Bells Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Carlisle | Page 9

After the civil wars it was
cut off from the transepts by a stone wall, and furnished with galleries
and a pulpit. A new church to accommodate the parishioners having
been built in the abbey grounds in 1870, all these additions were
removed, and the nave was restored to the cathedral, adding greatly to
the general effect. An interesting event in the history of the parish
church was the marriage of Sir Walter Scott to Miss Carpenter on the
24th December 1797.
He had made the acquaintance of Miss Carpenter at Gilsland in July
while touring in the Lake district. She had "a form that was fashioned
as light as a fay's, a complexion of the clearest and lightest olive; eyes
large, deep-set, and dazzling, of the finest Italian brown; and a
profusion of silken tresses black as the raven's wing." Scott was
strongly attracted to her, and within six months she became his wife.

A tombstone under the west window shows the matrix of what was
once a magnificent brass.
The #Font#, standing on a fine marble flooring close to the west
window, has bronze figures of St. John Baptist, the Virgin and Child,
and St. Philip. It was designed by Sir A. Blomfield, and presented by
Archdeacon Prescott 1891.
[Illustration: LONGITUDINAL SECTION, NORTH.]
The #Organ.#--The former organ built by Avery, London, has been
given to Hexham Abbey Church. The present one extends from one
side of the eastern tower arch to the other. It was built by Willis (1856),
and the diaper work was executed by Hardman. About the year 1877 it
was enlarged at a cost of nearly £ 1000.
#North Transept.#--The transept is very lofty and very dark. It is about
22 feet wide, and its length from north to south is nearly 114 feet.
Standing near the entrance to the north choir aisle, looking southwards
and across the nave, a capital general view of the remains of the
Norman portion of the cathedral can be obtained.
This end of the transept was rebuilt after the fire of 1292. Having been
greatly injured by another fire that broke out about a hundred years
later, Bishop Strickland rebuilt it (1400-19.) During the restoration of
the cathedral it was once again rebuilt.
On the west side is a Norman arch, the entrance to the north aisle of the
nave. The sinking of the tower piers has partly crushed it out of shape.
The portion of an arch visible above, acts as a buttress to the tower
arches. To the right is a late thirteenth-century window filled with glass
in memory of the Rev. Walter Fletcher, Chancellor of Carlisle (died
1846). This window exhibits plate tracery--tracery cut, as it were, out
of a flat plate of stone, without mouldings, not built up in sections. It is
the transitional link between the lancet and tracery systems.
The doorway in the corner communicates with the transept roof.

The north window is very large, and is filled with stained glass in
memory of five children of A.C. Tait, Dean of Carlisle, afterwards
Archbishop of Canterbury. They all died of scarlet fever in the short
space of five weeks, 6th March to 9th April 1858.
This end of the transept was till quite recently railed off, and used as
the consistory court of the Chancellor of Carlisle.
Originally the transept had a chapel on the eastern side opening with a
single arch, similar to St. Catherine's Chapel in the south transept.
The opening to the north choir aisle is Decorated in style; above this is
a portion of an arch for buttressing the tower-arches.
[Illustration: VIEW ACROSS THE TRANSEPTS IN 1840. From
Billings.]
To the right is the blocked-up entrance of the old Norman choir aisle,
an exact counterpart of the present south choir aisle entrance.
The roof is now an open timber one of the original pitch.
Near the north-east pier of the tower is a well, completely covered over.
This, it is said, was done by a former dean, on the supposition that the
well, or the water, in some occult fashion, affected the music in the
cathedral.
The #Tower# was rebuilt by Bishop Strickland (1400-19), who used
the Norman piers, and placed upon them other columns of about the
same length. The Early Norman piers have square-fluted capitals and
are a little higher than the arches of the nave. The added columns have
capitals carved with birds and foliage, and are carried up to the arches
of the tower. This rebuilding was rendered necessary by the shifting of
its foundations. The piers sank nearly one foot, and the arches near
them have been to some extent distorted. Springs of water are said to
run across the transept from north to south, and this may explain the
sinking, which probably happened before the