as the "Bishop's Eye," and another called the
"Dean's Eye," the deanery where Henry VII. was entertained in 1497, the
archdeanery, coming down from the thirteenth century, and the beautiful
Chain Gate in the north-east corner that connects the cathedral with the
Vicar's Close. The latter, one of the most peculiar features of Wells,
is a long and narrow court entered through an archway, and having
ancient houses with modernized fittings on either hand. Bishop Ralph of
Shrewsbury erected this close in the fourteenth century, and his
monumental inscription in the cathedral tells us he was a great
sportsman, who "destroyed by hunting all the wild beasts of the great
forest of Cheddar." The moat and wall completely surround the bishop's
palace, and its northern front overhangs the moat, where an oriel
window is pointed out as the room where Bishop Kidder and his wife were
killed by the falling of a stack of chimneys upon their bed, blown down
by the terrible gale of 1703 that swept away the Eddystone Lighthouse.
It was Bishop Ralph who made the walls and moat as a defence against the
monks of Bath, who had threatened to kill him; Bishop Jocelyn built the
palace. Adjoining it is the great banquet-hall, of which only the
northern and western walls remain, in ruins. It was a magnificent hall,
destroyed from mere greed. After the alienation of the monasteries it
fell into the hands of Sir John Gates, who tore it partly down to sell
the materials; but happily, as the antiquarian relates, Gates was
beheaded in 1553 for complicity in Lady Jane Grey's attempt to reach the
throne, and the desecration was stopped. Afterwards, Parliament sold
Wells for a nominal price to Dr. Burgess, and he renewed the spoliation,
but, fortunately again, the Restoration came; he had to give up his
spoils, and died in jail. Thus was the remnant of the ruin saved. It was
in this hall that Whiting, the last abbot of Glastonbury, was condemned,
and hanged on Tor Hill above his own abbey. The great bishops of Wells
were the episcopal Nimrod Ralph, and Beckington, who left his mark so
strongly on the cathedral and town. He was a weaver's son, born at the
village of Beckington, near the town of Frome, and from it got his name.
Hadrian de Castello, who had a romantic history, became Bishop of Wells
in 1504. Pope Alexander VI. made him a cardinal, and afterwards tried to
poison him with some others at a banquet; by mistake the pope himself
drank of the poisoned