Transcribed from the 1859 Courant Office edition by DavidPrice,
ON THE
Lady Chapel in Chester Cathedral.
A PAPER READBEFORE
The Architectural, Archæological, and Historic Society
of Chester.
BY THE REV. CANON BLOMFIELD.
CHESTER:
PRINTED AT THE COURANT OFFICE, NORTHGATESTREET.
1859.
p. 3On theLady Chapel in Chester Cathedral.
BY THE REV. CANON BLOMFIELD. [3]
The Lady Chapel of the Cathedral ofChester has long been known to antiquarian architects as aninteresting and valuable specimen of the Early English style, butit has scarcely ever been examined in detail by them, and to thegeneral observer has presented no features of specialinterest. The keen and accurate judgment of Rickmandiscovered the general beauty of its proportions; but thedestruction of all the original windows, and other disfigurementsof the building, which took place when the side aisles were addedin the 15th century, have served so far to obscure its beauties,that it has been supposed to possess little or nothing worthy ofobservation.
It is now undergoing restoration, as far as circumstancesadmit of it; and the chromatic decoration of the interior hasbeen entrusted to the care of Mr. Octavius Hudson, whose works atSalisbury and elsewhere have established him as an artist of thefirst rank in this special department. The beauty and highfinish of his work have attracted general admiration, andawakened a new interest in the structure and composition of theLady Chapel itself. On this account I am induced to thinkthat some remarks upon the history of Lady Chapels in general,and of our own in particular, will not be inappropriate to thepurposes of the Chester Archæological Society.
I think it fair to state in my own defence, if the informationwhich I am able to give shall appear to be meagre and imperfect,that, when I entered upon the subject I had hoped to meet withsome materials elucidating the origin, uses, and characteristicsof Lady Chapels, which I have failed to discover. I havenot been able to find that the subject has been speciallyinvestigated, or that the history of Lady Chapels, as separatefrom that of Cathedrals, has ever been traced up to its p. 4source. Ibelieve it to be a yet unexplored mine of antiquarian lore, andone well worthy of the labour of the ecclesiasticalarchæologist. But, for myself, having neither leisurenor opportunity to explore it thoroughly, I must be content togive such few and simple elements