ST. STEPHEN'S CRYPT. It is some years now since the late Sir Charles Barry began the restoration of this beautiful Crypt, the only relic that remains to us of the once unequalled St. Stephen's Chapel, unless Westminster Hall and the cloisters on its east side are to be considered parts of the famous Palace. What the crypt was 600 years ago, now that it has been perfectly restored to the splendour of its original decoration, we can judge for ourselves; but the glories of the chapel which once rose above it can only be guessed at from comparison with the crypt, or dimly admired through the traditions of antiquaries. Long before the fire which finally destroyed it the gradual, but necessary, process of accommodating its interior to the wants of the House of Commons had totally changed this once superbly decorated edifice. Mr. Fergusson, in his Handbook of Architecture, says of St. Stephen's : "As might be expected a priori, the gem of English art was the chapel in the Royal Palace at Westminster. On this was lavished all that the metropolis could then produce most exquisite in the art of design, and this not in architecture only, but the best works of sculpture and the highest class of painting were put in requisition for its adornment. The dimensions were not large, being only 90ft. by 33ft. internally, and its roof was of wood, but so elaborate were its decorations that it must have cost more than many edifices three or four times its size. There can be no doubt that it was designed to surpass everything of the sort in England, and being erected wholly within the reigns of the three first Edwards, it embraced the very best period of English art, answering to the Sainte Chapelle at Paris, which belongs to the great architectural age of St. Louis." But, as we have said, very little of this grandeur beyond its traditions remained till 1834, when, after having been partly burnt about a dozen times, the old building finally succumbed in the great conflagration known as "the burning of the Houses of Parliament.” In traditions of another kind, however, St. Stephen's, as the arena in which were fought out the great battles for England's Constitution, was not inferior in historic interest to any building which fire had yet destroyed. A building in which the Confessor died, which was not new when the first Norman councils were held in England, and which witnessed and survived every reformation but the reformation of Parliament, must have possessed such historic associations as would leave it without an equal in this respect in Europe. But, endless as are the traditions about St. Stephen's Chapel, about the crypt beneath, with which we have now to do, there are almost none. Some of the early Edwards gave banquets in it. After this period it was merely a crypt-a dull sort of ecclesiastical lumber-room, about which there are no records save the doubtful rumours which assign it as a place of meeting for Cromwell, Pym, Denzil Holles, and others of the Liberal party, when the debates which preceded the Commonwealth were drawing to a violent close. From this time forth it seems to have been a lumber-room, which was left alone in its dusty silence till used to prepare the coronation banquet of one of the early Georges-a mode of turning it to account which seems to have suggested the idea which afterwards was carried out by many successive Speakers of giving their Parliamentary banquets in it. After the fire which destroyed St. Stephen's Chapel above it, but did not much injure the crypt, the gas meters used to be kept in it, and in the New Palace the site of St. Stephen's above the crypt is used in order to obtain an entrance to the present structure from Westminster Hall. This Hall is exactly over the crypt, which was spared by the fire, and which has now been completely restored under the care of the present architect to the New Palace Mr. Edward M. Barry. While, in common with all other architects, the late Sir Charles Barry lamented the destruction of St. Stephen's Chapel, he always held as his most cherished idea, the restoration of the crypt, and its re-dedication to religious uses as the private chapel of the New Palace of Westminster, whose inmates are some hundreds, now that the Speaker, Black Rod, Sergeant-at-Arms, Librarians, and other officials possess regular family residences within the building, and which, we believe, being necessarily extra-parochial, give no legal claim for seats in the neighbouring churches. It is some years since this restoration was commenced, and it has fallen to the lot of Sir Charles Barry's son to carry out his father's views by completely restoring and decorating the crypt, and nothing now remains to be added except the fittings to render it a chapel worthy of the most important Gothic edifice of modern times. As it appears now, the Crypt is restored to all its pristine splendour of its early erection. Every tone of its rich gold and colour decorations have been, wherever they could be traced, most diligently reproduced, and the result is a chapel which, in its general richness of effect, will bear comparison with any in Europe, with the Sainte Chapelle, with the Chapter House of Salisbury Cathedral itself. The date of the erection of St. Stephen's Chapel and crypt is supposed to be from about A.D. 1290 to A.D. 1345, and, though the upper chapel was roofed with wood, the crypt always possessed a groined ceiling of stone, with massive ribs and bosses, which have been carefully reinstated and restored. The bosses are in most cases original, as their fragments have been collected and put together again with great care. Some of the largest bosses are really medallion groups of historical sculpture, and contain representations of the martyrdoms of St. Stephen, St. John, St. Catherine, St. Lawrence, and also a representation of St. George and the Dragon. Some of these bosses are most quaint, especially the chief one, which represents the martyrdom of St. Stephen, who is clad in gorgeous robes, and being stoned by Hebrews dressed in the curious costume and long pointed shoes of the time of Chaucer, who, by the way, was himself clerk of the works during the erection of part of the crypt and chapel. Another boss which represents the martyrdom of St. Catherine, is equally grotesque in its manner of telling the tale of suffering. Weird and monstrous, too, are the Gothic dragons which peer from the roof and vary these bosses, and give such appearance of originality to the whole ceiling. The Crypt is of nearly the same dimensions as the original chapel above it-namely 90ft. long by 28ft. wide, and 20ft. high. It contains five elaborate groins, all richly decorated in gold and colours. Attached to each of the side walls are groups of clustered columns which support the groins. Each cluster contains five columns, which, with their capitals and bases, are all of Purbeck marble, polished. The side and end walls, as well as the private entrance from the Palace, are all painted and ornamented in a manner to correspond with the decoration of the groins, and as from the situation of the crypt there is necessarily a deficiency of light, Mr. Barry has thought it necessary to make a liberal use of gold grounds, as a field on which the various decorations have been executed. The floor is paved with Minton's tiles, with an admixture of marble, the designs increasing in richness and elaboration towards the east end. The windows are all filled with stained glass by Hardman, and are illustrative of the life and death of St. Stephen, who is depicted in the discharge of his various diaconal duties, and meeting in the end a martyr's death. The east end probably contained windows originally, as the chapel above undoubtedly did; but, as the Palace now adjoins the east end of the crypt, no windows can now be obtained there. The panelling is therefore occupied with full length figures on gold grounds. Commencing from the left, in the first triplet are St. Oswald, St. Etheldreda, and St. Edmund; those of the centre triplet are St. Peter and St. Stephen, the proto-martyr and titular saint of the old building; the centre panel being temporarily filled with a cross and ornament. The figures of the remaining triplet are St. Edward the Confessor, St. Margaret of Scotland, and St. Edward the Martyr. -The "Times." |