The Cathedral Church of Oxford. Percy Dearmer
performed within the degraded choir we can only trust ourselves to say that it is the most slovenly and irreverent that we have ever witnessed in any English cathedral."
The stalls seem to have been particularly bad. The "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1856 says that "the choir aisles and the chapels were also excluded from view, and almost from any participation in the service, by the box-like framing, which rose to the height of eleven feet from the paving." Of course, all this had caused serious damage to the architecture: the pillars on the north and south side of the choir were, for instance, squared, and their bases cut away; thus mutilated they had been "encased with heavily moulded Italian framing intermixed with some remnants of Jacobean workmanship."
But since the fifties the appearance of the cathedral has been completely changed. Dean Liddell began the restoration in 1856, when Mr. John Billing was employed to repair some parts of the walls that had become unsafe, and to remove the galleries and high pews. The work then done was only temporary; the reseating whereby decent accommodation was provided for the whole college was managed out of the old woodwork, not a plank being taken out or carried into the church; the organ was moved for the time into the south transept, so that the choir could be thrown open to the nave, and other work of a simple and necessary character carried through.
In 1870, Dean Liddell employed Sir G. Gilbert Scott to carry on the great restoration, whereby very considerable changes were wrought in the fabric itself.
On the whole, it has been real restoration, and not destruction: here and there one might have wished that the changes had been less sweeping, or that the renewed carved work had been left unattempted till such time as the dignity of labour in craftsmanship is recovered; but it remains one of the most judicious and successful works of restoration that this not impeccable age has produced. The difficulties to be encountered were very great, for the church had suffered unusually; a certain amount of rebuilding was therefore inevitable, and besides provision had to be made for the church as a college-chapel as well as a cathedral.
The restoration was preceded by a report on the condition of the building, which Sir Gilbert Scott drew up in 1869. The following extract shows the "reparation" that was needed:—
"It is fortunately the case that the main walls of the building do not show any symptoms of failure or of weakness. The external stone-work is very unequal in its state of preservation, some parts being very much decayed, while others have suffered in a very small degree. On the whole, however, there can be no doubt that the decay is very extensive, and even some parts which, at first sight, seem tolerably sound, are found on closer examination to be seriously decayed. The eastern parts are, as a rule, better preserved than those facing in other directions, though the southern aisle of the choir is also among the least decayed portions. The tower is generally very severely decayed, but the spire less so, though its lights are very much damaged. The reparation of this wide-spread decay is a work requiring much discrimination and judgment. Every stone which retains ancient work in an intelligible state should be carefully preserved, and only such parts renewed as have become shapeless from decay, or the retention of which would tend to future injury.
"Internally, the stone-work generally needs little more than the careful brushing or washing off of the white-wash and the exposure of the original surfaces. This should be effected with extreme care and tenderness, so as not to efface in any degree the original tool-marks or to disturb any ancient wall-painting which may exist. The mutilations which the work has in some places suffered would of course be repaired, as well as any structural defects which may be brought to light."
This proves that Gilbert Scott went to work with a full sense of his responsibility, so far as the "reparation" was concerned. With regard to the "restoration," many complicated questions arose, but Scott generally threw his weight on the conservative side, respecting all the alterations which had been effected before "the extinction of our national architecture in the sixteenth century"; and, happily, respecting as well all the good work of a later date. Thus the organ-case and pulpit were spared. Duppa's work was mostly destroyed, his windows being rebuilt according to their former Perpendicular and Decorated designs, with the one interesting exception already mentioned. To make provision for the church's collegiate use, while rendering it at the same time suitable for diocesan purposes, an iron screen was carried round the nave as well as the choir, and the seats of the nave were set lengthways. This arrangement could not well have been bettered: the college is well accommodated without any blocking up of the church, and the choir is conveniently situated in the eastern bay of the nave. The organ at the same time was moved to the west end of the church, where a new bay was made; and thus, while an increased effect of length was given, a screen was provided for the college-chapel, without hiding any of the old work in the nave, and the choir was no longer hidden by the organ.
The great Decorated east window, which had been spoilt in the seventeenth century, was, after much deliberation, removed; and, traces being found of a large circular window assumed to be Late Norman, the east end was rebuilt in accordance with the conjectured Norman design—a bold venture, but a remarkably successful one. At the same time the two Norman windows at the sides of the presbytery were reopened.
The bay of the south transept, which had been cut off, and used as a house for the verger, was recovered, and the present vestry built therein, in a style, right no doubt in general plan, but not very successful in detail.
The vaulting of the cloister was completed, and, by the happy expedient of building a raised wooden vault in one part, the old chapter-house door was once more fully exposed to view. The division which had entirely spoilt the chapter-house itself was removed; as were also the stone screens which had cut off and defaced the beautiful cluster of north-eastern chapels.
The opening of the lantern-story added greatly to the beauty of the interior, but it made it necessary to chime the bells instead of ringing them; and in 1878 they were removed altogether, as their vibration was considered dangerous to the tower, and an admirably contrived belfry built in 1880 over the staircase of the Hall by Mr. Bodley. Scott also constructed the porch which opens into Tom Quad, and affords an entrance to the cathedral at once more dignified and convenient than before.
Since Scott's time a good many further improvements have been effected, among which may be mentioned the reredos, the stained glass of Sir Edward Burne Jones, the fitting up of the Latin Chapel and recovery of the easter sepulchre therein, the recovery also of the marble base of the second shrine of St. Frideswide, and of the early Saxon arches hard by.
At least it cannot be true now, as it seems to have been fifty years ago, that many persons, visiting Oxford to explore its antiquities, "actually go away without entering the cathedral church, or that undergraduates any longer pass an academical career, content to be aware possibly that Christ Church has its chapel, like other colleges."
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