CHAPTER II.

THE CATHEDRAL—­EXTERIOR.

Nearly every cathedral and large abbey church has some one conspicuous feature by which it is remembered, and with which it is specially associated in the minds of most persons.  Nearly every one also claims for itself to have the best example of some one architectural feature, or the largest, or the oldest, or in some other way the most remarkable.  Occasionally the claim is indisputable, because the boasted object is unique in the country; as is the case with the octagon at Ely, the three spires at Lichfield, the situation and western Galilee of Durham, and the almost perfect unity of design at Salisbury.  Sometimes, if not unique, there is no question as to the justice of the claim for superiority; whether it be for a thing of beauty, like the cloisters at Gloucester, or the Norman tower at Norwich, or the east window of Carlisle, or the angel-choir at Lincoln; or for size or extent, when the question narrows itself to a mere matter of measurement.

But it is not always by any means the fact that this prominent feature, though it is the pride of the inhabitants and a source of admiration to visitors, is really the most noteworthy thing belonging to the church.  This seems specially the case at Peterborough.  Probably nobody speaks or thinks of Peterborough cathedral without immediately associating it with its glorious west front.  Many believe that there is little else in the building that is worthy of any particular attention.  And yet nowhere in the kingdom is there to be found a finer and more complete Norman church.  Arches, windows, mouldings, more elaborate and more grand may no doubt be found elsewhere; but where else can we find, as here, choir, transepts, and nave, with all the original Norman, from ground to roof, with two insignificant exceptions, remaining unaltered?  It is natural to compare the three great East Anglian Cathedrals, as all have superb work of the Norman period.  But at Norwich the lower arches in the choir have been rebuilt in the Perpendicular style, while the vaulted roof of the nave, raised in the fifteenth century, is less in keeping with the sturdy architecture beneath it than the wooden ceiling at Peterborough.  At Ely, beautiful as is the work in the octagon and choir, there is no Norman work east of the transepts.  Of course we are referring to the 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.