Chapter V: Part II: Early English

=The Choir=.-One of the few good services rendered by King John was the influence he brought to bear upon the York chapter to elect Walter de Gray to the long-vacant see. A wave of enthusiasm for the new style was passing over the land, and Gray encouraged fresh works at York, Ripon, Southwell, and elsewhere. When the new building was commenced at Southwell, first of all an Early English addition was made to the existing Norman choir, and the high altar was removed nearly 70 feet eastwards. After this had been finished, the Norman choir and choir aisles were pulled down, and on their site the Early English choir completed, and, with the exception of the roof, almost exactly as we now see. The foundations of the eastern part are entirely of local stone, but on the site of the older choir a quantity of Mansfield stone is used, which came from the fabric pulled down. This method of enlargement by degrees was not uncommon. The plan is of eight bays, not counting a small blank bay at the junction with the transepts. The choir aisles extend along six of these, and from the fifth a small transeptal chapel projects on either aisle. The dimensions in feet are--Length, 128; of aisles, 98; breadth, including aisles, 73; and including the two transept chapels, 108; breadth of east end, 40.

The material is sandstone. The northern front was afterwards in a great measure hidden away by the erection of the chapter-house and vestibule. The walls are less thick than in the Norman work, and generally this part is less massive, and the roof was loftier. There used to be a doorway on the south side, apparently for the convenience of the palace, but this has long since been closed.

=The South Front=.--The base mouldings show the first point of difference from the Norman work. These mouldings and the continuous string course below the second or window stage run all round the eastern part of the building--the early Decorated additions on the north side equally with the Early English, and are distinguished for their bold and effective outline, and more particularly for their deep undercutting. A second point of difference from the Norman, and more striking, is seen in the buttresses. They have a much greater projection, and less breadth, although unusually broad for Early English work, and are square in the lower stage, but chamfered--_i.e._ the edges are shaved off--above. They are finished off with lofty acute-angled heads or pediments, which have their faces sunken. These heads rise up above the parapet wall, and are ornamented with that typical Early English moulding, the so-called _dog-tooth_. Some idea of it may be gained in the following way:--Take four (or in certain instances only three) leaves of the common beech, place their stems together so as to overlap a little, and cause this central point to be raised somewhat after the fashion of a dwarfed pyramid. The simpler term of “leaf” moulding would be more suggestive than “dog-tooth.”

The buttresses at the angles, both of the transept chapel and of the east end of the aisle, are grouped in pairs, one on either front. These are without the lofty pediment, but terminate in a slope beneath the cornice. The windows in the bays formed by the buttresses are single-light lancets and without tracery. Between the two south transepts--those of the nave and choir--are four bays; the two central have the windows in pairs, the others singly. The circular turret-shaped projection at the south-west angle of the choir transept is a staircase leading to the triforium, which causes the adjacent window to be smaller. On the other hand, the single window to the west is larger. These windows are the typical lancets of their period, the pointed arch appearing as though formed on an acute-angled triangle. So are those in the transept chapel, and the smaller one in the gable of the east end of the aisle and the pair beneath it. These are all deeply set and with chamfered jambs. The outer arches spring from single shafts, engaged and with the fillet moulding--a small flat band placed between the rounds, which first came into vogue at this time--and have bold hood-moulds. The cornice moulding of the aisle is original, but the parapet above a later substitute for the eave roof. The displacement of the roof of the transept chapel by lowering to the flat level of the second stage has caused this to resemble a mere projection from the adjacent aisle; but the marks on the clerestory wall show clearly that originally it possessed a high-pitched roof and lofty gable, and formed a transept to the choir proper, as did the other on the north side. In consequence, above the aisle the bay of the clerestory is here blank, while the others have a pair of small lancets placed a little apart. Here, again, the jamb shafts are engaged, while the hood-moulds are beautifully enriched with the dog-tooth. Above the clerestory the parapet is original and extremely fine. It is carried on a corbel table of grotesque heads, with cornice mouldings enriched with dog-tooth, as also above the plain face in a deep hollow below the ridge. The two flying buttresses were added later, as the pinnacles adorned with crockets show. The licence of 1337 probably points to their age. There must have been alarm for the stability of the wall and roof, and these were placed as supports. Formerly the western one had a water drain emerging from the heavy stonework at the base.

=The Chancel=.--By this is meant that part of the choir east of the aisles. In a minster dedicated to St. Mary we expect to find a Lady Chapel eastward of the high altar; but there is none here, neither has there ever been: her altar was elsewhere.[20] This east end extends two bays beyond the aisles, and is square-fronted like York. It has been remarked--“The architecture here is in the purest and most refined Early English style; very reticent of ornament, but with an almost Greek refinement and delicacy in the design of the buttresses, and the general composition of the lines; and in general effect, and in the detail of the buttress-heads, the base course, and other points, is so similar to the work of the nave and south transept of Lincoln that one cannot but think some of the same hands were employed on both.”[21] This may well have been the case, as these parts of Lincoln were erected between 1203-1253, during the episcopate of William of Blois and his two successors. All the buttresses, both those which separate the two easternmost bays and those which stand in the usual pairs at the angles are of larger dimensions in width and projection than the others farther west. Otherwise they are similar in character, and have four string courses between the base and parapet. The pairs at the corners have massive octagonal pinnacles, shafted at the angles, have each side finished with a sharp gabled head enriched with dog-tooth, and at the summit conical cappings with ribs rising to the apex from the capitals of the angle shafts. The arrangement of the windows is as follows:--The bays adjoining the aisle have them in pairs, and the easternmost bays singly; the east front has four--both stages everywhere the same. The windows on the north and south sides are similar to those previously described; but the east front calls for remark. The arrangement of four in each stage is singular; and when in the same stage all four are of equal height, peculiarly so. In those rare instances of a series of four the rule is for the central pair to be higher than the outside ones. In the upper stage are also blank arches adjoining the buttresses; as is the case with the adjacent bays. The abaci of these lancets are continued round the buttresses and walls as string courses, dividing the two stages into upper and lower parts. The windows, deeply set, have the sides chamfered; and the finely-moulded triple clustered shafts are filleted. The arches are enriched with the dog-tooth, and the outer one constitutes a continuous arcade. In the lower stage, almost the entire width of the front is occupied: in the upper the windows are less deeply set and in consequence narrower, but the blank arches completely fill up the whole available space between the buttresses, and here the lights are of a greater height; and this heightening and narrowing, so as to add to the effect, must be pronounced most successful. The windows of the end bays are similar in pattern; and the chancel, flanked as it is by the aisles and chapels, in spite of being “very reticent of ornament”--for there is no tracery--has been commended and admired by every expert and architect who has seen it.

But as with the west front, so here again with the east we have to lament that later men have marred what their predecessors have bequeathed to them. Early English roofs were almost, if not quite, universally of a steep slope, more so than the Norman; and at Southwell the marks still left, and particularly on the east front of the central tower, demonstrate that this was the case. The old lofty roof is gone and the old lofty gable with it; and above the third stage a dwarfed window in a dwarfed gable, and a late battlement surmounted by a late cross is what we now see. What used to be seen at first was this lofty gable pierced either with yet another tier of lancets or with a circular light after the manner of the circular windows of York, Lincoln, and Beverley, the whole surmounted by a lofty cross rising above the lofty buttress-heads, conspicuous from far and near. We have only to go to Lincoln (or indeed judge by the restored roof of the nave) to see what a difference this makes. When was this, “as complete a mutilation as the headless trunk of some fine ancient statue,” perpetrated? Some time after the completion of the chapter-house, and by the same people, or at least in the same spirit, as that which lowered the roof and pierced the west wall of the nave.

=The North Front=. From the exterior the only parts visible are the end bay of the aisle and the transept chapel; and this latter is partly overlapped by the chapter-house. The details are similar to the rest; but the flying buttress has no pinnacles, and the small window in the gable of the aisle has a peculiar flattened hood-mould, almost semicircular. There seems to be no reason for this difference from the corresponding window on the other side. When standing against the north front of the chapel, one is almost shut in by the buttresses of the chapter-house.

The choir illustrates that the striking difference between the Norman and Early English styles lies not only in the greater massiveness of the former, and in the pointed lancet arches of the latter, but also in the greater window space, the chancel alone possessing twenty ample lights. It has been proved that glass came into use in Early English times, and this circumstance may explain the development.

The indulgence of Archbishop Walter Gray fixes the date of the commencement of building at about 1230.

=The North Transept Chapel=.--Before leaving the Early English part of the exterior, and still taking the building in its chronological order, this addition to the Norman transept next demands attention. The only part visible from the exterior is the north front, which projects slightly from the transept, the east front being hidden by the vestibule. A peculiarity is that the buttresses, which project in the first stage as far as those at the east end, have their angles chamfered in the second stage only. In the third stage the projection is diminished; and the chamfering of the stage below ends in a point against the square face. The buttresses to the west originally terminated, like those of the choir, with a triangular head, ornamented with the dog-tooth, but when the gable parapet was added a crocketed gable head was placed above this head and behind it. The eastern buttress, adjoining the vestibule, ends in a slope beneath the parapet. The large window in the second stage is a later development, enlarged to give more light to the chapel within. The shafts are not purely circular, but what Professor Willis called _keeled--i.e._ with bands or fillets in the front resembling the keel of a boat; and they support an arch with a hood-mould over all. The general appearance is somewhat heavy and inelegant, as the arch seems too large. Mullions divide the lower part into three lights, and the tracery above is double foliated, and what is styled _reticulated--i.e._ diamond-shaped or with squares placed diagonally. This window, with its peculiarities, affords a hastily-made example of indifferent and late Decorated; but in the stage above we go back to pure Early English. This is an arcading of five lancets, of which two are pierced for lights, supported by circular shafts detached from the wall. The window in the fourth stage has an arch resembling the segmental pointed; and the filleted shafts are engaged. The mouldings of the arch are peculiar; they are not of the same pattern as the adjoining buttress, but more nearly than anything else resemble a transition from the Norman nail-head to the Early English dog-tooth. And the tracery and mullions are very late work, suggesting that alterations were made long after.

This chapel is partly built upon the site of a smaller apse-shaped Norman one. A buttress of the north aisle of the choir, partly worked into the south-east angle of the chapel, shows by the cornice moulding that the choir wall once joined on to the transept; remains of a Norman arch are still visible in the transept wall. The work as a whole, and emphatically the central arcading of lancets, are of the date of the middle of the thirteenth century. There is documentary evidence that in 1249 and 1260 additions were made to the fabric; and to one of these dates we may safely assign it.