There, over a doorway on the south, is a shield,
with the arms of Henry VII., and two figures kneeling before the
Blessed Virgin, attended by an angel holding a rose.
A few tombs of interest or beauty, which the Puritans failed to
destroy, remain to this great Catholic building. These are the tombs of
St Richard, of which I have spoken, in the north transept against the
choir, the restored Arundel Chantry and tomb of Richard Fitzalan in the
north aisle of the nave, and the exquisite Decorated tomb in the chapel
of St John Baptist at the eastern end of this aisle; little beside.
It must indeed be confessed that when all is said and done, essentially
romantic as the Cathedral of Chichester is with its so various styles
of architecture, lovely as certain parts of it are still, it must
always have been a building rather interesting than beautiful, and it
has suffered so much from vandalism and restoration that it cannot be
accounted a monument of the first order. Nevertheless, I always return
to it with delight and am reluctant to go away, for in England
certainly a cathedral, even of the second order, of restricted grandeur
and spoilt beauty, may be a very charming and delightful and precious
thing as indeed this church of Chichester is.
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