The Interior Of A Gothic Minster.

THE INTERIOR OF A GOTHIC MINSTER .

LONDON , SATURDAY , JULY 2 , 1861 .

( Concluded from page 502 . ) The Grypt was the Christian's burial place without the city ( Frances , c . xxvi . p . 447 ) , being a subterranean city of the dead ; and serving , as a church ( p . 448 ) . Cemeteries within the city were made round the church after the reign of

Constantine ( p , 449 ) , and interments , at first permitted in the outer court itself , were of later introduction within the church . The first lay person buried inside a church was the Emperor Basil ( u . 216 , p . 458 ) . Special exemptions , by cannon lawwere made for internal interment in

, the case of saints , bishops , canons , distinguished clergymen , abbots , monks , and lay patrons and benefactors , and eminently worthy laymen ( Mayer , i . 80 ) . The crypt was a development also of the confessio , in which the martyr's relics were enshrined in the basilica , in allusion to Rev . v . 9 ,

and is so called by Eadmer ( A . S . ii . 195 ) . The crypts of Canterbury , Winchester , Gloucester , Rochester , Worcester , York , Reptou , were all founded before 1085 ; after that date they were not made , except as a continuation of former crypts , as at Canterbury and Rochester . Probably the construction of upper chapels and treasuries led to their disuse . For some reason

unknown many Norman churches , such as Durham , and some , as Chichester , owing to an unfavourable site , have no crypt . Those of Christchurch are little known : they form three of very early date , one being situate under the presbytery and wiugs of the transept respectively . At St . Paul ' s the

crypt was called the Shrowds ; at Canterbury it retains its old name of Undercroft . The exceptional instance of an early English crypt occurs at Hereford , and at Wimborne there is a crypt open to the choir aisles , which was a decorated contrivance for creating this adjunct in a church which

was never intended to have one . Occasionally we find a crypt under only a chapel , as at Waltham and Exeter ; or occupying a portion of a nave aisle , as at Dorchester and Bosham ; or beneath the chapter-house , as at Westminster and Wells . But the earliest crypts which we possess are those

of Hexham and Ripon . In the former there were three entrances , one used exclusively by the priest serving at the altar , the others for the ascent and descent of the worshippers . On descending the central flight of stairs the pilgrim gained an antechamber , from which a view through a

roundheaded archway was permitted into a chapel containing the saint ' s relics and altar . In the wall are three niches with funnel-headed openings for lamps , a similar niche provided for light to the antechamber ; the pilgrim , having performed his devotions , turned northwards into a similar chamber , and by a vaulted passage on the north side

of the chapel returned to the upper church . In the other crypt of St . Wilfrid , at Ripon , the passage on the north leads to the choir , while on the south the passage of the julgrinis conducts into the chapel , which has its altar . and relic recesses and lamp niches : one of the latter had been

perforated , and forms the well-known Needle on which Camden is communicative and Fuller witty . At Oxford , in 1856 , a small crypt with two recesses Avas discovered under the crossing . Another has been indicated by Gunter at Peterborough . At Winchester , a low arched doorway below the screen

of the feretory led clown to the relic chamber , which was in consequence called the Holy Hole . The Norman crypts form large subterranean churches , and ordinarily were apsidal ; that of Canterbury , 1096 , was filled with altars . In the centre was the altar of St . Marybelow the hih

, g altar of the presbytery , and enclosed with perpendicular stone screens . The bracket , image niche , and rings for suspending lamps still reruain , Ji , s well as the aumbries , and drains of some other altars . Two flights of stairs on the west , and two additional flights communicating with the transept

, gave ample means of access . Besides some interesting paintings in tempera , there is a large recess for the preservation of relics and treasures in times of danger . In this , as in the three other apsidal crypts , Winchester , 1079 ; Worcester , 1084 ;

Gloucester , 1089 , the processional paths round the east end ; Worcester has three rows of intermediate pillars ( Gloucester and Canterbmy having two , Winchester but one ) in the central alley , and in each aisle a dividing range . From the central pillar and radiating vault of the eastern apse of the

crypt , the idea of the central pillar of the chapterhouse has been supposed to have taken its ori gin . At Canterbury the crypt follows the Hues of the eastern limb of the church , at Gloucester the transept and choir foundations . At St . Paul ' s , in the west end of the Shrowdswas the Jesus Chapel

, , where the Apostles' mass was sung daily at four or five a . m ., and the eastern portion formed St . Faith ' s Church . The crypt of York is of four aisles , with a transept , and is approached by two staircases ; it contains a lavatory and well . At Rochesterthe crypt of seven aislesand not

com-, , pleted until the thirteenth century , was always square ended , and contained nine altars . Some water-drains and wall-paintings remain , besides a small groined penitential cell , perfectly dark , and receiving air only from above by a small flue ( the only access being by a stair in the thickness of the

wall leading to the upper church ); and also the so-called "indulgence-chamber , " a large apartment reached by a wall-stair , and used to secrete the treasures in times of danger . No one was admitted to this crypt except for mass . At Gloucester there is a cruciform wall-recess of the same

design , and the chapels retain in several instances their drains . The entrances Avere from the tranept . The crypt of Winchester contains a well ,