ind the entrance
close to the narrow street called Cloth Fair.

#The Gateway# is interesting, as a surviving fragment of the Early-English
period, supposed by some authorities to mark the site of the original
west front, of which they regard it as having formed part--the entrance
to the south aisle--which was allowed to stand, after the grand central
porch, and a corresponding doorway on the northern side, were destroyed
with the nave. More probable is the conjecture that it was merely the
entrance to the monastic enclosure, turned to account as a ready-made
structure when the work at the church was the reverse of constructive,
as it seems too large and too high for a mere doorway at the end of an
aisle, besides being rather too far from the church to agree with its
supposed dimensions. The modern iron gate is surmounted by a gilded
cross and the name of the church on a framework in the tympanum. The
arch is acutely pointed, and moulded in four orders, with a tooth
ornament in the hollows, and is in tolerably good condition; but the
supporting shafts have been superseded by a wall on each side, with the
circular moulded capitals (much decayed) above it, the bases either
being destroyed or buried in the earth beneath. The gateway is in a line
with the houses facing the public square, which touch it on both sides,
and are carried on without interruption above the opening.

When the floor of the church was lowered to its original level in
1863-6, the present approach to it was made by an excavation through the
churchyard, which covered the site of the nave, and is now walled off on
the northern side of the passage.

The gravestones are of comparatively modern date, and of no special
interest. A few of them have been left against the wall on the right,
where there is something of more antiquarian value in a collection of
_debris_ from the old building, containing the bases of some of the
Early-English columns in their original place, but hopelessly mutilated.

The existing #West Front# dates from the time when the nave was
destroyed. In 1893 a great improvement was made in its appearance by
refacing the wall with flint and stone, and otherwise ornamenting the
surface, to bring it into uniformity with the porch which was then built
at that end of the church. There are now three round-headed recesses in
the central portion of the wall, those at the extremities containing
narrow windows; a band of chequered stonework is car