The north transept is similar to the south. From the east wall of it there was a doorway leading to a chapel, said to be the ancient Vestiary. The arch has been filled up, and the entrance is from a small door on the outside. Over the exterior of the door leading to the Bishop’s palace is a niche, containing a figure, said to represent Bishop Herbert, one of the few specimens extant of a Norman statue.
The Exterior.
The exterior of the Cathedral is not very imposing. The west front was the work of Bishop Alnwick, in the reign of Henry VI. It is divided into three compartments, forming the termination of the nave and the aisles. The central division presents the grand entrance doorway, and a large central window filled with coloured glass, which we have already described. It rises into a gable, formerly pierced with a small light, now a niche, flanked by two turrets with spirelets and round-headed single panels, and surmounted by a cross. The doorway is formed by a bold deep-pointed arch, and is much enriched in the spandrels and side fasciæ with mouldings, niches, pedestals, statues, and other decorations. The central window is divided, both horizontally and vertically, into three leading compartments, and subdivided by small mullions; and has good decorations of perpendicular character. Each of the two lateral divisions of the west front exhibits pure Norman work, and is of three stories; the first pierced with the doorway; the second pierced with four windows separated only by small columns; the third displaying three blank arches, and flanked with a small staircase turret. At each side of the great window, and at the extremities of the side divisions, are Norman turrets, lately restored and substituted for very debased cupolas. Engravings are extant representing this front with high and slender pinnacles where the Norman turrets now stand.
The north and south elevations of the nave show a three-storied aisle; and a clerestory and triforium, with an embattled parapet in each, exhibit a great height, and tiers of blank arches or arcades with some later perpendicular windows. On the exterior of the nave will be observed many traces of alterations in times long subsequent to the original building. The lowest tiers of windows are of comparatively modern insertion, and intersect the string course of a billet moulding, all round the exterior of the edifice. Next above is the arcade of blank arches, with semicircular mouldings, having regular bases and capitals, and continuing round the whole structure. Above these was the tier of original windows now closed up, but surmounted by windows of the sixteenth century. The exterior of the side aisles is here terminated by a plain embattled parapet of the same date as the windows before mentioned. The windows of the clerestory are, however, Norman, and have blank arches on each side, and continue the same all round the upper part of the nave and transept. They are surmounted by a parapet similar to that of the side aisles. The exterior of the south transept has been lately restored, and various old houses that blocked up the entrance have been cleared away.
The tower is grandly Norman in four stages, each adorned with arcades, columns, and tracery mouldings. It has, at the corners, square turrets with their angles cut off, and is surmounted by decorated battlements and crocketted pinnacles. The spire is decorated English octangular, elegantly proportioned, enriched with bands, and boldly crocketted in ribs running up its angles. It terminates in a handsome finial, and is the loftiest in England except that of Salisbury. The base of the spire is supported by projecting buttresses at each angle, terminating in a small pinnacle.
The Cloisters.
The Cloisters, which are entered by a tasteful modern door on the south side of the nave, form one of the most beautiful quadrangles in England. They comprise a square of about 174 feet, and are 12 feet wide. They were commenced by Bishop Walpole about 1297, but were not completed by succeeding prelates till 1430. The style of architecture is the decorated, with traces of the perpendicular. The eastern part is the most ancient, and a progressive change may be observed in the tracery of the windows, commencing at the north-east corner, continuing through the south and the west, and terminating with the north sides. The roof is much admired for its exquisitely beautiful groining, and its bold yet elegant bosses, with their sculptured subjects and tasteful foliage. The doorway leading from the eastern aisle of the cloisters to the nave is deserving especial notice, being a pointed arch with four columns on each side, having archwolt mouldings, in front of which are seven canopied niches, with richly-sculptured crockets containing figures. Above the door, at the south-west corner, are carved figures of “The Temptation of our First Parents.” In the first two arches on the west side of the door are two lavatories, where the monks used to wash their hands before going into the refectory or common eating hall. Over each of these are three niches, where images formerly stood. The cloisters are surpassed by none in beauty of architecture and solemnity of effect. They branch off from the south transept, and enclose a square court or area. There are eleven noble windows or arched openings on the western side, twelve on the east, eleven on the north, and eleven on the south. All these windows are divided into three lights by two columns, and are decorated with a variety of beautiful tracery. They are of decorated architecture, except eight on the north side, which have perpendicular tracery in decorated arches. The upper portion of the tracery of all the windows appears to have been once filled with stained glass.
The pavement of the north side of the cloisters was torn up in the great rebellion, and relaid by William Burleigh, Esq. In this alley Queen Elizabeth dined in public when she visited Norwich in 1578. In memory thereof, her Majesty’s arms and those of the nobility who attended her were painted on the wall of the church, and properly blazoned with supporters, etc., but they were entirely effaced a century ago.
The dormitory of the monks adjoined the cloisters on the south. At a short distance from the cloisters are the only remains of the Priory founded by Bishop Herbert, consisting of three massive clustered columns, the capitals of which are curiously carved.
The Bishop’s Palace.
The Bishop’s Palace stands on the north side of the Cathedral Church, to which there was in former times a passage from the door of the north transept, arched over with stone similar to the cloisters. The original palace was founded by Bishop Herbert, but has undergone so many repairs and alterations, that but little of the first building remains, and that part adjoins a new structure, in a similar style of architecture. In the garden there is a fine ruin, said to be remains of the grand entrance into the great hall, which reached to the site of the present episcopal chapel, and was 110 feet long, and 60 broad. This chapel was restored in 1662, and in it are monuments of Bishops Reynolds and Sparrow. The entrance to the episcopal residence is from St. Martin’s Plain, by the palace gate, built by Bishop Alnwyck about 1430. It has a large pointed arch of several mouldings, and the spandrels are filled with tracery; but it has suffered materially from injudicious repairs. Over the arch is a series of pannelled compartments with the letter M crowned. On the west side is a small door, on which, amongst other ornaments, are a heart and mitre, the supposed rebus of Bishop Lyhart.
The Cathedral Precincts.
The Cathedral Precincts include the Upper and Lower Close, and a large portion of garden ground, with good houses on the south side. The Upper Close was formerly used as a play ground to the Grammar School; it is now enclosed with palisades. At the south-east corner is the Audit Room, which contains the library of the Dean and Chapter. The Lower Close was enclosed by Dean Lloyd, in 1782, and converted into a garden. At the extremity of the Lower Close, near the edge of the river, still stands a double arch of black flint, which is considered the roughest bit of picturesque in Norwich, and has been frequently sketched. It was formerly