front; _Dec._ lady chapel and chapter-house, central tower and
choir; _Perp._ W. towers, cloisters, gate-houses, chain gateway, and
remains of destroyed cloister chapel. A casual glance will show that
the cathedral occupies the centre of a gated close, with deanery and
canons' houses to N., and bishop's palace to S. The attention is first
arrested, as was no doubt intended, by the view from the spacious
green. Here the spectator not only has before him the finest W. front
in England, but finds spread out for his study a mediaeval historical
picture-book. The statuary is not only designed to enhance the general
architectural effect of the building, but is a genuine attempt to teach
the unlearned the rudiments of ecclesiastical and secular history. The
idea, however, is so artistically carried out that the didactic purpose
of the sculpture is completely disguised. Quite in keeping with the
usual mediaeval notion, Church and State are regarded as two separate
kingdoms, and the events of sacred and profane history are kept
distinct. The S. half is assigned to the ecclesiastics, and the N.
occupied by the royalties. The figures and medallions have suffered
considerably from time and fanaticism, and are too distant to be now
easily deciphered. If, however, they are studied from photographs (some
of which are exhibited in a photographer's show-case in the Square),
their rare grace and workmanship, which caught the eye of Flaxman and
secured the admiration of Ruskin, will be at once discerned. This
unrivalled _façade_ was the work of Bishop Joceline, brother of Hugh of
Lincoln, in 1232, and is in the purest style of E.E. Joceline's design
ended on the N. and S. with the string courses above the top groups of
statuary. The towers, which add immensely to the general impressiveness
of the whole, were an afterthought. They are Perp. work. The S. tower
was built by Bishop Harewell in 1366-86, and its fellow did not follow
till 1407-24, when it was constructed by the executors of Bishop
Bubwith. The latter differs from its companion only in the possession
of two canopied niches let into the buttresses. To study the church
historically the visitor should enter the N. porch, the oldest part of
the present building. It is E.E., but was executed before the style had
divested itself of its Norm. traditions (observe the zig-zag ornament).
This exceedingly beautiful porch is considered by some to be the gem of
the cathedral. Note (1) foliaged weather-moulding, (2) the square
_bas-reliefs_ on either side of entrance, (3) deeply-recessed double
arcading, (4) sculptured capitals, (5) parvise. If on entering the
church the visitor will at once take his stand beneath the central
tower, and looking N. and S. down the transepts, E. as far as the
throne, and W. to the porch by which he entered, can picture the E. end
closed by an apse and the church lighted by narrow lancets, and can
further imagine the absence of the organ-screen and the unsightly
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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