The central spire, which always groups so charmingly with the two that rise above the west front, dates from the Restoration, and is an imitation of the western ones. Its predecessor, destroyed during the Civil Wars, was supposed to have been rebuilt about 1250. The two western spires are said to have been built by Roger de Norbury (1322-1359), but the north-west one was rebuilt in Perpendicular times in imitation of the earlier style. The south-west, or =Jesus Tower=, also the belfry, got its name from the Jesus Bell, given by Dean Heyward in 1477, and destroyed during the Civil Wars. The Jesus is a little higher than the other tower. Both spires are octagonal. At intervals they are broken by windows. “Of all the cathedral churches of England, Lichfield may be said to be the most lovely. Other cathedrals are larger--indeed, this is one of the smallest;--many are grander, or more magnificent; but for simple beauty, for charm, for delicacy of construction and appearance, Lichfield may rightly claim to take the foremost place. Peterborough, when we stand inside the west door and look down its line of enormous piers, fills us with awe at its immensity and [Illustration: LICHFIELD: WEST FRONT] [Illustration: LICHFIELD: NAVE, EAST] strength; a feeling which is perhaps a little impaired by the present position of its stalls. Salisbury appeals to us with its perfect simplicity and symmetry, and York with its unequalled grandeur and splendour; but after viewing all the cathedrals of England, it is Lichfield which is most likely to be remembered among them for something which may be most aptly called charm. What can be more delightful than the view which confronts the traveller who, approaching from the town, pauses to look across the sparkling water of the pool at the three graceful spires standing out amid a wealth of green trees and shrubs? Truly a picture to be long remembered. “The cathedral stands in a close which was once surrounded by strong walls with bastions and a moat. Nature had supplied the moat on the south side, and the Cathedral Pool, as it is now called, is still there. The artificial moat has been drained, but its course can be easily traced running round the bishop’s palace, and its water has been replaced by lovely gardens and gravel walks. Some bits of the old wall remain, the north-east bastion in the palace gardens and a turret on a house at the south corner: the ‘beautiful gates’ of Bishop Langton are gone; but in the Vicars’ Close at the west of the cathedral are two small irregular courtyards with houses so old that we feel sure that their wooden beams and plaster were there when the Royalists of the neighbourhood housed themselves within the fortified close.