Lincoln's Inn Chapel

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London 1905 Brass Nautical Sextant & Black Antique -nautical collection
29 Jan 2012 at 11:39am
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Antique Nautical Sextant with Leather Box Kalvin 1917 london + Special xmas Gift
29 Jan 2012 at 11:35am
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W. J. Loftie added to the incomplete work of Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, with this look at Lincoln's Inn Chapel:

Mr. Spilsbury, the librarian, seems to have proved conclusively that the Lincoln's Inn Chapel, which stands at right angles to the old hall, was a new building when it was consecrated in 1623.

There is no direct evidence that it was designed by Inigo Jones; on the other hand, there is a record in existence which testifies that the Society intended to employ him.

John Clarke was the builder.

There was an older chapel in a ruinous condition, which there is reason to believe had been that of the Bishops, as it was dedicated to St. Richard of Chichester.

Mr. Spilsbury quotes one of the Harleian manuscripts, written in or about 1700, in which Inigo is named as the architect, and Vertue's engraving of 1751 also mentions him.

The chapel is elevated on an open crypt, which was intended for a cloister.

Butler's "Hudibras" speaks of the lawyers as waiting for customers between "the pillar-rows of Lincoln's Inn."

There were three bays, divided by buttresses, each of which was surmounted by a stone vase, a picturesque but incongruous arrangement, which was altered in the early days of the Gothic revival, being the first of a series of "restorations" to which the chapel has been subjected.

A more serious offence against taste was the erection of a fourth bay at the west end, by which the old proportions are lost.

It looks worst on the outside, however, and the fine old windows of glass stained in England, apparently after a Flemish design, are calculated to disarm criticism.

Mr. Spilsbury attributes them to Bernard and Abraham van Linge, but the glass was made by Hall, of Fetter Lane.

The monuments commemorate, among others, Spencer Perceval, murdered in 1812, and a daughter of Lord Brougham, who died in 1839, and was buried in the crypt.

The office of chaplain was in existence as early as the reign of Henry VI.

The preachership was instituted in 1581, and among those who held the office were John Donne, afterwards Dean of St. Paul's, who preached the first sermon when the chapel was new.

Herring, another preacher, was made Archbishop of York in 1743, and of Canterbury in 1747.

Another Archbishop of York, William Thomson, was preacher here, and was promoted in 1862.

The greatest of the list was, perhaps, Reginald Heber, though he was only here for a year before he was appointed Bishop of Calcutta.

Next: Lincoln's Inn: Stone Buildings