The Cathedral Church of Peterborough

ich it is specially associated in the minds of most persons. Nearly every one also claims for itself to have the best

rham, 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 clo

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 na

e is undoubtedly the West Front, which is se

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shing of the t

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ought the maso

ks that house se

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l the tale I t

t house of that

cliffs new made,

ese angles have been made equal, and all of the same height: and the device of the architect to secure this, by making the central gable rise from points somewhat higher than the others, is admirable. It is to be observed also that the turrets, or large pinnacles, that are placed between the gables, are not placed exactly above the central line of the great piers beneath them, but are in each case a little further towards the outer arches; and it will be seen, immediately that this is pointed out, how much the upper part of the facade is thereby improved. The two great piers may be roughly taken as having for section an isosceles right-angled triangle, the right angle being towards the west. The mouldings of the arches are supported by a series of banded shafts, six on each side of each arch. In the spaces between the shafts of the middle arch, but not of the others, are crockets for the whole height, and the innermost cavetto is entirely filled with dog-tooth ornament. All the shafts have floriated capitals; and the great arches hav

support trefoil-headed arches which have their outer mouldings thickly covered with dog-tooth; the whole is bounded by two circular bands, the inner one ornamented. The two other rose windows have six spokes instead of eight, the trefoiled arches have foliage, and the inner moulding of the bounding circles is continuously waving. The spokes in all three windows have the dog-tooth on each side. On each side of the lower part of these windows is a trefoil-headed niche containing a figure. Below these, and resting upon the long stringcourse that runs above the great arches, are sets of seven trefoil-headed niches, with a half-niche at each end. Four of thes

at stringcourse has round-headed trefoils so as to be in keeping with the row of similar arches in the gables; but with these two exceptions all the arches on the arcades of the tower are pointed and without cusps. Of the spires which surmount these towers that on the south is by far the more elegant. It has pinnacles at the corners of square section, and then another set of tr

st window having been enlarged at the same time. The two side doorways are exceedingly good, and should be carefully examined. The central doorway must have been of still greater beauty; but the whole of the upper part of it is hidden by the porch and parvise inserted beneath the central arch. This doorway is divided by a fin

ers. The whole composition is very fine, and quite worthy of the great portico to which it is an adjunct. It must be left to each spectator to decide for himself if it improves or diminishes the effect of the whole. It is of late Decorated date, highly enriched with profuse carving. The staircase turrets, as well as the great window are embattled. Possibly there may have been pinnacles now lost. The spaces north and sou

be seen where the brasses have been wrenched from them: some of these have been used again for later inscriptions. One stone bears an incised cross originally filled with some coloured composition. Some of the marble wall-shafts had fallen,

bles are built only for them; but they are a legitimate finish to the great arches, and to the vaulted roof of the portico. Possibly the inequality of the great arches may be explained when we reflect that the central gable is the honest termination of the nave roof; the two central piers were therefore bound to be built so as to give support to the existing nave roof, and to fit it. The position of these piers being fixed, the outer ones might be as distant as was desired, for the front must of course extend to the entire length of the western transept. It has been commonly supposed that the three great arches of the Lincoln front suggested the idea to the Peterborough builders. If so, they improved upon their model. T

nd supported by three such tall Arches, as England can scarcely shew the like, which are adorned with a great Variety of curious Imagery. The Form of

ts in the belfry stage, and the four corner pinnacles are very similar to the large pinnacles that are placed between the gables of the front, but all the lancets are pointed, and there are little gables above each. This tower was once surmounte

remarkable peculiarity in the jambs; whereof one side is Norman, with the square capitals to the jamb-shafts both within and without, and the other Early English, as are the arch-mouldings and hoods round the whole arches, which were probably semicircular at first, for at present the point cuts through a stringcourse inside. The frames of the entire windows are later work, having no attachment or bonding to the jambs, as is clearly manifested to the eye." These windows rise as high as the top of those of the triforium. Above is a round-headed window with a

ginal windows towards the close of the thirteenth century. At the same time it would seem that the walls above, in the triforium range, were heightened, because the parapet at the top is of Early English work, although the three-light windows beneath it are Decorated, and were not inserted until the next century. At the foot of the triforium range is the original Norman arcade of round-headed arches: below the

ay be allowed; the tracery exists, but there never was a window; it is in four divisions; while between the windows and the corner turrets are similar traceries of two parts. The wh

tracery of the windows is Perpendicular, but the windows themselves are otherwise unaltered: at the top of all is a Decorated parapet, which is here composed of a series of quatrefoils; a

windows, and a blank arch in the gable. The gable has crockets, and a cross at the apex. The lower Norman window in the aisle here is unlike any others on this side of

onstructed as an entrance to the Lady Chapel. When the Lady Chapel was pulled down in the seventeenth century these were converted into windows filled with late tracery in imitation of Perpendicular work, and the lower part was walled up, except that a doorway was constructed. This was afterwards blocked up for many years, and only reopened during the recent restoration works. The s

] has preserved a tradition that they were "the habitation of a devout Lady, called Agnes, or Dame Agnes, out of whose Lodging-Chamber there was a hole made askew in the window walled up, having its prospect just upon the altar of the Ladies Chappel, and no more. It seems she was devout in her gen

re of four lights each, the remaining four having three lights each. Between each pair of the latter there is no buttress; there are thus in all twelve buttresses, six being at the east end. These are massive, having to support the heavy fan-tracery within. Each buttress has a

parapet, with five circular medallions cusped, having been erected previously. The Decorated windows of the apse are particularly

re most likely of exactly the same design as the windows in the demolished Lady Chapel. At the south end of this transept is a Norman

of the south-west tower. The portion of this tower above the roof Mr Paley pronounces, from the details of the windows on the east side, to be of much later date than the other tower;

ed by nook-shafts with plain cushion-capitals. The innermost order has a very uncommon moulding-large chevrons with a fleur-de-lis in the angles. The outermost order has a double zigzag moulding, and