the way by lowering the portcullis.[7]

Near the Castle there were the Castle mills, where the machinery was
driven by water-power.

Outside the walls there were strays, or common lands. Some of the land
immediately around the city was cultivated or used as pasture. There
were, besides dwellings, several churches and hospitals, just outside
the city. Beyond this suburban area was the forest.

The most notable of the _Religious Buildings_ is the Minster, which
was practically completed in the fifteenth century, when the work of
erecting the three towers was finished. The architectural splendour of
this mighty church must have appealed very strongly to the people of
the fifteenth century, for did they not see the great work that had
gone on for centuries at last brought to this glorious conclusion? It
rose up in the midst of the city, always visible from near and far.
The inside was even more magnificent than the exterior. The fittings
and furniture were of the richest. The light mellow tone of the white
stonework was enhanced by the fleeting visions of colour that spread
across from the sunlit stained-glass windows, which still, in spite of
time and restoration, add enormously to the beauty of the interior.

The Minster stood within its Close, one of the four gateways of which,
College Street Arch, remains. This part of the city around the Minster
was enclosed because it was under the jurisdiction of the Liberty of
St. Peter.

[Illustration: BISHOP AND CANONS.
_From Richard II.'s "Book of Hours."_]