“Placed where it is, almost in the centre of the long line of the nave, continued in the choir and Lady-chapel, at the point where the transept line intersects it, it is the chief feature of the massive pile. All else seems to be grouped with a view to the enhancing of the effect of the central position of the tower. The other members of the building seem merely to be steps, by means of which approach can be made to it. It is the grandest and most impressive feature of the outside. No matter from whence one looks at it, the charm is there. Seen from the gardens in the side streets close by when the pear-trees are in bloom, or in the full blaze of a hot summer day, or again later in the autumn when the leaves are beginning to turn, or, better still, in snow time, it is always full of beauty. On a bright hot day the pinnacles seem so far off in the haze as to suggest a dream fairyland. On a wet day, after a shower, the tower has the appearance of being so close at hand that it almost seems to speak. Viewed by moonlight, the tower has an unearthly look, which cannot well be described. The tower is 225 feet high to the top of the pinnacles, and the effect of it is extremely fine. From the main cornice upwards, the whole of the stone-work is open, and composed of what at a distance appears to be delicate tracery, and mullions and crocketed pinnacles.”--(H. J. L. J. M.) In it hang the venerable _bells_ that escaped the king’s commissioners at the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1553. Gloucester is notable for its examples of the Transition from Decorated to Perpendicular, which probably originated in this Cathedral. The abbey of Gloucester was founded by Osric, viceroy of King Edward, in 681. It was dedicated to St. Peter. Osric’s sister, Kyneburga, who died in 710, was the first Abbess of this double foundation for monks and nuns. Osric and Kyneburga were buried in the Abbey church in front of the altar of St. Petronilla. In 823, secular priests were placed here by the King of Mercia; and in 1022 they were expelled by Canute for Benedictine monks. When the monastery was burned to the ground, Aldred, Bishop of Worcester, re-established the monks in 1058, and began the building of a new church also to St. Peter,--“a little further from the place where it had first stood, and nearer to the side of the city.” The monastery failed to flourish; Aldred was translated to York in 1060; and when Serlo, who had been William the Conqueror’s chaplain, succeeded to Wilstan, or Wulstan, Aldred’s successor, he had under him only two monks and eight novices. After fifteen years of energetic rule (1072-1103), Serlo rebuilt the Cathedral.