Of all the cathedral churches of England, Lichfield may be said to be the most lovely. Other cathedrals are larger—indeed, this is the smallest of them all—grander, or more magnificent; but for simple beauty, for charm, for delicacy of construction and appearance, Lichfield may rightly claim to take the foremost place. Peterborough, when we stand inside the west door and look down its line of enormous columns, fills us with awe at its immensity and strength: a feeling which is perhaps a little impaired by the present position of its stalls. Salisbury appeals to us with its perfect simplicity and symmetry, and York with its unequalled grandeur and splendour; but after viewing all the cathedrals of England, it is Lichfield which is most likely to be remembered among them for something which may be most aptly called charm. What can be more delightful than the view which confronts the traveller who, approaching from the town, pauses to look across the sparkling water of the pool at the three graceful spires standing out amid a wealth of green trees and shrubs. Truly a picture to be long remembered. Here is, indeed, the precious jewel set in a silver sea.

The cathedral does not stand on high enough ground for any very fine view of the entire building to be obtained. But from whatever point in the neighbourhood of Lichfield we look we can see its three slender spires, grouping themselves, sometimes so that only two can be distinguished, sometimes so that they all appear in one cluster as though rising from one tower, and sometimes spreading out so that two seem to have very little connection with the third. For years they have been known as the "Ladies of the Vale"; they have looked down on many changes, and indeed have suffered changes themselves. They now rise from an almost new building—new at any rate in appearance. As we approach the cathedral either from Bird Street and face the west front, or from Dam Street and confront the south side of the Lady Chapel, the same sad feeling comes over us that all here is new. Even as these words are written the south side of the choir is being renovated, and no doubt what little of the old is still left will soon disappear. The west front, with its niches and images, is all new; the south side of the nave is new, and indeed everywhere it is its newness that first strikes one. One cannot help wondering if this extreme severity of restoration is absolutely essential; for if not essential, the vague disappointment might well turn to anger that in days when the art of architecture has become almost non-existent, it should be thought necessary to carry through such wholesale renewal of work, never to be replaced, belonging to the grand days of Gothic building. For this old work can never be replaced: it is a sad thought that in every art, the early groping days, when the new medium or the new method is hardly settled, and its limitations but imperfectly understood, produce the great work. It is so in literature, in music, in painting, in sculpture, and in architecture; but it is only to the last that we dare to offer the assistance of our own less artistic age. The cathedral as we see it to-day has met with many vicissitudes. Of its misfortunes in the Civil Wars much has already been said; and something of its sufferings at the hands of restorers. At present, after studying the west front and contemplating the extreme newness of its every detail, we can only hope that when age has somewhat staled the infinite variety of its modern ornament, future pilgrims to the shrine of St. Chad will not think too unkindly of an age given over to the rigours of restoration.

The Close.—The cathedral stands in a close which was once surrounded by strong walls with bastions and a moat. Nature had supplied the moat on the south side, and the Cathedral Pool, as it is now called, is still there. The artificial moat has been drained, but its course can be easily traced running round the bishop's palace, and its water has been replaced by lovely gardens and gravel walks. Some bits of the old walls remain, the north-east bastion in the palace gardens and a turret on a house at the south corner: the "beautiful gates" of Bishop Langton are gone; but in the Vicars' Close at the west of the cathedral are two small irregular courtyards with houses so old that we feel sure that their wooden beams and plaster were there when the Royalists of the neighbourhood housed themselves within the fortified close.

The close is not large, and of course, as Lichfield is a cathedral of the old establishment, there are no monastical buildings, no ruined cloisters. On the north side the ground rises rapidly in a grassy slope to a terrace, behind which are some of the canons' houses. Opposite the north transept is the deanery, a substantial red brick house in the style of the middle of the last century; next to it, and farther east, is the bishop's palace.

The Bishop's Palace is of stone, and was built by Thomas Wood, the bishop who succeeded Hacket, and who is said to have been compelled to erect it as a fine for his neglect of the diocese. It bears on the front the date 1687. The old palace of Bishop Langton, which occupied the same position in the close, was swept away in the Civil Wars. The bishops of Lichfield had another palace at Eccleshall until the time of Bishop Selwyn, who sold it, and with a portion of the money erected here the two unsightly wings and the still more unsightly chapel. In the palace gardens, in the south-west corner, stood the old bell-tower of the cathedral, of whose destruction in 1315 we have a record. From the bishop's garden there is a charming view through the trees of Stowe pool and St. Chad's Church apparently standing at its farther edge: its old towers stand out finely, and the gravestones in the churchyard remind us that in far-off Mercian days St. Chad was laid to rest in this very spot.

On the east side of the close is an unsightly white house which rises a blot on the otherwise beautiful view of the cathedral from Stowe; next to it is a charming old building with the turret already mentioned.

On the south side is the entrance from Dam Street, with an old house at the corner. On this side also is the Theological College, a low ordinary-looking building, said to have been originally training-stables for race horses; and farther west are more houses of the cathedral clergy. And behind all these is the pool. One cannot help agreeing with Britton in thinking what a delightful thing it would be for the close if all the houses on this side could be pulled down so that the cathedral might have nothing but grass and trees between it and the pool. Britton gives an imaginary view of the south side with all the houses cleared away.

On the west side of the cathedral is another entrance to the close, which runs between the Vicars' Close already mentioned and the hideous college built by Andrew Newton for the widows and orphans of clergymen.

The Cathedral is built of new red sandstone from quarries in the immediate neighbourhood of Lichfield itself. On Borrowcop, to the north (where tradition says two Mercian kings were killed, to be afterwards buried in the close), is the hole left by the cathedral; and on the other side, at Wheel Lane, is a quarry from which much stone, both red and white, has been taken for the recent repairs to the fabric. Its ruddy colour adds much to the picturesqueness of the building.

Mrs Van Rensselaer, in her interesting account of the English cathedrals, says: "In any and every aspect, but more especially when foliage comes close about it, Lichfield's colour assists its other beauties. Grey is the rule in English churches—dark cold grey at Ely, for example; light yellow grey at Canterbury, and pale pearly grey at Salisbury; and although dark greyness means great solemnity and grandeur, and light greyness great delicacy and charm, they both need the hand of time—the stain of the weather and the web of the lichen—to give them warmth and tone; and the work of the hand of time has almost everywhere in England been effaced by the hand of the restorer. Red stone is warm and mellow in itself, and Lichfield is red with a beautiful soft ruddiness that could hardly be over-matched by the sandstone of any land."

The plan of the cathedral shows a simple cross, with a chapter-house (joined by a vestibule to the choir) on the north side, and a sacristy on the south side. It may also be noticed that the nave and the choir (including the presbytery) have each eight bays or severies, and that if we regard the bay under the central tower as a double one, the two transepts together have eight bays. Thus the transverse arm of the cross is nearly of the same length as the eastern and the western arms. There is a Lady Chapel at the eastern end of the choir, and there are aisles on each side of the nave and choir and on the eastern side of the transepts.

We have already seen that the cathedral has three Spires, and this is perhaps its most notable characteristic, for Lichfield is the only church now existing in England with this distinction. The cathedral at Coventry, so long the sister church of the diocese, and so ruthlessly destroyed by Henry VIII., had also three spires; as had Ripon Minster, but these were of lead, and have since been pulled down.

Of the spires, one rises from the central tower and one surmounts each of the towers which flank the west front. The central spire dates only from the Restoration, the older spire having been entirely destroyed in the Civil Wars. There is no doubt that the original spire was different in appearance to the present one, which is an imitation of the western spires, carried out in the spirit of the Perpendicular style. What the earlier spire was really like is doubtful, neither is it quite certain when it was built, though the central tower was probably rebuilt about 1250, when it is supposed that the intention was to retain the Norman nave. What the height and pitch of the roof of the old Norman nave must have been can be seen from the old housing course which remains to this day above the nave groining. "It was the custom," as Mr J. O. Scott explained in a lecture on the cathedral, "of old builders, as of modern builders, to insert in any wall against which a roof abuts a projecting course of stone, called a 'housing,' following the slope of the roof, the object being to keep the wet from getting in between the roof and the wall. And so when the central tower was rebuilt, there was the Norman nave to which the new work had to be fitted. Hence, at this time the builders inserted a 'housing course' of masonry into the west wall of the new tower, to protect the junction of the old Norman nave roof from the weather." These disused housing courses can constantly be seen in old churches, sometimes several, one above the other, showing the changes in the roofing of the church. The present spire is said vaguely to have been erected from the designs or under the direction of Sir Christopher Wren; but the tradition which connects this great modern architect with the cathedral is very uncertain.

The two western spires were probably built in Bishop Norburgh's time, and possibly were finished in the time of his successor; but the north-west spire has been rebuilt from the belfry windows upwards in imitation of the old work, but, like the central tower, in the Perpendicular manner. The south-west or Jesus Tower, which is a little higher than the other, has also had its two upper storeys rebuilt. The spires are octagonal, and are divided into six compartments. In the western spires the four lower compartments have windows of two lights each with acute crocketted pediments. There are only four windows in the lowest compartment; but in the second, third, and fourth compartments there is a window in each face; the fifth is panelled between crocketted ribs, and the top compartment is plain with small windows. All the spires are open all the way up without any inside supports.

The central spire has the same number of compartments, with windows in all of them except the top; but there are only four windows in each compartment, facing north, east, west, and south. The top of the central spire is about 252 feet from the floor, and of the western spire about 193.

But if Lichfield's three spires are unique, so also is Lichfield's West Front. It is not, of course, very large, and it is not indeed as large as it might have been had the same means been employed here as were employed at Wells, where an exaggerated idea of size is attained by placing the towers outside the lines of the nave aisles. Here the two towers, which form so important a part of the front, are in their lowest stage merely part of the aisles, so that the whole width of the west front is very little greater than the width of the nave itself. The west front of Lichfield is noted for the richness of its decorations, covered as it is with niches holding images and, it might almost be said, with every available inch covered with decorative work. The whole has a most superb effect, and at a distance, where the poverty of the modern workmanship is not easily discerned, its appearance cannot be very different now to that which it presented at the end of the fourteenth century. Once again the niches are filled with statuary; but this work is nearly all new, and it is by some considered doubtful if any of the original remained in this century. It is, however, generally supposed, and not without good reason, that the five old statues which form part of the highest row in the north-west tower may have been original, and have escaped the general destruction which followed the Puritan capture of the cathedral. Three of the old statues are represented in the picture of the west front in Britton's "Cathedral Antiquities"; and in the interesting picture in Fuller's "Church History," published in 1655, the west front is shewn with every niche filled; but there can be no doubt that this picture must have been made before the siege, or else it must have been drawn with the aid of memory from what remained afterwards.

This west front is flat, with octagonal turrets at each side, and consists of two towers and a central part. The central part has a doorway, a large window, and an acute pediment, the top point of the pediment being almost on a level with the parapet of the towers where the spires commence. These rise from between square pinnacles, enriched with feathered panels and crockets at the angles of the towers. The front is in three stages; the lowest stage contains the three doorways, and is surmounted by a very elaborate arcading filled with statues of kings. The second is covered with two storeys of arcading, and is divided into two parts by the large west window, above which is the pediment. The third stage consists of the upper part of the two towers; these are surmounted with parapets with lozenge-shaped mouldings inclosing quatrefoil and trefoil panels. There are windows to the belfry floors in this stage. Altogether, including these two belfry windows, there are only three windows in this front; this is unusual, as there are commonly windows at the west end of the nave aisles.

It is not easy to give a clear description of this front, or any which will convey its superb effect. As we see by the frontispiece, it is not only thickly covered with arcading and statues, but also it is very much enriched with trefoils, quatrefoils, and cinquefoils, especially in the spaces over the doors in the lowest stage, and in the pediment above the great window. The prevalence of the ball-flower decoration should not escape notice; upon the third stage and the spires it constantly occurs, although it is not encountered in the first and second stages, except in the modern tracery of the west window. The ball-flower is a fourteenth-century ornament: its constant use in the upper parts, contrasted with its total absence in the lower parts, supplies a very strong argument that a considerable time elapsed between the construction of the two lower stages and the upper. The very careful examination which took place when the whole front was lately restored revealed the fact that work was not proceeded with continuously; and by expert opinion the lowest stage is assigned to 1280, the next to 1300, while the upper stages are still later; and perhaps the whole was not completed until well on into the last half of the fourteenth century.

As has been stated before, the present appearance of the west front is that of an entirely new building. In 1820 the front, which is said to have been then in a very dilapidated condition, was covered with Roman cement. So thoroughly was this done that the original stone facing only showed on the eastern side of the north-west tower. Careful drawings of the tracery there were made by Sir Gilbert Scott, and in 1877 the work of reconstructing was commenced. It took seven years, and the new west front was dedicated in 1884. Only five of the old statues remained, and it was decided to restore the others. There are in all one hundred and thirteen niches in the west front, including those on the north and south faces of the side turrets; all but four are now filled, and about one hundred are in view of any one standing facing the middle of the front.

The large West Window has undergone several changes in its tracery; fortunately we have pictures showing all of them. In Fuller's "Church History" the tracery, as shown in Hollar's engraving, appears to be very simple. This tracery was all destroyed in the Civil Wars; and that which replaced it at the Restoration was provided by James II., when Duke of York, but it was so ugly and unsuitable to the whole spirit of the cathedral that it was removed in 1869, and is now replaced by work which, though greatly differing from the original, yet preserves the spirit of fourteenth-century work. The Restoration window may be seen in the beautiful engraving in Britton's "Cathedral Antiquities."

There also is an engraving of the great west door as it was in the early part of the century, and before the Roman cement era of which mention has just been made. This doorway, one of the most beautiful in the country, has much in common with the "Prior's doorway" on the south side of Lincoln Cathedral. As Britton says: "Both are peculiarly rich and fanciful and calculated to excite the warmest admiration," but in his time the sculptured foliage and the figures running round the architrave mouldings and between the columns were so much battered and injured that it was almost impossible to tell the characters of some of them. This doorway is a recessed porch, the outer arch, in line with the main walls, being cusped and foliated with elaborate carving; the inner portion is divided into two arches; the whole being most elaborately decorated with carvings. The central clustered supports has a figure of the Virgin and Child, and on either side of the doorway, standing on clustered pillars beneath canopies, are figures of St. Mary Magdalene (on the north) with the box of ointment, and on the south, Mary the wife of Cleophas; farther forward on each side are vacant pedestals, and in the front are St. John the Evangelist (on the north) and St. Paul (on the south). Whether these were the characters originally represented is open to doubt; Stukeley suggested that what was left in his time represented the Virgin in the centre, and the four Evangelists with Moses and Aaron.

The bas-relief figures in the architrave already mentioned have been restored to represent the two genealogies of Christ as given by St. Matthew and St. Luke, on the north and south sides respectively, as follows:—

North side: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Boaz, Jesse, David, Virgin and Child.

South side: Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Judah, and St. Joseph; the Virgin and St. Joseph being the two figures at the top of the arch.

There is a very beautiful fourteenth-century bas-relief above the central pillar of the doorway, representing Our Lord in Glory, with an angel on each side, having a serpent under his feet.

The doors are covered with fine iron work, which, with the exception of that on the lowest panel, is supposed to be original.

The two side doorways in the west front are deeply recessed in three orders with very finely-carved mouldings. These also have bas-relief figures in the architraves. Those in the northern doorway represent the principal princes and princesses who promoted Christianity in England, while those in the southern doorway represent the leading early missionaries to England.

In the northern doorway, on the north side, are Ethelbert, Edwin, Oswald, Oswy, Peada, Wulphere; and on the south side, Bertha, Ethelburga, Hilda, Eanfled, Ermenilda, Werburga.

In the southern doorway, on the north side, are St. Aidan, Finan, Diuma, Ceollach, Trumhere, Jaruman; and on the south side, Gregory, Augustine, Paulinus, Theodore, Cuthbert, Wilfrid.

The corbels of the arches of these two doorways are interesting. Those of the north-west doorway represent Night on one side and the Morning Star on the other. The former is a female face with a reversed torch, and the Greek word NYX for night; the latter is a beautiful boy's face with a burning torch.

Those on the south-west doorway are a blindfolded face and an open face, representing the Law and the Gospel respectively.

Up to the time of the recent restoration a large statue of Charles II., who, by gifts of money and also of timber from Needham Forest, helped Bishop Hacket in the general repair after the Civil Wars, occupied the principal canopy in the middle of the central gable of the west front. This statue was the work of a certain stone-mason named William Wilson, who, by marrying a rich widow, "arrived at knighthood" in 1681. The statue, which certainly was not a work of art from all account of it, was taken down, and the pedestal is now occupied by a figure of Our Lord. The two other large canopied niches in the gable being filled with statues of Moses and Elijah, on the north and south sides respectively; while the four smaller statues represent, on the north, St. Gabriel, with St. Uriel underneath; and on the south, St. Michael, with St. Raphael below.

In giving the list of the statuary on the west front, which now follows, it is only necessary to say that there is no pretence that the characters now chosen were those originally represented. All that could be done in filling the niches was to study the plan of other similar facades, such as that at Wells, and to imitate the general idea. Tradition, however, had it that the long row of figures in the top of the lowest stage represented the Saxon and English kings, with St. Chad in the centre, and the tradition has been respected.

The following is a list of all the statues not already mentioned on the west front, including these on the north and south faces of the flanking turrets. The statues are enumerated in rows from the north side to the south.

On the northern tower the highest tier commences round the corner with two of the old figures already mentioned, then Aaron, Samuel, Hannah, another old figure, Deborah, Rachel, another old figure, Sarah, another old figure, and Eve.

On the southern tower the highest tier commences with Adam, Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Melchisedec, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Daniel, Job, and Shem (these two last being, of course, round the corner on the south side).

Taking next the two rows on the northern tower to the north of the great west window, there are in the higher row, St. Editha, David, St. Helena, Solomon, St. Gabriel, Zechariah, Nahum, Amos, Jeremiah; and in the lower row, Dean Bickersteth, St. Mark, Queen Victoria, St. Luke, St. Uriel, Malachi, Habakkuk, Obadiah, Daniel (Jeremiah being just above Daniel, by the window).

Taking next the two rows on the southern tower to the south of the great west window, there are in the higher row, Isaiah, Hosea, Jonah, Zephaniah, St. Michael, Bishop Hacket, Bishop Lonsdale, Bishop Selwyn (the niche round the corner is vacant), and in the lower row, Ezekiel, Joel, Micah, Haggai, St. Raphael, Bishop Clinton, Bishop Patteshall, Bishop Langton (the niche round the corner is vacant).

Next again below is the long row of kings with St. Chad in the centre stretching right across the cathedral, the pre-Conquest kings on the south side of St. Chad, the post-Conquest on the north, as follows:—William the Conqueror, William Rufus, Henry I., Stephen, Henry II., Richard I., John, Henry III., Edward I., Edward II., Edward III., Richard II., St. Chad, Peada, Wulphere, Ethelred, Offa, Egbert, Ethelwolf, Ethelbert, Ethelred, Alfred, Edgar, Canute, Edward the Confessor.

Lastly, there is the lowest row, which is broken three times by the doors; these are St. Cyprian, St. Bartholomew, St. Simon, St. James the Less, St. Thomas (then the northern door), St. Philip, St. Andrew (then the central door with its seven niches and five statues already described), St. Paul, St. Matthew (then the southern door), St. James the Greater, St. Jude, St. Stephen, St. Clement, St. Werburga.

There is also a small figure of St. Antony over the belfry window on the south side.

A tour of the cathedral, starting by the north side, leads past the nave with its buttresses and flying-buttresses looking picturesque in their unrestored state, and there can be seen outside the seventh bay of the nave the remains of the entrance to Dean Yotton's chantry. Coming to the front of the north transept, it will be noticed that the doorway has steps inside leading down into the cathedral, while on the opposite side it will be found that the steps lead from the south door down outside; the level of the ground on the two sides of the cathedral being very different.

The North Doorway is extremely fine, and is deeply recessed. Like the other two main doorways of the cathedral,—that at the west end and that in the south transept—this doorway is double, the main arch being divided into two. The archivolts of these are lancet-shaped and covered with foliage, but not foliated as in the west door. Outside the double-arched doorway proper, the architrave is divided into five principal and several smaller mouldings; the larger ones being very finely carved, as to two, the second and fourth, with inter-twisted foliage and scroll work; and as to the other three, the inner, middle, and outer, with small lozenge-shaped plaques containing bas-relief figures. These figures in the inner moulding are angels, in the middle one probably they are patriarchs and prophets. In the outer one, on the left or eastern side, the figures show the genealogy of Christ, beginning with Jesse at the springing stone, and ending with the Virgin and Child near the crown; while on the right-hand side, opposite Jesse, is the figure of St. Chad baptising the sons of King Wulphere, and above, the Apostles from St. Matthias to St. Peter at the crown. The whole architrave is surmounted by a weather moulding in the form of a gable, with a recently executed cross in the style of the thirteenth century at the top. The pillars on each side of the doorway have finely carved capitals, and the outer pillars are separated by lines of dog-toothing. The central pillar is very graceful, and consists of four slender shafts with carved capitals. The whole forms a magnificent example of a doorway in the Early English style, but showing signs of its derivation from the Norman. There is a niche in the tympanum which was apparently in Britton's time empty; but it must soon after have been filled with an image of St. Anne in Roman cement; this has recently been replaced by a statue of the same saint by Mr W. R. Ingram, while above some Roman cement work in the top of the gable has been removed, and a vesica containing a bas-relief of Our Lord in Glory by Mr Bridgeman reproduces no doubt the original architect's idea. The doorway, though it has been considerably restored, was not so much injured as a great deal of the rest of the cathedral, and so contains some very charming carving of the thirteenth century. There are two figures in Roman cement, one on each side of the doorway, representing St. Jude with a scroll, and St. James the Less with a club. No doubt these will both disappear before long, and their place be filled with modern statues.

Passing by the somewhat plain octagonal chapter-house, where we may perhaps wonder whether the small niches in the top of the buttresses which stick up like little turrets ever contained images, we come to the side of the choir and presbytery, which has not yet been restored, and then to the Lady Chapel.

The outside of the Lady Chapel has recently been very much altered; and the old buttresses, which but the other day were as left by Bishop Langton, with only the hand of decay showing on them, are now gone, and in their place are brand new buttresses, with brand new niches and saints. Those in the top row are the holy women of the Old Testament, while below them are the holy women of the New Testament. The lower row represent Priscilla, Anna, Dorcas, Mary, Martha, Lydia, Phoebe and Elizabeth; and above are Esther, Ruth, Naomi, Rizpah, Deborah, Miriam, Rachel, and Rebecca.

On the south side of the Lady Chapel are the curious chapels—known as the mortuary chapels—with their gabled fronts lying in the three spaces between the buttresses. These are more fully described in their place in the next chapter.

From this end of the cathedral can be well seen the arcaded parapet with its battlements, which runs round the top of the eastern half of the building and of the transepts, also the turrets of the sacristry with their high crocketted pinnacles; from here, too, can be seen, what Professor Willis draws attention to, "that the rebuilt clerestory of the western part of the choir betrays by the lighter colour of its stone that it was a work subsequent to the eastern part." On one of the buttresses of the choir on this side is an ancient image of a female figure, but it is too much decayed to afford any clue to the character represented, though it remains a very charming instance of Gothic sculpture. On the east corner of the sacristry there is a modern figure of Godefroi de Bouillon, and at the other corner is a figure of St. Chad.

In the gable of the South Transept is a very beautiful rose window, which is hidden by the stone groining from the inside. Mr J. O. Scott, in a lecture already referred to, declared that "this rose window is so high up in the gable that it never could have been combined with any stone groining. But, by referring to York Minster, between which and Lichfield many curious parallels may be traced, it is seen at once how a rose window in this position may be brought into the general design. This is effected by using a particular kind of wooden groining, the part of which nearest to the gable wall is lifted up so as to exhibit the window from within the building."

The large doorway in the south transept, which as seen from the outside is at the top of a flight of steps, very much resembles the doorway on the north side, but the carving is not so fine; it has been very much restored, and three shields have been in comparatively recent times carved in the tympanum. The shields show the arms of the see, of Bishop Lloyd, and Dean Addison, thus declaring this to have been done about 1700.

To the right of this doorway, outside the southern end of the transept aisle, is an ancient monument, probably of an archdeacon. A carved figure lies in a recess surmounted by a stone canopy.

The large heavy buttresses which disfigure the outside of this transept were the work of Wyatt at the end of the last century. The outside of the nave on this side presents a very different appearance to the other side. Here everything is new and uninteresting. The entrance to the bell tower is on this side, and a winding stair leads to the belfry stage.

There are ten Bells, seven of which date from about 1687, and are therefore of the same age as the bishop's palace. In that year Hacket's six bells, which can only have been hanging some sixteen or seventeen years, were found to be useless, and a subscription was raised to replace them with a peal of ten. There is a letter from the dean and chapter to Elias Ashmole, in which it is stated that Henry Bagley of Ecton, the bell-founder, had "so over-sized the eight bells he had cast, that they had swallowed up all the metal for the ten," and that eighty pounds more would be required, but that they did not regret the mistake as it "would make extremely for the advantage and glory of the cathedral (the bigness of such a ring far more befitting the place)." Only seven of these bells are now in use; the other three are by Rudhall of Gloucester and Mears of London. In 1748 the belfry caught fire and the ninth bell cracked with the heat, but it was recast in the same year, and since then there has been no change.

The story of the earliest cathedral bells is lost. It was usual in early days to hang the bells in a separate tower somewhere in the cathedral precincts. Here, we know that in 1315 the bell tower was burnt down,—"Combustum fuit campanile cum campanis in clauso Lichfeldensi." The site of this tower was lately discovered in the bishop's garden. Dean Heywood, in 1477, gave a large bell to the cathedral—it was known as the Jesus Bell; the gift is mentioned in the Cantaria Sancti Blasii, where the cost is stated to be one hundred pounds. The bell bore this inscription:—

This bell was hung in the south-west tower, which thus came to be called the Jesus-Bell Tower. The bell was destroyed during the Civil Wars. An ancient writer quoted by Shaw, after detailing the terrible fates of those who took part against religious houses and churches, says: "Nor shall I relate what happened to one, Pickins, a pewterer, who on July 26, 1653, knoct in pieces the fair bell called Jesus, at Lichfield, he being the chief officer appointed for demolishing that cathedral."

There was also a bell called the "Clocke Bell," which was hung in the lowest storey of the Jesus spire. It is shown in the south view given in Fuller's "Church History," and particular attention is there directed to it. The clock bell and all the others are now hung in the top storey of the tower.

There is also a small bell in the great central tower called "the Tantony": it formerly belonged to the Dyott family.

In the south-west tower is also the new Clock, which was put up in 1890. The face is underneath, in the west end of the south aisle of the nave; there is no outside face. The well-known Cambridge quarter chimes can, it is said, be heard at a distance of three miles.

In the green grass of the close are many tombstones, and round about the cathedral stone coffins have been dug up; on the north side of the choir is the traditional burying-place of two Mercian kings.