On Discoveries in St Anselm's Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral

( IU ) DISCOVERIES IN ST. ANSELM'S OHAPEL, CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL. BY J. BRIGSTOCKE SHEPPARD, LL.D. AN examination of the north or interior wall of the chapel dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, now commonly called St. Anselm's Chapel, shews that at some time after the completion of the building it required to be propped, to save it from falling, a fate which was threatened by cracks appearing in many parts of the vault and walls. To secure the building the architect strengthened the quasi-chancel arch —that which divides the apse from the area of the chapel— by erecting concentrically within it another, and of course a smaller, arch. ' He also filled up about a fifth part of the arc of the apse with a solid mass of hewn stone, built against the north wall of the chapel; this mass of masonry abutting against the eastern pier of the added arch above mentioned. As this added arch is, equally with the original chancel arch, Norman in character and decoration, it must be inferred that the defects in the building appeared very soon after its erection, and that the expedients for strengthening the walls were found to be necessary before the great fire of 1174; immediately after which the two Williams introduced a new style of architecture, in the restoration of the ruined choir adjoining the chapel. In 1889, by the generosity of Canon F. J. Holland, alterations were made in this chapel, and, in order to display the whole apse, the buttress wall (northwest of it) was removed. By its removal a painting, representing St. Paul shaking off the viper, was uncovered high ap on the north, interior, side of the chapel. It is desired to prove the age of this painting, if possible, by evidence derived from the order of superposition of the two layers of nasonry of which the wall consisted before the recent alteDISCOVERIES IN ST. ANSELM'S CHAPEL. 175 rations; that afforded by the style of the painting will be considered by Mr. Waller. The buttress wall and the chancel arch may be. assumed to be of the same date, being two contiguous pieces of masonry built to counteract the same defect in the building; and the arch having been shewn to have been added not later than 1175, the wall may be set down as of the same date, and the picture, therefore, which it covered, of an earlier one. In fact, it would appear that as soon as the' chapel-walls were completed they were decorated with the painting in question, accompanied, doubtless, by others; or, at least, by one other; for, seeing that SS. Peter and Paul were the jointly invoked patrons, it may be taken for granted that some well-known episode in the life of St. Peter would, be represented in a position symmetrical with that occupied by the portrait of St. Paul. Another piece of evidence, not so satisfactory and conclusive as that noticed above, is to be found in the fact that at some time a fire has swept through the arch from east to west, and has calcined the freestone of the arch-jamb and also of the buttress wall; the mark of the fire passing evenly and without a break from arch to wall, thus shewing that both arch and wall occupied their modern positions when they underwent the action of the flame. On the recent removal of the wall it was also seen that the lately adjoining stones of the jamb and of the wall were reddened to exactly the same depth, a result which could only have arisen from the calcination having been caused in both by one and the • same conflagration. 3STow, if this conflagration were known to be that of 1174, the evidence of date afforded by the architectural style of the arch above noticed would be more than confirmed, for it is certain that the fire of 1174 could not calcine a wall built after that date. But it is necessary to confess, first, that only the very lowest part of the wall and jamb is burnt; secondly, that the fire appears to have been small and local. This latter point is inferred from the fact that there is a focus of not more than a foot in width, a point of greatest intensity of heat, just at the base of the jamb-shaft, where the stone has been burnt 176 DISCOVERIES IN ST. ANSELM'S CHAPEL. until the surface has scaled j whereas towards the east, on. the buttress wall, in which direction the wave of flame can be traced, the effects of the fire become fainter and fainter in proportion as they recede from the focus. The question then arises, Was not this one of the bivouac fires, which tradition charges against Cromwell's soldiers, who are said to have desecrated the church? Similar marks of fire attributed to this origin are to be seen on the bases of the two western piers of the cathedral's central tower. At the utmost, however, this evidence from the fire is only a piece of superfluous confirmation, if confirmation it is, seeing that the added masonry is purely Norman in style, and that no pure Norman features were introduced after the great fire.