Under Mr. Cottingham many improvements were made, though it cannot be said that all the work he did was good either in design or execution. The beautiful lantern of the central tower, with its fifty-six shafts, was satisfactorily strengthened and thrown open to view. At the time of Dean Merewether’s death in 1850 much still remained to be done, and in 1857 a further scheme was set going under the financial management of Dean Richard Dawes, and the architectural direction of Mr., afterwards Sir Gilbert, Scott, who restored the north transepts, the north porch, the choir, and Lady Chapel. He also erected the large metal screen and fitted up the Lady Chapel as a church for the parish of St. John the Baptist. Altogether in these two works of repair about £45,000 was expended, and the cathedral was opened for service on June 30th, 1863. CHAPTER II. - THE CATHEDRAL - EXTERIOR. Artistic unity is certainly not the chief characteristic of Hereford Cathedral, but it is doubtful whether the absence of that quality dear to a purist is not more than compensated for by the fine examples of different periods, which make the massive pile as a whole a valuable record of historical progress. And surely it is more fitting that a great ecclesiastical edifice should grow with the successive ages it outlasts, and bear about it architectural evidence of every epoch through which it has passed. Almost in the midst of the city the sturdy mass of the cathedral building reposes in a secluded close, from which the best general view is obtained. The close is entered either from Broad Street, near the west window, or from Castle Street; the whole of the building lying on the south side of the close between the path and the river. The space between the Wye and the cathedral is filled by the Bishop’s Palace and the college of the Vicars Choral. On the east are the foundations of the castle, which was formerly one of the strongest on the Welsh marches. The cathedral is especially rich in architecture of the Norman, Early English, and Early Decorated periods. The work of the Norman builders, found chiefly in the interior, survives in the exterior aspect rather in the "sturdy" quality remaining through the subsequent building being imposed upon the old foundations. The side apses of the original triple eastern termination were converted into the present eastern transept; an operation, the result of which helps to produce an intricate outline already irregular through the projections of the porch of Bishop Booth. The *Central Tower*, a splendid example of Decorated work, is of two stages above the roofs, with buttresses at the angles. It is covered with a profusion of ball-flower ornament, which, except in the south nave aisle of Gloucester Cathedral, is nowhere else so freely used. [Illustration: BISHOP BOOTH’S PORCH AND NORTH TRANSEPT.] BISHOP BOOTH’S PORCH AND NORTH TRANSEPT. _Photochrom Co., Ld., Photo._