_Pre-Norm._ font; _Trans. Norm._ N. porch, nave and transepts: _E.E._
W. 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