In the Thirteenth Century the =Minster Yard=, as many still call the Cathedral Close, was enclosed by a wall. Several massive gates formed the entrances. Of these the =Exchequer=, a large archway, with a postern on each side and an upper story, remains at the western end. =Pottergate Arch=, at the top of the new road, shows us what an early Fourteenth Century single gate was like. Near it the =Grecian Stairs= lead up to the Close. SOUTHWELL DEDICATION: ST. MARY. CHIEF FEATURE: CHAPTER-HOUSE. For many centuries the Church of St. Mary, Southwell, was under the dominion of York. The clergy had many privileges, held property, lived in their own houses, like country gentlemen, and hunted in the forests which Robin Hood and his merry men had made romantic; for Southwell is not far from legendary Sherwood. The church became a Cathedral in 1884. It dates in the main from the Twelfth Century, though a few fragments are older. It is supposed that the first Saxon church was destroyed by the Danes; the next is said to have been built by King Edgar in 960; and in the time of Henry I. was rebuilt in the Norman style. Walter de Grey, Archbishop of York (see page 264), rebuilt the nave of Southwell, and was assisted by John Romeyn, subdean (see page 264). “In the Curvilinear Period (1315-1360) was erected quite the loveliest choir-screen in England; next comes that of Lincoln, evidently by the same hand. Eastern and western sides are entirely different in design; on the western side the artist parts reluctantly with the beautiful geometrical design of the Thirteenth Century; on the eastern side he accepts unreservedly the reign of the ogee arch. Magnificent sedilia and stone stalls of similar character were erected, which only survive in part. Very beautiful, too, is the cusping of the reticulated windows inserted in the north transept chapel. The upper parts of the Chapter-House and the north transept chapel also were remodelled in the Curvilinear Period. For two hundred years and more, the highest and best of Mediæval art found cultivated and wealthy patrons in the canons of Southwell. Norman, Lancet, Geometrical, Curvilinear work are all seen here at their best. Few of our cathedrals, from the point of view either of architectural design or sculptural detail, can be mentioned in the same breath with Southwell. It is one of the greatest delights of Southwell that this lovely minster is little known and almost unvisited: one feels as if one were ‘the first that ever burst into the silent sea’!”--(F. B.) The general appearance of the Cathedral is Norman.