From the Derbyshire Archæological and Natural History. The Mortuary Chapels of Lichfield PAPER READ IN LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL, JULY 27TH, HE term 66 Mortuary Chapels" has been adopted as the title of this paper, inasmuch as it is the name by which that portion of the Lady Chapel that it is intended to restore to the memory of the late Bishop Selwyn. is usually distinguished, and is not to be understood as expressing the concurrence of the writer in the accuracy of the term. These structures, whatever be their right designation, are three in number, and consist of small vaulted chambers built between the buttresses on the south side of the chapel of Our Lady. The chamber nearest to the east has an area of 8 ft. 8 in., by 5 ft. 9 in., and has a doorway communicating with the interior of the cathedral. The central one is the largest, being 13 ft. by 5 ft. 9 in., and can only be gained by a square-headed doorway from the east chamber, which passes through the intervening buttress, having a thickness of 3 ft. 3 in. The chamber to the west is gained by another small doorway out of the Lady Chapel, and has an area which almost exactly corresponds with that of the east .chamber. From this room a low doorway in the west wall gives access to a flight of stone steps that leads down to three crypts or vaults, below the three chambers. The floor of these crypts is on solid rock, and level with the foundations of the fabric itself. A narrow gangway round the intervening buttresses gives access to the central and east crypts. That these crypts and the superincumbent chambers formed part of the original design of the Lady Chapel cannot be for a moment doubted, as the stones from which the vaulting of the crypts spring are a component part of the masonry of the main wall. The roofs of the three chambers are nicely groined with stone ribs and bosses, and the floor of the central one is still partly covered with encaustic tiles of a simple yellow and black glaze, arranged alternately in a lozenge pattern. In proceeding to the exterior of the Lady Chapel, it will be found that these chambers are surmounted by sharply-pitched gables, which have originally covered richly ornamented sepul chral recesses. Their cuspings must have been something after the fashion of the canopied external tomb to the east of the south transept entrance of this cathedral. The front stones of these recesses have been all removed, probably in the course of last century, owing to their being much decayed. At the same time, or at all events not earlier than the seventeenth century, the windows of the two side chambers were cut down so as to form doorways communicating with the exterior of the building. It seems likely that the doorway nearest the east was the first thus treated. I have carefully looked over all the known engravings of Lichfield Cathedral, beginning with the illustrations to Fuller's Church History and Dugdale's Monasticon, as well as several private drawings and views of an early date, but of those which give a south view, none are executed with sufficient minuteness or accuracy to determine the condition of these recesses. It was not until I came to an engraving of Snape's, of the year 1781, that any view giving details of this part of the fabric was found, and there the doorway of the eastern chamber is shown in its present condition, and also the two windows over the central recess. After that date there are several views, including the accurate plate in Britton's History (1836), that give all the recesses as they now are. Fortunately the cinquefoil head of the two-light window of the west chamber still remains, so that this and its fellow can be restored precisely as it was originally constructed. The two plainer two-light windows of the central chamber are yet in situ, though the mullions have been renewed at a later date. Below these two windows is a stone coffined recess, measuring internally 6 ft. 3 in. long, by 2 ft. broad and 18 in. deep, and I am told that undoubted traces have been found of its having once been occupied by a lead coffin. This receptacle forms a component part of the design; the front of it is panelled after the same pattern that prevails on the walls of the Lady Chapel just below the battlements. It is also evident, from a careful inspection of the recesses that flank the central one, that these also have each had their coffined receptacles, ornamented in the same way as that which now remains. These would be removed when the outer doorways were constructed. Sepulchral recesses in the outer walls are not of nearly so frequent occurrence as those in inner walls, but several instances may be noticed in Derbyshire churches e, g., North Winfield, South Normanton, Church Broughton, and Sawley, where there are sepulchral recesses in the south chancel walls, all of the fourteenth century. In the case at Sawley, the effigy (which has been recently most wrongfully displaced) is probably that of a Prebend and Treasurer of this Cathedral, who seems to have rebuilt the chancel. At Crich the first chaplain of the chantry of SS. Nicholas and Katharine, founded in 1350, was buried in an outer recess in the north wall, that aisle having been rebuilt by the founder, who himself occupies a niche on the inner side of the same wall. Whenever evidence can be obtained about such recesses, it is almost invariably made manifest that they were intended for founders or co-founders of the structure. If the date of the Lady Chapel can be determined with precision, we also obtain the date of these three chambers with their outer tombs, for, as has been already remarked, they are a component part of the fabric itself. It has hitherto been stated in all the numerous works treating on our English Cathedrals, as well as in the histories, guides, and more critical surveys of Lichfield in particular, that the Lady Chapel was begun by that fearless and munificent prelate, Walter de Langton, who ruled over this see from 1296 to 1321, but that his death occurring before its completion, it was finished by funds left by him for that purpose. But on looking for the original authority on which these statements are based, the Chronicon Lichfeldense (Cott. MSS. Vesp. E. 16) compiled in the days of Langton's successor-we do not find that this statement is precisely substantiated. It records that Langton surrounded the close with a stone wall; that he prepared a most costly shrine for S. Chad; that he rebuilt the castle of Eccleshall and the manor house of Heywood; that he presented to the high altar a chalice and two cruets of purest gold, a gold cross set with precious stones and worth £200, and many vestments of inestimable value; that he constructed a great bridge over the Minster Pool; that he gave the vicars a residence in the close, presented them with a large silver cup, and endowed them with a pension of 20s. out of the rectory of the church of Tibshelf in Derbyshire; and that he founded (fundavit) the Lady Chapel, and left by his will sufficient money for its complete construction. The expression "founded," when compared with numerous instances of the foundations of chantries, does not necessarily imply more than that the royal license was obtained for the alienation of certain properties, and pledges given for the finding of certain sums of money; so that a chantry, for instance, has often been said to have been founded several years before the building was commenced. The style of architecture of the beautiful Lady Chapel, which has been justly described by Britton as "one of the finest and most elegant examples of ecclesiastical architecture in England," and which a later historian, Rev. Mackenzie Walcott, speaks of "as the gem of the cathedral "-certainly approximates more to 1350 than to 1300 (the date assigned to it in Parker's Glossary, etc., etc.), and the notion that even the material foundations had scarcely been laid in Langton's time is remarkably corroborated by the register of the Chapter. The registers now in the possession of the Chapter do not begin till 1380, but there is an earlier volume of chapter records in the Bodleian Library (Ashm. MSS. 794) that covers the period of which we are treating. This volume was probably removed from the muniment room by that not too scrupulous antiquary, Elias Ashmole. It is there recorded that Bishop Langton, who held the office of Lord Treasurer, died in London on November 9th, 1321 (not Nov. 16th, as stated in the Anglia Sacra). Certain obsequies are recorded as observed at Lichfield by the capitular body, reinforced by twenty monks from Coventry (the other capitular body of the see), who made a procession, preceded by a cross and chanting a Litany, from the Cathedral to S. Chad's Church and back again. In September, 1323, there is an entry of agreement between the Chapter and Bishop Langton's executors, by which it was arranged that the Chapter and the executors were to halve the costs concerning the finding of a quarry (circa lapidicinum inveniendam) and of the raising of stone pro fabrica capella. Also that when it should become necessary to dig out a new quarry, it should be quarried and dug out in the names of Master Gilbert and his co-executors, to whom restitution should be afterwards made by the custodians of the Cathedral fabric. From this it appears that the very selection of a quarry for the Lady Chapel was not determined on until two years after the Bishop's decease. The same source tells us that in September, 1334, Edward II. gave a bond to the Chapter for payment of 257 marks, 9 shillings, held by him. on loan from the late Bishop for the purpose of the Scotch wars, being, in conjunction with 904 marks, the amount bequeathed by the Bishop to the Chapter for the Lady Chapel. The King assigns for payment the feefarms of Oxford, Shrewsbury, Nottingham, and Bridgnorth. Another entry, in September, 1335, shows that the works were still in progress. Canon Blount states in Chapter his readiness to restore to Gilbert le Bruere, as Langton's executor, a cup which had been left in his possession and the land of the quarry of Godputte, but asks that something should be assigned to him for the diligent care he has given to the (building of the) Chapel. The Chapter orders 40s. to be paid him by Gilbert le Bruere on the arrival of John de Langton (brother of the Bishop), his co-executor. Gilbert le Bruere held the prebendal stall of Wolsey, in this cathedral, from 1314 to 1331, when he exchanged it for |