DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6910#0037
KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE.
19
religious houses ; and Henry, who, to a piety which was little encumbered with state
transactions, added the zeal and generosity peculiar to youth, endeavoured, in the
present work, to eclipse their efforts. His first design for building was upon a small
scale, yet afterwards he extended it so largely that Henry himself foresaw it could
not possibly be finished in his life time. He left instructions, therefore, with a view
to its completion, in his will; and detailed a plan which while it reflects the highest
credit, at least on the grandeur of his devotional ideas, evinces that, though the
architects of those times were unguided by the cold rules of proportion, they still
worked upon acknowledged principles : and reconciled solidity and lightness with a
better grace than the best artists of what may be termed the classic era. It is
enough to say they understood effect, and that in their efforts to attain it, they never
weakened the buildings they erected.
Henry's first foundation, in 1441, was for a rector and twelve scholars only; but
his second was for a provost and seventy scholars, who, owing to the incompletion of
the monarch's designs, were long confined to the few and inconvenient apartments pro-
vided for the smaller society. The plan which Henry had projected in the second
instance was proportionable to the number of people for whose maintenance he had
made provision : but a part of the chapel only, which formed the north side of an
intended quadrangle, was all that the troubles of his reign allowed him to erect.
According to Henry's will, the chapel itself was to contain, in length, two hundred
and eighty-eight feet of " assize," without ailes; and all of the width of forty feet.
The walls were to be ninety feet in height, embattled, vaulted, and " chare-roffed,"
sufficiently buttressed, and every buttress finished with purfled pinnacles or little
spires, with flower work. The window at the west end was to have " nine days,"
and the windows in the sides five days : betwixt every buttress in the body of the
church, on both sides, were to be " closets," or small side chapels, with altars ; they
were to be in length twenty, and in breadth ten feet, and the pavement of the choir
was to be a foot and a half above the pavement of the church.
How far this building was advanced previous to Henry's death is not satisfactorily
ascertained, though it is generally admitted that the eastern end was raised some
feet above the ground, and a small portion of the north and south walls were built,
The rest was left for his successors, though the whole was not entirely finished till
after the year 1530.
Mr. Cole, whose manuscript collections for Cambridge are now preserved in the
British Museum, gathered the following particulars, which were in part printed by
Maiden, in his " Account" of this chapel:
19
religious houses ; and Henry, who, to a piety which was little encumbered with state
transactions, added the zeal and generosity peculiar to youth, endeavoured, in the
present work, to eclipse their efforts. His first design for building was upon a small
scale, yet afterwards he extended it so largely that Henry himself foresaw it could
not possibly be finished in his life time. He left instructions, therefore, with a view
to its completion, in his will; and detailed a plan which while it reflects the highest
credit, at least on the grandeur of his devotional ideas, evinces that, though the
architects of those times were unguided by the cold rules of proportion, they still
worked upon acknowledged principles : and reconciled solidity and lightness with a
better grace than the best artists of what may be termed the classic era. It is
enough to say they understood effect, and that in their efforts to attain it, they never
weakened the buildings they erected.
Henry's first foundation, in 1441, was for a rector and twelve scholars only; but
his second was for a provost and seventy scholars, who, owing to the incompletion of
the monarch's designs, were long confined to the few and inconvenient apartments pro-
vided for the smaller society. The plan which Henry had projected in the second
instance was proportionable to the number of people for whose maintenance he had
made provision : but a part of the chapel only, which formed the north side of an
intended quadrangle, was all that the troubles of his reign allowed him to erect.
According to Henry's will, the chapel itself was to contain, in length, two hundred
and eighty-eight feet of " assize," without ailes; and all of the width of forty feet.
The walls were to be ninety feet in height, embattled, vaulted, and " chare-roffed,"
sufficiently buttressed, and every buttress finished with purfled pinnacles or little
spires, with flower work. The window at the west end was to have " nine days,"
and the windows in the sides five days : betwixt every buttress in the body of the
church, on both sides, were to be " closets," or small side chapels, with altars ; they
were to be in length twenty, and in breadth ten feet, and the pavement of the choir
was to be a foot and a half above the pavement of the church.
How far this building was advanced previous to Henry's death is not satisfactorily
ascertained, though it is generally admitted that the eastern end was raised some
feet above the ground, and a small portion of the north and south walls were built,
The rest was left for his successors, though the whole was not entirely finished till
after the year 1530.
Mr. Cole, whose manuscript collections for Cambridge are now preserved in the
British Museum, gathered the following particulars, which were in part printed by
Maiden, in his " Account" of this chapel: