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 thegreat English Cathedrals with accurate and well illustrated guide booksat a popular price. The aim of each writer has been to produce a workcompiled with sufficient knowledge and scholarship to be of value to thestudent of archæology and history, and yet not too technical in languagefor the use of an ordinary visitor or tourist.
To specify all the authorities which have been made use of in each casewould be difficult and tedious in this place. But amongst the generalsources of information which have been almost invariably found usefulare:—firstly, the great county histories, the value of which, especiallyin questions of genealogy and local records, is generally recognised;secondly, the numerous papers by experts which appear from time to timein the transactions of the antiquarian and archæological societies;thirdly, the important documents made accessible in the series issued bythe Master of the Rolls: fourthly, the well-known works of Britton andWillis on the English Cathedrals; and lastly, the very excellent seriesof 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 Churchwalls it has been very pleasant to gather these notes of the Cathedral'shistory and architecture. Moreover, I am less remorseful than I mightbe at adding to the world's overcrowded library, because certain recentdiscoveries in the Cathedral have thrown the best of the old books outof date, and made it necessary for some one to weave together the olderand the later knowledge. My indebtedness, therefore, is not only toformer labourers in this field, but especially to the author of thesediscoveries, Mr J. Park Harrison, who roused my enthusiasm in the olddays, and now has most generously helped me with his