THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF
OXFORD

A DESCRIPTION OF ITS FABRIC
AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE
EPISCOPAL SEE

BY THE REV. PERCY DEARMER, M.A.

WITH THIRTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS, 1899

First Published, April, 1897.
Second Edition, Revised, April, 1899.

GENERAL PREFACE.

This series of monographs has been planned to supply visitors to the great English Cathedrals with accurate and well illustrated guide books at a popular price. The aim of each writer has been to produce a work compiled with sufficient knowledge and scholarship to be of value to the student of archæology and history, and yet not too technical in language for the use of an ordinary visitor or tourist.

To specify all the authorities which have been made use of in each case would be difficult and tedious in this place. But amongst the general sources of information which have been almost invariably found useful are:—firstly, the great county histories, the value of which, especially in questions of genealogy and local records, is generally recognised; secondly, the numerous papers by experts which appear from time to time in the transactions of the antiquarian and archæological societies; thirdly, the important documents made accessible in the series issued by the Master of the Rolls: fourthly, the well-known works of Britton and Willis on the English Cathedrals; and lastly, the very excellent series of Handbooks, to the Cathedrals, originated by the late Mr. John Murray, to which the reader may in most cases be referred for fuller detail, especially in reference to the histories of the respective sees.

GLEESON WHITE.
E.F. STRANGE.
Editors of the Series.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

For one who has learnt the best of what he knows within Christ Church walls it has been very pleasant to gather these notes of the Cathedral's history and architecture. Moreover, I am less remorseful than I might be at adding to the world's overcrowded library, because certain recent discoveries in the Cathedral have thrown the best of the old books out of date, and made it necessary for some one to weave together the older and the later knowledge. My indebtedness, therefore, is not only to former labourers in this field, but especially to the author of these discoveries, Mr J. Park Harrison, who roused my enthusiasm in the old days, and now has most generously helped me with his advice, and allowed me to incorporate in these chapters the substance of his own papers. To these pamphlets I would refer any who wish to go to the fountainhead for the account of the investigations, and especially I may mention two: "The Pre-Norman Date of the Choir and some of the Stone-work of Oxford Cathedral," and the "Account of the Discovery of the Remains of three Apses at Oxford Cathedral" (Oxford: Frowde, 24 and 23 pp.). I must also express my thanks for the kindness and help of Professor York Powell, and of Mr W. Francis, the senior verger, and to Messrs Carl Norman & Co. of Tunbridge Wells, Mr W. Giles, Mr Park Harrison, and Mr R. Phené Spiers, F.R.I.B.A., for the loan of and permission to reproduce various drawings and photographs.

PERCY DEARMER.

CONTENTS.