bottom and rise to the base of
the gable, or rather a little above it, in two stages only, the lower
stage reaching a little above the coping of the aisles, and both stages
are crowned by gables with finials.[52] The three compartments of the
front are on the same plane. Each aisle shows at the end a window of the
same pattern with these in the sides, and that in the south aisle has
foliage on the capitals of its shafts and is surmounted by a little
window of trefoil form which lights a staircase within, for staircases
ascend over these windows in the thickness of the wall and run up the
angles of the clearstorey.

The great window in the central compartment is one of the finest
examples of Geometrical tracery, if not one of the largest windows, in
England. It is over 50 feet high, is 25 feet wide, and has seven lights.
Of these the three at either end are comprised under a sub-arch, in the
head of which are three cinquefoiled circles, while the central light of
the seven is surmounted by an arch, not so high as its neighbours, but
impaling upon its acute point a huge circle which fills the head of the
window and contains six trefoils radiating from its centre. The arch of
this superb window is rather acutely pointed and richly moulded, and has
two very slender shafts worked on the stones of either jamb, with
foliage on their capitals. Just above the ground below this window there
may be observed in the wall one of the many architectural puzzles in
which the Cathedral abounds, a half-arch, rising toward the right and
filled in with masonry, except at the right side, where is a narrow
opening that runs in for a few feet.[53] A string-course continued from
the sides of the aisles passes below the three windows and round the
buttresses, which are further relieved at a little height above it by a
set-off. The gable has been entirely rebuilt by Sir Gilbert Scott. It is
slightly set back, and displays a lofty window of four lights with
geometrical tracery not unlike that in the great window below. On either
side of this window there is panelling graduated to suit the triangular
space, and the gable is crowned by an elaborate cross and flanked by two
pinnacles which resemble those of the flying buttresses but are larger
and have foliage at the corners instead of heads. The original Decorated
gable was probably very much of this pattern. Its height was indicated
by the weathering on the tower, and it seems to have had flanking