the abode of the college of singing clerks, have been much modernised;
but one or two still retain some semblance of their original design.
The idea of gathering the singers together into a fraternity was Bishop
Ralph's. He provided them with these picturesque dwellings, and gave
them the common dining-hall which forms the upper storey of the
entrance gateway. This is said to be one of the most beautiful examples
of mid-14th-cent. domestic architecture in the country. It was enlarged
subsequently by Rich. Pomeroy (_temp._ Hen. VIII.), and Bishop
Beckington's executors are said to have built the chapel at the other
end of the Close. Regarded now-a-days as a devotional superfluity by
the singers, it has been turned over to the Theological College. The
chapel and muniment room above should be inspected, but admission
cannot now be obtained to the hall. Before leaving the Cathedral
precincts note on the same side of the road as the Vicars' Close (in
order, westwards): (1) the _Archdeacon's House_, now used as the
College library, (2) the _Deanery_--an embattled residence with
gatehouse and turrets, built by Dean Gunthorpe, 1472-98 (the imposing
character of the building is not discernible from the road, as the real
front faces the garden), (3) _Browne's Gate_, through which the Close
is entered from Sadler Street. The remainder of the official residences
of the chapter lie to the N. of the Deanery, outside the Close, in a
street called the E. Liberty--so named because it lay outside parochial
jurisdiction. Though much modernised, they are mostly mediaeval
buildings. The path which traverses the Cathedral green enters the
Market place by the third of the Close gate-ways--_Penniless Porch_,
where alms are said to have been periodically distributed. This was the
work of Beckington; note the prelate's arms on W. face, and rebus (a
beacon and tun) on the E. side. Beckington made the city his debtor by
giving it a water supply. He tapped the well in the palace garden,
which feeds the fountain in the square. Note the quaint method of