C a rl is l e C at h e d ra l

$ it were possible, by the wave of a

’ magician s wand , to sweep away the

o mighty mass of made earth and build ings , past and present , that cover the original surface of the site on which the city of

l n o w Carlis e stands, a spectator stationed beyond the w e b of railway lines that l ie to

w — in west ard of the Cathedral standing, for

- stance, where the great smoke stalk known

’ as Dixon s chimney rears its h ead h w o u ld see a long hill of New Red sandstone rising gently from the south end of the present city of Carlisle (from far to the south of the l l present centra rai way station) , to a head on 7

1 05 1 21 0 C a r l i s l e C a t h ed ra l l which now stands the Cathedra of Carlisle .

Northwards of this, beyond a deep ravine, h e would see a second hill rising still north wards to a second and higher head, and looking out towards the north like a lion the Castle H ill of Carlisle, a natural fortress to guard the w ath s or fords through the beautiful river running under it from east to west through a broad expanse of marsh and

-b d willow e . I n the foreground of his view he w ould see the precipitous cliffs into which these two hills break on their eastern sides, as they tower above a second and lesser river, which contributes its waters to the first a little to the west and north of the Castle H ill . m Could our i aginary spectator, by some m ’ agician s flying carpet, raise himself to the

m - level of the top of the great chi ney stalk, he would see a third and yet smaller river l m f owing into the first, so e way to the east

o f ward the Castle H ill . H e would notice that to the south these two lesser rivers so 8 C a r l i s l e C a t h edr a l nearly coalesce as to enclose the Castle and

l - l Cathedral hi ls in a quasi is and . H e would notice patches of heather growing on these w t m two hills and i n the ravine bet een he , while frequent springs burst out , even on

. e their highest points H e would , p rhaps, see a few wretched wigwams on the Castle

l - H i l, whose scantily clad inhabitants were , m some fishing for sal on in the rivers , others , armed with arrows tipped or pointed with bone, hunting in the ravine and on the m Cathedral H ill for s all animals and birds . Now the above is not the vain i magining of a dream ing antiquary . The three rivers

— C a ld ew Pett eril the Eden , the , and the still enclose the Castle and Cathedral hills in

- f a quasi island . The precipitous cli fs of these hills are still to be seen in Devonshire

Walk under the Castle, and in the West

Walls under the Cathedral . The ravine is i d ébr is b f lled up with and building ru bish , and the stuff that ever accumulates in ancient cities but i n digging the foundati ons for the 9 C a r l i s l e C a t h edra l

Tu llie entrance to H ouse, midway between the Cathedral and the Castle, seventeen feet of made earth had to be worked through before the original surface of the undisturbed soil was reached . That surface was covered

e with dried heath r, a sod of which is pre

in Tu lli served the museum i n e H ouse . The presence of the hunter was proved by finding on the heathery surface the bone -tip of one of his arrows . The present water logged condition o f the soil at no great depth proves the existence of the many springs which even yet survive to trouble r building cont actors . It is foreign to our purpose to go into the h istory of these two hills—the Castle H ill and the Cathedral H ill of Carlisle we must j ust state what is necessary for the understanding of the story of the hill on which the Cathedral of Carlisle stands . Briefly, th en , we suggest , for we cannot say for certain , that the great Roman general Agrico l a built a fort of stone at Stanwix on the north side of the River

1 0

C a r l i s l e C a t h ed ra l

—o n Eden another hill , where the church of

Stanwix, conspicuous by its tower, now stands . Suburbs soon gathered on the cramped slope between the fort and the river . As the settlers increased, more room was required, and they built upon the l Cathedral H ill of Car isle , and protected themselves with a stout palisade of oak, whose remains, deep underground, have at various times been disinterred . Bad times came, and in the troubles that preceded the

of AD . 1 20 arrival the Emperor H adrian in , — Luguvalliu m for so the Romans named the — town on the Cathedral H ill was burnt ; it lay desolate and waste when that Emperor visited the site . With the return of peace

Lu uvalliu m and security, g grew up upon a large scale and became a city of luxury, covering a considerable area, and having an extensive cemetery to its south , situate right o and left of the highway, and extending fr m the present Assi z e Courts al m ost to the River

P r il ette . Of the Roman and British life of 1 3 C a r l i s l e C a t h ed r a l this city we have little to tell ; but that it had a long Roman and British life no man can doubt, as Mr . Freeman told us at Carlisle in - his address to the Royal A r ch a o

82 1 8 . logical I nstitute in I t , no doubt , shared the i ndependence of those parts of m Britain from which the Ro an had gone , and into which the Angle or the Saxon had not yet com e . After that episode i n its history, it was for two hundred years part of l an English kingdom , that of the Ang es of

Northumberland . Again it was devastated and laid waste by H a lfd en e and his Danes 8 AD . in 75, and was, for some two hundred years before the arrival in it of W$ illiam “ Rufus, British or nothing . The unbroken ” English life of Carlisle, says Mr . Freeman , begins with the coming of the Red King l ” and the settlement of his Eng ish colony .

1 0 2 William the Red, in 9 , found Lugu va lliu m , once a city and a fortress, a waste chester, and he refounded it as a city and a t for ress . With its destruction by the Danes,

I 4 C a r l i s l e C a t h e dra l

the ecclesiastical establishments, whether existing at the time of the visit of St . Cuthbert A D 6 . 8 t l l in . 5 or founded by him , mus a have perished . Sooner or later some sort of ecclesiastical foundation was r e -established

u in the reb ilt city, but not until long after the time of William Rufus the ecclesiastical side of Carlisle is not the work of William

Rufus, but of H enry I . The present Arch f o . deacon Carlisle (Dr Prescott) , in his valu able edition o f the register of the Priory of

eth erh a l I. W , has proved that Henry , on the

h u rs ta n Y advice of T , archbishop of ork , found ed in Carlisle in or about the year 1 1 23

1 1 0 2 l (and not , as so frequent y stated) a

house of regular or Augustinian canons . This m perhaps requires a little explanation , for any people believe that all ecclesiastics connected with cathedrals before the Reformation were

$ m onks . Far from it some cathedrals were

— 11a served by monks , others by canons ,

priests who had not taken monastic vows ,

and who were of two kinds, secular and 1 5 C a r l i s l e C a t h e dr a l

regular . Secular canons moved about in the world, lived i n separate houses , and were similar to the canons of modern day s .

Regular canons, like monks , lived under the m rule of some order . They were ore strict than the secular canons , and lived together in common under one roof . The regular canons of St . Augustine, bishop of H ippo , from their dress, were called Black Canons ; they also wore full beards . Carlisle is remark able as being the only cathedral church that

A h m they occupied . Englishman , as his na e

Ad u lf Ath elw u lf Ath elw o ld shows, , , , prior of the Augustinian house of St . Oswald, at N os Y tell in orkshire, and confessor and chaplain to the King, was appointed first prior of

Carlisle, and on the formatio n of the See of

1 Carlisle in 1 33 he became the first bishop . But the unbroken succession of bishops of m Carlisle did not begin with the English an , l 6 elw o d . 1 1 Ath After his death , in 5 , the see

1 20 was vacant until 4 , when a poverty

. m stricken foreigner, as Dr Prescott calls hi ,

1 6 C a r l i s l e C a t h edra l was foisted upon the d istrict by Pope I nno cent I I I . , who begged the post from King john . Enough has now been said of the history of the two hills of Carlisle, the Castle H ill and the

Cathedral H ill . On the first, marked out by nature for the site of a fortress, the Red King built, or commenced to build , while his suc c es s o rs finished, the fortress whose mutilated m re ains , long ago divested of any strategic m importance, yet serve to shelter so e small m portion of the national ar y . The military

first satisfied, the turn of the ecclesiastics came they carefully avoided the ravine between the two hills and selected a site on the top and along the west side of the Cathe dral H ill . Tradition says that one Walter, a wealthy Norman ecclesiastic (some say he had formerly been a soldier) , was set over the m rebuilt city by Willia Rufus, that he began V to build a house there , dedicated to the irgin — Mary a house probably of secular canons but , dying before he could complete the x 7 C a r l i s l e C a t h edr a l

1 2 buildings, the King in 1 3 superseded the secular canons b v regulars of the Order of

. A th elw o ld St Augustine, and ,the first prior , completed the structure .

The question arises, Can any part of this Walter ’ s work be distinguished from that of Ath el w o ld ? It has been pointed out b y the

’

A . writer s brother, Mr . C . Ferguson , F . S . , that , whereas the walls and pillars of the nave arcade of Carlisle Cathedral are of the normal thickness of Norman work, the walls of the

aisles are, in strange contrast, of remarkable

thinness, only about two feet four inches or

— - thereabouts a n indication of pre Norman

. m work I t see s to point to a building, so

far as th e outer walls , on older foundations . N ow we can hardly imagine those older foundations to have be l onged to some church destroyed by the Danes in 875 Carlisle could at that time hardly have possessed a church with a nave as w ide as the nave that

we now see . We are driven then to the time of the Red King h e brought from the south

1 8

C a r l i s l e C a t h edr a l a r tifi c er s l , including, no doubt, bui ders skilled in the Norman fashion of bui l ding . But these masons would be employed upon the

’ King s work, upon the fortifications, while Walter would have to employ such local l — talent as he cou d get Britons , Celts and Irish— who would adhere to their old fashion of building thin walls , compared with those the Normans were in the habit of building .

Ath e lw o ld Thirty years later, when took up

’ Walter s work, he would insist upon the grand Norman pi l lars and walls of the nave arcade that now win our admiration , though he might not care for the expense of putting i n new and wider foundations for the aisle walls . The thinness of these walls implies a stone

th e construction or mason work, whereas walls of the keep of Carlisle Castle are of concrete and of great thickness . Thus it is clear that the thin aisle walls of the nave of Carlisle Cathedral and the thick walls of the keep of Carl isle Castle are the work of build ing a r tific er s trained i n di fferent schoo l s ;

2 1 C a r l i s l e C a t h ed ra l

the Norman artifi cer s who built the keep having derived their method of building in m m concrete fro the Romans , while the asons who built the aisle walls came from a race u n affected by the Roman traditions of building, and possibly Irish . A curious corroboration

1 8 2 of this suggestion was obtained in 0 , when the foundations of an ancient feretory or

eas ter n fa c e apse, projected from the of the

’ north transept of Ath elw o ld s Norman church which preceded the present choir, were ex posed in some work connected with the organ . The circular wall of the apse, at a level of about three feet below the present

- floor level , is about four feet three inches th ic k a n d , made entirely of stone , dressed with a hatchet, built stone to stone , with no sign of f concrete, and so di fering from the usual

Norman fashion . H ere we have proof that

Ath elw o ld , prior and bishop, had to follow

th e in footsteps of Walter, and to employ the local talent , and not the Norman builders l m imported by Wi lia I I .

22

C a r l i s l e C a t h edra l

u t l P tting aside hese specu ations , let us, before going into detail , take a very rapid survey of the existing church or churches , for there were two churches within the one building let us then see if we can pick ou t what remains of the church or churches

Ath elw o ld built by the Englishman , prior and bishop of Carlisle .

The Cathedral , structurally, now consists of a fragmentary nave and aisles, two bays only remaining ; aisleless transepts with a chapel on the east side of the southern one t a choir wi h aisle and processional path , and a central tower .

’ — La Athelw o ld s The original church , church—was a Norman minster of the twelfth

z t century, of moderate si e, of which here are m still frag ents to be seen . These consist of the two eastern bays of the nave (those to the west having been destroyed in 1 6 46 ) of the m south transept, al ost entire and of the lower half of th e piers that support the central tower . The nave formerly extended much 2 5 C a r l i s l e C a t h e dra l further to the w est it had several more bays or m co partments, and the foundations of its west wall were discovered a few years ago buried behind the house belonging to the l second prebendal sta l , somewhere under the

’ l Ath elw o ld s f oor of the present greenh ouse . choir was very small compared with the magnificent one that now exists the fo u n d a tions of its east end were uncovered d uring th e restoration in the time of Dean Tait . I t l proved to be apsidal or circu ar at the end , and eighty feet in length ; as th e length of

- d - - - the nave is one hun red and forty one feet ,

—hy e and the tower is thirty feet square , we

’ Ath el w o ld s get the total internal length of ,

m - or the N or an cathedral , as two hundred

-fift - and y six feet . b Doubts have been entertained , and y high authorities, as to whether the western hays of the N orman church ever existed ; but such

doubts are without any basis . I t is needless in this little booklet to discuss the evidence for their former existence ; suffice it to say

26 C a r l i s l e C a t h edra l

i that Dr . Todd, prebendary of Carl sle , writing

1 6 88 m in , positively states of the Parlia entary “ ’ f $ o ficers Th e westward of St . Mary s t Church they demolished, which was af er wards built shorter as it now stands . Dr .

Todd had ample means of knowing, for in 1 6 88 there must have been in Carlisle plenty of persons , both ecclesiastics and laymen , who could recollect the western bays in

6 . 1 6 . existence prior to 4 Th e bishop , Dr

Smith , to whom Todd had long been chaplain ,

1 6 1 was an Appleby man by birth , born in 5, fond of architecture, and must have known

’ the nave of Ath elw o ld s church prior to its mutilation . Further there is in the library at

1 6 Lambeth a survey of the year 49, which “ says $ It appears onto us by ye View of j udicious workmen that ye d ecay es of the church of S . Maryes of Carlyle is such that ye weste pte being taken down the repair of the east will coste fy ve hundred pounds att ye Least w ch seems to us v ery n ec es sarye th eir b eein ge but one other church 2 7 C a r l i s l e C a t h e dra l

( w o h is likewise very Ru y n o u s ) in al l that & c . Citty, This Norman minster was one of the in

o f — stances divided possession that is , of two

in l it churches one building . At Car isle probab l y arose in th is way $ Walter the Norman and the secular canons who came

with him , or followed him , and afterwards

the Austin canons, undertook the ecclesias tical organisation of the rebuilt city and of

w a s u the district . These last , as sual with

e Austi n canons, establish d a congregation in

the nave of their church, retaining the ch oir

for their own services . I n course of time the congregation in the nave acquired righ ts th er e

l n t , and he nave became their parish church

’ -S t . . Mary s Parish Church Some have, how

ever, indulged in a theory that there was in

Carlisle a separate church dedicated to St .

Mary, which the Scots burnt , whereon the parishioners were allowed to take refuge in the

nave of the Cathedral . This is pure romance ; l the Scots never burnt any church in Carlis e .

28 C a r l i s l e C a t h e dra l A misapprehension prevails as to the division between the church of the canons

1 8 1 and the parish church . Prior to 7 the parish church occupied the existing bays of

o ff the nave, which were cut from th e rest of the building by a wall under the west arch of the tower . Many persons have too hastily concluded that the parish church had w al ays been in this position , but that prior to 1 6 46 it had include d the whole length of l l l the unmutilated nave . A itt e ref ection will A ll show that this is an untenable idea . the evidence we possess shows that the eastern arm of the Norman minster was very short — indeed only 80 feet ; it follows that the ritualist choir of the canons m ust have extended under the tower arches into the nave, as at Gloucester, Norwich , Winchester, l ’ and St . A ban s this is proved at Carlisle by the fact that the faces of the piers of the central tower, towards the central axis of the l bui ding, are built flat for the reception of

’ the woodwork of the canons stalls . The

29 C a r l i s l e C a t h edra l

lower part, moreover, of the wall that at present terminates the nave is over five feet thick, poi nting to its being a very old wall

a e medi val , indeed, as far as the lower portion is concerned ; the upper part is a modern

-u make p . At Gloucester the pulpitum or rood screen occupied exactly the same position as the present west wall of Carlisle , thus enclosing the two eastern bays of the nave . There is some evidence that the present west wall of Carlisle Cathedral once had in it the central door which distin

uis h es g a rood screen from a reredos . Thus we may well come to the conclusion that the choir of the canons extended nearly to th e present west end of the church , and that

’ the original church of St . Mary s parish was to th e westward of that end, and was entirely

m 1 6 6 de olished in 4 . The necessary funds fo r h its rebuilding not being fort coming, the parish church was then huddled ( “ huddled

w h o is the word , as those recoll ect it prior to 1 87 1 will recognise) into the two remaining bays of the nave . 30

C a r l i s l e C a t h edra l

’ Ath elw o ld s m inster must have witnessed some stately functions withi n its walls ;

Carlisle was not then , as now, unused to

I . royal visits . On the death of H enry , that city was hand ed over to the old king of

l a c u ies Scots, David . , as the price of his q cence i n the usurpation by Stephen of the

English crown . At Carlisle David held his e court , and at Carlisle he r ceived more than

re one papal legate . To him , at Carlisle, II sorted Prince H enry, the future H enry . of England, then a lad of sixteen . At Carlisle Prince Henry remained for eight m onths, and while there the ceremony of knighting him was performed with great pomp in the presence of many grandees, both English and Scotch . At Carlisle, too, there was held in King David ’ s time a synod of Scottish bishops, at which Athel

a . wold of C rlisle was present At Carlisle, in

1 1 8 . 5 , H enry I I and Malcolm , king of the m Scots, et, but parted, unable to adj ust their

1 1 86 f . di ferences At Carlisle, again , in , 33 C a r l i s l e C a t h e dra l

II H enry . met William the Lion , king of the

Scots, and entertained him i n a most friendly manner . All these occasions must have afforded opportunities for stately and sumptuous

a u th o ecclesiastical pageants , in which the r ities of the N orman minster would do the best that their s mall and somewhat cram ped choir admitted ; but for what they

w e did must draw upon our imagination , as m docu entary evidence does not, to our knowledge , remain . Other ceremonies were done in that Norman minster which could hardly be called pageants, for in them the poor trembling canons had to take part under fear of present death if they refused , and the certainty of future punishment if

1 2 1 6 they acquiesced . Thus, in , Carlisle l was surrendered to Wi liam the Lion , wh o was then under papal excommunication ;

b e yet compelled the canons of Carlisle , m m under fear of death , to say ass for hi , and also to elect q u em d a m cler icz m z 3 1m m

34 C a r l i s l e C a t h e dra l

’ in terd icm m cf ex co m m u m ca l u m , as their bishop and pastor . For these their sins they were presently driven into exile by

’ G ualio , th e papal legate, and the Pope s m andate was issued for the election , with the royal assent, of Hugh Abbot of Beaulieu , to be the third bishop of Carlisle . This then is the story of the Norman A h lw l minster, built by t e o d the English man ; for in the thirteenth century the canons rebuilt the choir on a much larger scale .

We have already mentioned, rather by anti c i atio n p than in chronological order, how the west part of the nave was pulled down

1 6 6 in 4 . Let us now pause awhile i n our story, and linger over the architectural details of the fragment that remains of the

Norman mi nster .

On the outside of the nave, the dark grey rectangular blocks of stone, of which it is m largely built , fro their tooling and general appearance, are supposed , and rightly so , to have come from that ready quarry, the 35 C C a r l i s l e C a t h e dra l

m l Ro an wa l of its wealth of dressed stone, the medi aeval masons who built Carlisle Castle and Cathedral freely availed them m ’ m selves, putting their own asons arks m upon the Ro an tooling . The transept and the north aisle of the nave have the usual

flat Norman pilaster buttresses, dying into the cornice, which in the aisle is carried upon a series of plain corbels . The cleres tories of the nave have no buttresses, but the cornice runs in an unbroken line here and in the transept, supported by grotesque h eads . The windows display the characteristic

- z z N orman ornaments th e ig ag, chevron ,

& c billet, Th e lower part of the south transept is much plainer than any other

portion of the building, and the buttresses m are o itted along the south aisle wall, as that wall would be covered by the con l ven tu a buildings .

Entering by the great modern door, where

’ no door was of old, the spectator s eye is at o nce attracted by the distorted condition of 36

Ca r l i s l e C a t h e dra l

1 2 1 2 Everdon , 4 5 to 55. The work was con

’ E ver d o n s tinned by successors , Bishops

Vi o n t l p , De Channey, and De rton . The

1 1 2 2 last named , who died on March , 9 , converted his visitations into the means of extorting large sums of money from his clergy for the purposes of the work at the “ C at hedral the writer of the Chronicle of

La n er c o s t waxes very indignant about this , “ ” a d m o d u m cu id us and calls the bishop p , “ ” “ m zd o n o n rces u l im ro ba s ex a cto r p , p , p ,

- m H a l u cto n and such like bad na es . j ohn de , or de H a l o ghto n (best known as Bishop H alton) was elected to the vacant see on

’ 2 St . George s Day (April 3) following . On the 3oth of the next month a dire m isfortune

befell his Cath edral and Cathedral city . A tremendous gale, evidently from the west ,

- blew for twenty four hours, parching up the

m o ff vegetation , forcing en and horses the

roads , and driving the sea over Burgh and f Rockcli f marshes , higher than had ever

been known before, to the destruction of

40 C a r l i s l e C a t h edra l

In large numbers of cattle and sheep . the midst of this terrible storm an incendiary set

’ fire to his father s house, which was j ust

th e outside the city, near the west end of

m a n d Cathedral th e fla es spread, the whole city and suburbs were destroyed, with the exception of a few houses and the church of the Black Friars . Graphic accounts, both in prose and verse , of this catastrophe are “ contained in the Chronicle of La n er c o s t . From the special m ention made of the destruction o f the bells and organs in the

Cathedral, we j udge they must have been such as the canons m ight wel l be proud of .

r d a . P u Mr y , clerk of the works during the

’ restoration in Dean Tait s time, in an able but now rare tract on Carlisle Cathedral , gives it as his opinion that the remains of the new choir left by th e fire are the outside walls of the north a nd south aisles (with the exception of the eastern bay on each side) , the whole

’ of St . Catherine s Chapel . and the arch at the west end of the north aisle opening into the

4 1 C a r l i s l e C a t h edr a l

In transept . fact , the grand new choir was completely wrecked, except the side aisle

P urd . a walls, which Mr y conj ectures were protected by their stone vaultings .

’ Ath elw o ld s Of work the nave escaped , but the fire destroyed the north transept, injured

m a n n ihi the south transept walls , and al ost lated the conventual buildings . The central tower was also much damaged . A question has been raised whether at the date of this fire the rebuilding of the choir ,

D e started by Everdon , had so far progressed

’ M r P ur d a as that the roof was on . y thinks that it must have been , as the almost total ruin which succeeded that event could scarcely have been brought about unless the building had contained a large quantity of combustible materials such as a roof of this ” extent would supply . The Bishop of London ” in (Dr . Creighton) , Carlisle, H istoric Towns series, suggests that the work had only been carried up to the tops of the main arches and that a temporary wooden roof had been 4 2

C a r l i s l e C a t h ed ra l thr own over the unfinished bui l ding at that level . Dr . Creighton evidently thinks that had the permanent roof been in place it would

have been of stone ; but Mr . Freeman told the

ae 1 882 Arch ological I nstitute at Carlisle, in , that the choir was from the very first designed

for a wooden roof .

’ Eve rd o n s e De choir, long r and broader m than the Nor an choir, was not symmetrically

a m pl ced with regard to the Nor an nave, its central line being removed to the northwards — of that of the nave a displacement rendered necessary by the existence on the south side

of the conventual buildings . I nternally this m m m was a atter of no o ent, as the screens,

dividing the building into two churches, con c ea led it externa l ly the eccentricity of nave and choir is cleverly disguised by a subsidiary turret alongside of the great tower for part of

- its height , and by a pepper box turret on its m sum it . Whether it was intended to rebuild the whole Cathedral in accordan ce with th e

new choir is uncertain . Preparations were 45 C a r l i s l e C a t h ed r a l made for rebuilding the n orth transept , as shown by the pillar at the west end of the north aisle and the fragment of wall on the

th at vi in i outside in c ty . But it may well be that those who rebuilt on so magnificent a scale

’ the canons ch urch in the architectural choir of the building cared nothing about the paro chial church in the nave, and that the parish had scant funds to devote to such purposes . Low indeed m ust the hearts of the canons of Carlisle have sunk within them their beautiful choir, wh ich had taken half a cen tury to rear, had become a black and ghastly e wreck, and that too j ust as they wer nearing t $ i s completion they were burnt out , roofless h and homeless . I t was all t e harder upon them b ecause they had aimed at having the very best of work, boldness of style, and the utmost beauty of detail . I t was all thrown away . Could they have looked into the future and seen the dismal vista before them of about a century and a half of Scottish wars , of their bishops turned to soldiers, and 46

C a r l i s l e C a t h edra l

m of plundered and ruined churches, they ust

. u m have despaired But the f ture, its isery and poverty, they could not foresee but ever, though misery and poverty befell them, they struggled bravely on , determined to still insist on the very best of work, on boldness of style, and on the utmost beauty of design , even if they had to wait a hundred years .

w as h o w ever The rebuilding , , long in doing times were troublous, and Scottish wars l ittle favourable for the collection of s u b s c r ip tions . Th e conventual buildings would be

first rebuilt as rapidly as possible , for the m sake of shelter, and nothing ore spent upon them than was absolutely necessary . The transept followed , but the rebuilding of the choir extended over many years, and a long stop was made after the cill of the triforium was reached . The building must have been

1 2 in a very sad condition when , in 97, Robert

Bruce swore fealty to Edward I . on the sword of St . Thomas before Bishop Halton in Car lisle Cathedral . Nor can it have been far

4 9 C a r l i s l e C a t h edra l

1 0 6 - advanced in the rebuilding in $anuary 3 7 , when the Prince of Wales, the Archbishop of Y ork, nineteen bishops , thrice that number of m m m itred abbots, a large nu ber of the ost powerful barons of the realm , and the great officers of State attended th e Parliament of

Carlisle . To Carlisle also came Cardinal

’ H is a n u s l Es a n o l Petrus p ( Peter p g ) , the papal legate . H e preached in the Cathedral “ h im s elfe at Carlisle, and revested and the o other bish ps which were present, and then , with c a n d el s light and causing the bels to be roong, they accursed, in terrible wise,

vs u r er c r o w n e Robert Bruce , the p of the of Scotland, with all h is partakers, aiders and

$ i r 2 in n e . . m a te s . H olinshed, ii 5 3 About midsummer another stately ceremony took place i n Carlisle Cathedral . Edward I . made there a solem n offering of the horse litter in which he had travelled to the north and of the h orses belonging to it . Building w a s resumed under Bish ops Welton ( 1 352-6 2) and Appleby ( 1 36 2 50 C a r l i s l e C a t h edra l who made “ strenuous efforts to raise funds I to these Edward II . and many of the nobility contributed, and the work was brought to a successful conclusion before the death of

w III 1 . Ed ard . in 377 To these two bishops may be attributed the whole of the east end above the aisle roofs, and also the triforium , clerestory and roof of the choir, which was

$ - l wagon shaped of panel ed wood, with great m hammer beams , fro which it is probable large lamps were suspended . I t was curious l y painted, and adorned with bosses, on which were blaz oned the arms of the noble fami l ies who had subscribed to the rebuilding . A list m of them is preserved in the College of Ar s .

Dr . Creighton considers the absence of a stone vaulted roof a sign of enforced eco

n o m . y , but Mr Freeman considers that the roof was always intended to be of wood, and points out that “ the Engl ish tradition of making a wooden roof an ornamenta l feature was here to be seen on the greatest ”

. m scale I n support of Mr . Free an , it may 51 D C a r l i s l e C a t h ed r a l be pointed out that no provision was made h for taking the thrust of a vaulted roof, eit er by flying butt r esses or otherwise . M r . Freem an also said the east window of Carlisle

th e was grandest of its kind i n England, and he supposed in the world . There was as big a window in one of the churches in Perugia which in some points reminded him of this ; but here they had the finest piece of tracery w to be seen any here . The active misfortun es of the Cathedral did not end with the fire of 1 292 it suffered

m fi r e 1 2 fro a second in 39 , which destroyed the front of the north transept . Little written m record re ains of this fire , but the front tells its own story—the story of damage by m fire, repaired with the utmost econo y, the

r e- old materials being used, and broken

r e stones being patched, instead of being

w placed . This was probably the ork of

1 0 0 Bishop Strickland (bishop , 4 he also built the towe r upon the distorted Nor

n e ces s i man piers . Foundations so ticklish S2

C a r l i s l e C a t h ed r a l

St . Cuthbert , and the figures of the twelve

Apostles . For long these were covered with

Go n i o ur whitewash . Both d b and Salkeld put into the church some beautiful wooden

’ screens the remains of Go n d ib o ur s screens

’ ’ S a lkeld s enclose St . Catherine s Chapel .

screens, of beautiful Renaissance work, are

between the chancel and the north aisle . The building was probably at its best j ust before the Reformation ; the interior was

gorgeously gilt and painted, the walls , capitals,

and tabernacle work enriched with colour,

and the windows glorious with stained glass ,

of which little now remains . Much was

probably taken out at the Reformation , when also the images from the tabernacle work would disappear and the paintings at the back of the stalls be whitewashed . Little wanton mischief would be done the change at Carlisle was a peaceable one . The prior and canons of the Augustinian house becam e the dean and canons of a cathedral of the

o . new foundati n , but they were poor Suc 56

C a r l i s l e C a t h ed r a l c e ed in - d g deans, two at least , were non resi ent l aymen , and the place was neglected and let

- run down . From the oft quoted j ournal of

f w three o ficers from Norwich , who ere upon a tour through northern England , we get a melancholy picture of the Cathedra l in 1 6 34 “ l The next day we repaired to their cathedra , which is nothing near so fair and stately as l those we had seen , but more like a great wi d country church ; and as it appeared out

’ w a r d l i l y so was it nwardly, ne er beautifu nor adorned one whit . The organ and l l voices did we agree , the one being like a l shrill bagpipe , the other ike a Scottish tune . The sermon in the like accent was such as

w as we could hardly bring away , though it delivered by a neat young scholar, sent that

’ morn ing from Rose Castle, the bishop s m w C a ld ew ansion , hich lies upon Rose and rivers— one of the bishop ’ s chaplains— to supply his p l ace that day . The Communion was a l so administered and received in a wild unreverent manner .

59 C a r l i s l e C a t h e d r a l The destruction at Carlisle was wrought after the surrender of the city to General

1 6 6 - Lesley i n 4 , when the chapter house, and other conventual buildings, and several bays of the nave were pulled down . During the Commonwealth the building was the scene of much rioting the “ terrible man with the leather breeches , George Fox, preached there, and the church had to be cleared of a

m b 1 6 riotous ob y files of musketeers . I n 74 the Cathedral was degraded into a prison for the captured H ighlanders and was left in a

filthy condition . Then followed a destructive restoration under Bishop Lyttleton . During this a plaster ceiling was inserted below the oak one, exquisite wooden screens were torn out, and the space between the stalls was

filled up with pews . I n 1 853 e xtensive restoration was com m en c ed under M r . Christian ; and later st ill ,

1 8 1 . i n 7 , under Mr Street, the pews were l pul ed out , and the fragment of the nave thrown open to the rest of the church .

6 0 C a r l i s l e C a t h e d r a l The only old glass in the church is that in the upper part of the glorious east window . m— This represents a doo that is, our Lord sitting in j udgment ; the procession of the blessed to the palace of heaven ; the place of punishment of the wicked and the general resurrection . I n one of the quatrefoils of the tracery, j ust above the mullions, is a

figure surrounded by an heraldic border, golden castles and leopards ’ faces alter n a l — te y a border of Castile and Leon . This points to john of Gaunt, who was Governor

m 1 80 1 8 of Carlisle fro 3 to 3 4, and who impaled Castile and Leon in right of his wife ; this is probably his portrait . It also gives the date of the glass as between 1 380

1 8 and 3 4 .

Of modern glass in the building, by far the best is that over the door in the south transept, representing the Seven Days of the Creation ; each symbolised by an angel l ho ding a roundel , on which are depicted the events of the day .

6 1 C a r l i s l e C a t h edra l We have almost forgotten to call attention t to what never fails o interest . The capitals of the colu mns in the choir have. been “ ” wrought with a grace, says Dr . Creighton , that makes them exquisite examples of orna mentation . Twelve of them take for their motive the representation of the months of m the year a otive common enough , but no where wrought out with so much l uxuriance of fancy . The groundwork of the figures is foliage clustering ro u nd the tops of the pi l lars oaks extend their branches and vines send forth their shoots . These are peopled by birds and beasts, by men and grotesque

e cr atures in every attitude, but always full of m life and move ent . On the spaces facing the choir are placed the representations of m the onths, showing the various occupations of the different seasons—now a peasant pull ing off his wet boots and warming his bare feet at the fire now a lord riding out with h is hand full of roses and a hawk upon h is fist ; — n o w a reaper and again a sower the whole

6 2

C a r l i s l e C a t h e dra l presenting a picture of rural England of the ” ti me . The series begins with th e second column from the east on the south side ; a

figure with three faces under one hood, two b of which are usy drinking, represents january . Twenty bishops of Carlisle lie buried i n m their Cathedral , fro De Everdon , who died c irca 1 2 1 8 55, to Law, wh o died in 7 7 . To only seven of these do any monu ments r e

’ effi ies main , namely, two g doubtfully assigned

l rto n 1 2 2 1 2 to (d . 9 ) and to Barrow (d . 4 9)

’ the last is by St . Catherin e s Chapel, opposite

’ to Th o r n y c r o ft s fine effigy of Bish op

Goodwin , and is evidently a portrait . Bishop

1 6 s Bell (d . 49 ) has a fine bra s in the centre

1 6 1 6 of the choir, and Bishop Robinson (d . ) a curious one, now i n th e north aisle . The other m onu m ents are on the walls or in the o flo r . Archdeacon Paley lies in the north aisle, and forgotten deans, chancellors and prebendaries are frequent . Two of the Lords Dacre of the North were buried in Carlisle

6 4 C a r l i s l e C a t h edra l

— m 1 Cathedral Lord William on D ece ber 4 ,

I 6 2 1 6 6 5 3, and Lord Thomas on july 5, 5 ; but neither monument nor tradition records their graves . Of the conventual buildings but little r e m ains . The great gatehouse to the west was the work of Prior Christopher Slee in

$ 1 28 5 . The Prior s lodging is now the deanery and contains a curiously painted l o cei ing, the work of Pri r Simon Senos (Sen house) . The fratry or refectory completes the list of conventual buildings that remain

m - the cloisters , dor itories, chapter house and other accessories of a house of canons are f all gone , barely leaving su ficient fragments to indicate their positions .

P r m ted b y BALLAN$ YN E, H A N S ON Gr C 0

’ Lan d o n ér Ed m b u rg h