CHANTRY OF ST. RICHARD, CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL, SUSSEX. THE Chantry of St. Richard, formerly bishop of Chichester, stands in the south transcept of the cathedral at the back of the stalls. It is a beautiful shrine of Gothic workmanship, consisting of three elegant cinque-foil arches, ornamented with crockets and a finial; the arches spring from dragons, and other grotesque figures, which are now greatly mutilated; they are separated by a slender butment, terminating with a pinnacle. Above the grand arches is a range of small ones with cinque-foil heads, surmounted with a cornice and foliage: the roof within is groined, having key-stones and roses at the intersections. The tomb of the saint stands upon the pavement in the middle of the chantry; its sides are enriched with pointed arches, alternately wide and narrow; the figure of St. Richard, which lies on the tomb, considering the devastations made here by the partizans of Cromwell, is in tolerable preservation. The shrine of St. Richard was visited by the Catholics, long after the reformation, on the anniversary of the saint, which is on the 3d of April. This venerable and holy prelate, whose sirname was De la Wict, from being a Dominican friar, was admitted CHANTRY OF ST. RICHARD, CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL. among the secular clergy, and consecrated by the bishop of Chichester in the year 1245. He is recorded to have worked many miracles during his life, particularly at one time to have fed three thousand people in a most extraordinary and miraculous manner: it is also said of him, that while he was officiating at the altar in his old age, he fell down, through weakness, with the chalice in his hand, the wine in which was not spilt. He died in the year 1245, and was buried in the cathedral. |