In the Shire-House, which adjoins the Castle on the North side, the Summer Assizes and Quarter-Sessions are held, and other county business transacted. THE CATHEDRAL Was founded by Bishop Herbert in 1096, and was chiefly composed of wood, which, by various accidents, and the turbulence of the times, was often greatly damaged. The present Cathedral is a fine Gothic free-stone building, brought to the magnificent state in which it now appears by the bounty of numerous benefactors, at various times, and completed by William Middleton, the thirty-sixth Bishop, in the year 1284. The roof is adorned with various well-carved images, from the historical passages of scripture. On the windows at the East end of the church is most curiously painted the transfiguration, and the twelve apostles, by Dean Lloyd’s lady. The shaft, or spire, is handsome and well proportioned. Except Salisbury, it is the highest in the kingdom, being 105 yards, 2 feet, from the pavement to the top of the pinnacle, strongly built with free-stone on the outside and brick within. The top stone of the spire consists of half a globe, 1 yard, 2 inches broad, with a channel round it; whence extend eight leaves of stone, spreading outward, under which commence the eight rows of crockets, continued down the spire, at 5 feet distance from each other. The weather-cock placed here at the restoration, is three quarters of a yard high, and one yard, two inches broad, as is also the crossbar. The Cloister on the South side of the church is the largest quadrangle of the kind in England, each side measuring 58 yards in length, near 14 feet in breadth, and 16 feet, 6 inches in heighth;—the stone roof is ornamented with elegant carvings, representing the visions of the Revelations, the Crucifixion and Resurrection, the Legends of St. Christopher, St. Lawrence, &c. At the South-West corner, the Espousals, or Sacrament of Marriage, are carved in stone, and at the entrance of the Cloister from hence, on the left hand, are the two lavatories, where the monks used to wash their hands. Over one of them is carved a fox in a pulpit, in the habit of a secular priest, holding up a goose to has auditory, intended as a reflection on the secular clergy, or parish priests, to whom the monks bore an inveterate hatred. On the North side of the Cathedral stands the Bishop’s Palace, to which are most elegant gardens. The Free Grammar school, near this, is a neat, spacious, gothic building, formerly used as a charnel-house. ST. ANDREW’S HALL, Formerly the monastery church of the Black Friars, or Benedictine Monks, is a beautiful structure, about 50 yards in length, and 30 in width: the roof is supported by twelve neat and very slender pillars. It was built by Sir Thomas Erpingham, Knt. in 1428; and was the place where the company of St. George used to hold their meetings of business and pleasure. The Mayor’s guild-feast is always held here.