Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Hereford Part 6

Of the beauties and interesting features which were developed by the clearing of the Lady Chapel by Mr. Cottingham, Dean Merewether wrote:-

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LADY CHAPEL.]

THE LADY CHAPEL.

_Photochrom Co., Ld., Photo._

"Its symmetrical proportions, before completely spoilt; the remnants of its ancient painting, which were traceable beneath the whitewash; the fair disclosure of the monuments of Joanna de Kilpec, a benefactress to this very edifice, and Humphry de Bohun, her husband, both of exceeding interest; the discovery of two aumbries, both walled up, but one with the stones composing it reversed; the double piscina on the south side, the chapel of Bishop Audley; but especially two of the most beautiful specimens of transition arches which can be found in any edifice, bearing the Early English form, the shafts and capitals and the lancet-shaped arch above, but ornamented in their soffits with the Norman moulding, and the zig-zag decoration, corresponding with the remarkable union of the Norman intersecting arches on the exterior of the building, with its pointed characteristics. The appearance of the central column with a base in the Early English and its capital with the Norman ornament might be added: the stairs to the crypt, and the discovery of several most interesting relics in the adjoining vaults opened in reducing the floor to its original level."

[Ill.u.s.tration: SECTION THROUGH LADY CHAPEL AND CRYPT.]

SECTION THROUGH LADY CHAPEL AND CRYPT.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ARCH DISCOVERED AT ENTRANCE OF LADY CHAPEL.]

ARCH DISCOVERED AT ENTRANCE OF LADY CHAPEL.

It was as a memorial to Dean Merewether, to whom the cathedral owes so much, that the stained gla.s.s designed by Cottingham was placed in the east windows in the narrow lancets that he loved so dearly. It represents scenes in the early life of the Virgin and the life of Christ; the last being the supper in the house of Mary and Martha. In the side windows the visitor should especially notice the rich cl.u.s.tered shafts and arches, the Early English capitals, and the ornamentation of the arches. Above these windows, corresponding to the openings above the east window, a quatrefoil opening enclosed by a circle pierces the wall. The quadripart.i.te vaulting springs from slender shafts, which descend upon a slightly raised base.

The double piscina and aumbry south of the altar are restorations necessitated by the dilapidated state of the originals.

*Monuments in the Lady Chapel.*-Of great beauty and interest is the Perpendicular recess in the central bay on the north side of the Lady Chapel, in which is the rec.u.mbent effigy which tradition has a.s.signed without evidence to Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, who died in the 46th year of the reign of Edward III., 1372. He was, however, buried in the north side of the Presbytery in Walden Abbey, Ess.e.x.

The Rev. Francis Havergal considers this to be the monument of Peter, Baron de Grandisson, who died 1358. In any case, the knight was probably one of the Bohun family, and husband of the lady whose effigy lies under an arch in the wall adjoining. The costume is of the earlier part of the fourteenth century; full armour, and covered (a rare example) by a cycla.s.s, a close linen s.h.i.+rt worn over the armour in Edward III.'s reign.

This s.h.i.+rt is cut short in front and about 6 inches longer behind. The visitor should also notice the fringed poleyns at the knees.

The upper story of the recess itself has open tabernacle-work, now containing a series of figures representing the crowning of the Virgin; on one side are figures of King Ethelbert and St. John the Baptist, and on the other St. Thomas a Becket (with double crozier) and Bishop Thomas de Cantilupe. Of these, however, only the two central carvings are in their original positions, the others having been discovered by Mr. Cottingham when the oak choir-screen was removed.

In the easternmost bay on this side is the tomb of Joanna de Bohun, Countess of Hereford, 1327. To quote from Dean Merewether: "The effigy of the lady, there can be scarcely a doubt, represents 'Johanna de Bohun, Domina de Kilpec.' She was the sister and heiress of Alan Plonknett or Plugenet of Kilpec, in the county of Hereford, a name distinguished in the annals of his times; and of his possessions, his sister doing her homage, had livery 19 Edward II.

"In 1327 Johanna de Bohun gave to the Dean and Chapter of Hereford, the church of Lugwardyne, with the chapels of Llangarren, St. Waynards and Henthland, with all the small chapels belonging to them, which donation was confirmed by the king by the procurement and diligence of Thomas de Chandos, Archdeacon of Hereford; and the Bishop of Hereford further confirmed it to the Dean and Chapter by deed, dated Lugwas, 22nd July, 1331 (ex Regist. MS. Thomae Chorleton, Epi.): And afterwards the Bishop, Dean and Chapter appropriated the revenues of it to the service peculiar to the Virgin Mary, 'because in other churches in England the Mother of G.o.d had better and more serious service, but in the Church of Hereford the Ladye's sustenance for her prieste was so thinne and small, that out of their respect they add this, by their deeds, dated in the Chapter at Hereford, April 10th, 1333.' (Harl. MS. 6726, fol. 109.)

"Johanna de Bohoun died without issue, 1 Edward III., 1327, the donation of Lugwardyne being perhaps her dying bequest. On the 17th of October in that year, she const.i.tuted John de Badesshawe, her attorney, to give possession to the Dean and Chapter of an acre of land in Lugwardine, and the advowson of the church with the chapels pertaining to it. This instrument was dated at Bisseleye, and her seal was appended, of which a sketch is preserved by Taylor, in whose possession this doc.u.ment appears to have been in 1655, and a transcript of it will be found Harl. MS. 6868, f. 77 (see also 6726, f. 109, which last has been printed in _Shaw's Topographer_, 1. 280).

"In the tower is preserved the patent 1 Edward III., pro Ecclesia de Lugwarden c.u.m capellis donandis a Johanna de Bohun ad inveniendum 8 capellanos et 2 diaconos approprianda (Tanner's _Not.i.tia Monast._).

[Ill.u.s.tration: SEAL OF JOHANNA DE BOHUN.]

SEAL OF JOHANNA DE BOHUN.

"The circ.u.mstances above mentioned appear sufficiently to explain why the memorial of Johanna de Bohoun is found in the Lady Chapel, to which especially she had been a benefactress. They also explain the original ornaments of this tomb, the painting which was to be seen not many years since under the arch in which the effigy lies, now unfortunately concealed by a coat of plaster, of which sufficient has been removed to prove that Gough's description of the original state of the painting is correct. He says, 'The Virgin is represented sitting, crowned with a nimbus; a lady habited in a mantle and wimple kneeling on an embroidered cus.h.i.+on offers to her a church built in the form of a cross, with a central spire-and behind the lady kneel eleven or twelve religious, chanting a gorge deployee after the foremost, who holds up a book, on which are seen musical notes and "salve sca parens." Fleur-de-lys are painted about both within and without this arch, and on the spandrils two s.h.i.+elds; on the left, a bend cotised between twelve Lioncels (Bohun); and on the right, Ermines, a bend indented, Gules.' This description was published 1786.

"By this painting there can be no doubt that the donation of the church of Lugwardine was represented; the eleven or twelve vociferous choristers were the eight chaplains and two deacons mentioned in the patent, who were set apart for the peculiar service of the Lady Chapel, and provided for from the pious bequest of Johanna de Bohoun. The two s.h.i.+elds mentioned by Gough are still discernible, that on the dexter side bearing the arms of Bohun, Azure a bend, Argent between two cotises, and six lions rampant, or.-The other, Ermines, a bend indented, (or fusily) Gules, which were the bearings of Plugenet, derived perhaps originally from the earlier Barons of Kilpec, and still borne by the family of Pye in Herefords.h.i.+re, whose descent is traced to the same source. In the list of obits observed in Hereford Cathedral, Johanna is called the Lady Kilpeck, and out of Lugwardine was paid yearly for her obit forty pence."

The effigy of Joanna de Bohun is also valuable as a specimen of costume.

Its curious decoration of human heads is also noteworthy.

Over the grave of Dean Merewether, who is interred at the north-east angle of the chapel, is a black marble slab with a bra.s.s by Hardman bearing an inscription, which records that to the restoration of the cathedral "he devoted the unwearied energies of his life till its close on the 4th of April 1850."

The next monument to notice is the effigy of Dean Berew or Beaurieu (died 1462) in the south wall of the vestibule. This is one of the best specimens of monumental sculpture in the cathedral. The face, which is well modelled, and the arrangement of the drapery at the feet, are especially noticeable. There are remains of colour over the whole monument. In the hollow of the arch-moulding are sixteen boars with rue leaves in their mouths, forming a "rebus" of the dean's name.

To the west of this monument is the effigy of a priest, supposed to be Canon de la Barr, 1386.

*The Audley Chantry.*-In the central bay on the south side of the wall is the Audley Chantry-a beautiful little chapel built by Bishop Edmund Audley (1492-1502), with an upper chamber to which access is obtained by a circular staircase at the south-west angle.

After Bishop Audley's translation to Salisbury in 1502 he erected a similar chantry in that cathedral wherein he was buried, so that the object of the Hereford Chantry as the place for his interment was of course never fulfilled.

The following is an extract taken from the calendar of an ancient missal:-"_Secundum usum Herefordensem_," which notes a number of "_obiits_" or commemorations of benefactors, chiefly between the times of Henry I. and Edward II. "_X. Kal. Obitus Domini Edmundi Audeley, quondam Sarum Episcopi, qui dedit redditum XX. Solidorum distribuendorum Canonicis et Clericis in anniversario suo presentibus, quique capellam novam juxta Feretrum Sancti Thomae Confessoris e fundo construxit, et in eadem Cantariam perpetuam amortizavit, etc. Const.i.tuit necnon Feretrum argenteum in modum Ecclesiae fabricatum atque alia quam plurima huic Sacre Edi contulit beneficia._"

The lower chamber is shut off from the Lady Chapel by a screen of painted stone with open-work panelling in two stages. The chapel is a pentagon in plan, and has two windows, while a third opens into the Lady Chapel through the screen. The ceiling is vaulted, and bears evidences of having in former times been elaborately painted.

There are five windows in the upper chamber, and the groined roof is distinctly good. The boss in the centre represents the Virgin crowned in glory. On other parts of the ceiling are the arms of Bishop Audley and those of the Deanery as well as a s.h.i.+eld bearing the letters R.I. The upper part of the chantry, which is divided from the Lady Chapel by the top of the screen which serves as a kind of rail, may have been used as an oratory; but no remains of an altar have been found. On the door opening on the staircase is some good iron-work, and Bishop Audley's initials may be noticed on the lock.

Standing by the door of this chapel the visitor has a lovely view westward, two pillars rising in the roof and across the top of the reredos, to the right the Norman arches of the north transept, and further on still the nave.

The Lady Chapel was used for very many years as a library, and after 1862 as the church of the parish of St. John the Baptist, which surrounds the cathedral, and claimed to hold its service in some part of the building.

*The Crypt* is entered from the south side of the Lady Chapel where a porch opens to a staircase leading down. The porch is deeply in-set, and like the crypt itself and the Lady Chapel, Early English. Professor Willis points out that Hereford is the only English cathedral whose crypt is later in date than the eleventh century; the well-known examples at Canterbury, Rochester, Worcester, Winchester, and Gloucester all belonging to earlier times. A flight of twenty steps leads down to the crypt, which is now light and dry, although previous to Dean Merewether's excavations it was utterly neglected and nearly choked up with rubbish. There is another approach to it from the interior of the church.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CRYPT.]

THE CRYPT.

_Photochrom Co., Ld., Photo._

It is 50 feet in length, and consists of a nave and aisles marked out by undecorated columns. It runs beneath the whole extent of the Lady Chapel.

This crypt having been used as a charnel-house is called the "Golgotha."

In the centre is an altar tomb, upon which is a large and elaborately decorated alabaster slab, in a fair state of preservation. It bears an incised representation of Andrew Jones, a Hereford merchant, and his wife, with an inscription setting forth how he repaired the crypt in 1497.

Scrolls proceeding from the mouths of the figures bear the following lines:-

"Remember thy life may not ever endure, That thou dost thiself thereof art thou sewre.

But and thou leve thi will to other menis cure, And thou have it after, it is but a venture."

At the back of the reredos is a bra.s.s to Mr. Bailey, M.P. for the county, whose bust formerly stood here, but was removed to a more fitting position in the county hall.

*The Vicars' Cloisters.*-The entrance to the college of Vicars Choral is from the south side of the Lady Chapel. Leading from the south-east transept of the cathedral to the quadrangle of the college is a long cloister walk.

In the morning, when the sun s.h.i.+nes upon the cloister, its richly carved roof may be best seen. The western wall, with the exception of a few mortuary tablets, is quite plain. The eastern wall is pierced with eight three-light windows, between which are the remains of small niches.

Many old vicars are buried within this cloister. The roof is of oak, the wall-plates, purlins, and rafters are richly moulded and the tie-beams and princ.i.p.als are richly carved on both sides with various patterns and devices.