The Cathedral of Lincoln
The Cathedral of Lincoln* by Esther Singleton presents a detailed historical and architectural survey of one of England's most magnificent medieval cathedrals, situating Lincoln Cathedral within the broader sweep of English ecclesiastical history while offering precise descriptive attention to its physical fabric. Singleton opens by establishing Lincoln Cathedral's commanding position atop a limestone ridge above the ancient city of Lincoln, a site she treats as inseparable from the building's character — the cathedral visible for miles across the flat Lincolnshire plain, its three towers once among the tallest structures in the medieval world. She traces the cathedral's origins to the Norman bishop Remigius of Fécamp, who transferred the seat of the diocese from Dorchester to Lincoln following the Conquest, laying the foundation of the first Norman structure in 1072. This original Romanesque building, she explains, was largely destroyed by fire in 1141 and then severely damaged again by an earthquake in 1185, making Lincoln's architectural history one of successive reconstructions and expansions rather than a single unified campaign. The most substantial portion of the work focuses on the Gothic rebuilding initiated under Bishop Hugh of Avalon — later canonized as Saint Hugh of Lincoln — beginning in the late twelfth century. Singleton examines this rebuilding as a pivotal moment in English Gothic architecture, noting that the choir Hugh commissioned represents some of the earliest and most adventurous vaulting in the English Gothic tradition, with the so-called "crazy vault" of the choir employing an asymmetrical rib pattern that broke with the strict geometry of earlier Norman and Cistercian models. She treats Hugh's building campaign not merely as a technical achievement but as a spiritual and political statement, reflecting the cathedral's rising prestige and the power of the Lincoln diocese in medieval England. Singleton devotes considerable attention to the Angel Choir, added in the latter half of the thirteenth century to house the shrine of Saint Hugh following his canonization in 1220. She describes its carved spandrels — populated by angels playing musical instruments, from which the choir takes its name — with particular care, situating them among the finest examples of English medieval sculpture. The famous Lincoln Imp, a carved grotesque figure nestled in the northeast pier of the Angel Choir, receives its own passage, with Singleton recounting the popular legend associated with the figure and reflecting on the medieval ecclesiastical craftsman's habit of smuggling secular and whimsical imagery into sacred spaces. The West Front is treated as a set piece in its own right. Singleton describes its unusual organization — more of a decorative screen than a structural façade in the French Gothic manner — with its deep frieze of carved biblical scenes running across the lower register, a feature she traces to Anglo-Norman precedent. She examines the central doorways and the disposition of statuary, reading the iconographic program attentively and noting where figures have been lost or replaced. The interior receives systematic treatment: the nave, with its coupled columns and triforium; the Chapter House, a decagonal structure she praises for the elegance of its proportions and the quality of its stonecarving; and the library, which once housed one of England's medieval copies of Magna Carta. The stained glass receives dedicated discussion, particularly the two great rose windows known as the Dean's Eye (north transept, early thirteenth century) and the Bishop's Eye (south transept, early fourteenth century), Singleton contrasting their differing approaches to tracery design and glass arrangement. Throughout, Singleton weaves in accounts of notable burials and monuments within the cathedral, including the tomb of Queen Eleanor of Castile — though her heart, not her body, is the Lincoln relic — and the monument to Katherine Swynford, third wife of John of Gaunt, whose family connections she traces with care. The chapter on the medieval bishop's palace adjacent to the cathedral extends Singleton's scope beyond the building itself to the broader ecclesiastical precinct. The work closes with a survey of Lincoln Cathedral's post-Reformation history: the stripping of shrines, the dispersal of relics, the damage sustained during the Civil War when Parliamentary troops stabled horses in the nave, and the subsequent phases of restoration, including the Victorian campaigns Singleton views with measured critical skepticism, noting the dangers of over-restoration and the loss of authentic medieval surfaces. Her conclusion reasserts Lincoln's place among the great achievements of English medieval culture, a monument she treats as irreducibly specific to its landscape, its local stone, and its particular historical moment.
By Esther Singleton · First published 1912 · Genre: Architectural History, Art History, Travel Writing