[Illustration: WELLS: NORTH PORCH] of the church. Some architects consider it the finest piece of architecture at Wells. “The entrance is doubly recessed and has the zigzag ornament among its mouldings, an indication, if not of its early construction, at least of lingering Norman traditions among its builders. These mouldings deserve the most careful attention. The outer or dripstone, is formed of a very beautiful combination of Early English foliage. Square panels on either side of the arch contain figures of mystic animals, one of which is a cockatrice. The gable above has a blind arcade, in the centre of which a small triplet gives light to a parvise chamber. From the buttress at the angles rise slender spire-capped pinnacles. The buttresses themselves are flat and narrow. “The interior of the porch is divided into two bays, and its walls are lined with a double arcade, the upper row of arches being more deeply recessed than the tower. The vault springs from a central group of triple shafts. The sculptures of the capitals on the east side possibly represent the death of King Edmund the Martyr (A.D. 870),--bound to a tree as a mark for the Danish arrows and afterwards beheaded. The figures are well designed, and full of life and character. The double doorway leading into the nave displays, like the exterior arch, the Norman zigzag.”--(R. J. K.) On entering the =Nave= the visitor is at once struck by the noble proportions, the impression of great length, the broad horizontal band of the triforium, and the wealth of spirited and varied carving of the capitals and corbels; but the most striking feature of all is the great inverted, or double, arch that struts across the central piers forming a St. Andrew’s Cross, by which name it is generally known, and giving a grotesque (we are almost tempted to say Chinese) appearance. “Undoubtedly the first thing that the stranger notices in Wells Cathedral, and the last that he is likely to forget, is the curious contrivance by which the central tower is supported. Of the three pairs of arches (the upper arch resting inverted upon the lower) which stretch across the nave and each of the transepts, that in the nave is seen at once, and lends a unique character to the whole church. At first these arches give one something of a shock, so unnecessarily frank are they, so excessively sturdy, so very English, we may think. They carry their burden as a great-limbed labourer will carry a child in a crowd, to the great advantage of the burden and the natural dissatisfaction of the crowd. In fact, they seem to block up the view, and to deform what they do not hide.