towers beyond the aisles
of the nave gives its great breadth to the west front, which is 147
feet across, as against the 116 feet of the almost contemporary
cathedral of Amiens, which is twice its height. It is an unusual
arrangement, of which there is no exactly similar example except at
Rouen. Above the screen the towers are Perpendicular, the southern
tower having been completed towards the end of the fourteenth, and the
northern at the beginning of the fifteenth century. They are thus
later additions to the original design of the front, and make it more
difficult for us to realise the effect that was first intended.

These two towers are very nearly alike, but the southern, or Harewell,
tower is some forty years the earlier of the two, and belongs to the
earliest days of the Perpendicular style, Bishop Harewell having died
in 1386. The northern tower was built with a sum of money left for the
purpose by Bishop Bubwith, who died in 1424, and his arms are carved
high up on a buttress upon the north side, those on the west being a
modern copy. In one of its two western niches is a figure of the
bishop in prayer. Both the towers have two belfry windows on each
side, tiny battlements, and a stair-turret on the outer western angle;
in both the buttresses are carried up, with but slight reduction in
bulk, two-thirds of their height and then finished with small
pinnacles. There are, however, certain slight differences between the
two towers; their height is not exactly equal, and there are no niches
on the earlier one. The south tower contains a peal of eight bells;
that on the north is traditionally considered "rotten," but to all
appearance it is sound enough.

[Illustration: The Central Tower From The South-east.]

THE CENTRAL TOWER is Early English to the level of the roof. The two
upper stages are Decorated, but there is a curious inter-mixture of
styles in them, owing to the repairs that were made after the
settlements of 1321. The chapter seemed determined to allow no
possibility of another accident, for besides the inverted arches and
buttresses of the interior, the original high narrow windows of the
upper part of the tower have been fortified by later insertions, by
way of bonding and stiffening the structure, which had been so
endangered by the sinking of its piers below. There are, however, no
signs of any rents in the Decorated part. The tower has square angular
turrets, and is divided vertically into three