Ely Cathedral

Ely
Cathedral

The Rev. Canon
Dickson

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Ely
Cathedral

-m-'

Ely
Cathedral

'By

The Rev. W. E.

Dickson, m.a.

Hon. Canon of Ely

Illustrated by
Alexander Ansted

London : Isbister i^ Co. Ltd.
15 y i6 Tavistock Street Covent Garden

MDCCCXCVn

Ely Cathedral

" T T ^^^ ^^^ "^ ^^^^ Countries " was the
I I title of a lecture delivered some
years ago by a distinguished Dean
of Ely in one of the principal towns of the
East Anglian Fenland. He had no lack
of architectural illustrations of his subject,
familiar to his audience. Besides his own
grand church, with its grand sister-churches
of Lincoln and Peterborough, the Fen dis-
trict supplied him with a surprising number
of examples of high art as applied to ecclesi-
astical buildings ; and many parish churches
may have been cited by him in the course of
his address, as proofs of the existence, in the
9

Ely Cathedral

Middle Ages, of a very high degree of artistic
excellence in the architects who devised
them, and in the workmen who carried out
the plans and executed the delicate and
exquisite details which have happily been in
many cases preserved to our own day.

The special wealth of the Fen country in
churches of the highest class, some of them
almost cathedral-like in dimension, far ex-
ceeding the needs of the sparse agricultural
population now around them, must impress
us with something like astonishment, when
we remember that building materials, whether
stone or timber, were necessarily brought
from less watery districts. In the course of
some drainage operations in Lincolnshire
many years ago, an ancient barge was dis-
covered laden with blocks of stone. Its
timbers were black with age and long
immersion, like the well-known "Fen oak,"
and there can be no doubt that it had been
accidentally sunk in the "leam" or water-
course, dug, perhaps, for the express purpose

Ely Cathedral

of conveying heavy materials by water-
carriage to one of the churches or abbeys
in course of construction live or six cen-
turies ago. The Fabric-rolls of Ely Cathedral
bear testimony to the determination and
perseverance with which our forefathers
encountered the difficulties presented by
remote position and marshy subsoil ; and
it is on record that an illustrious Ely archi-
tect of the fourteenth century, after finding
in a neighbouring county some oak timber
trees of a scantling large enough for his
needs, had to wait for their delivery at Ely
until a road or causeway specially made
across the marshes had become sufficiently
consolidated to bear the weight of the
trucks.

It is in the recollection of these diffi-
culties, overcome with such marvellous
energy, courage, and skill, that we would
invite our friends to accompany us in a
visit to Ely. Our appreciation of the great
church will be enhanced if we associate

Ely Cathedral

with it, as we go on, the names of some
of those who patiently raised the massive
walls of hewn stones brought from distant
quarries with infinite pains and labour.
We shall try to connect the several epochs
marked by architectural changes with the
men and manners of the times ; for it is
only thus that we can read the history of
past ages written in edifices founded by
the first Norman abbots and bishops, and
carried on through some four or more
centuries by a long line of successors until
the Reformation.

Distant views of the Cathedral, looming in
the hazy distance like some huge vessel at
sea, are gained from low eminences near
Cambridge, from Newmarket Heath, and
from various points on the roads from those
places. But we shall doubtless arrive by
railway, and on leaving the train, and emerg-
ing from the station, we cannot fail to be
struck by the picture before us. Lincoln on
its hill, Durham on its rocky cliff, may have

12

^^j^^iiiiliijffl

Ely Cathedral

positions more imposing, but Ely has a
charm of its own, rising, as it does, above
masses of foliage, with humble low-roofed
dwellings in the foreground, nestling amid
gardens and orchards, and sheltered by
timber trees. The vast church presides and
dominates over the houses of the citizens,
and dwarfs into insignificance the parish
church with its spire, hard by, though this
is of fair dimensions and altitude. Lord
Macaulay was wont to say that a visit to Ely
was a " step into the Middle Ages " : pro-
bably he meant by this remark that the idea
of the old ecclesiastical and monastic supre-
macy was irresistibly forced upon him by the
contrast between the huge abbey-church
and its secular surroundings. Ely has never
expanded beyond the rank of a small market-
town or large agricultural village, and this
character is abundantly evident as we gaze
at the view before us, and as we advance on
foot towards the summit of the gentle emin-
ence crowned by the Cathedral.
IS

Ely Cathedral

We resist the temptation to turn in at the
abbey gate-house, which we find on our right
at the top of the hill, and follow the street
or lane, flanked by ancient buildings, which
brings us opposite to the west front. Step-
ping across the open green on the left, we
take in the imposing view from its extremity.
From this spot, we have on the right the
picturesque buildings of the episcopal palace,
raised by Bishops Alcock (1486-1500) and
Goodrich (1534-1554) ; and on the extreme
left, in the background, we see the western
gable of the Lady Chapel, which occupies a
peculiar and perhaps unique position at Ely,
as we shall have occasion to note. But we
should not see this gable at all if a lament-
able mutilation of the west front had not
taken place. The northern arm of the facade,
which would have hidden it, has disappeared,
we know not when or how : its absence
cruelly mars the effect of an elevation which
in its complete state must have possessed
great dignity and grandeur. We note, too,
16

Ely Cathedral

as we take this first general survey of the
scene before us, that a porch of large size
and of a later style of architecture breaks
the line of the fa9ade. Above it rises the
great tower, the production, evidently, of
two distinct periods — the upper storey, with
its corner turrets, being manifestly an after-
thought or subsequent addition to the mas-
sive structure below. These are first and
hasty impressions of the great church which
we have come to see, and which we are
about to examine in detail.

As we stroll back across the grass, we may
receive a first and hasty impression also of
its origin and history, if we mention here
that not a stone remains of the buildings
erected by the great Saxon princess, Ethel-
dreda, who founded the abbey in the year
673, and that there is some reason to doubt
if they stood upon the site of the present
church. Her convent had been destroyed
by the Danes in 870, and had been rein-
stated, a century later, by Ethelwold, Bishop
17

Ely Cathedral

of Winchester. Of Ethelwold's church no
recognisable vestige remains, and our
thoughts must range over another hundred
years, until, in 1082, the first stone of the
stately structure before us was laid by Simeon,
Abbot of Ely, a relative of William the
Conqueror. Simeon was ninety years of age,
and we learn with pleasure that he lived ten
more years to witness the gradual growth of
the mighty edifice which he had founded.

And now we pass through the western
porch, erected by Bishop Eustace (1208-
1215), without lingering to note its beauty,
and stand within the west door, on the
threshold of the great church. We have
been dealing, thus far, with first impressions,
and we may fairly doubt whether any second
impression, however well matured, can
surpass or equal that which is made by this
superb view of the interior, open as it is to
us from our standpoint on the doorstep to
the distant glass of the eastern lancets.
Under favourable effects of light and shade,

I

Jlf/^nstel

The Nave, from the West

Ely Cathedral

this interior, with its long nave of a some-
what light Norman, the lofty terminal arch
opening to a central crossing of most un-
wonted spaciousness, the richly carved
screen, with its glittering brass gates, and
beyond it, again, the graceful vaulting of the
choir, and the stained glass of the eastern
windows, must be said to have few rivals
among the great churches of England or of
France. Its unquestionable charm is not
by any means entirely, or chiefly, due to its
immense length, unbroken by solid screens.
We should be disposed to attribute it very
largely to the sense of loftiness suggested by
the graceful arches, about 85 feet in height
from pavement to apex, carrying the eye
upwards to the central lantern, from which
light streams down through windows 150
feet above the floor. This sense of loftiness
is promoted by the narrowness of the nave,
about 32 feet from pier to pier, the height of
the painted ceiling above our heads being
86 feet 2 inches. A somewhat light Norman,
21

-Ely Cathedral

we have said, characterises this nave, light,
that is, compared with the Norman of
Durham, and strangely different from the
Norman of Gloucester and of Tewkesbury.
The great naves of Norwich and of Peter-
borough may be instructively compared
with it.*

We note, as we advance along the central
alley, that the arches of the triforium are
equal in height to those of the lower arcade ;
and we must call special attention to this, as
it gives a peculiar character to the whole of
the subsequent additions to the church.
The triforium galleries extend over the aisles,
and it is impossible to deny that their roofs
of rough timber intrude themselves on the
eye in an unwelcome manner. In many
foreign examples (we may cite Tournai,
Laon, and St. Remi at Reims), these galleries
are vaulted. Possibly, too, we may allow
ourselves to wish that a stone vault had been

* See Murray's " Handbook to the Eastern Cathe-
drals," p. 65.

79

Ely Cathedral

placed upon the nave itself, as at Durham.
Our English builders seem to have mis-
trusted their powers when confronted with
the task of covering wide spans with stone
roofs. Peterborough retains to this day its
interesting but hardly pleasing fiat ceiling of
wood, with its original decoration. The
nave of Ely, as first completed (about 1174,
or somewhat earlier), was probably covered
in with a similar ceiling. Subsequent events,
however, led to the removal of this wooden
covering, and it is very possible that a
vault may have been contemplated by
the architects of the fourteenth century, as
at Norwich, where a beautiful example
of late vaulting was most successfully
executed. They allowed the roof of their
nave to remain in a most unfinished con-
dition, as if inviting improvements, and it is
in the recollection of the present writer that
the plain and rough rafters had no kind of
adornment, and that the massiveness of the
walls appeared to be out of all proportion to
23

Ely Cathedral

the weight which they had to carry * This
eyesore was removed between the years 1845
and 1865 by the introduction of a boarded
ceiling of pentagonal section, painted as we
now see it by two accomplished amateurs,
Mr. Styleman le Strange and Mr. Gambier
Parry, who had been schoolfellows at Eton,
and had long shared the same artistic tastes,
and the same gift of technical skill in
draughtsmanship.

The great specialty of Ely Cathedral, its
octagon, is opened before us as we reach the
eastern end of the nave. We think it
probable that some or many of our readers
are aware that it owes its origin to the down-
fall of the central tower in the year 1321.
The tower, erected by Abbot Simeon's
masons, "had long been threatening ruin,
and the monks had not ventured for some
time to sing their offices in the choir, when,
on the eve of St. Ermenild (Feb. 12, O.S.),

* See the engraving in Winkle's " Cathedrals,"
vol. ii.

24

Looking across the Octagon from S.W. Angle

Ely Cathedral

as the brethren were returning to their
dormitory after attending matins in St.
Catherine's Chapel, it fell with a mighty
crash."* A similar disaster had befallen
Winchester in the year 1107. In our own
day, the central tower and spire of Chichester
suddenly became a heap of ruins. In both
these cases, the re-builders limited them-
selves to an exact reproduction of the original
fabric. The Abbey of Ely, however, possessed
in its Sacrist, Alan of Walsingham, a true
artist, who saw his opportunity in the ruin
which had overtaken his church, and who
availed himself of it to such purpose that
we may search Europe without finding a
grander example of original design, bold
construction, and charming detail than is
presented before our eyes in this octagon.
Mr. Beresford Hope, indeed, in a very in-
teresting passage of his '' English Cathedral
of the Nineteenth Century," p. 195, thinks
that " the octagonal lantern at Ely, though
* Murray: "Eastern Cathedrals," p. 191.
27

Ely Cathedral

unique in England, has parallels (inferior
though they be) both at Antwerp and at
Milan, two churches, generally speaking, of
the fifteenth century, and, by the way,
possessing common features of general re-
semblance." Mr. Fergusson, however,* holds
that "Alan of Walsingham, alone of all the
architects of Europe, conceived the idea of
getting rid of the tall, narrow opening of the
central tower, which, though possessing
exaggerated height, gave neither space nor
dignity to the principal feature. Accord-
ingly, he took for his base the whole width
of the church, north and south, including
the aisles : then, cutting off the angles of
this large square, he obtained an octagon
more than three times as large as the square
upon which the central tower would have
stood." He covered this large area with a
vaulting of wood, and on a massive structure,
which is a model of masterly carpentering,
he raised a lantern of oak, covered with lead.

* " Handbook of Archaeology," pp. 869, 870.
28

Ely Cathedral

The central boss of this lantern is 150 feet
above the pavement.

The immense strength of the walls and
abutments has led some observers (among
them Mr. Fergusson) to the conclusion that
Alan intended ultimately to vault his octagon
with stone. This may have been the case,
but there is certainly nothing temporary or
make-shift about the existing structure ; and,
as we have seen, we have it on record that
infinite pains were taken to procure oak-trees
of a size sufficient for the corner-posts of the
lantern. However this may have been, there
can be no two opinions about the combined
grace and grandeur of Alan's work. Per-
haps the best point from which to view it is
the south-west angle near the door of the
verger's vestry. The many lines and levels
of piers, windows, and roofs are almost
bewildering in their intricacy, and now that
colour and gilding have been added to
their embellishments, they make up a whole
which has been styled by a very competent
29

Ely Cathedral

judge,* " perhaps the most striking architec-
tural view in Europe." " It is unsurpassed
in Europe," says another authority,! " in
originality of conception as in dignity of
design." We will add that it was finished
in 1342. The great architect died, Prior
of the Abbey, in 1364. The sculptured
heads which support the hood-moulding
of the north-west arch of the smaller side
of the octagon are believed to repre-
sent those of Alan and of his master-
mason.

It is not to be supposed that the large
floor-space gained by Alan's masterly device
was valued by him and by his compeers for
purposes which we should now call " con-
gregational." So far was this from being
the case, that he did not scruple to carry
across it the long lines of stalls and fittings
of his ritual choir, completely cutting it
up and sacrificing both its dignity and

* Mr. R. J. King. See " Murray."
t Rev. H. H. Bishop.
30

{

Ely Cathedral

utility according to our modern notions.*
Our survey of the interior would be im-
perfect and superficial if this were overlooked.
Ely Cathedral was no exception to the rule
observed in other great churches subject
to the Benedictine monastic system, which
placed the ritual choir in the centre of the
church, under the lantern, and crossing the
transept, as at Westminster Abbey, at Win-
chester and at Norwich, and as re-instated in
our own day by Mr. Pearson at Peterborough.
The vista from the west end would have been
broken, in Alan's time, by a rood-screen,
stretched across the nave at the third bay
from its eastern extremity. Careful observers
may discover, if they please, on the main
pier of this bay, on the south side, a small
oblique notch left in the masonry, indicating,
no doubt, the place of the newel staircase
leading up to this rood-loft ; and the pier
has evidently been repaired or made good

* See plan in Browne Willis, vol. iii., published
in 1742.

31

Ely Cathedral

after the removal of some structure abutting
upon it. Profuse traces, moreover, of mural
decoration in colour will be noticed on these
arches, and on the vaulting of the adjacent
aisles. It is believed that on the western
side of this rood-screen stood a parish altar,
with side-altars, for the use of the inhabitants
of the city as distinguished from the brethren
of the abbey. Of this, however, we are un-
able to adduce any direct proof. The arch
of the triforiura in this bay, on the north side,
has been much cut away and widened, as if
to admit some bulky object. This was pro-
bably one of the " pairs of organs," of which
the abbey possessed three.* After the Re-
formation, the organ probably took the place
of the rood, or crucifix, in the centre of the
screen, as now at York, Lincoln, Exeter, and
elsewhere.

The Cathedral of to-day, solid and stable

* Among the fabric rolls, there is a very curious
account of the cost of one of these organs built in
1396.

3a

North Aisle of Choir and Staircase to Organ-Loft

Ely Cathedral

as when it was built, is not the cathedral of the
Middle Ages as regards its internal arrange-
ments. The ritual choir was removed so
recently as 1770, by James Essex of Cam-
bridge, to the six bays of the Presbytery, the
altar being placed against the east wall of the
church ; the organ, on a screen of his design,
interrupting the view of the eastern windows.
In this condition the present writer well
remembers the church. The existing ar-
rangement was made by Sir G. Scott in the
course of the great alterations under Dean
Peacock.

Proceeding to the east end, and passing
along the north aisle of the choir, behind
the stalls, we may note the pretty newel
staircase leading up to the organ-loft. This
is modern, and is imitated from a well-known
example at the church of St. Maclou at Rouen.
We turn into the Presbytery, passing through
the canopied monument of Bishop Red-
mayne, with its little altar at the good
bishop's feet, and place ourselves at the foot
35 c

Ely Cathedral

of the steps, looking west. The view of the
whole church from this point is hardly less
impressive than that which is gained from
the western threshold. Let us try to ex-
plain clearly the history of the Cathedral
as written in the arches, piers, windows,
and vaults which are around and above
us. The central tower, we have seen,
fell in 1321, and its fall ruined the Norman
choir, which had four bays, and was termi-
nated by an eastern apse. But a century
previous to this downfall. Bishop Hugh of
Northwold (i 229-1 254) had removed the
apse, and had extended or lengthened the
Norman choir by six bays of most admirable
design in the style of his period, the Early
English or First Pointed, which had tlien
superseded the Norman. About 1250, there-
fore, we should picture to ourselves a great
Norman church, with an addition of six
eastern bays in the new style, and with a
lofty porch of two bays in the same style at
the west end. Two styles, thus far, there-
36

Ely Cathedral

fore, were nobly represented. But the tower
fell eastward, utterly wrecking the Norman
choir, and a third style, the Decorated or
Edwardian, makes its appearance as a matter
of course. Alan of Walsingham joined his
Octagon to Northwold's Presbytery or retro-
choir by three bays of lovely design and
most elaborate workmanship, executed be-
tween the years 1345 and 1362. In these
three exquisite bays the stalls, also designed
by him, are now arranged, and a modern
screen of oak, with brass grilles and gates,
not unworthy of association with the old
woodwork, closes in the ritual choir, thus
adapted in our own day to modern needs by
the zeal, energy, and skill of George Peacock,
dean, and George Gilbert Scott, architect,
between the years 1845 and 1858.

At Lincoln, at Salisbury, at Amiens, at
Chartres, at Reims, Wells, or Exeter, we
have complete artistic conceptions, carried
out for the most part in one style, and
owing their incomparable grace and beauty
37

Ely Cathedral

to the general consistency of all their parts.
At Ely, on the contrary, we have grace and
beauty equally admirable, derived from quite
a different source, namely, from comparison
and even contrast between the several por-
tions of the church ; and happily the three
styles may here be studied, each in a pre-
sentment of the highest order of excellence.
The Presbytery is deemed by very competent
judges to be absolutely perfect as well in its
design as in its details. Mr. Beresford Hope
says of it,* "Salisbury Cathedral is usually
regarded as the typal church in England of
the Lancet style .... but .... I should
place the eastern portion of Ely Cathedral
on a much higher level of beauty." We
marvel as we reflect upon the amount of
patient labour which must have been be-
stowed upon those clustered columns of
Purbeck marble, now cleaned, repaired,
and re-polished, boldly carved as to their
capitals with profuse masses of foliage, and

* " English Cathedral of the igth Century," p. 36.
38

View of Walsingham's Choir, as seen from
the North Aisle

Ely Cathedral

having the well-known curious ornament
called the " dog-tooth " between the deep
mouldings of the arches. The long corbels,
or ails-de-lampe, which carry the vaulting-
shafts, should be particularly noticed.

The beautiful vaulting itself is noticed by
the accomplished French architect, Viollet
le Due, who gives an exquisite drawing of
part of it in his great work on the archi-
tecture of his country.* Alan's bays afford
a very early example, possibly the earliest in
England on a large scale, of the lierne f vault.
The comparison, or contrast, with the plainer
vaulting, without Hemes, of Northwold's
time, close by, is interesting ; and we may
note here that in the aisles of the choir the
gradual development of the English style of
vaulting is very apparent. The vaults of the

* " Diet. Rais. de 1' Architecture Fran9aise," torn,
iv, p. iig.

t Liernes are short ribs inserted between bosses
on the main vaulting ribs. The term is borrowed
from carpentry.

41

Ely Cathedral

aisles have no central rib ; the central vault
has it, to the great improvement of the
effect ; the more complicated liernes follow
in Alan's work. While we are on the subject
of vaulting, it may be well to complete our
study of it by visiting the two chantries of
Bishops Alcock and West, at the eastern
extremities of the north and south aisles
respectively. English vaulting may be said
to have "run wild" in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, as we see it on a magni-
ficent scale at King's College Chapel in
Cambridge, Henry VII.'s at Westminster,
St. George's, Windsor ; and Christ Church,
Oxford. Ely has its example of the fan
vault, with pendant boss, in the chantry of
Bishop Alcock (1486-1501). The mass of
rich tabernacle work cut in the easily
wrought material called " clunch," produces
a marvellous effect, but will not bear com-
parison with the refined work of the earlier
periods. The bishop's tomb, parted off by a
screen — a chantry within a chantry — should
42

. Ely Cathedral

be particularly noticed. The old altar re-
mains in situ, a still older slab being let into
the wall above. Bishop West's chantry,
opposite (15 1 5-1534), Hned with niches now
empty, and perhaps never filled, shows the
influence of the approaching Renaissance in
its panelled vault, having deeply moulded
ribs with pendant bosses.

Turning to take a last look at this most
charming interior, ere we leave it by its
brass gates, we may ask ourselves if the
peculiarly English feature of one vast window,
filling the whole eastern wall, as at York,
Gloucester, or Carlisle, could be more im-
pressive than the three great lancets before
our eyes, with the five above them, worked
so ingeniously into the curve of the vault.
We may venture to wish, however, that the
apse had found greater favour in the eyes
of our architects. In France it is nearly
universal, and gives opportunities for the
exercise of constructive skill and artistic
beauty of the highest order. One great
43

Ely Cathedral

French cathedral is a notable exception —
that of Laon. Its square eastern end, with
three vast lancets, will forcibly remind
travellers from Ely of their own church in
the Fens.

Bishop Northwold might well be proud
of his work, and at the dedication feast
(September 1252) he entertained magnifi-
cently King Henry III., his son the young
Prince Edward, then about thirteen years
of age, and a great number of nobles and
prelates. The menu, or bill of fare, of some
of the great feasts has come down to us.
Fish and game figure largely among the
dishes served up b}'^ the cooks of the Lord
Bishop, assisted, no doubt, by those of the
Lord Prior, whose establishment was on a
sumptuous scale. The king and his son,
arriving, no doubt, on horseback, though pos-
sibly by state-barge on the river, and attended
by a train of knights and esquires, were met
by the great churchmen with their swarm of
attendants, and were escorted to their
44

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N5

3 N

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^^

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.>lI

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Ely Cathedral

quarters in the palace and abbey amid
crowds of the citizens and villagers from
all the country round. Such pageants —
any pageants — were rare in quiet Ely, and
it was fortunate for the purses of the
abbot-bishops and priors that it was so,
for the cost must have been enormous.
The shrines of the sainted abbesses, Ethel-
dreda, her sister Sexburga, and her niece
Ermenilda, were translated with great pomp
into the new building, and two specially
rich bosses in the vaulting overhead, larger
than the others, are believed to indicate
the place of the shrines on the floor
below.

We should be quite inexcusable if we
left the Presbytery without calling atten-
tion to a feature which distinguishes the
Pointed styles at Ely from those styles as
presented elsewhere, and from which they
possibly derive a great part of their special
charm. This feature, stated in two words,
is the lofty triforitim. "All Englishmen,"
47

Ely Cathedral

says Mr. Hope,* " ought to know the grandeur
of these [triforium] galleries at Ely and Peter-
borough." Again, "At Ely, the preservation
of the triforium throughout the Cathedral is
one of its grandest features."! We owe this
preservation of the lofty triforium in the
eastern portions to the good sense and sound
artistic feeling of Bishop Northwold's archi-
tect. The Norman choir, like the nave, had
a triforial arcade equal, or nearly, in height
to the main arcade below. When North-
wold pulled down the apse and planned
his superb Presbytery as a prolongation of
that choir, he followed the Norman lines
in the Early English work ; and in his
lower arcade, his triforium, and his cleres-
tory, he copied the relative dimensions
which his predecessors had laid down.
Thus the Early English of Ely is an Early
English built on Norman lines ; a style
peculiar to this Cathedral, and dissimilar, in
this important respect, to the Early English

* Page 217. t Page 215.

48

Ely Cathedral

of Salisbury, of Lincoln, of Westminster, or
of Wells.

That true artist, Alan, was not the man to
despise the example thus set before him.
Bold innovator and original thinker as he
had proved himself to be by his octagon, he
followed with implicit obedience the lines
drawn by the rude Norman masons, and
repeated by Northwold's men ; and when
the ruins of the choir had been cleared away
he built his three exquisite decorated bays
in strict alignment with the six bays of the
Presbytery, only employing the more ornate
and luscious, but less vigorous, style which
belonged to his day. The foundations of the
Norman apse, we will only add, exist under
the pavement of the Presbytery ; and two
tall Norman piers of wide-jointed masonry,
which flanked the apse, were allowed to
remain, and must be noticed by even a
cursory observer, dividing, as they do, the
work of Walsingham from that of North-
wold.

49

Ely Cathedral

A door in the north-east corner of the
transept leads us into the Lady Chapel.
Those who enter it for the first time will
probably be astonished by the exuber-
ance of its ornamentation, surrounded,
as it is, by sedilia or stone stalls of most
elaborate design, profusely adorned with
sculpture of a very high order of refinement
and beauty. The statuettes throughout the
chapel are, alas ! headless, having been de-
faced by order of the Protector Somerset
in 1547. It is vain to hope for the complete
restoration of this gem of the Decorated
period, begun in 132 1, just before the fall
of the tower, and continued, with energy
and perseverance characteristic of the times,
during twenty-eight busy and anxious years
marked by vast and costly works. Since the
Reformation it has been used as the church
of the parish of the Holy Trinity in Ely, and
we may rejoice that it is thus utilised, trusting
that the days of apathy and negligence are
quite gone by, in which the disfigurement of
50

The Lady Chapel, Ely

Ely Cathedral

such a building by high pews and wretched
benches could be approved or tolerated.

We pass into the open air at the corner of
the transept, and, turning to our right,
saunter round to the east end. Again, now,
from the outside, we admire the great lancets.
The three which appear in the gable give
light to the attic above the vaults. The
path leads us to an open space in which the
Chapter House once stood, and as we round
the corner of the wall on the left, we see,
perhaps not without surprise, a series of
Norman arches, adorned with the zigzag
moulding, and in good preservation, though
now partially embedded in thewalls of modern
dwelling-houses. This church-like arcade
belonged to the infirmary, oj hospital, which
in all great monastic establishments was
located near or close to the church itself.
But it had its own chapel, which here retains
its vaulted roof, and serves as the library of
one of the prebendal residences. Nearly
opposite, on our right as we face the south,
53

Ely Cathedral

is the Guest Hall, converted at the Dissolu-
tion, or soon after, into a deanery, and much
modernised. Adjoining it was the house of
the prior, with the very charming chapel or
oratory built by John Crauden, and probably
designed by Alan of Walsingham. The
" low windows " of this beautiful little build-
ing, one on each side, have long perplexed
antiquaries. In ordinary cases, such wiur
dows are supposed to have been inserted for
the use of lepers, who, though excluded from
the sanctuary, might witness the sacred
mysteries from outside. But these windows
are some ten or twelve feet from the ground,
the chapel being built on a lofty crypt.
Besides, care for lepers could have no place
in designing a private oratory for the prior,
within the precincts of his monastery. They
must be considered a freak of fancy of the
illustrious Prior Crauden and his friend the
great architect. The chapel is abundantly
lighted without them by six tall and graceful
windows. A curious pavement, representing
54

Ely Cathedral

the Temptation of Adam and Eve, remains
undisturbed. The " lioncelles " of the Plan-
tagenets are conspicuous among the heraldic
ornamentation.

Most of the buildings round us belong to
collegiate houses, altered from the old build-
ings of the abbey, or occupying their sites.

The abbey ! The very word seems obso-
lete, as we hear the merry laughter of little
children playing in the gardens of these
houses. The grand old Churchmen, with
their architects and masons, had their day ;
right well they played their part ; their noble
works form their indestructible memorial ;
but the time came when other men, with
other manners, were to fill their places.

The great change, the dissolution of the
monastery in 1531, fell gently upon Ely.
The revenues of the suppressed abbey were
given by Henry VIII. and his advisers to a
new corporate body, no longer bound by
monastic vows ; to a " Dean and Chapter,"
as it was then styled, and as it has been
57

Ely Cathedral

styled ever since that day. The last prior
became the first dean ; of the first eight
canons, three had been senior monks ; eight
minor canons, eight lay-clerks or singing-
men, two schoolmasters, an organist and
singing-master, with servitors of various
degrees, were supplied from the ranks of the
junior and subordinate members of the
abbey. To the citizens generally, the change
must have been little more than nominal.
No doubt the tenants on the abbey lands
brought in their rents as they had ever done ;
it is believed, however, that the revenues had
been much diminished by various causes ;
the state and dignity kept up by the old
priors had long given place to more modest
housekeeping. At the time of the Dissolu-
tion, the number of monks in residence
within the precincts had fallen from seventy
to fourteen, according to the estimate of
some authorities. But the estates were suffi-
cient to furnish adequate stipends for the
working staff of the new collegiate establish-
5«

Ely Cathedral

ment, and before the close of the sixteenth
century the relations between " town " and
" college " must have been adjusted nearly as
in our own day.

But the reverent care bestowed upon the
great church had come to an end. Bishop
Goodrich, the last episcopal Lord Chancel-
lor, a zealous promoter of the Reformation,
carried out ruthlessly the injunctions of the
Privy Council, which ordered that "from
wall and window every picture, every image
commemorative of saint or prophet or
apostle shall be extirpated and put away, so
that there shall remain no memory of the
same." Happily the order was not always
perfectly obeyed. " The iconoclasts seem to
have strangely missed, for instance, a most
curious and interesting series of eight groups
of sculpture, forming the corbels or bases of
large niches adorning the eight main piers of
the octagon. To this day, these bas-rehefs
relate the legendary history of Queen Ethel-
dreda to all who choose to read it.
59

Ely Cathedral

Treated with consideration by Henry, Ely
was fortunate indeed in receiving gentle
treatment from Oliver Cromwell. The
potent Protector had a soft corner in his
stern and hard heart for the old city and its
Cathedral, for he had resided for some years
in Ely, in a house known until recently as
the "Cromwell Arms," and is said to have
acted as a bailiff, or collector of rents, in
early life, for the Dean and Chapter. There
was no stabling of horses in the nave, or
other gross profanation of the sacred building,
as in many of the cathedrals. But the daily
prayers were suspended in 1643-44, ^*^^ i^ ^^
probable that full choral service was not
resumed until 1682, when a zealous and able
musician, James Hawkins, was organist.

The See of Ely was filled, after this sad
time, by a succession of learned and godly
men ; the Dean's stall was occupied by great
scholars from the neighbouring university ;
but the fabric of the church, on which
Northwold and Alan, Hotham, Crauden,
60

f\^^^ ,:

\:il li .,r^d-

The Prior's Door

Ely Cathedral

Montacute, had lavished such loving care,
was utterly neglected. Defoe, in his "Tom-
through the Islands of Great Britain," pub-
lished early in the eighteenth century, speaks
of the Cathedral as evidently tottering to its
fall, and likely in a very few years to become
a total ruin.

This fate, however, was averted by the
timely exertions of Bishop Mawson (1754-
1770) and of Dean Allix (1730-1758) ; they
called in the aid of James Essex, an ingenious
and skilful builder or architect of Cambridge,
under whose direction the most pressing and
necessary repairs were ably carried out.
And now, when we attend the daily service
in Alan's choir, or when we join the large
congregation which assembles thrice on each
Sunday, under the vault of his octagon, we
may well be thankful that we have fallen
upon days when loving care and generous
gifts are once more lavished upon the church
of Etheldreda,

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