The Antiquary, Vol. 25
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| Stand: | 2015-08-04 03:50:33 |
Produktbeschreibung
Excerpt from The Antiquary, Vol. 25: A Magazine Devoted to the Study of the Past In the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, preparations for laying the floor with tiles have caused a puzzling discovery to be made. At the extreme east end of the crypt there is an apse beneath the chapel, which has always been called the Corona, or Becket´s Crown. In the crypt walls of the apse (beneath this corona) are five huge lancet window-like openings, which have never been glazed. These walls and windows were built, by William the Englishman, in the second half of the year 1180. As the soil had evidently accumulated upon the floor of the crypt, workmen were employed to dig out the accumulation. They found it easy to remove soil which had hidden about 21 inches of the base of the apse wall, and its vaulting-shaft bases. By so doing they exposed the well- finished plinth, with its narrow sloping set-off (similar to that on a Norman plinth), which commenced about 8 or 9 inches from the original floor, and on the slope its depth was 2 inches. Easily was the accumulation cleared away from the walls of the apse, until the men reached those points which (on each side) stand immediately beneath the centre of the sills of the westernmost windows of the apse. There they found rough rubble masonry, extending completely across the chord of that part of the apse, and reaching from the foot of the northern west window´s splayed sill to the corresponding position beneath the west window on the southern side of the apse. Investigation showed that this rubble masonry formed a rough wall 2 feet thick, 29 feet long, and 2 feet high at its northern end. The main portion of the wall as now exposed is 3 or 4 inches less in height. The effect of this rough rubble masonry is to separate the floor of the main body of the crypt from the small eastern space beneath the five window-like openings in the apse. Something much more puzzling was, however, discovered adjacent to the central part of this rubble masonry on its eastern side. There the rubble masonry is extended, until it forms a rectangular platform in the centre of the floor of the apse. This platform is about 7 feet long from north to south, and about 8 feet deep from east to west. It is of the same height as the main part of the rubble wall, but no part of the platform is quite 2 feet high. It does not touch the wrought plinth of the apse wall, although at two points it approaches very near thereto. In accounting for this rough dwarf wall and platform, we have to remember that the huge window-like openings, with which it is so closely connected, have never been glazed. No altar ever stood in this crypt of the corona. Probably some method of protection against the entrance of intruding humanity, or intruding winds, was based upon these rubble foundations, but it is difficult to conjecture what form this protection took. An iron grille scarcely needed such a foundation, unless, indeed, a punitive cell of ironwork occupied the central portion of the grille, and was placed upon the eastern platform. The conjectures of antiquaries will here have a fairly wide field for their exercise. Incidentally it may be mentioned, as of interest, that among the rubble are seen three or four fragments of Norman mouldings, which probably had formed part of the Norman cathedral that was burned in 1174. One fragment, at the north-eastern angle of the platform, is red as if coloured by fire. It probably formed part of a shrine in the old Norman cathedral. At Chatham, near Luton Fort and the Convict Prison, some ancient British graves were discovered about the middle of November, 1891. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
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