In Wells, at the junction of Sadler Street with the High Street, stood a cross, which must have been the most beautiful of all structures of its kind. As represented in the prospect of the city, drawn by William Simes, in 1735 (Fig. 149), it was a Gothic work of singular richness and elegance. Its bottom storey consisted of two-centred arches between buttressed piers surmounted by pinnacles, with a parapet of open tracery. The upper portion consisted of a lantern of two diminishing stages, with late-Gothic traceried windows and parapets, with pinnacles at the angles, the lower one of the two stages connected with the ground storey by flying buttresses. The whole was crowned by a most gracefully tapered spire, terminating in a weathercock. This exquisite monument was swept away by order of the Corporation, December 1785, on the ground that part of the cross having "lately fallen down, and the remainder being in a ruinous state and dangerous," the entire cross must be demolished, and its materials carried elsewhere to some convenient place. This cross obviously dated from the middle of the fifteenth century or even earlier, and was, doubtless, the same cross, referred to by Bishop Beckington (1443-64), in his charter providing for the conveyance of water by conduit "to the high cross in the market place." Nevertheless, it has been identified by at least two writers, Charles Pooley and Alex. Gordon, with a cross which the antiquary Leland relates that he saw in process of construction. Leland describes this cross as having two concentric rings, an outer ring or "circumference" of seven pillars, and an inner "circumference" of six pillars, with a vaulted ceiling under the _Domus Civica_. This particular building was completed in 1542. It was erected by Bishop William Knight, with the help of a bequest from Dean Richard Woolman. But the cross of Simes' map must have been, at least, a century earlier in date than the cross of 1542, the account of which tallies neither in architectural style nor in shape with the other. In the one illustrated, there is no sign of two concentric arcades, while the lantern storey is far too small ever to have served for the headquarters of the municipal body. The discrepancies, in short, are such that one is driven to the conclusion that there must have been, at one and the same time, two separate crosses at Wells. It should be added that the tolls of the market cross, which he built, were given, by Bishop Knight's will, "for the use of the choristers of the Cathedral Church for ever." [Illustration: 149. WELLS, SOMERSETSHIRE MARKET CROSS] [Illustration: 150. NORTHAMPTON MARKET CROSS]