THE CRYPT

OF

CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL.

THE Crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, which exceeds all others in size, being about 290 feet long, equally excels every other in beauty and historic interest. In antiquity, it is surpassed by portions of the Cathedral Crypts at Winchester, Worcester, Gloucester, and Rochester; but the first of these was not commenced until A.D. 1079, and Prior Ernulf's Crypt, at Canterbury, was completed within a quarter of a century after that date.*

Earlier crypts had existed at all these Cathedrals, but the diminutive spans of their vaults rendered them useless, when greater skill in architecture permitted such bolder plans as those used in the crypt at Canterbury.

It was not all built at the same period. The great crypt, which extends, throughout a length of 190 feet, beneath the choir, its transepts and its eastern towers, was erected by Prior Ernulf, under the auspices of Archbishop Anselm, between A.D. 1096 and 1100. It was about fourteen and a half feet

* Professor Willis, and Mr. King, in his Handbook of the Western Cathedrals, give the dates of the four apsidal crypts as :-Winchester circa 1079; Worcester, 1084; Gloucester, 1089; Canterbury, 1096.

+ Ernulf, a Monk of St. Lucian in Beauvais, had been at Bec a pupil of Lanfranc. When Lanfranc came to the See of Canterbury, Ernulf joined the monastery of Christ Church, here. Whether he assisted in that rapid re-erection of the Cathedral which Lanfranc achieved in seven years, 1070-77, we do not know; but it is quite possible. If so, he would undoubtedly regret that Lanfranc's Choir

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high, and eighty-five feet wide; but at the transepts its total width is about 158 feet.

Eastward, to support Trinity Chapel and the Corona, an additional crypt, of unusual loftiness, was built, in the course of three years, 1179 to 1181, when the choir was under restoration, after the great fire of 1174.

was so short. Professor Willis supposes that it had only two pierarches, on each side (Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral, page 67). When Archbishop Anselm made Ernulf Prior of Christ Church, in A.D. 1096, he at once set to work to remedy this defect of Lanfranc's Church. The long nave, and central tower, Ernulf left untouched, but the choir he pulled down, to rebuild it on a far bolder, nobler, scale. "Cantiæ dejectam priorem partem Ecclesiæ, quam Lanfrancus ædificaverat, adeo splendide erexit, ut nihil tale possit in Anglia videri," says William of Malmesbury (De Gestis Pont., p. 234). As Ernulf was transferred to [Peter] Burgh, as Abbot, in 1107, and as he had then so far completed the Canterbury Choir, that the beauties of its windows, pavement, and painted roof, were extolled; we may be sure that he had completed the crypt by or before the year 1100. His successor, Conrad, added magnificent decoration to the choir, which Ernulf had not quite finished. Subsequently, Ernulf was appointed Bishop of Rochester in the year 1114, when Ralph of Escures was promoted from that see to the Archiepiscopal throne. In the same year, says Matthew Paris (i., 141), the whole church at Canterbury was dedicated. No doubt the consecrations, of a new Archbishop, and of Ernulf himself, the designer and builder of the crypt and choir, would have caused this to be a very appropriate period for the dedication. But Matthew Paris is the sole authority for the statement. He says "A.D. 1114 Radulfus episcopus Roffensis eligitur ad archiepiscopatum Cantuariensem, sexto Kalendas Maii. Eodem quoque tempore tempestates multæ personuerunt; cometa quoque apparuit mense Maii; dedicatur ecclesia Cantuariensis."

When Archbishop William of Corbeuil was appointed to the Primacy in 1123, Ernulf, bishop of Rochester, was one of the bishops who officiated at his consecration. Seven years later, in 1130, there was a grand and imposing ceremony of dedication, of the new choir, at Canterbury. Whether Matthew Paris is correct respecting a previous dedication, in 1114, we have no means of ascertaining.

This eastern portion of the crypt has pointed arches ; it is rather more than one hundred feet long, nearly sixty-six feet wide, and twenty-two feet high. William the Englishman was its architect, and he introduced upon its piers and columns the round abacus, which does not appear in the choir above, but which afterwards became a distinctive feature of Early English columns. Eight of the piers are massive (6 ft. 8 in. wide), and in plan are formed each of two clustered circular shafts. The two central columns are simple slender circular shafts, 1 foot in diameter, with moulded caps and bases. The merits of Ernulf's Crypt, and the boldness of its design, cannot be duly appreciated until we realize the timid nature of the designs of earlier crypts, and the cumbrous multiplicity of columns which their narrow spans rendered necessary.

EXISTING CRYPTS, BUILT BEFORE A.D. 1100.

At Repton, beneath the chancel of the church, there is a crypt which is considered to be the oldest in England. It is ascribed to the eighth or ninth century; whether rightly or not I cannot say; but the nature of its construction certainly supports its claim to be the oldest crypt now existing, in this country. The area of its floor is but twenty feet, by eighteen and a half, and its height is nine feet and a half. Yet, so extremely narrow is the span of each vaulting arch, that within this small area there are four isolated vaulting columns, and eight fluted projecting responds or wall piers. The clear space between each pair of vaulting columns is, in one direction four feet nine inches, and in the other three feet eight inches.* These columns taper from base

To the Rev. Wm. Williams, vicar of Repton, I am much

to capital, and are scantily wreathed, spirally, with round mouldings, small and large alternately; they are five feet and a half high. The vaulting ribs are square in section, and there are no diagonal groins. "St. Wilfrid's needle," a crypt beneath the central tower of Ripon Cathedral, is merely a vaulted chamber eleven feet and a quarter long, seven feet and threequarters wide, and nine feet four inches high. It has no isolated column. Of the same, or similarly small, dimensions is the ancient crypt at Hexham Church, beneath the site of the nave.* Under the choir of Bedale Church, there is a crypt which contains fragments of carved stones, believed by some persons to be Saxon.t Another early crypt is to be found beneath the church of Lastingham in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Its nave has four isolated shafts, in a space twenty-two feet square. Its apsidal portion, thirteen feet wide, adds twenty feet to its length. Probably, however, small as they are, none of these crypts have any such claim to Saxon origin as the Repton crypt, with its narrow vaulting-spans.

The less-known, rectangular, crypt at Wing, in Buckinghamshire, may perhaps claim to be earlier than Repton. It has no isolated shafts, in a space roughly eighteen feet square; but walls and solid piers divide it. The central alley, six feet wide and thirteen feet long, is entirely surrounded by an aisle, four feet wide, into which it opens by three arches, one on the east, one on the north, and one on the south.

indebted for courteously furnishing me with measurements of this crypt, and also with admirable drawings of its interior. Mr. J. C. Cox, in his Hist. of Derbyshire Churches, gives a small etching of this crypt. He states that its area is nearly 17 feet square; and

suggests that it was built in the 10th century. Archæological Journal, ii. 239; iii. 163.

+ Ibid., iii. 258-9.

Of Gundulf's crypt at Rochester, only two bays remain.* There are two massive isolated shafts in a small space twenty-two feet six inches and threequarters long, by twenty-seven feet and one inch wide. The total width of the central space and aisles together is sixty-one feet three inches. Each shaft is circular, of one stone, having rough, convex, cushion caps (not cut by vertical planes), with their lower corners chamfered. The rude groins, without ribs, are built of tufa and plastered; they are ten feet six inches and a half high. Gundulf was Bishop of Rochester from 1077 to 1107.

The Worcester crypt, being entire, is a far better example of early construction than such a small crypt as that at Repton, or such a fragment as that of Gundulf at Rochester.

From a table of the Styles and Dimensions of the various parts of Worcester Cathedral, printed under the auspices of the Worcestershire Architectural Society, we learn that this crypt, under the Cathedral choir and vestries, is seventy feet long, ninety-seven feet broad and ten feet high. As the Worcester choir * Mr. Jas. Thos. Irvine has favoured me with the following

measurements:

"BISHOP GUNDULF'S CRYPT, ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL.

"Central space of three Alleys.

"Length of portion left, from East to West, 22 ft. 6 in. ; whole breadth between walls, N. to S., 27 ft. 14 in.; two isolated shafts remain, and two are enclosed in later work; clear space between shafts, N. and S., 7 ft. 10 in.; clear space between shafts, E. and W., 10 ft. 8 in.; thickness of walls, 6 ft. 3 in.

66 Aisles.-Clear space, N. to S., 10 ft. 9 in.; clear space between pilasters, 9 ft. 9 in. Whole width of crypt in the clear, from aisle wall to aisle wall, 61 ft. 3 in. Shafts 14 inches in diameter, above the base; but only 12, below the cap; plinth 63 inches deep; shaft, with base and cap, 5 ft. in. high; abacus 4 inches."