g" Willis terms the window, and though from so warm a panegyrist
of the church this seems a severe criticism, no one can traverse his
opinion.

By way of further proof that the west front was Edingdon's work, Willis
points out that, while in Wykeham's panels the masonry itself is
carefully finished, and the same stones used for the ground of the panel
and its mouldings, in Edingdon's work the monials and tracery alone
exhibit good masonry, the panels being filled with rough ashlar. By
other tests, too technical to quote here, the same critic makes it clear
that the west front, with two compartments of the nave on the north and
one to the south, must be attributed to Edingdon, though he probably did
not finish the gable and turrets, which seem to be the work of Wykeham.
The present state shows a gable rising in the centre, flanked by
octagonal pinnacle turrets. On the apex of this gable is a canopied
finial containing a niche wherein now stands a figure of William of
Wykeham, the original statue, which was supposed to represent S.
Swithun, having been removed to the feretory when the west front was
restored in 1860 at a cost of L3000. The triangle of the gable is filled
with tracery, the lower part of the central panels in which serve as a
smaller square-headed six-light window above the parapet which crosses
at the head of the great nine-light window. Buttresses assist in
supporting the two towers, and lesser ones project to hide the sides of
the porch, which, pierced by three doorways and crowned by a parapet,
extends along the whole lower storey, across the nave and both aisles.
Above the screen the pitched roofs of aisles may be seen. The bays
containing the side windows, of four lights each, accord in style with
the large central one, having also wall tracery in panels over the
comparatively small surface of unpierced wall. The screen itself has
three deeply-recessed portals with pointed arches, and a large canopied
empty niche on each side of the main entrance.

The central doorway is divided by a clustered shaft, where from spring
two cinquefoil arches. The recessed portal has a groined roof, with an
arcade of cusped arches on the main west wall, broken by the doorways
which give admission to the nave. A pierced balcony of simple design
crowns the whole of the screen and forms a gallery which is said to have
been used for bestowing episcopal benedictions to the people outside the
cathedral on festival days.

Th