“Chichester Cathedral, though one of the smallest, is to the student of MediÆval architecture one of the most interesting and important of our cathedrals. At Salisbury one or two styles of architecture are represented; at Canterbury two or three; at Chichester every single style is to be seen without a break from the Eleventh to the Sixteenth Century. It is an epitome of English architectural history for five hundred years. Early Norman, late Norman, late Transitional, early Lancet, late Lancet, early Geometrical, late Geometrical, Curvilinear, Perpendicular and Tudor work all appear in the structure side by side. We have many other heterogeneous and composite cathedrals, but nowhere, except perhaps at Hereford, can the whole sequence of MediÆval styles be read so well as at Chichester.”—(F. B.)

“The fire of 1186 was not as serious as that of Canterbury in 1182, so that there was no need of rebuilding. Bishop Seffrid, however, covered the Cathedral with a stone vault and added the necessary buttresses and flying-buttresses. He also built the Choir, making great use of Purbeck marble. He removed the Norman apse and built the aisled retro-choir of two bays.

“This is the architectural gem of the Cathedral. The idea of it probably came from Hereford, where the retro-choir is a few years earlier. At Hereford, however, the retro-choir projects picturesquely and forms an eastern transept. The central piers of the Chichester retro-choir are remarkably beautiful. They consist of a central column surrounded by four shafts very widely detached; columns and shafts are of Purbeck marble. The capitals are Corinthianesque; their height is proportioned to the diameters of the column and shafts. This beautiful capital was reproduced a few years later by St. Hugh at Lincoln. The triforium is of quite exceptional beauty, as indeed is the whole design. Semicircular arches occur in the pier arcade and triforium, and some of the abaci are square; otherwise the design is pure Gothic. Here, as at Abbey Dore, St. Thomas’s, Portsmouth, Boxgrove and Wells, we see the transition to the ‘pure and undefiled Gothic’ of St. Hugh’s choir at Lincoln. In these beautiful churches the ancient Romanesque style breathed its last.

“The aisles of the new retro-choir were continued on either side of the first bay of the Norman Lady-Chapel whose three bays had probably been remodelled before the fire in Transitional fashion. The capitals of the Lady-Chapel are of exceptional interest and importance, as showing experimental foliation which had not yet settled down into the conventional leafage of early Gothic. The apse also of the south transept was replaced by a square chapel, now used as a Library, in the vaulting of which the Norman zigzag occurs.

“A little later in the Lancet period was built (1199-1245) the lovely south porch, with small exquisite mouldings, and the charming foliated capitals and corbels. The difference between early Transitional, late Transitional and Lancet foliation may be well seen by examining successively the capitals of the Lady-Chapel, the triforium of the retro-choir and the south porch. The north porch is almost equally fine. The vaulting ribs, square in section, show that the two porches both belong to the very first years of the Thirteenth Century. Rather later, the sacristy was built on to the south porch, with a massive vault supported by foliated corbels.”—(F. B.)

“The Cathedral stands on the south of West Street, where a fine view may be had of the whole of the north side of the building and of the detached Campanile. The Close occupies entirely the south-west quadrant of the city, being bounded by South and West Streets and the City Wall. The central tower and spire, rising to a height of 277 feet, are conspicuous for many miles around, but the west front is much shut in. Perhaps the most pleasing view is that seen from the meadows on the south of the city, from which point the Campanile fits in admirably with the general mass of the building.”—(J. C.-B.)

“The central tower, which is battlemented, with octagonal turrets at the angles, also battlemented, has in its principal or second story, two couplets in each face, with a quatrefoil in the head, each under a pointed arch. The spire is of beautiful design, octagonal; in each face is a window of two lights, flanked by pinnacled turrets, crocketed and canopied. Its elegance has constantly led to its being compared with that of Salisbury, which, however, differs from it in age and many other particulars, as well as size. It forms not only the central but the principal feature of the church, all whose lines are designed to work in with it, a very perfect effect of unity, as at Salisbury, being attained. It is locally said that the master built Salisbury and the man, Chichester.”—(W. J. L.)

“On entering the nave the eye is at once caught by the five aisles, a peculiarity shared by no other English cathedral but that of Manchester, although some parish churches have it on a smaller scale, as Taunton and Coventry. On the Continent the increased number of aisles is common, witness Beauvais, Cologne, Milan, Seville, and seven-aisled Antwerp. Grand effects of light and shade are produced by these five aisles: remark especially the view from the extreme north-east corner of the north aisle, looking across the cathedral. The great depth of the triforium shadows is owing to the unusual width of this wall passage. The breadth of the nave (91 feet) is greater than that of any English cathedral except York (103 feet).

“The first two stories of the south-west tower at the end of the nave deserve examination. The rude, long capitals, and plain circular arches, probably indicate that it formed a part of the first church completed by Bishop Ralph in 1108. The nave itself, as far as the top of the triforium, and the two aisles immediately adjoining, are the work of the same Bishop (died 1123),—or should perhaps be described as having formed part of the Norman cathedral completed in 1148. The clerestory above, and the shafts of Purbeck marble which lighten the piers, are Seffrid’s additions (died 1204). The vaulting is perhaps somewhat later; and it was because it was determined, after the burning of 1187, to replace with a stone vault the wooden roofs to which the frequent fires had been owing that Seffrid carried up his vaulting-shafts along the face of the Norman piers, some of which he re-cased. The two exterior aisles, north and south, were probably added by Bishop Neville (died 1244), when it became necessary to provide additional room for chantries and relic shrines. The positions of the various altars are marked by piscinas and aumbries in the walls. The two, however, occur together in the south aisle alone; in the north are aumbries only, an arrangement possibly resulting from the feeling with which that quarter was always anciently regarded. A certainly triplicity pervades all this part of the cathedral, which was dedicated by Bishop Seffrid to the Holy Trinity. The side shafts are triple throughout. The bearing-shafts of the vaulting are clustered in threes, and branch out with three triple vaulting-ribs above. The transitional character of Bishop Seffrid’s work is especially marked in the clerestory, the inner arcade of which is pointed, whilst the windows themselves are round-headed.”—(R. J. K.)

“The most beautiful monument now remaining in the church is that which is said to represent Maud, Countess of Arundel (1270). The modelling of the whole figure and the long flowing lines of her robes are worthy of careful study. The hands are clasped over the breast with the forearms bent upwards slightly towards the face. On each of the long sides of the base supporting the figure are six elongated quatrefoil panels, containing in all six female figures and six shields. Between the quatrefoils are winged heads of ten angelic figures. The blazoning of the shields is entirely gone, and the brilliant colouring that once covered the entire monument is only to be traced in a few places. The outer robe still shows

some signs of the rich blue with which it used to be covered. The face of the figure appears to be badly mutilated, but the damage to the features has been done principally by an endeavour to preserve them.”—(H. C. C.)

“At Chichester there were built, one after another, four sets of chapels—of St. George and St. Clement on the south of the south aisle, and of St. Thomas, St. Anne and St. Edmund on the north of the north aisle. The WINDOWS should be studied in the above order; they form quite an excellent object-lesson of the evolution of bar-tracery from plate-tracery, itself a derivative from such designs as that of the east window of the south transept chapel. When the chapels were completed, the Norman aisle-walls were pierced, and arches were inserted where Norman windows had been; and the Lancet buttresses, which had been added when the nave vault was erected, now found themselves inside the church, buttressing piers instead of walls. The new windows on the south side were built so high that the vaulting of the chapels had to be tilted up to allow room for their heads; externally they were originally crowned with gables, the weatherings of which may be seen outside. In St. Thomas’s chapel is a charming example of a simple Thirteenth Century reredos.”—(F. B.)

“The design in detail of these two bays is very different in character from the three in the choir, which are like those in the nave. The two piers of Purbeck marble are circular, and about them are grouped four detached shafts of the same material. They are united only at the base and by the abacus above the capitals, which are beautifully carved. The main arches in the two bays are not pointed, but round, like those in the nave and choir; but, unlike the latter, they have deeply cut mouldings in three orders. The triforium arcade above, on the north and south sides, has moulded and carved details of a similar character. Some of the beautifully carved figure-work still remains in the spandrels between the subsidiary pointed arches. But the most beautiful piece of design in all this work is in the arches of the triforium passage across the east wall, above the entrance to the Lady-Chapel.”—(F. B.)