Dean Gardiner, 1573-89, was a great reformer, and, as we have already noted, pulled down the thirteenth-century Lady Chapel, and as well the chapter-house. In 1643 the cathedral was taken possession of by Cromwell's soldiers, and the work of spoliation carried on. The organ was probably destroyed at this time, for Dean Crofts set up a new organ in 1660, the case of which was re-modelled in 1833, and still remains. It is also perhaps needless to state that the cathedral was repeatedly whitewashed during the eighteenth century. In June 1801 a fire broke out in the roof of the nave, but was extinguished before much damage had been done. The various works effected during this century are mentioned specifically elsewhere in these notes, under the headings of the parts of the building where they have occurred. [Illustration: The Cathedral from the South-West Angle of Cloisters.] CHAPTER II THE CATHEDRAL--EXTERIOR Norwich Cathedral does not tell to great advantage from the outside: its chief charm is undoubtedly the interior. It stands in a hollow, on what is probably the lowest ground in the city. The best view of the cathedral is obtained from the low ground to the eastward near the river, and close to Pull's Ferry; here the extreme length of the nave, which Fergusson remarked justified the addition of western towers, is lost partly by foreshortening, and by the projection forward of the south transept, over which the old Norman tower, with its later battlements and spire, rises grandly above the sweep of the apse, with the still remaining circular chapels below. #The Cathedral Precincts#, or Close, running from Tombland eastward to the river, are entered by two gates to the precincts and one to the bishop's palace. #The Erpingham Gate#, opposite the west front of the cathedral, was built by Sir Thomas Erpingham, and as an architectural compilation "is original and unique." In elevation it consists of one lofty well-proportioned arch supported on either side by semi-hexagonal buttresses taken up as high as the apex of arch; above comes a plain gable, in which, centred over the arch below, is a canopied niche with the kneeling figure of Sir Thomas Erpingham. Built probably about 1420, and while yet some of the noble simplicity of the thirteenth had not passed into the over-wrought richness of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it presents a type of the best Perpendicular work we have in England. The form of the arch is lofty, and may have been suggested by the wish to preserve a view through of the cathedral. The arch moulding is enriched on the outer part with figures of fourteen female saints, and on the inner with twelve male saints; the semi-hexagonal panelled buttresses are covered with the shields of the families of Erpingham, Clopton, and Walton, and each has a seated figure of an ecclesiastic on the top. [Illustration: The Erpingham Gate.]