, who tried to fast forty days. A
similar legend is told of the next figure (30), in memory of Dr.
Bennett, Precentor of Salisbury (1541 to 1544). It is needless
to say that both stories are mere inventions ; in many monu
ments the effigy of the hero commemorated was shown in full
pomp above, while in a niche below the skeleton was depicted,
by way of pointing a moral too obvious to need further
comment. A brass, in replica of the original, has been reinserted in the
marble slab that commemorates Bishop Jewell (1560-71) (31).
The next monument (32), for a long time attributed to Bishop
Bingham ( 1229-47), has a flat pointed arch terminating in a deco
rated finial, above which rises a sort of pyramid of three stories,
below is a slab formerly inlaid with brass. Later antiquaries,
in spite of the fourteenth century character of its detail, assign
it to Bishop Scammel (1284-87). The Audley chapel (33) is
entered from this aisle.
In the north-east choir transept aisle are three gravestones
of Bishops Wyville (1375), Gheast (1576), and Jewell (1571),
removed from the choir when its marble pavement was laid
down. In the floor of this transept, which is known also as the
morning chapel, is the famous brass to Bishop Wyvill (34), one
that has been repeatedly figured in various works on memorial
brasses, and it is generally ranked as one of the most interesting

Interior. 67
of existing examples. Near this is another brass (35) com
memorating Bishop Gheast. The lavatory (36) is noticed else
where. In the Lady Chapel, under an arched niche in the north
wall, is a coffin-shaped tomb (37) assigned to Bishop Roger, by
those who refuse to accept the effigy in the nave as his
monument. The monument (38) at the end of the north aisle of the Lady
Chapel is a typical, exam pie of the miied classical style so dear
to the early seventeenth century taste. The effigies below its
canopy, supported on twisted Corinthian pillars, represent Sir
Thomas Gorges and his widow, a maid of honour to Queen
Elizabeth. Its medley of obelisks, globes, spheres, and images
of the four cardinal virtues is more curious than interesting. In
terred near in the choir, and all without monuments are many
of the Earls of Pembroke and their wives, including "Sidney's
sister, Pembroke's mother."
In a niche of the east wall of the choir, behind an arcade of
three pointed arches with cinquefoil heads, is a Purbeck marble
effigy (39) of a bishop supposed by many to represent Richard
Poore. It has been ascribed to Bishop Bingham because its
bearded face fails to agree with that depicted on the seal of
Bishop Poore, and also because an entry in an old book of
records says that he was buried on the north side of the altar.
This monument was removed by Wyatt to the north-east
transept, to what is supposed to have been its original position.
The effigy, whoever it represents, is a fine one, the pastoral
crozier of particularly graceful design ; above it is an angel
supporting the circle of the sun and the crescent of the moon.
The slab which is believed to commemorate St. Osmund (40)
is now restored, and placed where his shrine stood formerly,
between the south choir aisle and Lady Chapel.
At the east end of the south aisle is the gorgeous monument
(41) to Edward, Earl of Hertford, son of the Protector Somerset,
uncle of Edward VL, and of his wife Catherine, sister to Lady
Jane Grey. The effigies are both in a praying attitude, the
Earl in armour. It is elaborately ornamented and splendid in
gold and colours, restored by order of the late Duke of
Northumberland. It is more ornate than modern taste
desires, but still to call it "stately, though tasteless," as
does oue chronicler, is somewhat harsher criticism than is

Salisbury Cathedral.

justified. It is seen in the iUustration of the choir aisle given
here. In the south wall is an altar tomb (42), now assigned to
William Wilton, Chancellor of Sarum (1506-23). On its
cornice are shields bearing the device of Henry VIIL and
Catherine of Arragon, a
rose and a pomegranate;
the arms of Bishop
Audley, and those of
Abingdon Abbey ; also
the rebus W. I. L. and
a Tun. The monument (43)
to Bishop Moberly, de
signed by Mr. Arthur
Blomfield, is an excel
lent example of the
modern revival. The
monument (44) to Bishop
Hamilton is also inte
resting as almost the last
design prepared by Sir
George GUbert Scott,
and one well worthy of
its author.
Next to the Hunger
ford iron chantry (45) is
the monument (46) ordi
narily assigned to Bishop
William of York, but,
like many of the bishops'
tombs in this cathedral,
without any certain clue

SOUTH CHOIR AISLE, LADY CHAPEL.
From a Photograph by Norman.

to its identity. It consists of a pointed, crocketed arch, termi
nating in an elaborate finial ; with a flat slab below, originally
inlaid with a brass.
In the south choir transept is the very beautiful chantry (47)
to Bishop Giles de Bridport. On either side the gabled roof is
carried by two open elaborately moulded arches with quatre
foil heads, inclosing two trefoil arches supported by clustered
detached shafts. Each arch has a triangular hood mould-

SOUTH CHOIR AISLE, SHOWING THE HUNGERFORD CHAPEL.
From a Photograpli by S. B. Bolas and Co.

Interior.

69

ing, crocketed with cawed finials. The spandrils are orna
mented with very interesting carvings. These have been
interpreted to mean : on the south side, the birth of the

CHANTRY OF BISHOP BRIDPORT.
From Britton^ s '-^Cathedrals.'*'

bishop, his confirmation, his education, and possibly his
first preferment ; on the north, the bishop doing homage
for his see, a procession with a cross-bearer (generally
accepted as a memorial of the consecration of the building by

70 Salisbury Cathedral.
this bishop); his death; and finally his soul borne up to
heaven by an angel with outspread wings.
The recumbent effigy has figures of censing angels at its
head. The whole style of this exquisite structure is akin to
that of the cloisters and the chapter house. The artists who
executed the sculptures are believed to have been contem
poraries of Niccola Pisano. A chantry was formerly attached .
to this monument, to the east of which is a double aumbry,
or cupboard, for the reservation of the sacrament.
Near this is a tablet to the memory of Canon Bowles,
whose edition of Pope plunged him into a bitter controversy
with Lord Byron. He was author of many books, including a
Life of Bishop Ken. A large modern monument to the
late Bishop Burgess is against the south wall. On the west
wall is the monument (48) of Bishop Seth Ward, whose addi
tions to the palace, after the Restoration, are mentioned else
where. The Izaak Walton, whose gravestone is near, was the
son of the famous angler. Near is one to the memory of
the father of the poet Young, and a modern tablet to Richard
Hooker, author of " Ecclesiastical Polity."
In the south choir aisle is a rather interesting monument (51)
to Bishop Davenant, who is usually credited with the honour
of being one of the translators of the Bible. It is of white
marble with two black Corinthian pillars, surmounted by a
mitre and arms. There is also a tablet in coloured relief to
the memory of Mrs. Wordsworth, wife of the bishop ; and a
brass, cruciform in shape, inserted in a polished granite slab,
which forms a memorial to Canon Liddon.
Many other monuments of ancient and modern date that
concern forgotten celebrities,, or are of purely local interest,
cannot be~ catalogued. Nor is it needful to insist on morals
they mostly enforce, that really all recent works of this class
lack the dignity which has given the word monumental a new
meaning. On the bench opposite is the monument (52), an altar tomb
with shields and inirials, of Bishop Salcot (or Capon), whose
notoriety as a " time-serving courtier " is mentioned in another
chapter. A pseudo-classical monument near (53), with vine-leaves and
grapes in green and gold entwined round black Corinthian
pillars, is to the memory of Sir Richard Mompesson, knight,

THE CHAPTER HOUSE.
From a Photograph by Carl Norman and Co.

Interior. 71
who is represented in armour, and Dame Katherine, his wife,
clad in black robe with gold flowers.
Close to the south transept, in the choir aisle, is the altar
tomb (54) of Bishop Mitford, 1407, which Britton rightly calls
a noble monument. In the spandrils of the flat arch of its
canopy are armorial shields. Lilies and birds, holding in their
beaks scroUs, inscribed, " Honor Deo et gloria," are on its
cornice. The shields on the north bear the bishop's arms and
those of his see ; on the south are quartered the arms of
England and France, and the ensign of Edward the Con
fessor — the cross patonee surrounded by five martlets.
Here also is a modern altar tomb (55), from a design by Mr.
G. E. Street, to the memory of John Henry Jacob, and a fine
Jacobean monument with bust and Latin inscription to Lord
Chief Justice Hyde.
Among many other post-reformation monuments are those
to : Bishop Fisher (56) on the east wall ; a canopied altar
tomb (57) in the Gothic style to the memory of Edward and
Rachel Poore (died 1780 and 1781), the collateral descendants
of the famous bishop, and a marble slab set in a Gothic
frame to Canon Hume (died 1834).
On the south wall of the nave (58) there is an effigy of Mrs.
Eleanor Sadler, who died July 30th, 1622, and was interred
" according to her owne desire under this her pew, wherein
with great devotion she had served God dailie almost L years."
Amid other monuments on this wall, dating from late in the
seventeenth century to the present day, is a small tablet (60) to
one of the most famous Salisbury men in modern times, the
Right Hon. Henry Fawcett, M.P., late Postmaster-General,
who died in 1884.
The Chapter House, which is entered from the eastern
walk of the cloisters, dates probably from the time of Edward
the First ; later it may be, but certainly not earlier than the
commencement of his reign, as, during certain excavations for
underpinning the walls in 1854, several pennies of that king
were found below its foundations. The architecture is some
what later in style than that of the cloisters, and if it be not, as
its admirers claim, the most beautiful in England, it has few
rivals. Like Westminster, Wells, and other English examples,
except York and Southwell, it has a central pillar, from which
the groining of the roof springs gracefully in harmonious

72

Salisbury Cathedral.

Sr ' *\ - ' I A*

lines. A raised bench of stone runs round the interior. At
its back, forty-nine niches of a canopied arcade borne on
_ sHght Purbeck marble
shafts mark out as many
seats. They are appor
tioned as follows : those
at each side of the en
trance to the Chancellor
and Treasurer respec
tively, the rest to the
Bishop, Dean, Arch
deacons, and other mem
bers of the chapter.
The plan of the buUd
ing is octagonal, about
fifty-eight feet in diameter
and fifty-twofeetinheight;
Each side has a large
fanlight window with
traceried head. " Below
these windows and above
the canopies of the seats
is a very remarkable series
of bas- rehef s, noticed
more fully later on. The.
bosses of the roof are
somewhat elaborately
carved; one north of the
west doorway has groups
of figures on it, appa
rently intended to repre
sent armourers, musicians,
and apothecaries, possibly
commemorating guilds
who were benefactors to
the building ; the others
have foliage chiefly with
BOSSES FROM THE CHAPTER HOUSE ROOF, grotesquc monstcrs. On
the base of the central
pillar is a series of carvings taken probably from one of the
many books cf fables so popular in the middle ages. These

THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE CHAPTER
HOUSE.

DETAILS OF SCULl'TURF-S IN THE_ CHAPTER HOUSE.
From photographs by Catherine Weed Ward.

Tlie Chapter House. 75
were reproduced from the originals, which are preserved in the
cloisters. The quatrefoil over the doorway has an empty niche, and it
is not possible to say with certainty whether it was originally
fiUed by a crucifix, as Mr. Mackenzie Walcott infers from the
symbols of the Evangelists in the angles of the panel; or, with
a seated figure of our Lord in majesty ; or, as a third archaeolo
gist has suggested, a coronation of the Virgin. FiUing the
voussoirs of the arch of the doorway are fourteen small niches
containing subjects from the Psychomachia of Prudentius, the
Battle of the 'Virtues against the Vices. The figures are not
easily identified, but Mr. Burges, whose " Iconography of the
Chapter House " is the most important monograph on the sub
ject, suggests that on the right-hand side the figures in the third
niche from the top appear to represent Concord triumphing
over Discord ; in the sixth, Temperance is pouring liquor down
the throat of Intemperance; on the seventh, Fortitude tramples
on Terror, who cuts her own throat. On the left hand in the
first niche Faith is trampling on Infidelity ; in the second, a
Virtue covers a Vice with her cloak, while the Vice embraces
her knees with one hand and stabs her with a sword held in
the other. This incident is taken from Prudentius : "Discord
by stealth wounds Concord; she is taken and killed by " Faith,
which latter incident may be represented in the next compart
ment. In the fourth niche, Truth pulls out Falsehood's tongue ;
in the fifth. Modesty scourges Lust; in the sixth. Generosity
pours coin into the throat of Avarice. To quote the words
of the author from whom these interpretations are derived :
" These sculptures are of the very highest class of art, and
infinitely superior to any work in the chapter house ; the only
defect is the size of the heads : probably this was intentional
on the part of the artist. The intense life and movement of
the figures are worthy of special study." These allegories are
common in paintings and sculptures of this period ; at Canter
bury the same subjects are incised on the pavement that sur
rounds the shrine of St. Thomas k Becket.
On the spandrUs of the continuous arcade, sculptures in high
relief once restored as far as possible in the original colours are
now again scraped clean, and with the new heads to the figures
look so modern that it is hard to believe they are contemporary
with the building they adorn, yet since on the whole the resto-

-je

Salisbury Cathedral.

ration has been faithfully accompHshed they may be studied as
peculiarly valuable examples of early mediaeval sculpture, show
ing certain naive qualities that raise them far above the usual
level of contemporary work. They are supposed to have been
defaced by the Commission sitting in this building during the
time of the Rebellion. The subjects are :

West Wall.
I. A Representation of Chaos.
2. The Creation of the Firma
ment. North-iuest Wall.
3. The Creation of the Earth.
4, The Creation of the Planets.
5. The Creation of the Birds
and Fishes.
6. The Creation of Adam
Eve. 7

and

The Seventh Day.
The First Marriage.
9. The Temptation of Eve.
10. Adam and Eve hiding.
North Wall.
II. The Fhght from Paradise.
12. The First Lal^our.
13. Cain and Abel's Offering.
14. The First Murder.
15. The Punishment of Cain.
16. The Command to Noah.
17. The Ark.
18. The 'Vineyard of Noah.
North-east Wall.
19. Noah's Drunkenness.
20. The Building of Babel.
21. Angels appearing to Abra
ham. 22. Abraham entertaining the
Angels. 23. The Destruction of the Cities
of the Plain.
24. Lot's Escape.
25. Abraham and Isaac.
26. The Sacrifice of Isaac.
East Wall.
27. Isaac and Jacob.
28. Esau and Isaac.
29. Rebecca and Jacob.

30. Jacob and Rachel.
31. Rachel, Jacob, and Laban.
32. Jacob and the Angels.
33. The Angel touching Jacob's
thigh. 34. Jacob meeting Esau.
South-east Wall.
35. Joseph's Dream.
36. Joseph relating his Dream.
37. Joseph in the Pit.
38. Joseph sold into Egypt.
39. Joseph's Coat brought to
Jacob. 40. Joseph and Potiphar.
41. Potiphar's Wife.
42. Joseph accused.
South Wall.
43. Joseph in Prison.
44. Pharaoh's Baker and Butler.
45. Pharaoh's Dream.
46. Pharaoh's Indecision.
47. Joseph before Pharaoh.
48. Joseph as Ruler.
49. Joseph's Brethren.
50. The Cup placed in Benjamin's
Sack. Soitth-west Wall.
51. The Discovery of the Cup.
52. His Brethren before Joseph.
53. Jacob on his Way to Egypt.
54. Joseph and his Brethren
pleading. 55. Joseph protecting his Breth
ren. 56. Moses on Sinai.
57. The Miracle of the Red Sea.
The Destruction of the Egyp-

S8
tians.

West Wall.

59. Moses striking the Rock.
60. The Law declared.

Tlic Chapter House.

79

The modern decoration of the chapter house includes
stained glass of a geometrical pattern in the eight windows,
which, if not peculiarly good, is harmless enough. Some
diaper wall painting, shown in the photograph reproduced here,
which until lately deco
rated the back of the
arcade is now entirely
cleaned oft". The tiles of
the floor have been re
produced from the de
signs of the original
Norman pavement. The
vaulted roof is re-painted
in exact accordance with
its original design. The
marble shafts of the
arcade are re-polished,
and the central shaft has
also been re-worked to a
smooth surface. Gilding has been applied freely to the bosses
of the roof and the capitals of the pillars. The ancient table,
shown in the engraving, has also been restored ; it is a very
interesting specimen of early decorated furniture.

DECORATIONS IN THE GROINING OF THE
CHAPTER HOUSE.

TOMB OF SIR JOHN MONTACUTE.
From a Photograph by Catherine Weed Ward.

8o

Salisbmy Cathedral.

THE CATHEDRAL PRECINCTS.

I HE common practice of writers who are de
scribing any one of our more important
cathedrals is to declare that altogether it
may be fairly called the most beautiful. So
great is the fascination exercised by continual
study of a single medieval building which
has escaped destruction, or over-restoration,
that such a statement may be advanced in all good faith. In
claiming, however, that the cloisters of Salisbury are on the
whole the most beautiful in England, it is merely re-asserting
what many critics of Gothic architecture have already decided
to be true. The cloisters of Gloucester are far richer, the space
they cover at Wells (like Salisbury, not a monastic establish
ment) is greater, and in other detaUs these may not be the
finest. But, as a whole, their beautiful proportion and the
general symmetry of their design make them worthy adjuncts
to a buUding which is pre-eminent for these special qualities.
Situated, according to the usual custom, on the south-west
side of the cathedral, with their western wall in a Hne with its
west front, they are exceedingly picturesque. Even so far back
as the time of Leland, we find him declaring that "the cloister
on the south side of the church is one of the largest and most
magnificent in Britain." Yet, as a recent critic has observed,
from a purely technical point of view, there is "too great a mass
of blank wall above the arcade." The green sward of the large
garth, 140 feet square, with its covered walks, 181 feet long, on
each side, and the fine group of cedars in the centre, showing
against the cool grey of the stonework realize the ideal of that
cloistered solitude so dear to the poets ; it should not be
forgotten, however, that the arrangements of this cathedral are
not monastic, for it was never aught but a collegiate building.
The style is late thirteenth century with windows of exceedingly
graceful design ; double arches with quatrefoils above, united
in pairs with a large six-foiled circle in the main head. The

The Cloisters. 8i
upper portions of the tracery had, not so long ago, traces of
coloured glass here and there, but whether this feature was part
of the original scheme is very doubtful. The shafts, originally
of Purbeck marble (replaced in 1854 by stone) both be
tween and in the centres of the windows have simply moulded
capitals ; whUe those of the clustered columns at the main angles
are carved. Modern opinion is inclined to date the beginning
of the work between 1260 to 1284; but so late as 1338, as a
dated charter in Bishop WyviUe's time which refers to the

THE CLOISTERS.
From a Photograph by Messrs. Poulton.

enlargement of the cloisters shows, they were not quite com
pleted ; hence it is inferred that a part, possibly only one side,
was bmlt at first. The north arcade: is entirely independent of
the south wall of the nave, the long space between being known
as the Plumbery. The garth is used as. a burial ground, and
in the cloisters are many monuments, but none of more than
local interest, except possibly a tablet to the memory of Francis
Price (died Mar. 20th, 1753, aged 50), the cathedral architect,
whose exceUent monograph devoted to the building is still one
of the most useful books of reference on the subject. The

82

Salisbury Cathedral.

drawing here reproduced from Britton's " Salisbury," shows the
work before its restoration by Bishop Denison ; but it has been
chosen because it suggests the peculiar beauty of the place
better than any photograph. From the cloisters a very charm
ing glimpse of the spire may be obtained.

THE CLOISTERS, LOOKING NORTH.
The Library occupying the upper story that extends over part
of the eastern arcade is an important collection, its manuscripts
alone filling a hundred and eighty-seven volumes. These (with
one exception, bequeathed by Bishop Denison, a splendidly
Uluminated breviary circa a.o. 1460, containing among other
specially interesting matter the order of service for the installa
tion of the Boy-bishops,) have been in the possession of the

Tlie Library. 83
dean and chapter at least four hundred years, and range in date,
according to the best authorities, from the ninth to tlie four
teenth centuries.
Among the most important is (No. 150) A Psalter, of the
Galilean Version, on vellum, 160 folios, tenth century. The
decorations of this MS. are somewhat rude, the initials and
colouring throughout being chiefly in red. Internal evidence
fixes its date about a.d. 969. A Psalter (No. 180) on 173
folios, contains in parallel columns the Galilean and Hebrew
of Jerome's translation, and other matter, with ornamental
initials and devices; a Lectionary on vellum, 190 folios (No.
153) is a finely written manuscript, with elaborate initials in
gold and colours, this is about a.d. 1277. A fifteenth century
"Processional for the Use of Sarum," on vellum, 50 folios
(No. 148) contains some entries that throw light on various
local customs, as for example, the distribution of the carpet
used in the enthronement of the bishop, which was laid from
ostio hospicii agni to the altar in the treasury. The unique
"Tonale secundum usum Sarum" bound with an "Qrdinale
secundum usum Sarum " (No. 175) is of the fourteenth century,
on 214 folios of vellum. In a volume (No. 39) is a copy of the
Gospel of Nicodemus in an English version beginning, "Whanne
Pylatus was reuler and justyse of ye Jewerye, and Rufus and Leo
were consuls." Another book of more than ordinary interest is
Chaucer's translation of Boethius' " De Consolatione Philoso
phise," on vellum in double columns, fifteenth century. A twelfth
century MS. of the " Historia Reguin Brittanise," by Geoffrey de
Monmouth (No. 121) ; and the " Historia Miscella " of Paul
Warnefrid, are among many others that deserve mention.
Among the printed books of the Library are about a score
belonging lo the fifteenth century, and one hundred of the
sixteenth. Some of these are of extreme rarity. In a copy
of Sibbes' " Returning Backslider " is this couplet (attributed
to Doddridge) in the handwriting, with autograph, of Isaac
Walton : " Of this blest man let this just praise be given,
Heaven was in him before he was in heaven."
Bishop Gheaste was a benefactor to the hbrary, and left it a
large legacy, the foundation of the present collection of printed
books.

84 Salisbury Cathedral.
The library is shown to the public on certain days, and the
clergy of the diocese have the privilege of borrowing books
therefrom. According to the " Inventory of the Riches of the Cathedral
Church of Sarum," made by Master Thomas Robertson, trea
surer of the same church in 1536, 28th year of Henry VII., we
find images, "of God the Father with our Saviour young, of
silver and gilt with gold, ornate with red stones weighing 74
ounces." Others of Our Lady, including a " grate and fair
ymage sitting in a chaire . . . her child sits in her lap very
costly and fair to look upon.'' Reliques of the 1 1,000 virgins,
in four purses ; Pyxides of Ivory of Chrystal, and silver gilt,
" Cruces " of Gold and Silver. And a great Cross silver and
gilt with images on the crucifix, Mary and John, and the left
part of the cross — weighing 180 ounces. Calices (chalices),
Fereta, Candelabra, Philateria, Tabernucla, Ampulas, Thuribula,
Chrismatones, Copes and
Chasubles, Mitres, Basons,
Garlands, and hangings,
Morses and many other
items. Also the textus,
which was given by Hubert
de Burgh, here described
RINGS FOUND IN THE LADY CHAPEL. as "A tcxt after Matthcw
having images of St.
Joseph, and our Lady and our Saviour all in a bed of straw,
in every corner is the image of an apostle," and a huge list
of items not merely interesring in themselves, but as evidence
of the wealth of the cathedral.
The Muniment Room, which is approached from the
south choir transept, is part of a two-storied building, octa
gonal in plan. The ground floor, formerly the sacristy, is now
used as a vestry for the canons ; the upper one, a dimly-
lighted room, with an oak roof supported by a central column
of wood, is the muniment chamber. Traces of a cross on the
central piUar support the theory that the "Altar in the
Treasury," referred to in various early documents, stood here.
The solidity and strength of the building, and the fact that it
was undoubtedly the store house for the vestments and trea
sures of the church, leaves little doubt that the supposition is
true.

Documents, Etc. 85
A very fine cope chest, reproduced by Mr. WiUiam Burges
in his "Architectural Drawings," 1870, until lately preserved
in the vestry, now in the north choir aisle, has a quaintly-
carved capital on one of its shafts that suggests a very early date
for its construction. The heavy lid was originally lifted by a
rope and windlass. Although possessing no traces of painting
or gilding, and but little carving, it is both curious and inte
resting as a specimen of woodwork coeval with the cathedral
itself. A somewhat similar one exists in Westminster Abbey,
in both the lifting lids worked on very slight pivots. At West
minster the chains remain. In 1834 a writer described the room
as "a feast for moths and spiders;" now it is kept in admirable
order. The most important of its extremely valuable docu
ments have been printed in a volume devoted to Sarum in the
" Master of the RoUs Series," in the late Canon Jones' " Fasti
Ecclesiffi Sarisberiensis." In addition to these historic papers
there is an immense quantity of Chapter Registers and other
MSS. of more local interest. Many of the chests and presses
date from early times, when the three keys needed to open each
were severally in the charge of three of the cathedral dignitaries.
The contemporary copy of Magna Charta, made for William
Longespde, first Earl of Salisbury, and referred to elsewhere, is
sometimes exhibited here.
The documents which contain " the statutes and ordinances "
by which the cathedral is governed, extend over six centuries,
commencing in 1091 and ending 1697. These were edited by
Dr. Edward A. Dayman, and the late Rev. W. H. Rich
Jones, Vicar of Bradford-on-Avon, whose researches in the
past history of not merely the cathedral, but the whole dis
trict, were so extended, that it is impossible to do justice in
every instance to many facts which have been taken from his
pages in the preparation of this handbook. The privately
printed volume, published in 18S3, contains the Latin text with
English notes of these various documents. The details of
most of these, although of immense value to antiquarians, are
too technical to be available for quotation here, but the indirect
allusions to customs and manners of the past, makes many a
paragraph pleasant reading, although the whole document may
refer to merely the working details of administration. The
statute, dated a.d. 13 19, relating to the rights of the boy
bishop, is one of the few that have more than local interest.

86

Salisbury Cathedral.

The Close is certainly a fit setting for the jewel it sur
rounds, and with full remembrance of the superb position of
Durham, the picturesque eminence of Lincoln, the dignity
that marks the isolated hiU whereon Ely towers over the fens
around it, the harmonious environment of Wells, and many
another site made memorable by its cathedral, Salisbury is, in
its own way, not less beautiful. The quiet tranquillity of the
large lawn, the half-hidden houses that nestle among its trees,
the sense of being completely shut off from the work-a-day
world, impress one as much as the apparent vastness of the
area thus devoted to the cathedral. Leland, in his "Itinerary,"
was equally struck with its beauty, although, as the frontispiece
shows, the surroundings
were very different before
Wyatt's exploits, and pro
bably in Leland's time
preserved still more of
their medifeval aspect.
He says : " The great
and large embatelid
wauUe of the palace
having 3 gates to entre
into it thus namyd : the
close gate as principale
by north ynto the town.
Saint Anne's gate by est,
and Harnham gate by
south toward Harham bridge. The close wall was never ful
finished as in one place evidently apperith I redde that in
Bishop Rogers days as I remembere a convention was between
him and the Canons of Saresbyri de Muro clausi."
Whether the builders of our great churches were conscious
of the beauty of their surroundings, or whether no little of that
loveliness is but the slow result of centuries of care and the
accident of natural growth, need not be discussed. That to an
American especially this peculiar beauty tells with great force
we can readily believe, and Mrs. Van Rensselaer, whose paper
on Salisbury has been quoted before in this book, expresses
admirably the feeHng, which, whether it be true or only
imaginary, is no doubt the impression of such a place as the
Close of SaHsbury on many an educated visitor. " Salisbury,"

HANGING PARAPET ON THE EAST WALL
OF THE CLOSE.

TJie Bell Tower. 87
she writes, " is the very type and picture of the Church of the
Prince of Peace. Nowhere else does a work of Christian
architecture so express purity and repose and the beauty of
holiness, whUe the green pastures that surround it might well
be those of which the Psalmist writes. When the sun shines
on the pale grey stones, and the level grass, and the silent
trees, and throws the long shadow of the spire across them, it
is as though a choir of seraphs sang in benediction of that
peace of God which passeth understanding. The men who
built and planted here were sick of the temples of BaaHm,
tired of being cribbed and cabined, weary of quarrelsome
winds and voices. They wanted space and sun, and stillness,
comfort and rest, and beauty, and the quiet ownership of their
own ; and no men ever more perfectly expressed, for future
times to read, the ideal they had in mind."
The Bell Tower, a striking feature of the close as it
was before 1789, is shown on page 19, in the facsimile of an
engraving originally published in 1761, and re-engraved in the
superb County History in 1804 (?). This shows the campanile
standing at the north-west corner of the inclosure.
In style it was about the same period as the chapter house
and cloisters. The plan appears to have been square, although
one writer, frequently quoted, calls it multangular ; the stone
tower was in two massive stories with lancet windows in the
lower, and windows with plate tracery above, with a spire
apparently of wood crowning the whole. Leland speaks of it
as " a notable and strong square tower for great belles, and a
pyramis on it, in the cetniterie." It was evidently massive
enough to have stood for centuries, and the single pillar of
Purbeck marble, " lying in its natural bed," which was the
central support that carried the bells, the belfry, and the
spire, is speciaUy mentioned by Price as perfectly sound,
but he owns that the leaden spire, and a wooden upper story,
were decayed, and puts forward a design of a sham classic
dome which he hopes might be erected in its place. When
the cathedral was visited in 1553 by the Royal Commission
there remained a peal of ten bells, and the re-casting in 1680
of the seventh and eighth by the Purdues, local founders, is
recorded among the muniments. The sixth is now the clock
bell of the cathedral, but the fate of the others is absolutely
unknown.

88

Salisbury Cathedral.

Several of A\'yatt's iconoclastic blunders have been already
mentioned ; we now come to his chief iniquity. The Hunger
ford Chapel, demolished by Wyatt, stood at the east end
of the building on the north side of the Lady Chapel,
with which it was connected by openings cut in the main
wall. This chapel was one of those of which Fuller so
quaintly wrote, " A chantry was what we call in grammar an
adjective, unable to stand of itself, and was therefore united
for better support to some . . . church." An addition to
the building in a much later style, it was founded by Margaret
(daughter and sole heir of William, Lord Botreaux,) in 1464;
she was interred within its walls in 1477. Her history, too
full to note here, is a sad one, the loss of her movable goods
by " fyre " in Amesbury Abbey being but a small incident
among her many troubles. A peculiarly interesting inventory
of the ornaments and furniture that she gave to this chantry
has been preserved ; it is printed in Dugdale's " Baronage,"
vol. ii., p. 207, and also in " The Wiltshire Archaeological Maga
zine," vol. xi. The chapel,
in the somewhat florid late
Perpendicular style, had a
large east window of five
lights, and three of triple
lights in its north wall. The
outside was adorned with
shields and devices of the
famUy, and crested with battle
ments. Within it had a richly-
groined roof, and underneath
a large arch cut in the north
waU of the Lady Chapel, and
therefore opening into the
hall of the chantry, stood the
monument of Lord Hunger
ford, surmounted by an orna
mental four-arched canopy.
This altar tomb, now devoid
of the gold and colour that
once enriched it, is in the nave. Its armour, " Hke a lobster,"
with its peculiar pattern, its large shoulders and elbow-pieces,
and its jewelled girdle, is quoted by Meyrick as a very fine

DEATH AND THE GALLANT.

The Hungerford Chapel. 89
example of its period. Above were eight niches of demi-
quatrefoiled arches, with a fascia of quatrefoils surmounted
by a cornice of oak leaves. Between the monument and the
doorway was a series of wall-paintings of great interest. One,
" Death and the GaUant," has been engraved, and the dialogue
below it preserved. As the verses are archaic in spelling, it
may be best to follow a more modern version ("Wilts Archseo
logical Magazine," vol. ii., p. 95) :
"Alas, Death alas ! a blissful thing thou were
If thou wouldst spare us in our lustiness,
And come to wretches that be of heavy cheer
When they thee ask to lighten their distress.
But out, alas, thine own self-willedness
Harshly refuses them that weep and wail
To close their eyes that after thee do call.
Graceless Gallant in all thy lust and pride
Remember this, that thou shalt one day die,
Death shall from thy body thy soul divide —
Thou iipayst him escape not certainly,
To the dead bodies (here) cast down thine eye ;
Behold them well, consider too and see,
For such as they are, such shalt thou too be.''
Of this Mr. Francis Douce, in his volume " The Dance of
Death," says it was " undoubtedly a portion of the Macaber
Dance, as there was close to it another compartment belonging
to the same subject. This painting was made about the year
1460, and from the remaining specimen its destruction is
greatly to be regretted, as judging from the dress of the young
gallant the dresses of the time would be correctly exhibited."
There were other wall paintings, including a large St. Christo
pher with the Christ Child on his shoulder, and an Annuncia
tion, said to have been a fine work. An interesting memorial
of the chapel as it stood in the middle of the seventeenth
century, is to be found in an MS. pocket-book, still preserved
in the British Museum (Harl. MS. 939), which belonged to a
Captain Symons, of the Royalist Army. When he visited
Salisbury in 1644 he made many notes and sketches of the
armorial bearings in this chantry.
The Beauchamp Chapel. — The interior view here repro
duced from " Gough's Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain "
although not very clear is curiously interesting, conveying as it
does trustworthy evidence of the building so wantonly swept away.

90

Salisbury Cathedral.

Of the Beauchamp Chapel, on the south side of the Lady
Chapel, there appears to be no exterior view extant, but
from sketches of its interior, and descriptions, it must have
been a fine specimen of its period, and worthy of its designer,
the builder of St. George's Chapel, Windsor. It was larger
and more elaborate in detail than the Plungerford chantry, but
like it in plan, and similarly lighted by one large east window,
and three in the side wall. The remains of its founder, Bishop
Beauchamp, reposed in a plain tomb in the centre. In the

INTERIOR OF THE DEMOLISHED BEAUCHAMP CHAPEL.

wall on the north side were exquisite canopies above the tombs
of the father and mother of the bishop. An altar tomb of Sir
John Cheyne, now in the nave, stood formerly at the south
west corner (see page 48). There was a custom that on
Christmas Day and all holy days the wives of the mayor and
aldermen and gentry of the city, came to prayers in the Beau
champ chapel in the evening with flambeaux and torches, ex
cepting on Innocents' Day, when they went to their own parish
churches. In an interesting Guide to the Cathedral, now in
the British Museum, annotated in the last century by some

Stained Glass. 91
visitor, we find an entry concerning this chapel, " The ceiling
is of Irish oak, and never known to have spiders or cobwebs
in it."
Much of the carved work in both these chantries was em
ployed elsewhere in the buildings. The plea put forward for
their removal was founded on a report by Francis Price thirty-
six years before, wherein he considered them unsafe. When
the Hungerford Chantry was added one of the outside buttresses
of the Lady Chapel aisle was removed to make room for it ;
the opening pierced through the main walls of the cathedral
into both the chapels were also sources of weakness. Wyatt
seized upon these facts, and with the precedent of Price's
report, declared the chapels unsafe, and also, which was no
(loubthis real motive for action, that " their lack of uniformity"
injured the appearance of the buildings. Wyatt's ideal virtues
were of the lowest order, to obtain neatness and tidiness
he was prepared to sacrifice any and every thing, and the two
chapels were obviously not in the style of the cathedral, nor,
unluckily (for had they been they might yet be standing), pre
cisely symmetrical in efiect, so they were swept away. These
actions at Salisbury, and similar destruction at Lincoln, Here
ford, and elsewhere, have made Wyatt's name odious; but
deserving though he be of all blame, it must not be forgotten
that restorers of to-day, even at Sahsbury, have effaced much
interesting work of past time on the same pretext : that it failed
to accord with the rest of the work to which it was obviously
a late addition. This plea, specious and even excellent in
theory, has probably done more irreparable injury to our
ancient buildings than even the iconoclasts of the Reformation.
A shattered ruin may convey a clear idea of its original state,
whUe a smooth, pedantic restoration will obliterate it entirely.
The Stained Glass throughout the whole building sur
vives but in a few instances, and these, with two exceptions, not
in their original places. Of its wholesale destruction we have
sad evidence extant in a letter, dated 1788, from John Berry,
glazier, of Salisbury, to Mr. Lloyd, of Conduit Street, London.
It may be transcribed in full, to show how reckless the custodians
of the fabric were at that time : — " Sir. This day I have sent
you a Box fuU of old Stained & Painted glass, as you desired
me to due, which I hope will sute your Purpos, it his the best
that I can get at Present. But I expect to Beate to Peceais a

g2 Salisbury Cathedral.
a great deal very sune, as it his of now use to me, and we do
it for the lead. If you want more of the same sorts you may
have what thear is, if it will pay for taking out, as it is a Deal
of Truble to what Beating it to Peceais his ; you will send me
a Hne as soon as Possoble, for we are goain to move ourglasing
shop to a Nother plase, and thin we hope to save a great deal
more of the like sort, which I ham your most Omble servant-
John Berry."
The fragments that survived were collected some fifty years
since, and placed in the nave windows, and in parts of some of
the others. The most important are in the great west triple
lancet, wherein the glass ranges in date from the twelfth to the
fifteenth century. Mr. Winston, in his Paper read in 1849

PORTIONS OF THE OLD STAINED GLASS.

before the Archaeological Institute and printed in the Salis
bury volume for that year, considered that the earliest frag
ments are from a Stem of Jesse about 1240, and some medallions
about 1270. He describes two of the ovals that are on each
side of the throned bishop, a prominent figure in the lower half
of the central light, one of the Christ enthroned, the other of the
Virgin. The two medallions below them he believes represent
" Zacharias in the Temple," and " The Adoration of the Magi."
The later glass now in the same window may be either Flemish
work brought hither from .Dijon, or possibly partly from Rouen,
and partly from a church near Exeter. It has been conjectured
that in the south lancet the figures represent SS. Peter and
Francis, in the central one the Crucifixion, the Coronation of
the Virgin, and the Invention of the Cross, and in the north
light the Betrayal of Christ and St. Catherine. In two of the

Stained Glass. 93
side windows of the nave are the arms of John Aprice (1555-
1558) and Bishop Jewell (1562).
The stained glass in the north choir aisle includes a window
executed by Messrs. Clayton and Bell, in memory of Archdeacon
Huxtable, with figures of archangels and angels in the upper
lights, and the Angel appearing to Gideon, and the Vision of
Isaiah, in the lower panels. Also a window by Clayton and
Bell to the memory of the wife of the Rev. Chancellor Swayne,
having for its subject the reply of our Lord to his disciples. In
the east side of the Morning Chapel is a window by Messrs.
Burleson and Gryles to the memory of Mrs. W. R. Hamilton,
with the Nativity, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and the three arch
angels, Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael.
In the south choir aisle are two Clayton and Bell windows, to
the memory of George Morrison, and two others excellently
treated, both designed by Holiday, and executed by Powell.
In the one eight panels represent four holy women of the Old
Testament, and the four Maries. This is to the memory of
the late Countess of Radnor. In the other, to the memory of
Jacob, the 4th Earl of Radnor, a similar screen of decoration
embodies figures of eight prophets.
In the south-east transept is a window erected to the oflicers
of the Wiltshire Regiment who fell in the Sutlej Campaign in
1845-6, and in the Crimean War of 1854-5 ; also one of "The
Raising of Lazarus." In the upper windows of this transept is
a quantity of old glass of different dates, which had been stored
away for over a century in the roof of the Lady Chapel, untU
lately collected and placed where it now is.
The south choir aisle has a window in memory of the late
Duke of Albany, "Jacob's Dream," and two of the intended
six win.d0ws of a hierarchy of angels — the Angeli Ministrantes
and the Angeh Laudantes — designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones,
and executed by William Morris, which are notably among
the most superb examples of the art of glass painting since
mediseval times. Next in order towards the east is a window
of fine design to the memory of the late Duke of Albany.
In the south-west transept there are three Clayton and Bell
windows : in memory of Archdeacon Macdonald, with three
subjects from the Life of Christ ; in memory of Bishop
Douglas, and in memory of C G. Verrinder; also one to the

94

Salisbury Cathedral.

memory of Sir G. A. Arney, with Moses and the Tables of the
Law, and the Sermon on the Mount; and the large south
window, by Bell, to the memory of Dean Hamilton.
Above the altar is a fine light window of last century work,
singularly good of its kind — bad though the kind may be.
In the south aisle of the nave is a window to the memory of
Mr. W. M. Coates, with subjects, the miracles of healing,
executed by Messrs. Clayton and Bell.
In 1890 a fine modern window, from a design by Henry
Holiday, was inserted in the south aisle of the nave. This has
for its subject, "Suffer little children to come unto me," It
is to the memory of John Henry Jacob and his wife.
In 1620 Dr. Simpson mentions "three great windows newly
glazed in rich colours to make the story of St. Paul."
Throughout the cathedral, and in the Chapter House, were
many specimens of geometrical painted glass, some of which are
figured in Mr. Winston's Paper, before referred to. These have
served as motives for much modern design, which, faithfully as
it may have copied the forms, has generally missed the softened
colour that distinguishes the original work.

TOMB OF WILLIAM LONGESPEE, IST EARL OF SALISBURY (P. 47).
From a Photograph by Catherine Weed Ward.

History of the See. g'j

HISTORY OF THE SEE.
HE site of old Sarum. — Searobyrig, the
dry city, as the Saxons called it — is about
a mUe to the north of the present New
Sarum, or Salisbury, to use the more
familiar name. It was probably a forti
fied place from very early times, long
before it became the Roman station of
Sorbiodunum. William of Malmesbury
says that "the town was more like a castle than a city,
being environed with a high wall, and notwithstanding that
it was very well accommodated with other conveniences,
yet such was the want of water that it sold at a great rate."
This latter statement, although repeated by every chronicler,
is not supported by investigations of recent explorers, w lO
found an ample supply in divers wells. Francis Price con
cludes that " it was frequented by Roman Emperors from the
coins of Constantine, Constans Magnentius, Crispus, and
Claudius, being found frequently among its ruins." This
statement also lacks probability. A legend of the visit of a
single emperor might have been barely credible ; but the
lavish variety the otherwise trustworthy historian offers is
fatal to one's belief. Its early history, more or less legendary,
need not be chronicled here. Probably Kenric the Saxon, who
captured it in 553, lived there, and it seems to have been kept
in his Hne until Egbert united the whole Heptarchy. King
Alfred ordered Leofric, Earl of WUtunscire, to add to its forti
fications, which appear to have fallen into decay after the
Romans held if In 1003 Svein, King of Denmark, pUlaged
and burnt it, but the religious estabHshments if not spared were
soon re-established, for we find that Editha, Queen of ^dwaid

96 Salisbury Cathedral.
the Confessor, conveyed the lands of Shorstan to the nuns of
St. Mary, Sarum. At this time it appears to have possessed a
mint, as a coin of ^Edward the Confessor bears an inscription
showing that it was struck by Godred at Sarum.
From the time of St. Aldhelm, in 705, to that of Herman,
in 1058, there are no other facts of its secular history sufficiently
pertinent to our purpose to warrant their quotation here, as
the record of the place is so woven into the lives of its bishops,
that the brief summary of the ecclesiastics who held the see
includes all we need of the history of the city. In this kingdom
within a kingdom, a cathedral surrounded by a fortress, its
inhabitants were naturally split into factions ; the soldiers and
the clergy failed to agree, and in spite of the document quoted
below, there is little doubt that political rather than climatic
reasons led to the removal of the cathedral. Whether, as some
writers think, it was but an insignificant structure, it is certainly
recorded that the church erected by Osmund took fifteen
years to build. Five days after its consecration, on April 5 th,
1092, it was partially destroyed by a thunderstorm. We find
in Robert of Gloucester's "Chronicle " (Hearnes ed., p. 416)
this allusion to the disaster :
" So gret lytnynge was the vyfte yer, so that it al to nogte,
The rof the Church of Salesbury it broute
Rygt evene the vyfte day that he yhalwed was.''
Whether the sentence in an old chronicler that Roger " made
anew the church of Sarum " means it was so seriously damaged
by the lightning that he actually rebuilt it, or merely that he
restored it, is not clear. Roger was the great architectural
genius of his time, and from the evidence of its ground plan,
traced in the foundations revealed in the singularly dry summer
of 1834, it may be that the stately edifice, 270 feet long by 75
feet wide, on the plan of a Latin cross, was in its last state not
the work of Osmund. During the excavations at this time,
various fragments of stained glass and several keys were dis
covered, also what was apparently the original grave of St.
Osmund before his body was moved to Sarum. An extract
trom Harrison's " Description of Britain," prefixed to HoUin-
shed's "Chronicle" shows clearly enough the principal events
that produced the crisis which doomed Old Sarum to desola
tion. " In the time of ciuUe warres the souldirs of the castell

History of the See. 97
and chanons of Old Sarum feU at ods, inasmuch that often
after brawles they fell at last to sadde blowes. It happened
therefore in a rogation weeke that the cleargie going in solemn
procession a controversie fell between them about certaine
walkes and limits which the one side claimed and the other
denied. Such also was the hot entertainment on eche part,
that at last the CasteUans espieing their time gate betweene
the cleargie and the towne and so coUed them as they returned
homewards that they feared anie more to gang their boundes
for that year. Hereupon the peope missing their belly-chere,
for they were wont to haue banketing at every station, a thing
practised by the religious in old tyme, they conveyed forthwith
a deadly hatred against the Castellans, but not being able to
cope with them by force of arms, they consulted with their
bishop . . that it was not ere the chanons began a church
upon a piece of their own ground . . . And thus became
Old Sarum in a few years utterly desolate."
By other accounts we find there was insufficient room for all
the canons to live within the walls, and the right of free egress
being disputed the position became so intolerable, that Bishop
Richard Poore, a man of great force of character, who suc
ceeded his brother, took up the design Herbert had set
aside, and commenced negotiations in earnest, the result of
which is best explained by the following document :
" Honorius, bishop. Servant of the servants of God to our
rev. brother Richard, bishop, and to our beloved sons the Dean
and Chapter of Sarum, health and apostolical benediction.
My sons the dean and chapter, it having been heretofore
alleged before us on your behalf, that forasmuch as your
church is built within the compass of the fortifications of
Sarum, it is subject to so many inconveniences and oppres
sions, that you cannot reside in th'e same without corporal
perils : for being situated on a lofty place, it is, as it were,
continually shaken by the collision of the winds ; so that while
you are celebrating the divine ofifices, you cannot hear one
another the place itself is so noisy : and besides the persons
resident there suffer such perpetual oppressions, that they are
hardly able to keep in repair the roof of the church, which is
constantly torn by tempestuous winds. They are also forced
to buy water at as great a price as would be sufficient to pur
chase the common drink of the country : nor is there any

98

Salisbury Cathedral.

access to the same without the licence of the Castellan. So
that it happens on Ash Wednesday when the Lord's Supper is
administered at the time of the Synods, and celebrations of
orders, and on other solemn days, the faithful being willing to
visit the said church, entrance is denied them by the keepers
of the castle, alleging that the fortress is in danger, besides you
have not there houses sufficient for you, wherefore you are
forced to rent several houses of the laity ; and that on account
of these and other inconveniences many absent themselves
from the service of the said church."
This mandate, dated at " the Lateran, 4th of the calend of
April, in the second year of our Pontificat," concludes by giving
formal power for the translation of the church to another con
venient place.
After the cathedral was removed the prosperity of the place
quickly waned. The new roads and bridges made access to
the new city more convenient. Wilton suffered from the
growth of its new rival, but Sarum ceased to be even a ruin,
as the very stones of its cathedral were ultimately taken to
build a wall around the precincts of the new church, and
oblivion soon overtook the ancient city^ which to-day is not
even a hamlet, but at most a geographical expression. As a
specimen of an early " burgh," or hill fortress, its form well de
serves study. Its circular walls, and various ditches and ram
parts, are shown in plans in the County History, in Francis
Price's book, and elsewhere.

TOMB OF "THE BOY BISHOP" (P. 49).
From a I holograph by Catherine Weed Ward.

TJie Diocese of Sarum. 99

THE DIOCESE OF SARUM.
'O far as its history concerns us here, it suffices to
note that the greater part of Wiltshire, and those
portions of Dorset and Somerset which had been
comprised in the see of Winchester, were, about
the year 705, during the reign of Ina, King of the
West Saxons, included in the new diocese of Sher-
bourne, which in its turn, about two hundred years after, circa
905-9, was sub-divided into those of WeUs, for Somerset, and
Crediton, for Devon. About 920, a new see was allotted 10
Wiltshire, whose bishop took his title from Ramsbury, near
Marlborough, on the borders of the county; and with this
was soon after re-united the smaller diocese of Sherbourne,
and in 1075, the episcopal seat was removed to the fortress of
Old Sarum, whence in 1 2 18 it was again removed to the present
city. In 1542, part of the see was devoted to the new diocese
of Bristol. The see of Sherbourne, ruled over by St. Aldhelm
from 705 to 709, was a much larger one than the second diocese
of the same name which in 1058 was united to Ramsbury,
under Herman, who held it from 1058 to 1078. The eight
previous bishops are more or less well known, and in the
admirable " Diocesan History '' and in the " Fasti Ecclesise
Sarisburiensis," both by the late Rev. W. H. Jones, there is
much interesting detail of the earlier rulers of the diocese now
called Salisbury.
Herman, by birth a Fleming, was one of the ecclesiastics
brought over by Edward the Confessor. His record is unmarked
by events that left lasting results. He made a bold but fruit
less attempt to annex the Abbey of Malmesbury. During his
time, as an old viriter quaintly phrases it, " it is agreed by all
authors, both printed and in manuscript, that there was not yet

lOO Salisbury Cathedral.
any cathedral, church, or chapter, either within or without the
King's Castle ,[of Old Sarum], but only a chapel and a dean."
Later authorities, however, assign to him the commencement,
at least, of a cathedral. In Benson and Hatcher's "Wiltshire,"
we find it has been conjectured that Herman, on removing his
see to Sarum, found there a chapel and a dean, and that in
exchange for this building he transferred the two cathedrals of
Sherborne and Sunning to the Dean to whose peculiar juris
diction they have since belonged ; other evidence, however,
points to the church having been begun and finished by
Osmund, his successor, whose own words in the charter of
foundation run : " I have built the church at Sarum and con
stituted canons therein." An epistle of Gregory IX. to the
bishops of Bath and Wells states that, " Osmund of pious
memory had employed gr^t care as well in temporals as in
spirituals, so that he had magnificently builded the said church
from its foundations and enriched it with books, treasures, . . .
and lands from his own property." Herman, like other
English bishops who were his fellow-natives Leofric at
Exeter, and Giso at Wells, was not deprived of his see after the
Conquest ; but in 1075, in obedience to the decree of the
Council of London that bishops' sees should be removed from
obscure to more important places, he chose the hill of Sarum.
His remains are said to have been transferred to a tomb in the
present cathedral, but later antiquarians decline to endorse the
tradition. Osmund, who is believed lo have been the nephew of
William the Conqueror, was son of Henry, Count of Seez, in
Normandy ; he was created Earl of Wiltshire soon after the
Conquest, before he became an ecclesiastic ; Camden speaks of
him as the " Earl of Dorset." As the author of the " Con-
suetudinariam," the ordinal of ofifices for the use of Sarum,
wherein he collated the various forms of ritual in use at many
churches, both in England and on the Continent, he won a
fame far more than the building of Old Sarum, were it never so
stately a cathedral, could have secured him. His famous
"Sarum Use" was adopted by almost the whole of England,
and reflected glory upon the church that instituted it, so
that in the words of an old historian, "like the sun in his
heavens, the church of Salisbury is conspicuous above all other
chtirches in the world, diffusing the light everywhere and

The Diocese of Sarum. lOi
supplying their defects." The original manuscript of this great
work is one of the choice.st treasures of the cathedral library
exhibited to those who have access to that collection ; it is
also avaUable to the ordinary student in a volume entitled,
" The Church of our Fathers," pubhshed by Dr. Rock in
1849. "As a man," says William of Malmesbury, "Osmund
was rigid in the detection of his own faults, and unsparing to
those of others." Although his body and his tomb were moved
to the Lady Chapel of the new cathedral in 1226, and his name
adored popularly, he was not canonized until over two hun
dred years later. Pope Callistus, the first of the Borgias,
issued the bull on January ist, 1456, but not, according to
rumour, untU ample funds had been supplied to facilitate his
action. Some interesting correspondence relating to it has
been lately printed in the " Sarum Charters and Documents,"
issued under the direcdon of the Master of the Rolls. The
bull itself, in the keeping of the chapter, has been printed
in Volume iii. of the great collection of Papal bulls edited by
Cocqueline, and published in Rome, 1743. On July 15th,
1457, according to the authority of a writer in "Archteologia,"
Vol. xiv., the translation of his body was completed, principally
at the expense of the bishop, a huge concourse of people being
present at the festival. From the plentiful accounts of miracles
worked at his shrine long before he was officially canonized,
there is but little doubt but that it had become a favourite
place of pilgrimage. He died in 1099, and in spite of his tomb
being removed to the cathedral in 1226 and a stately shrine
erected later, a stone with no inscription but a date of doubtful
authenticity^MXCIX — is all that commemorates him there
to-day. The next bishop was Roger, who was elected in 1102,
consecrated in 1107, and died in 1139. If his fame as an
ecclesiastic is not so assured as that of his illustrious prede
cessor, in architecture and in secular history he has left a
decided mark. He was a poor Norman, priest, who won his
mitre by singing a hunting mass quickly before Henry I. Made
chaplain by the king on his accession, he afterwards became
first chancellor, and then justiciary. He organized the
Court of Exchequer, which has preserved the earliest official
records known to us. His castles at Devizes, Sherborne, and
Malmesbury excited the jealousy of the nobles ; his son was chan-

]02 Salisbury Cathedral.
cellor, one nephew Bishop of Ely, and another nephew Bishop
of Lincoln. Besides much work, now destroyed, at Old Sarum
(so that whether he merely restored the damage caused by Hght
ning, or rebuilt it from the foundations, according to the Norman
custom, we cannot tell), his additions to Sherborne Minster are
still memorable as a new departure in Norman architecture ;
in fact, he has been called the great architectural genius of the
thirteenth century. " Unscrupulous, fierce, and avaricious,"
he is a type of the great feudal churchmen when they were
veritable rulers. According to WilHam of Malmesbury, " was
there anything contiguous to his property which might, be
advantageous to him, he would directly extort it either by
entreaty or purchase, or if that failed, by force." Although
after King Henry's death Henry, Bishop of Winchester, per
suaded him to open the vast treasure of the late king to
Stephen, yet in the fourth year of his reign Stephen impri
soned him, and the Bishop of Lincoln, his nephew, and seized
their castles of Devizes and Sherborne, Newark, and Sleaford.
Bishop Roger the same year, according to one chronicler,
" by the kindness of death, escaped the quartan ague which
had long afflicted him, and died broken-hearted." But
another version says that " he starved to death through a
promise to King Stephen that his castle of Devizes should
be surrendered to him before he eat or drank ; but his nephew,
the Bishop of Ely, who then had possession of it, kept it
three days before he made the surrender to the king."
Jocelin de Bohun, or, as he is sometimes called, de
Bailleul (1142 to 1184), is best known from his quarrel with
Thomas a Becket, of Canterbury. For his share in framing
the "Constitutions of Clarendon," he was excommunicated by
the archbishop. On the death of Roger, in 11 39, King Stephen
nominated PhUip de Harcourt, but the canons preferred
Jocelin, who was not, however, consecrated until 1142. After
the murder of A'Becket he "purged himself by oath of his
offences" towards his late foe. In 1184 he rerired to a Cis
tercian monastery, and died shortly afterwards. A monument
on the south side of the cathedral nave is attributed to him.
The see was now left vacant for five years, when Hubert
Walter was consecrated, in 11 89; he shortly after went to the
Holy Land to join Richard I. in his crusade. While at Acre
he was nominated to the vacant archbishopric of Canterbury, to

The Diocese of Sarum.

103

which he returned in 1193. He exercised a powerful influence
on both king and people ; the latter, with whom he had never
been popular, found at his death that " they had lost the only
bulwark strong enough to resist or break the attack of royal
despotism." Herbert de la Poer, or Poore (1194-1217), who suc
ceeded him, ruled in a troubled period, when the realm was
under the interdict of Pope Innocent III. Compelled to quit
Old Sarum, he died at Wilton in 12 17.
With Richard Poore, who was consecrated Bishop of

MONUMENT LOCALLY ACCREDITED TO BISHOP POORE.

Chichester in 12 15, and in 12 17 Bishop of Old Sarum, where
he had been dean, begins the record of the bishops immediately
connected with the building. His history is so intimately
bound up with that of the cathedral, that here it is sufl5cient to
note that he ruled at Old Sarum and Salisbury until 1229,
when he was translated to Durham.' His distinct influence
upon the architecture of that cathedral, in connection with
-Elias de Derham, is noticed elsewhere. He died at his birth-
' 14th May, 1228. Vide "Hist. Dunelm. Script.," App. Iii.

I04 Salisbury Cathedral.
place, Tarrant (Tarent Crawford'), in Dorsetshire, where he
had founded a Cistercian nunnery, in which his heart is said
to have been interred ; his body was taken to Durham, and a
monument with his effigy erected in the new cathedral at Salis
bury. The names of St. Osmund and Richard Poore stand out
beyond all others in connection with this see. The one for the
indirect glory he conferred upon it by his memorable ordinal ;

NORTH CHOIR AISLE, WITH BISHOP BINGHAM S MONUMENT.

the other by his removal of the cathedral and the superb
fabric he left to commemorate his fame. With them, ex
cepting possibly Bishop Hallam, the record of men of mark
ceases ; of their successors hardly one has had a reputation
beyond his diocese, and certainly there is not one whose fame
has spread beyond his native land.
Robert Bingham (1229-1246) finished the work of the
^ Others say Tarrant Monkton.

Tlie Diocese of Sariiui. 105
cathedral during his eighteen years' rule ; but when he died he
left it in debt 1,700 marks. His monument, with effigy, is now
in the north choir aisle.
W^illiam of York (1247-1256) was one of the chaplains
to Henry II. ; by his renewal of the vexatious custom of attend
ing the lord's courts, he became very unpopular. Matthew
Paris mentions him as one of the favourites of the king, and
Bishop Godwin says that he was better versed in the laws of
the realm than in those of God.
Giles of Bridport, or de Bridlesford (1257-1262), who
held also the Deanery of WeUs by a faculty " in Commendam,"
for Pope Honorius, continued the works of the cathedral until
it was consecrated, in 1258, by Boniface, Archbishop of Savoy,
the brother of the queen of Edward I. He also founded the
college of Vaux. In 1260, during his bishopric, there is a
curious entry in a document, lately printed, which refers to
Nicholas of 'V^ork, Canon of Salisbury, Le eiigineur.
In the same volume (Rolls Chronicles, 1891), there is a note
of this bishop granting 200 lbs. of wax annually from his ward
robe for increasing the Hghts in the church, as he had been told
that amount would be sufficient to double the number of the
candles at each ministration.
¦Walter de la ^A^yle (1263-1271), the founder of the
church of St. Edmund of Abingdon, has a mutilated effigy
assigned to him in the cathedral.
Robert de 'Wykehampton (1274-1284), although elected
by the canons, the monks of Canterbury, and the king, was
opposed by the archbishop, who, after four years' interval and an
appeal to Rome, was forced to consecrate him. He is said to
have become blind in 1278.
\A^alter Scammel (i 284-1 286). Although on his election
the monks of Canterbury appealed to the Pope against it, they
subsequently withdrew their opposition. He was buried near
the Audley Chapel.
Henry de Braundeston (1287), who died the same
year, was buried, according to Leland, in the Lady Chapel.
Walter de la Corner (1289-1291) was one of the chap
lains of the Pope. He was buried in the middle of the choir,
" nearly under the eagle."
Nicholas Longespee (1292-1297) was fourth and youngest
son of the first Earl of Salisbury, and Countess Ela.

io6 Salisbury Cathedral.
Simon of Ghent, or de Gand (1297-1315), first empowered
the mayor and citizens to forti;y the city. According to, a
document printed in the "Rolls Chronicles," 1891, the visita
tion of many of the churches, about 1300, compares badly with
a similar record for 1220 ; ignorance of the clergy, gross neg
lect of the fabric, insufficient and dilapidated books and vest
ments, with other evidences of lack of energy, are very frequent.
Roger Mortival (1315-1330) founded a collegiate estabHsh-
ment at Knowsley, his birthplace. The Library of Merton
CoUege, Oxford, contains many manuscripts, his gift while he
was Archdeacon of Leicester. He is said also to have drawn
up the statutes by which the cathedral is still partly governed.
Robert Wyville, or WivU (1330-1375), was, by Walsing-
ham's account, not merely desritute of learning, but so deformed
and ugly, "it is hard to say whether he was more dunce or
dwarf, more unlearned or unhandsome," that had the Pope seen
him he would never have endorsed his appointment. He was
a militant bishop, and in 1355 instituted a suit against WUliam
de Montacute, .and sent his champion clothed in white to try
wager of battle with him. He recovered for his see 2,500
marks and the ancient castle of Old Sarum, also that of Sher
borne. He obtained permission to fortify his manors ot
Sarum, Sherborne, Woodford, Chardstock, Potterne, Canning,
Sunning, and his mansion in Fleet Street (now Salisbury Court),,
"in the suburbs of London." His brass is in the Morning Chapel.
Ralph Erghum (1375-13S8) was'probably of Flemish
birth. He was translated to Bath and WeUs in 1388, where
he died in 1400. He is said to have erected the City Cross
as a penance, but the Sarum register seems rather to indicate
that he compelled the Earl of Salisbury to do so.
John Waltham (1388-1395) was Master of the RoUs in
1382, and Keeper of the Privy Seal in 1391. For a time he
resisted the metropolitan visitation of Archbishop Courtney,
notwithstanding that the Bishop cf Exeter had been forced to
yield in a similar contest, but when the archbishop excommuni
cated him he was compelled to submit. He was specially in
the favour of his king, Richard II. , and died Lord High Trea
surer in 1305. He was buried ("not without much general dis
satisfaction," according to Walsingham,) in Westminster Abbey,
where his brass can be seen in the floor of the chapel of the
Confessor, to the right of King Edward's tomb.

The Diocese of Sarum. 107
Richard Mitford (1395-1407) was the favourite, and con
fessor of Richard II. , but during the so-called " wonderful "
parliament he was imprisoned in Bristol Castle, until released
by the King on his re-assumption of power. In 1389 he was
nominated to the see of Chichester, and translated therefrom
to Salisbury in 1395. His tomb stands in an angle of the south
transept. Nicholas Bub'with (1407), at one time Treasurer of Eng
land, held SaHsbury for three months only, between the bishoprics
of London and Bath and WeUs. He died at WeUs, 1424.
Robert Hallam (1407-1417). Notwithstanding his bril
liant career, both the origin and birthplace of this prelate are
unknown. " Born in England of royal blood," says one
chronicler, but there is no corroborative evidence. Prebendary
of York, Archdeacon of Canterbury in 1401, Chancellor of
Oxford 1403, he left England in 1406 for Rome, and was
nominated by Pope Gregory XII. to be Archbishop of York ;
this latter preferment was withdrawn, but in its stead he be
came Bishop of Salisbury in 1407. He was at the Council of Pisa
in 1409, and, in 141 1, was created a cardinal by Pope John XXII I.
At the famous Council of Constance, 1415-1417, he was one of
the foremost champions of religious liberty, and almost alone in
condemning the punishment of death for heresy. Indeed, the
whole future of the Roman church is said to have been changed
by his death at the Castle of Gotlieb in 141 7, and the supremacy
of the Itahan party assured by the decease of its most formid--
able opponent. The brass that marks his burial place in Con
stance cathedral is supposed to have been executed in England,
and sent thence some time after his death. It is engraved in
Kites' "Monumental Brasses of Wiltshire."
John Chandler (1417-1426) is remembered chiefly for his
brief life of William of Wykeham.
Robert Neville (1427-1438) was the nephew of Henry IV. ;
after holding the see of Salisbury for ten years he was trans
lated to Durham, He founded the monastery at Sunning.
"William Ayscough (1438-1450), who has left Htde record
of his life, met his death during a local rising in 1450, the year
of the Jack Cade rebeUion. On the feast of SS. Peter and
Paul his church at Edingdon, near Westbury, one of his
palaces, was attacked by a mob, who seized the- bishop in the
vestments wherein he had just said mass, and, dragging him to

io8 Salisbury Cathedral.
a hill-top near, there they stoned and beheaded him, stripping
off his garments and dividing them among themselves for memo
rials. His body was afterwards interred at Edingdon. Pos
sibly his scholarship, which separated him from his people,
was the real cause of his unpopularity, which is, however, gene
rally attributed to his frequent absence with King Henry VL,
to whom he was Confessor.
Richard Beauchamp (1450-1481) was translated from
the bishopric of Hereford. Son of Sir Walter, and grandson
of Lord Beauchamp of Powick, he was sent on diplomatic
missions to various courts, including Burgundy. In 147 1 he
was one of the signatories of the truce with the Duke of
Brittany. In 1477 he became Dean of Windsor, and was
appointed by Edward IV. master of the works then in pro
gress, which included the rebuilding of St. George's Chapel.
At Salisbury he left the great hall of the bishop's palace and
his own superb chantry as memorials of his architectural
skill. Elsewhere in this book is a fuller description of this
beautiful tomb demolished by Wyatt. He himself was buried
at Windsor ; in an arch opposite his tomb was a missal carved
in stone with a quaint inscription, beginning, " Who leyde this
boke here." He is said to have been the first chancellor of
the Order of the Garter, although Dr. Milner assigns that
honour to William de Edingdon. Whether the first or not, he
and his successors in the see held it by charter of Edward,
until they were deprived in the reign of Henry VIII. In 1671
it was again awarded to the see of Salisbury, but passed, in
1836, with Berkshire to that of Oxford.
Lionel Woodville, or WydviUe (1482-1484), nephew of
Elizabeth, queen of Edward IV, was appointed to the see in
1482. His brother-in-law, the Duke of Buckingham, was
beheaded in Salisbury market place just before the battle of
Bosworth. Woodville is said to have died of grief occasioned
by the downfaU of the fortunes of his house on the accession of
Richard III.
Thomas Langton (1485-1493) is best remembered as a
patron of literature, for which he has been called a second
Maecenas, yet, despite the " fostering hand he always afforded to
learned men," he was an opponent of Wicklif's heresies, and
did his best to stamp them out in his see when they had
gained a number of adherents.

The Diocese of Sarum. 109
John Blyth (1494-1499) was Chancellor of Ireland in
1499. An effigy, assumed to be his, is in the north transept.
Henry Dean, or Denny, or Syer (1500-1501), was trans
lated to Canterbury shortly after his appointment to Salisbury.
He is believed to have been one of the victims of the Great
Plague, and to have died at Lambeth in 1503.
Edmund Audley (1502-1524) was Bishop of Rochester
iu 1480, translated to Hereford in 1492, and to Salisbury in
1502. His beautiful chantry still remains in its original position.
St. Mary's, Oxford, contains a pulpit said to be his gift.
Lorenzo Campegio, Cardinal of St. Anastatius, was
nominated by Pope Clement in 1524. He was sent to England
to join Cardinal Wolsey in adjudicating upon the royal divorce.
In 1535, when Henry VIII. disgraced Wolsey, Campegio was
also deprived of his see by Act of Parliament. At Rome, how
ever, he was regarded as Bishop of Salisbury until his death ;
and " for some time after " an independent succession was
maintained by the Pope in two English bishoprics, namely,
SaHsbury and Worcester.
Nicholas Shaxton (15 35- 1539) was President of GonviUe
Hall, Cambridge, and for a while a sturdy supporter of the
king. At the time of Latimer's resignation he also resigned in
common with many other bishops. He was imprisoned, and
in 1546 condemned to be burnt, for denying the real presence ;
but recanting became prominent as opponent of the reformers,
preaching fiery sermons at the martyrdom of Anne Askew and
others. After he resigned his see he became suffragan to the
Bishop of Ely. He died at Cambridge in 1556.
John Capon, or Salcote (1539-1557), had been Bishop of
Bangor. His record is notorious for its greed and time-serving.
First orthodox, then Protestant, and one of the revisers of the
Liturgy under Edward VI. , again changing under Mary, and one
of the judges at the trial of Bishop Hooper of Gloucester.
Fuller impeaches him with Veysey, or Harman, of Exeter, say
ing, " it seems as if it were given to binominous bishops to be
impairers of their churches."
Peter Peto (1557), a cardinal nominated by the Pope, was
refused possession by Queen Mary, who appointed Francis
Malet, Dean of Lincoln, in his stead, but he in turn, before his
consecration, was ejected by Elizabeth, who had succeeded to
the throne meanwhile.

I IO Sahsbury Cathedral.
John Jewel (1560-1571) is one of the few Protestant
bishops connected with this see who can claim more than
diocesan fame. He was born at Berry Narbor, Devonshire, in
1522, and appears to have belonged to a good old family. When
a Fellow of Corpus, at Oxford, his adherence to the doctrines
of the Reformation caused him to be expelled; but so greatly was
he beloved for his pure life and his profound scholarship there,
that in spite of his expulsion he was chosen to be Public Orator
at his University. His Hfe is too widely known to need an
epitome here. Among his writings, the most famous,' the
" Apology for the Church of England," published in 1562, was
quickly translated into every language in Europe- In episcopal
matters he took great interest, and built the Hbrary over the
cloisters,' besides devoting great care to the education of students,
having always a number of poor lads in his house, and main
taining others at Oxford, one of whom was the famous "Judicious
Hooker." Fuller praises him in terms that seem, however ex
travagant, to be generally admitted by his contemporaries to be
fully deserved, and the famous sentence, "It is hard to say
whether his soul or his ejaculations arrived first in heaven,
seeing he prayed dying, and died praying," shows that he was
reverenced by the Reformed Church as a veritable saint.
He died at Monkton Fairleigh in 1571, his tombstone, de
spoiled of its brass, is now near that of Bishop Wyvil, whence
it was removed from its former place in the choir.
Edmund Gheast, or Gest (1571-1577), the first Pro
testant Bishop of Rochester, was translated to Salisbury, where
he gave a fine coUection of books to the new library of the
cathedral. His tombstone is in the north choir aisle.
John Piers (1577-1589) preached before Queen Elizabeth
at the solemn thanksgiving for the defeat of the Spanish
Armada. He was translated to York in 1589.
John Cold'well (1591-1596), a physician before he became
a cleric, is also noticeable as the first married bishop who held
the see. He was accused of wasting its revenues, and is re
sponsible for the loss of Sherborne Castle, which he alienated,
says Fuller, " owing to the wily intrigues of Sir Walter Raleigh."
Henry Cotton (1598-1615) was one of the chaplains of
Elizabeth, and a godson of the Queen, of whom she is reported
to have remarked that " she had blessed many of her godsons,
now one should bless her."' Sir John Harrington says, "he
^ This statement is open to doubt.

The Diocese of Sarum. 1 1 1
had nineteen children by one wife, which is no ordinary bless
ing, and most of them sonnes. His wife's name was Patience ;
the name of which I have heard in few wives, the quality in
none." As the second married bishop he certainly appears to
have supported fuUy the Protestant opposition to the celibacy
of the clergy.
Robert Abbott (1615-1618) was the elder brother of
George, Archbishop of Canterbury. Fuller says, "George
was the more plausible preacher, Robert the greater scholar;
George the abler statesman, Robert the deeper divine. Gravity
did frown in George, and smile in Robert." As one might
infer from so strong an opponent of Laud, amid the large
number of his published works most are polemical and Anti-
Romish. Martin Fotherby (1618-1620) held the see but a year,
and hence left no lasting impression upon it.
Robert To'wnson (1620-162 1), who attended the execution
of Sir Walter Raleigh, and has left a graphic and touching
account of his last hours, was but ten months bishop when he
died, says Fuller, who was his nephew, of a fever contracted by
"unseasonable sitting up to study," when preparing a sermon
to preach before Parliament.
John Davenant (1621-1641) attended the Synod of Dort
at the bidding of James I., and was the author of many theo
logical works.
Brian Duppa, or de Uphaugh (1641-1660) was tutor to
the sons of Charles I., and appointed to Salisbury just before
the Commonwealth ; he was deprived almost immediateh',
and lived in seclusion at Richmond until, at the Restoration,
he was translated to Winchester. His memorial tablet is in
Westminster. Of him Izaak Walton said, "he was one of those
men in whom there was such a commixture of general learning,
of natural eloquence, and Christian humility, that they deserve
a commemoration by a pen equal to their own, which none
have exceeded."
Humphrey Henchman (1660-1663) was appointed at
the Restoration, no doubt as a reward for his great services to
King Charles after the battle of Worcester. After holding the
see three years he was translated to London.
John Earles (1663-1665), appointed Bishop of Worcester
at the Restoration, wns translated to Salisbury in 1663. One

112 Salisbury Cathedral.
of his books, "The Microcosmographie, or a Piece of the
World Discovered in Essays and Characters," first published
anonymously in 1628, was extremely popular, and ran through
many edirions ; it is still read as a faithful picture of its
times. Hallam in his "Literary History" praises it highly.
Clarendon in his " Memoirs " also eulogizes its author, and
Izaak Walton in his " Life of Hooper " speaks of his innocent
wisdom, sanctified learning, and pious, peaceable, and primi
tive temper. Earles was constantly with Prince Charles during
his exile, and hence one of the first ecclesiastics to receive
preferment. Alexander Hyde (1665-1667) was first cousin to the
famous Lord Chancellor Clarendon. A portrait, alleged to re
present this prelate, was found by Bishop FuUer in an obscure
cottage ; it is now in the Bishop's palace.
Seth Ward (1667-1689), who was made Bishop of Exeter
at the Restoration, and translated to Salisbury in 1667, took
great interest in the fabric, and restored the bishops' palace.
The survey of the cathedral by Sir Christopher Wren was
undertaken by his request and at his own cost. He regained
for his see the Chancellorship of the Order of the Garter, lost
for a century and a half. He founded the College of Matrons,
and at his death at Knightsbridge in 1688, was buried in
the south choir aisle. Dr. Walter Pope's biography of this
bishop is an interesting record of an eventful life.
Gilbert Burnet (16S9-1715). Lord Macaulay has summed
up the character of this bishop in terms, that if they convey an
impression of a vain, indiscreet, and somewhat blundering
partisan, yet do justice to the vigour and strength of his
character, while of the " History of his Own Times," and many
other volumes yet remembered, he says : " A writer whose
voluminous works in several branches of literature find nume
rous readers one hundred and thirty years after his death,
may have had great faults, but must also have had great
merits." William Talbot (1715-1721) was of the house of Shrews
bury, and father of Lord Chancellor Talbot. He was trans
lated to Durham in 1721.
Richard Willis (1721-1723) held the see for two year.--,
when he was translated to Winchester.
Benjamin Hoadly, Bishop of Bangor 17 16, Hereford

The Diocese of Sarum. , 113
1721, Sarum 1723. Owing to the controversy raised by one of
his sermons. Convocation was suspended for 150 years.
Thomas Sherlock (1734-1748) was appointed to Bangor
in 1727, translated to Salisbury in 1734, declined the Arch
bishopric of Canterbury in 1747, and was translated to London
in 1748. In the most apathedc time of the Anglican Church
he is a striking example of activity and earnestness.
John Gilbert (1749-1757) was a turbulent bishop whose
record is full of disputes with the civic authorities at Salisbury.
John Thomas (1757-1761), Bishop of Peterborough 1746,
and afterwards Bishop of Winchester, was married four times,
and is reported to have said that he had killed three wives by
never contradicting them.
Robert Hay Drummond (1761) was translated to the
Archbishopric of York four months after his appointment
to Salisbury. He preached at the coronation of George III.
John Thomas (1761-1766), elected Bishop of St. Asaph
in 1743, but consecrated to Lincoln, was eighty years old when
translated to Salisbury.
John Hume (1766-1782), Bishop of Bristol 1756, Bishop
of Oxford and Dean of St. Paul's 1758.
Shute Barrington (1782-1791), translated to Durham.
Excepting Bishop Wilson, his fifty-six years' tenure of office
is the longest in the Anglican Church. He died in 1826.
John Douglas (1791-1807) vi-as present as an army chap
lain at the battle of Fontenoy, in which he very nearly took an
active part, but was so laden with valuables left in his care by
officers, that he was compelled to refrain and be content to
remain a non-combatant, and retnove his treasures to a safe
place. As author of "The Criterion, or Rules by which
True may be distinguished from Spurious Miracles," 1754, and
many other books, he established for himself a sound literary
reputation. Made Bishop of Carlisle in 1787, and translated
to Salisbury in 17.91 ; he was also Dean of Windsor from 1780
to his death, when he was buried in St. George's Chapel.
John Fisher (1807-1825). Exeter, 1803, Preceptor to
Princess Charlotte.
Thomas Burgess (1825-1837). St. David's, 1803.
Edward Denison (1837-1854). Brother of a late Speaker
of the House of Commons, 'Viscount Ossington.
Walter Kerr Hamilton (1854-1869). Author of a

114

Salisbury Cathedi-al.

" Letter on Cathedral Re
form," which followed his
exhaustive contribution to
the Cathedral Commission
Reports, 1853.
George Moberley
(1869-1885). Head Master
of Winchester, 1835-1866.
John Wordsworth
(1885).

BRASS OF BISHOP WYVILLE (sec P.

The King's House.

"5

THE CLOSE AND CHURCHES.

^ HE King' sHouse, which faces the west
front, on the western side of the Close,
is a stately building, wherein, tradition
says, monarchs have dwelt. Richard
III. is said to have been housed there
when the Duke of Buckingham was
brought prisoner to Salisbury ; and in
the reign of James I. its owner. Sir
Thomas Sadler, was often honoured
by visits from that monarch. Underneath the great gateway
which pierces the building, in the north waU, is the shaft of
a " sack lift," a curious relic of medieval times. The fine
proportions and sturdy treatment of the architecture of this
house deserve study. It is now used as a training establish
ment for school mistresses. Close by is the Deanery, and to
the south a buUding known as the Wardrobe House ; which
name is supposed to indicate its use in connection with the
King's House ; still farther south is Leden Hall (or Leyden
HaU), hidden behind trees, so that from the Close you can but
catch a glimpse of the building by Elias de Derham, to which
reference has- been made earlier in this book. In the other
direction are the Theological College, a very lovely and
spacious building, the Choristers' School, and many private
houses of great antiquity and considerable beauty. Indeed, it
is possible that at no other place could you find such a display
of English domestic architecture, from mediseval to Georgian
times. The beauty of the Close, well wooded as it still is,
despite the havoc wrought by the terrible gale in March, 1897,
is not to be put into words. No matter how praise were
lavished in a description, it would yet be inadequate. But
whether you see it for the first time, or after many visits, it still
keeps its place as the most perfect thing of its sort in the world.

Ii6 Salisbury Cathedral.
The High Street Gate, which from its position may be
regarded as the chief entrance to the Close, is an embattled
structure of two stories, built, as the pieces of Norman stone
work clearly show, from material brought from Old Sarum. In
the niche above the arch on the south side is a figure, popularly
supposed to represent Charles I., although its proportions more
nearly resemble those of James I. It is said that a statue of
Henry IIL' originaUy occupied the niche. To the left, as you
have passed the gateway, stands the picturesque Matron's
College founded and endowed by Bishop Seth Ward in 1685.
Also on the left is a house formerly occupied by Canon Bowles,
and still earlier by Archdeacon Cole, both Salisbury worthies
with more than local reputation.
St. Ann's Gate is in the east wall of the Close, in the
southern angle. It is a long, low two-storied building, with two
light perpendicular windows in the upper story, and from the
street outside, where a projecting window is a noticeable feature,
is very picturesque. In common with the other gates and with
the walls of the Close, Norman stones moulded and carved are
visible in many places. A house near the south side was
occupied by Fielding, who moved afterwards next door to the
Friary in St. Ann's Street, and finally to another at Milford
Hill, where he wrote " Tom Jones."
Harnham Gate near the south boundary is but a fragment,
an embattled archway devoid of an upper story. Near this
gateway, just outside the precincts, stood the ancient college
of De "Vaux, founded in 1260 by Bishop Bridport.
The Bishop's Palace is not visible from the Close, but
can be seen through a doorway in the cloisters. It is set in
the midst of delightful gardens, a rambling picturesque building
dating from many periods. Bishop Poore began it — Bishop
Beauchamp built its great hall ; within its walls are portraits
of all the bishops of Salisbury since the Restoration.
The Hospital of St. Nicholas is situated between
Harnham Gate and Harnham Bridge. The charter of its
endowment dates from the castle of Old Sarum in September,
1227. It still shelters a dozen inmates in a most picturesque
house, part of the original structure. On an islet is a more
modern building, which is on the foundation of the chapel of
St. John, suppressed at the Reformation.
The Church House, as it is now caUed, was formerly

The Church House.

117

known as Audley House, and belonged to the Earl of Castle-
haven who was beheaded in 1631, and his property divided
between the bishop and others. It is most picturesquely placed
by Crane Bridge.
The Poultry Cross is still standing near the Market Place.
At one time a sundial and ball crowned the structure, but these
have been replaced by a cross. Close by it and scattered
frequently throughout the streets of the city are overhanging
houses that betray their antiquity at a glance.

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The Guildhall, a very interesting building as engravings
show, was demolished at the end of the eighteenth century.
The Joiners HaU, the Tailors Hall, the Hall of John Halle,
the Old George, are still standing, with some of their features
modified but not sufficiently altered to deprive them of interest.
The Church of St. Thomas a Becket is a most
picturesque structure, and, placed as it is in a square of old
tiled houses, makes a delightful picture. It consists of a nave
with two aisles, a chancel with aisles, and a vestry room. It was
built in 1 240 by Bishop Bingham. The embattlemented tower
has in its south front two niches containing much mutilated
ii8

Salisbury Cathedral.

figures of the Virgin and Child and St. Thomas k Becket. In
the porch is a very curious panel with a biblical subject rudely
carved by Humphrey Beckham, who died, aged eighty-eight, in

THE POULTRY CROSS.
From a Photograph by Carl Norman and Co.
1 67 1, and left this as his memorial. The most striking feature
of the interior is the large painting above the chancel arch,
representing the Day of Judgment, in the naive manner of its

The Church of St. Thomas a Becket.

119

time. A reproduction will be found in Hoare's " Modern
Wiltshire " (vol. 6), and most works on ecclesiastical mural
decoration mention it as one of the most important examples
that have come down to ils. Other paintings in the south aisle
were brought to light by Mr. G. E. Street during the restoration
in 1867. Without and within it is a building hardly less worth
study than the cathedral itself.
St. Edmund, founded by Bishop de la Wyle in 1268 for

OLD PLAN OF SALISBURY.
a Provost and twelve secular canons, is at the north-east of the
city. To the east of its churchyard is the college of St. Edmunds,
on the site of the convent founded in 1268 by the same bishop.
In the grounds of the college stands the old north transept
porch of the cathedral, a picturesque ruin whose architecture
at once disposes of the theory that it came from Old Sarum.
St. Martin is another church of very ancient foundation,
containing an interesring Norman font.

120 Salisbury Cathedral.
It is impossible to close even the' most brief note of objects
of interest at, or near, Salisbury, without naming George Her
bert's church, Bemerton, and Stonehenge ; two places which
attract pilgrims from all parts of the world. Yet no space is
left to describe them, or to refer to Henry Lawes, musician,
and Philip Massinger, dramatist, two of the many famous men
who had the city for their birthplace. The cathedral has beeri
the main object of this volume, and other matters, interesting
though they may be, must needs be left untouched here.

THE END.

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CHISWICK press: — CHARLE.S WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

Bell's Cathedral Series,
EDITED BY
GLEESON WHITE and E. F. STRANGE.
In specially designed cloth cover, crown Svo, is. dd. each.
Now Ready.
CANTERBURY. By Hartley Withers. 2nd Edition, revised.
36 Illustrations.
SALISBURY. By Gleeson 'White. 2nd Edition, revised.
50 Illustrations.
CHESTER. By Charles Hiatt. 24 Illustrations.
ROCHESTER. By G. H. Palmer, B.A. 38 Illustrations.
OXFORD. By Rev. Percy Dearmer, M.A. 34 Illustrations.
EXETER. By Percy Addleshaw, B.A. 35 Illustrations.
WINCHESTER. By P. W. Sergeant. 50 Illustrations.
LICHFIELD. By A. B. Clifton. 42 Illustrations.
NORWICH. By C. H. B. Quennell. 38 Illustrations.
PETERBOROUGH. By Rev. W. D. Sweeting. 51 Illustrations.
HEREFORD. By A. Hugh Fisher, A. R.E. 34 Illustrations.
LINCOLN. By A. F. Kendrick, B.A. 46 Illustrations.
WELLS. By Rev. Percy Dearmer, M.A. 43 Illustrations.
SOUTHWELL. By Rev. Arthur Dimock, M.A. 37 Illustrations.
In the Press.
DURHAM. By J. E. Bygate. | GLOUCESTER. By H. J. L. J. IWASsfe.
YORK. By A. Clutton Brock, B.A.

ST. DAVID'S. By Philip Robson. I CHICHESTER. By H. C. Corlette,
ELY. By T. D. Atkinson, A.R.I.B.A. A.R.I.B.A.
WORCESTER. By E. F. Strange. |
ST. ALBANS. RIPON. ST. PAUL'S.
CARLISLE. BRISTOL.
Uni/orm -with aliffve Series.
ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH, CANTERBURY. By the Rev. Canon Routledge. [Ready.
BEVERLEY MINSTER. By Charles Hiatt. [In the Press.
Opinions of the Press.
*' For the purpose at which they aim they are admirably done, and
there are few visitants to any of our noble shrines who will not enjoy their
visit the better for being furnished with one of these delightful books,
which can be slipped into the pocket and carried with ease, and is yet
distinct and legible. ... A volume such as that on Canterbury is exactly
what we want, and on our next visit we hope to have it with us. It is
thoroughly helpful, and the views of the fair city and its noble cathedral
are beautiful. Both volumes, moreover, will serve more than a temporary
purpose, and are trustworthy as well as delightful." — Notes and Queries.
* ' We have so frequently in these columns urged the want of cheap,
well - illustrated, and well -written handbooks to our cathedrals, to take
the place of the out-of-date publications of local booksellers, that we are
glad to hear that they have been taken in hand by Messrs George Bell
& Sons." — St. Jameses Gazette.
"Visitors to the cathedral cities of England must often have felt the
need of some work dealing with the history and antiquities of the city
itself, and the architecture and associations of the cathedral, more portable
than the elaborate monographs which hai'e been devoted to some of them,
more scholarly and satisfying than the average local guide-book, and more
copious than the section devoted to them in the general guide-book of the

county or district. Such a legitimate need the 'Cathedral Series' now
being issued by Messrs George Bell & Sons, under the editorship of Mr
Gleeson White and Mr E. F. Strange, seems well calculated to supply.
The volumes are handy in size, moderate in price, well illustrated, and
written in a scholarly spirit. The history of cathedral and city is in
telligently set forth and accompanied by a descriptive survey of the
building in all its detail. The illustrations are copious and well selected,
and the series bids fair to become an indispensable companion to the
cathedral tourist in England." — Times.
"They are nicely produced in good type, on good paper, and contain
numerous illustrations, are well written, and very cheap. We should
imagine architects and students of architecture will be sure to buy the
series as they appear, for they contain in brief much valuable information."
— British Architect.
"Half the charm of this little book on Canterbury springs from the
writer's recognition of the historical association of so majestic a building
with the fortunes, destinies, and habits of the English people. . . . One
admirable feature of the book is its artistic illustrations. They are
both lavish and satisfactory — even when regarded with critical eyes." —
Sfealier. "There is likely to be a large demand for these attractive handbooks.''
— Globe.
" Bell's ' Cathedral Series,' so admirably edited, is more than a descrip
tion of the various English cathedrals. It will be a valuable historical
record, and a work of much service also to the architect. The illustrations
are well selected, and in many cases not mere bald architectural drawings
but reproductions of exquisite stone fancies, touched in their treatment by
fancy and guided by art." — Star.
"Each of them contains exactly that amount of information which the
intelligent visitor, who is not a specialist, will wish to have. The dis
position of the various parts is judiciously proportioned, and the style is
very readable. The illustrations supply a further important feature ; they
are both numerous and good. A series which cannot fail to be welcomed
by all who are interested in the ecclesiastical buildings of England." — ¦
Glasgow Herald.
"Those who, either for purposes of professional study or for a cultured
recreation, find it expedient to ' do ' the English cathedrals will welcome
the beginning of Bell's ' Cathedral Series.' This set of books is an
attempt to consult, more closely, and in greater detail than the usual
guide-books do, the needs of visitors to the cathedral towns. The series
cannot but prove markedly successful. In each book a business-like
description is given of the fabric of the church to which the volume
relates, and an interesting history of the relative diocese. The books are
plentifully illustrated, and are thus made attractive as well as instructive.
They cannot but prove welcome to all classes of readers interested either
in English Church history or in ecclesiastical architecture. " — Scotsman.
"A set of little books which may be described as very useful, very
pretty, and very cheap .... and alike in the letterpress, the illustra
tions, and the remarkably choice binding, they are ideal guides." —
Liverpool Daily Post.
"They have nothing in common with the almost invariably wretched
local guides save portability, and their only competitors in the quality and
quantity o.f their contents are very expensive and mostly rare works, each
of a size that suggests a packing-case rather than a coat-pocket. The
' Cathedral Series ' are important compilations concerning history, archi
tecture, and biography, and quite popular enough for such as take any
sincere interest in their subjectsi" — Sketch.
LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS.

08854 1546

wsmmm'mmsi

lOBeiU

60Q.