main arches and pillars of the building, and not to the tracery of the
windows, or to alterations to the walls. The two exceptions mentioned
above are the pointed arches, east and west of the central tower, and
the removal of the three lowest windows in the apse.

[Illustration: The West Front.]

The greatest attraction to the world at large is undoubtedly =the West
Front=, which is seen in its full beauty on entering the close.

The following lines, from Morris's "Earthly Paradise," may fitly
introduce the subject.

"For other tales they told, and one of these
Not all the washing of the troublous seas,
Nor all the changeful days whereof ye know,
Have swept from out my memory: even so
Small things far off will be remembered clear
When matters both more mighty and more near,
Are waxing dim to us. I, who have seen
So many lands, and midst such marvels been,
Clearer than these abodes of outland men,
Can see above the green and unburnt fen
The little houses of an English town,
Cross-timbered, thatched with fen-reeds coarse and brown,
And high o'er these, three gables, great and fair,
That slender rods of columns do upbear
Over the minster doors, and imagery
Of kings, and flowers no summer field doth see,
Wrought in these gables.--Yea I heard withal,