, has long vanished;
another was put up in 1723; the present clock (by Thwaites of
Clerkenwell) dates from 1808.

The whole front has been much restored by Sir Gilbert Scott, especially
the doorways and the towers. The latter were badly cracked through
settlement (due partly to the fact that in either tower one of the sides
is older than the rest),[35] but, as Sir Gilbert himself declared, they
are once more strong enough to bear spires, and it is to be hoped that
the hint will some day be taken. The more the west front of Ripon is
studied, the more it becomes apparent how much thought has been expended
upon it. Yet as a work of art it is perplexing. To some it will appear
beautiful as a design; to others its excellence of detail will be its
only commendation, and they will complain that the tiers of windows are
wider than the gable, that there is a disproportion between the little
arcade in the lowest stage of the towers and the great lancets in the
upper stages, that the height of the latter makes the towers appear
top-heavy, that the whole facade lacks projection and depth of shade,
and that there is too much glass. Some dissatisfaction was felt, as the
Fabric Rolls indicate, in 1379, when masons were employed to divide each
of the large windows into two lights with a quatrefoil above.[36] The
mullions and quatrefoils remained till our own day, when they were
removed by Sir Gilbert Scott, whose action the present state of expert
opinion on restoration would severely condemn.

=The Nave. North Side.=--By being rebuilt with the addition of aisles, the
nave became as wide as the west front. Its width is 87 feet internally
and nearly 100 feet externally, and it is the widest nave in England
after York, Winchester, Chichester, and St. Paul's. The date of the
rebuilding is indicated by a Chapter minute of 1502, which alludes to
the _onus canonicis modo impositum super reaedificationem navis_. The
Fabric Rolls mention the purchase of stone in 1503, and the roofing of
some "new work" in 1505, while a will of 1508 requires the testator's
body to be buried in "the new work of the College Church." These are
doubtless references to the south side, which is evidently the older and
bears internally the arms of Archbishop Savage (1501-1507). Again, an
indulgence of 1512, by Archbishop Bainbridge (1508-1514), alluding to
the demolition of the old nave as then complete, suggests that the north
wall had been left standing till then,