Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/331

 ii s. vii. afml anwiai NOTES AND QUERIES. 323 may correspond to the space between the pulpitum and rood screen in the second bay of the nave from the east in a great monastic church, with the parallel bays of the south and north nave-aisles added. If this be so, the west Wall of the ante-chapel of this type would represent the rood screen across the nave, with a prolongation south and north athwart the nave-aisles. Where there was an aisled quire, enclosing screens were necessary for several reasons, and in the greater churches these parclose screens were usually of stone. Prior Eastry's screens at Canterbury are an example, as also Bishop Fox's screens at Winchester ; but the latter are later than Wykeham's time. In his Oxford chapel, where no quire-aisles were necessary, the outer south and north walls take the place of the par- close screens. The pulpitum, or quire screen, always had a spacious loft above it, and carried the organ. On the ground-level there was a single central passage through into the quire. On its western face an altar Was set on either side of the central doorway. The rood screen, on the other hand, was normally a solid wall with a little doorway on either side, between which Was a central altar. Above the screen was a loft, and above the loft the great Rood and the Mary and John. Where the stalls were wholly in the eastern limb the pulpitum was placed under the eastern arch of the crossing, as in the Benedictine cathedrals of Canterbury and Durham, the rood screen occupying in both cases the western arch of the crossing. At Benedictine Gloucester the pulpitum occupied the easternmost bay of the nave, the rood screen being between the second piers from the crossing. At Benedictine Winchester, Wykeham's own cathedral, the pulpitum Was placed as at Gloucester, but the rood screen between the third piers from the crossing, as at St. Albans. The pulpi- tum occupied the second bay from the east in the Cistercian nave of Fountains, the rood being between the fourth piers from the crossing. The pulpitum filled the third bay from the east in the naves of Benedictine Norwich and Cistercian Abbey Dore, the rood being in both churches between the fifth piers. In Benedictine Westminster the pulpitum may still be seen occupying the fourth bay of the nave ; the rood screen was between the sixth piers. In a rough comparison between the dimensions of the ground area of New College Chapel and the corresponding ritual area of divers great monastic churches, the measurements of the crossing (that part of the transept which is beneath the central tower) must be omitted where it occurs in- the ritual quires of the older churches. For1 there is no central tower in the Oxford plan, the famous towers of New College and Magdalen being campaniles detached from their chapels. The dimensions of the New College ground plan are, again, 103 ft. by 32£ft. for the quire, and 37 ft. by 80 ft. for the ante-chapel. Magdalen is 38J ft. smaller. Omitting the crossing, then, where it occurs, the following very rough measure- ments may be .given. Winchester Cathedral measures 80£ ft. from high altar to the outer entrance of pulpitum, 40£ ft. from pulpitum to rood; the width of quire is 30J ft. ; width of navo, with aisles, 88 ft. But Winches- ter, after Old St. Paul's, was the longest mediaeval cathedral in Europe, and altogether a church of the first magnitude. Norwich measures c. 51 ft. from high altar to outer entrance of pulpitum, 40 fit. from the last to the rood ; c. 30 ft. for width of quire, and 70 ft. for width of nave and aisles. Glouces- ter, c. 86 ft. from high altar to outer entrance, of pulpitum, 18 ft. from last to rood ; 33 ft., for width of quire, and 64 ft. for width of nave and aisles. Westminster, c. 75 ft.. from high altar to outer entrance of pul- pitum, 40 ft. from last to rood ; 40 ft. for width of quire, and c. 73 ft. for width of nave and aisles. The width of Worcester quire is 33 ft, ; of St. Albans, 30 ft. ; of Wells, 37 ft. The width of the nave and aisles of Worcester is 78 ft., and of St. Albans about the same. At Christ Church, Oxford, the quire is 20 ft. wide, the nave and aisles 50 J ft. But Christ Church is a cruciform church with a trun- cated nave. In 1524 Wolsey pulled down the three western bays of the nave, as ob- structing the quadrangle of his new Cardinal College : one bay has been recently rebuilt. In 1546 Henry VIII. converted the sup- pressed church of St. Frideswide, formerly served by Augustinian canons, into the cathedral church for his diocese of Oxford. As Wolsey's great college chapel was little more than begun at his fall, the beautiful old church has also served as the college chapel of three foundations, viz., Cardinal College, King Henry VIII.'s College, and Christ Church. Twenty-seven years before Wolsey had been granted St. Frideswide's, Bishop Alcock of Ely* had acquired in like manner the Benedictine nunnery of St. Radegund at Cambridge, the buildings of which he