The history, architecture, and antiquities of the cathedral church of StCanice, Kilkenny . everal ofthe crosses which adorned the gables of the ca-thedral. Tradition has it, that the removal ofthese crosses was arrested at the western gable,where alone a cross is now to be found, by a swarm of bees, which attacked and drove awaythe defacers of the sacred emblem. b The absence of the large arch opening intothe transept, a feature which occurs in the Ladychapel and parish church, and is almost alwaysto be found where a side chapel was designed,favours the notion that this compartment wasoriginal
The history, architecture, and antiquities of the cathedral church of StCanice, Kilkenny . everal ofthe crosses which adorned the gables of the ca-thedral. Tradition has it, that the removal ofthese crosses was arrested at the western gable,where alone a cross is now to be found, by a swarm of bees, which attacked and drove awaythe defacers of the sacred emblem. b The absence of the large arch opening intothe transept, a feature which occurs in the Ladychapel and parish church, and is almost alwaysto be found where a side chapel was designed,favours the notion that this compartment wasoriginally built as a north aisle to the the latter be at any future time remod-elled, the loss of room occasioned by the re-moval of the galleries might easily be compen-sated by the restoration of the north aisle to itsoriginal purpose. c The germ of the idea, more fully expanded chap, in.] THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CATHEDRAL. 97 with nook-shafts, which carry the richly molded escoinson ribs. The accom-panying cut, fig. 1, represents the arrangement of the most western of the win-. No. 18. dow jambs, with its nook-shaft, capital, hood-mold, and escoinson rib. Thecapital is worthy of notice, being carved to represent a circle of leaves, theirstalks confined by one band, and their foliage curling over another, which, withthe leaves, is deeply undercut. Fig. 2 gives the section of the escoinson rib, andhood-mold; and fig. 3 that of one of the piers separating the windows, with itsnook-shafts and their bases. The north windows are 6 feet high to the spring ofarch. It is much to be regretted that the fine carving of these windows is cloggedwith whitewash, and still more so that a modern improvement has been perpe- in the lighting of the Lady chapel of the cathe- parish church, choir, and other parts; double dral, and which arrived at its complete develop- and triple lancets comprised beneath one es- ment in the Lady chapel of St. Johns abbey, coinson arch, but with the tympanum
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookidhistoryarchi, bookyear1857
