Other objects of interest rather than those of history or architecture usually attract the stranger to Manchester. The great centre of modern industry, the city that brings the sea to its walls, that finds employment for tens of thousands, where the pulse of life beats fast—that is the Manchester we all know. But there is another Manchester of quiet and sedate ways, which is not devoid of history, which we will endeavour to read amidst the din and turmoil of this hive of industry. It is difficult to imagine that the parish "was originally a wild, unfrequented tract of woodland, inhabited merely by the boar, the bull, and the wolf, and traversed only by the hunters of the neighbouring country." Under Agricola, Manchester became a Roman station. Camden tells of Roman inscriptions, and many other Roman remains have been found. Edwin of Northumbria came here, and Paulinus brought Christianity and thousands were baptised by him. Two Saxon churches were built, St. Michael's and St. Mary's. Ina and his queen, Ethelburga, sojourned here. The Danes ravaged it, and Edward the Elder re-edified the town in 924. We find that Canute came here, and the historian of the town derives Knot, or Knut, Mill from his name. The Conqueror gave the manor to Roger de Poictiers, but it appears to have been regranted to the Greslie family. It is unnecessary to follow the history of the manor and barony. In 1235 Manchester is said to have had a Deanery, and Peter de Greleigh (Greslie) held the Rectory in 1261. Hugh de Manchester, a favourite of Edward I., went on an embassage to Philip of France to recover certain lands for his king. Other distinguished rectors were William de Marchia (1284), afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells, and William de Langton, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield, the builder of the beautiful Lady Chapel of that Cathedral; Otto de Grandisson, Geoffrey de Stoke, afterwards Dean of St. Paul's, London. In 1373 Thomas de la Warre was presented to the living, and he obtained Royal licence in 1422 to found a collegiate church, consisting of one warden, eight fellows, four clerks and six choristers. The parishioners cheerfully agreed to build the new church. John Huntingdon, the first warden, built the choir, and several leading families, the Radcliffes, Stanleys, Traffords, Byrons and Strangeways erected chantries. The college was founded at the same time as the residence of the warden and fellows. The right of sanctuary was granted to the collegiate church, the sanctuary men bearing a cross on their hand. The college has a chequered career. In the reign of Edward VI. it was dissolved and its possessions seized. Under Mary it was re-established, together with the chantries in the church. In the time of Elizabeth the college had prolonged disputes with the town, the clergy were beaten by the populace, and one of them stabbed, and the plate and ornaments stolen. In 1578 the charter was renewed. A famous warden was Dr. Dee, who is well known as a dealer in magical arts, and his successor, Murray, was not a very learned divine; when preaching before James I. from the text, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ," the monarch said the Gospel of Christ might well be ashamed of him. In 1617 a gallery was erected in the church, which was much dilapidated and the income impoverished. In the time of the Civil War, Richard Heyrick was warden and sided with the Parliament, the Independents setting up a meeting-house at the college. Manchester underwent a siege during the war, and in 1649 the chapter-house and chest were broken into by soldiers and the deeds carried off to London, where it is thought that they perished in the great fire. The college was dissolved. Heyrick was a veritable "Vicar of Bray," and embraced all the opinions in turn of all the parties in that troublous period. The collegiate buildings were in much decay during the Commonwealth period, when Humphrey Chetham, one of the worthiest of benefactors, conceived the idea of converting them into a school and library, and left a large sum of money for this purpose. Chetham's Hospital is quite the most interesting building in the city, which has retained few of its ancient edifices. Lancashire folk were very faithful to the House of Stuart, and in both the rebellions of 1715 and 1745 Manchester took part. The young Pretender was proclaimed here King James III., and the "Manchester Regiment" was formed to fight in the prince's cause, and subsequently many lost their heads, some being stuck upon the Exchange. The Diocese of Manchester was formed in 1847, and has only had three bishops—James Prince Lee, Fraser, and the present Bishop Moorhouse, formerly Bishop of Melbourne.

The Exterior

Manchester smoke soon causes stone-work to assume a venerable appearance, and although much of the Cathedral is new, its first appearance is one of an ancient edifice. Manchester is a modern see, founded in 1847, but its church, as we have seen, dates back to a very respectable antiquity and has many features of special interest. It stands out well amidst the surrounding mass of modern buildings, of shops and railway stations, and seems to raise the thoughts of all who behold its beauties above the buying and selling in this busy mart of human enterprise.

The present generation of merchants of Manchester and the Cathedral authorities have done much for their Cathedral, and striven to make it worthy of its name and position as the Mother Church of the diocese, and all the resources of modern art have been lavished on the building. We shall see this better in the interior. The exterior also shows that very much has been done in building and decoration. There is first the new West Porch, which has just been finished with a statue of Queen Victoria in the niche over the doorway. Just as the burghers of the Middle Ages loved to enrich their churches with the triumphs of architectural art, so do the modern merchants of Manchester strive to adorn their Cathedral with elaborate handiwork. This new piece of work is richly carved. The style follows that of the Cathedral and is mainly Perpendicular. There is rich panel work, an open-work battlemented parapet, and a richly-crocketed pinnacle crowns a turret on the south side. The door itself is a very handsome piece of work. On each side of the main porch there are rooms. The Tower stands at the west end above the porch. There is a good west window in the lowest stage with an ogee label richly crocketed. Above is the clock. In former days this clock was not noted for keeping correct time. An old gentleman was observed each morning setting his watch by it. "Excuse me," said a bystander, "that clock is five minutes late." "Sir," he replied, "I have set my watch by that clock for forty years, and right or wrong, I shall go by it for the rest of my life." At each corner of the tower there are three pinnacles. The windows of the church, we observe, as we pass to the south, are all Perpendicular, but there is a pleasing variety in the tracery. The South Porch has a parvise, and was built by Mr. James Jardine, a distinguished citizen of Manchester, in 1891. On this side there are several chapels—the Brown Chapel, St. George's, St. Nicholas or Trafford Chapel, Jesus Chapel, the chapter-house with its pyramidal roof, the Fraser Chapel, a new building erected in memory of Bishop Fraser. The battlemented parapet on this side of the church is modern. On the east side is a tiny Lady Chapel with a Decorated east window, which has been reproduced from the earlier design. Proceeding onwards we notice the Ely Chapel, the Derby or John the Baptist's Chapel, the St. James's Chapel, and that dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The North Porch is similar in character to that on the south, and was erected in memory of James Craven in 1888.

The Interior

The interior of the Cathedral is full of interest. We enter by the south porch, and we are at once struck by the extraordinary width of the church. On each side of the nave there are two aisles. The outer aisles both on the north and south sides were formerly separated from the rest of the church by screens, and were occupied by chapels or chantries. By a somewhat drastic restoration at the beginning of the nineteenth century these screens were removed, and the outer aisles thrown open. This procedure rendered the church more useful for congregational purposes, though we may regret the disappearance of the historic chapels, a few piscinÆ being the only remains. We will commence our pilgrimage at the west end, and from this point view the length of the church, which is shrouded in "a divine religious light," perhaps a little too dim. Most of the windows are filled with modern glass which is generally of beautiful design; but modern glass lacks that transparency which ancient glass has. The sunlight streams through the old glass, and it is quite possible, as at Fairford, to read the smallest print; while modern glass effectually shuts out the light, and at the best too much sunlight is not usually observable in this region of smoky chimneys and polluted atmosphere. The piers of the nave are modern imitations of the original Perpendicular ones, and are lofty and graceful. There is no triforium, and the clerestory is somewhat contracted. The windows have five lights of Perpendicular tracery, and most of them are filled with modern glass. The roof is ancient, but has been much restored. In the distance we see the handsome choir-screen with the organ over it. The spandrels of the chancel arch are richly carved with shields in quatrefoils, and above is the Tudor rose. Shields adorn the spandrels of the main arches. Above us is the ceiling of the tower, which is a good example of fan-tracery. The modern baptistry is on our right. Passing the south porch, erected in memory of Mr. James Jardine, we see the extreme south aisle, formerly consisting of chantries separated from the rest of the church by screens. In a recess east of the porch was the Brown Chapel, and north of this St. George's Chantry (to which saint, together with St. Mary and St. Denis, the church was formerly dedicated) founded by W. Galley in 1508. At the dissolution of the collegiate institution John Barlow and Edward Smyth, priests of this chantry, received pensions of £6 and £4, 12s. 6d. respectively. Then comes the Trafford or St. Nicholas Chantry, the priest of which received a pension of £5. The Traffords of Trafford are an ancient Lancastrian family who have held the manor, near Manchester, since the Conquest, and the name of Edmund Trafford appears upon the list of parishioners given in the licence to erect the collegiate church. A piscina shows the position of the altar of this chantry. Next follows the Jesus Chapel which has a fine sixteenth-century screen. It was founded by Richard Bexwick in 1506, being granted to him "to enjoy its privileges by James Stanley, warden, and the fellows." His daughter Isabel gave it to Francis Pendleton and Cicely his wife, daughter of Isabel. In 1652 it was in a ruinous condition. It is now used as the library and vestry. From this chapel another chapel founded by Ralph Hulme in 1507 opened, but it has been destroyed. One of this family of Hulme founded in 1691 the Hulmeian scholarships at Oxford. Next we see the entrance to the chapter-house built by James Stanley (1485-1509), which is good Perpendicular work. Under the arch, which has panelled work in the soffit, there are two doors having four-centred arches, and above panelling. The Fraser Chapel, erected in memory of Bishop Fraser of Manchester (1870-1885), "a man of singular gifts both of nature and the spirit," who won all hearts and whose memory will ever be venerated in the Manchester Diocese, stands on the south at the extreme east end of this aisle. It contains an admirable effigy of the bishop, who was buried in the little Parish Church of Ufton Nervet, Berks, where he passed the early years of his clerical life, and for which he had tender memories. This was a college living to which he was presented by Oriel College. Turning to the north we enter the retro-choir and the Lady Chapel, originally founded by George West, youngest brother of Lord Delaware, who was warden of the college in 1518-1535. The last historian of the Cathedral, Mr. Perkins, considers that West reconstructed a more ancient building, and that the style of the windows inserted in the eighteenth century in imitation of earlier ones point to an earlier date than 1518. This chapel was once known as the Byron Chapel, and then the Chetham Chapel, as it contains several memorials of that family. There is a modern statue of Humphrey Chetham, the founder of Chetham's Hospital (which we shall presently visit), who was born in 1580, and by trade "acquired opulence, while his strict integrity, his piety, his works of charity and benevolence secured him the respect and esteem of those around him."[15] He founded the school, and clothed, fed and instructed twenty-two boys, and, though never married, thus became a father of the fatherless and destitute. At the base of his statue is seated a figure of one of these youths. Near this statue is the tomb of Hugh Birley, a member of a distinguished Manchester family and a representative of the city in Parliament. An ancient organ, more than two centuries old, also is in this aisle. On the north is the St. John the Baptist or Derby Chapel, formerly called the Stanley Chapel, separated by an old screen from the aisle. The Stanleys belong to the same family as the Earls of Derby. The office of warden was held by two members of the Stanley family, both having the Christian name of James. The second James Stanley became Bishop of Ely, and by virtue of his will (he died 1515) this chapel and the Ely Chapel were built. His tomb remains, of grey marble, with a small brass figure of the bishop in his robes, with the inscription:—"Off yur charite pray for the soul of James Stanley, sutyme Bushype of Ely and Warden of this College of Manchestir, which decessed out of this transitore world the xxxi. daye of March, the yer of our Lord MCCCCC. and XV., on whos soul and all Christian souls Jhesu have mercy."

Westward of this Derby Chapel stands the Ducie Chapel, dedicated to St. James, founded in 1507, and next comes the Radcliffe Chantry, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, founded by W. Radcliffe in 1498. The Radcliffes of Radcliffe, near Manchester, were an ancient race, and the ballad of "Fair Ellen," the daughter of one member of this family, who was slain by a cruel stepmother and her body cooked in a pie, is a gruesome legend of old Lancashire.

The east end of the nave is used for services, and there is a fine modern pulpit. Manchester Cathedral possesses some very fine carved woodwork, of which the ancient rood-screen is a good example. The organ is placed above it. On entering the Choir we notice the magnificently-carved stalls with rich tabernacle work, and quaint misereres. This is the work of James Stanley (1485-1509) afterwards Bishop of Ely, assisted by a Manchester merchant named Beck. The bishop's throne is modern, and also the reredos. The three Patron Saints-SS. Mary, George and Denys—appear in the niches. In accounting for this triple dedication Randle Holme states that to St. Mary was the earlier church dedicated, and that Thomas Delaware, "being partly a Frenchman, and partly an Englishman," selected St. Dionysee, ye Patron Saint of France, and St. George, the Patron Saint of England, as patrons of his new Cathedral. This does not seem probable, and it is more likely that the claim of Henry V. to the crown of France at the time of the founding of the college suggested the additional dedication.

The windows have all modern glass. Formerly there was some curious ancient glass; in the east window of the south aisle, Michael and his angels fighting with the dragon; in the east window of the north aisle, SS. Augustine and Ambrose chanting the Te Deum Laudamus; in the clerestory were pictures of the Virgin; and then there were some curious representations of the Trinity. These have all disappeared. Of the modern ones, the most interesting, perhaps, is the Gordon window in the north aisle.

John Huntingdon, the builder of the present choir (1422-1459), lies buried in it, and formerly his tomb was inscribed with the words: Domine, dilexi decorem domus tuÆ, and there was a brass with this inscription: Hic jacet Johan Huntingdon Bacc in Decr. Prim. Magister sive custos istius collegii qui de novo construxit istam cancellam, qui obiit ix. mo die xi. bris MCCCCLVIII., cujus animÆ proprietur Deus. We could not discover this brass, but on each side of the Lady Chapel entrance is the rebus of the founder, on one side a man hunting, on the other a tun, which "hieroglyphical quiddity" makes Hunting-ton.

Crossing the street to the north is a profoundly interesting building, known as the Chetham Library and Hospital, of which Manchester may be justly proud. Its chequered history has already been partially told, and carries us back to the days when the college of warden and fellows, chaplain and choir-boys, lived here. Now, as we have seen, it is the school, with a noble library attached, founded by that worthy merchant, Humphrey Chetham. As a baron's hall, an ecclesiastical establishment, and a remarkable school, the building presents many features of unique interest, and the grand library is worthy of minute inspection.

Dimensions

Principal Building Dates

• (1422-1458)—Choir.
• (1465-1509)—Nave rebuilt, stalls and canopies, chapter-house, chantries of St. George, St. Nicholas, Jesus, Ducie and Radcliffe.
• (1518-1535)—Lady Chapel, Ely Chapel.
• Modern—Baptistry, north and south and west porches, Fraser Chapel, throne, reredos and glass.