=The South Side.=--Beginning at the west end, the first noticeable feature is the =South Porch= in the second bay, with the parvise or first floor chamber. The inner doorway has been, as Freeman[4] justly says, “one of the most magnificent displays of ornament in the whole building ... and, contrary to the common rule, the original Norman doorway has given way to a later successor.... The present doorway is Decorated (Bishop Gower, 1328-47), without shafts, but with a superb display of sculptured decoration, besides crockets and the ordinary four-leaved flower. The arch is adorned with a series of sculptures, which are sadly mutilated, but in which we may still trace the familiar representation of the Root of Jesse. The position, however, necessarily involves some singularities, and, as in the better known example of the Dorchester window, the genealogy is by no means easy to follow. The western impost is occupied by what appears to be a figure of Adam, with Eve issuing from his side; the other supports the recumbent figure of Jesse, from whom springs the branch, along which the figures are introduced, somewhat after the manner of the Norman medallions at Iffley. Some of the figures may still be discerned reading at desks; David with his harp may also plainly be seen, as well as a representation of the Crucifixion. Over the apex is an effigy of the Holy Trinity, with angels on each side bearing censers. The doorway has pinnacles at the sides, but they are cut off by the vaulting of the porch, which is plain quadripartite, springing from corbels, [Illustration: SOUTH ELEVATION. _Drawn by F. Taylor Scott._] among which we may observe the ornament called the mask, the only example of that form to be found in the cathedral.” This porch is the work of Gower, and the peculiar mouldings are readily traceable to the same artist who designed the rood-screen. Scraps of the previous Norman doorway, which was done away with by Gower, are still to be seen in the plinth. At one time there were five steps in the porch, but these were removed in 1885. The entrance to the upper chamber (added by Vaughan, c. 1515) is obtained from the nave by a turret-stair, and the room is now used as a clerk-of-work’s drawing office. In 1849 Butterfield renewed the tracery of the aisle windows as it originally was in Decorated times, but it is not very attractive. The Clerestory is Norman, of ashlar work, and the windows are rather wide, stumpy, and round-headed, with flat pilaster-like buttresses between each pair. But the restoration has deprived the exterior of much of its interest, although one can easily imagine that those of the next century will enjoy a very pleasing contrast between the purples of the Caerfai buttresses and the yellows of the window dressings, which are of Somersetshire oolite.