Chapel. The fire broke out at about half-past ten in
the morning, and was luckily discovered before it had made much progress,
by two plumbers who were at work in the south gutter. According to the
"Builder" of that month, "a peculiar whirring noise" caused them to look
inside the roof, and they found three of the main roof-timbers blazing. "The
best conjecture seems to be that the dry twigs, straw, and similar
_debris_, carried into the roof by birds, and which it has been the custom
to clear at intervals out of the vault pockets, had caught fire from a
spark that had in some way passed through the roof covering, perhaps under
a sheet raised a little at the bottom by the wind." Assistance was quickly
summoned, and "by half-past twelve the whole was seen to be extinguished.
At four o'clock the authorities held the evening service, so as not to
break a continuity of custom extending over centuries; and in the
smoke-filled choir, the whole of the Chapter in residence, in the proper
Psalm (xviii.), found expression for the sense of victory over a conquered
enemy."

Thus little harm was done, but it must have been an exciting crisis while
it lasted. "The bosses [of the vaulting], pierced with cradle-holes,
happened to be well-placed for the passage of the liquid lead dripping on
the back of the vault from the blazing roof," which poured down on to the
pavement below, on the very spot which Becket's shrine had once occupied.
"Through the holes further westward water came, sufficient to float over
the surfaces of the polished Purbeck marble floor and the steps of the
altar, and alarmed the well-intentioned assistants into removing the
altar, tearing up the altar-rails, etc., etc. The relics of the Black
Prince, attached to a beam (over his tomb) at the level of the caps of the
piers on the south side of Trinity Chapel, were all taken down and placed
away in safety. The eastern end of the church is said to have been filled
with steam from water rushing through with, and falling on, the molten
lead on the floor; and, in time, by every opening, wood-smoke reached the
inside of the building, filling all down to the west of the nave with a
blue haze." The scene in the building is said to have been one of
extraordinary beauty, but most lovers of architecture would probably
prefer to view the fabric with its own loveliness, unenhanced by numerous
streams of molten lead pouring down from the roof.

Since that date Canterbury Cathedr