CHAPTER VII

THE TRANSEPT

(Early English, 1245-1269)

THE beautiful Early English transept is a close rival of the choir in the variety, elegance and picturesque effect of its architecture. Its graceful height, and ample width, its enrichment of spandril carvings and lovely undercut mouldings, its cusped tracery, combined with the exquisite views of choir and sanctuary and opposite transept which meet the eye on every side, hold the visitor in delighted contemplation. In many great churches and cathedrals of England, as at Ely, at Winchester, at Norwich and Exeter, the old transept, long useless and never really impor tant, is the least beautiful portion and has long been left to its plainness and decay. Restorations of nave and choir and chapels are often heard of: but the transept is rarely the subject of enrich-· ment or additions. At Westminster, however, the fine lofty transept, with its broad aisles, very beautiful when completed in the thirteenth century, is very beautiful today. Time has robbed it of

its coloured glass; ruthlessly broken its sculptured ornaments and introduced many disfiguring monuments; but otherwise the walls bear that appearance of sumptuous, stately, self-respecting old age which does not suggest neglect or decay.

On a bright summer morning when the Abbey may be seen at its best, sit down in the transept, it scarcely matters at what point, and leaving the monuments to be studied later, enjoy on all sides some of the finest architectural views to be seen in the kingdom.

The first impression is that of noble height. The four lofty arches of the main arcade soar up so high from the pavement that a grand effect of open space is produced which reveals many a lovely vista, the arches serving to enframe them in a manner not possible if the arcades were as low as is usual in great English churches. To the left as you enter the church by the north porch is an entrancing view which includes the intersecting arches of transept, aisle and choir aisle, and the richly sculptured triforium of the Sanctuary, beyond which, in the obscure distance, the vaulting of the south ambulatory chapels may be seen. Directly in front rise the south transept walls of

the Poets' Corner, similar in design and of equal richness with the north transept, the noble south wall with its many arcadings crowned by a rose window filled with brilliantly coloured modern glass. To the right or west the picture includes the eastern arches of the ritual choir with its canopied wooden stalls.

The four arches of the main arcade of each transept, on the east and west walls, are supported on heavy round columns which from their proportions might have belonged to a late Norman church: but around these cluster, widely apart, four detached gray Purbeck shafts having two sets of rings or bands and the deeply moulded capitals and bases which were the true Early English fashion when the third Henry was building here. The stones of the great columns are delicately worn and gray, rich in play of light and shade, and their beauty, that of over six centuries' fashioning. They have looked on with steady, stony gaze while kings and queens, princes, lords and ladies, poets and statesmen have passed down the aisle on errands of joy or of sorrow, for coronation or wedding festivities, for burials and funeral pageants. The arch mouldings are finer and more delicate than the usual heavy rolls of Early English mouldings.

The spandrils of main arcade and triforium, as in the choir, are carved with square diaper work. The The triforium repeats the design of the choir (v. p.) famed for its richness, having two large subdivided containing arches in each bay with cusped tracery and enriched moulding of undercut foliage. The clerestory windows, also like those of the choir, have plain high two-light windows with simple tracery and excellently fulfil their purpose of transmitting as much light as may be obtained in this part of smoky London.

The North transept has both east and west aisles, the former now screened off from the main aisle by large monuments; and from it projects to the east the Islip chapel, originally of Early English architecture but rebuilt in the sixteenth century by Abbot Islip to contain his tomb and since then called by his name. The South transept has an eastern aisle from which projects to the east the chapel of St. Benedict, corresponding in location to the Islip chapel, but still retaining its Early English character. The main story of the west aisle of this transept forms the east walk of the cloister and is not visible from the interior of the church: but the triforium and clerestory are open to the

transept and two bays of the former are fitted up as a Muniment room.

The bay at the crossing of the long and short arms of the cross, underneath the place of the central tower, often called the Tower bay, has an elaborate vault with ribs so many and so rich as to suggest the fan vault of a later day. The vault is elaborately painted, reproducing its original decoration, with roses and gilding. The tower arches are supported by groups of lofty, slender columns said to be wholly inadequate to the support of a large central tower, which may never have been intended. But little is understood concerning the King's plan with regard to towers: the Norman church, we know, had a very large and strong tower at this point.

The stately English Coronation rites find one of their centres of interest in this Tower bay. Here is erected a noble platform elevated by three broad steps above the pavement, and called The Theatre or dais, the central section of which is two steps higher than the rest. A rich blue velvet carpet is spread over the whole. On the highest part of the dais is set a rich gilded chair of state covered with embossed velvet, not the Coronation Chair but the temporary throne to which the king