Beverley Minster (Volume 3)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ... at least one capable critic that the design of the church would have gained in dignity and impressiveness if the east transepts had been left out altogether, but this is an opinion. which, to the mind of the present writer, is unlikely to be extensively shared. It is not to be gainsaid that the east transepts are unusually narrow, but width is nowhere a characteristic of the building, and the scale of the smaller transepts is perfectly proportioned to that of the greater ones. So lofty are the east transepts that, from some points of view, they have the effect of twin towers. The composition of their fronts leaves little to be desired. Over a pair of lancets runs a beautiful blank arcade. In the next tier is a second pair of lancets, with a deep quatrefoiled circle above, the sides being ornamented with smaller quatrefoils. In the gable we have another pair of lancets with blank arches on each side, while still higher is a single lancet, likewise in the centre of blank arches. The gable terminates in a cross; the buttresses, which are plain and very light, end in large and solid-looking octagonal turrets with arcading round them. If these fronts are not absolutely of equal merit with those of the great transepts, in any other company, as Professor, Freeman says, they would rank high. Both great and small transepts are thoroughly English; indeed, a feature so purely English as an eastern transept hardly could be otherwise. The wall of the north choir aisle, between the great and eastern transepts, is pierced with a doorway which leads to some ugly modern vestries, which are on the site From Photo by Wilfrid Groom. THE EAST WINDOW. of the chapter-house and the vestibule by which it was approached from the interior of the church. In 1890...