FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36  
37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   >>   >|  
hus as the building progressed one style merged into the other. After some years further progress was made towards the west, as the Galilee, or western porch, is stated to have been erected by Bishop Eustace (1198-1215), of whom it is recorded that "he built from the foundation the new Galilee of the Church at Ely, towards the west, at his own cost." "This has given rise to much difference of opinion. Some persons think that by the 'Galilee towards the west,' is meant the western porch, while others holding that so fine a work is inconsistent with so early a date, suppose the Galilee to have been the northern half (now lost) of the western Transept.... My own impression has always been that it was the west porch which still exists."[7] Be this as it may, it is a beautiful specimen of the Early English style; and Bishop Northwold (1229-1254) took down the east end of the church and lengthened it by the six eastern arches, usually called the Presbytery, with its magnificent eastern facade, in the same style; they were begun A.D. 1234, and finished and dedicated in 1252, being "one of the noblest pieces of architecture of that glorious architectural period." About the same time a spire of timber covered with lead was erected on the Tower. [Footnote 7: Lecture on Ely Cathedral by the late Sir G.G. Scott, at the Etheldreda Festival, Oct. 1873.] We now come to the period in which the "two great and famous productions of the fourteenth century--the two special objects of pride which our Cathedral boasts--the Lady Chapel and the central Octagon, with the three adjoining bays eastward,"[8] were erected; "each work is of the highest and of undisputed merit, and forms a most marked feature in the building;"[9] affording most admirable specimens of the Decorated English style. In 1321 the foundation stone of the vast and magnificent Lady Chapel was laid by Alan de Walsingham, then sub-prior, in the time of Bishop Hotham (1316-1337), the work was continued under Bishop Montacute (1337-1345), and finished in 1349, under Bishop L'Isle (1345-1362). In the year following the commencement of this work the fall of the great central Tower took place, ruining the adjoining bays all round, and especially those of the Norman Presbytery. This catastrophe was not altogether unexpected, for the monks had discontinued the use of the Choir and held their services in St. Catherine's Chapel, in the western part of the Cathedral. The Tower fell
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36  
37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Bishop
 

Galilee

 

western

 

Chapel

 

erected

 
Cathedral
 
magnificent
 

central

 
eastern
 

English


adjoining

 

finished

 
Presbytery
 

foundation

 
period
 

building

 
marked
 
feature
 

eastward

 

highest


undisputed

 

boasts

 

famous

 

Etheldreda

 

Festival

 

productions

 

fourteenth

 

Octagon

 

objects

 

century


special

 
Norman
 

catastrophe

 

altogether

 

ruining

 
unexpected
 

services

 
discontinued
 

Catherine

 
commencement

Walsingham
 

admirable

 
specimens
 
Decorated
 

Montacute

 

Hotham

 
continued
 

affording

 
opinion
 

persons