or, the great
west window and its adjacent arches (not, of course, including the late
tracery), are all of distinct Early English character. The whole of this
wall may be held to be an integral part of the west front, and not of
the transept which it bounds.

When we come to the most distinctive feature of the cathedral, the
glorious west front, we find we have no help whatever from the
chronicles. Nowhere is there the smallest reference to its building.
Other works raised by the Abbots of the period are named, but the noble
western portico is never once mentioned. Perhaps the rapid succession of
abbots after Acharius may account for this. The building must have
taken some years, and the credit of the whole cannot be given to one.
There were four Abbots after Acharius before the church was dedicated.
They were Robert of Lindsey (1214-1222), Alexander (1222-1226), Martin
of Ramsey (1226-1233), and Walter of S. Edmunds (1233-1245). During the
abbacy of this last the church was dedicated on the 4th of October 1237,
(according to the _Chronicon Angliae Petriburgense_), or on the 28th of
September 1238, according to Matthew Paris. The Bishop of Lincoln,
Robert Grostete, took the chief part in the ceremony, assisted by
William Brewer, Bishop of Exeter. The other chronicle calls the second
bishop suffragan of the Bishop of Lincoln, which may mean no more than
that he assisted on the occasion. The dedication took place in
accordance with the provisions of certain constitutions which had been
drawn up at a council held in London. No doubt the building had before
this been completed. This date agrees well with the period which all
architectural experts accept as the probable date of the erection of the
west front. It may have been, and probably was, finished some few years
before the dedication. The very fine gables at the north and south ends
of the western transept are of the same date as the west front.

Considerable changes in the fabric, as well as additional buildings,
belong to the latter part of the thirteenth century. The documents
mention two of these. In the time of Richard of London (1274-1295), but
before his election to the abbacy, while he was still sacrist, the
bell-tower was erected, in which were hung the great bells which were
called Les Londreis, because he was himself a Londoner, and had caused
them to be brought from London. A previous abbot, John of Calais
(1249-1262), had contributed a great bell to the m