Bells Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Durham | Page 7

on the contrary, wish it to be perfectly restored; a thing which exceeds our means, unless we have the advantage of charitable aid. In this state of doubt and hesitation, we have recourse to you, as members to their head, presuming not to engage in any such great and stupendous alteration with reference to your church, without your advice.
"If, which God forbid, the tower should fall, the solemn fabric of our choir, and the shrine of our most holy patron, would without doubt, be broken down and irrevocably laid flat on the ground, for that is the direction in which it leans. We confess that whenever winds and storms are high, and we are standing at our duty in that part of the church we tremble for our fate, having positive danger before our eyes."
Shortly afterwards, the rebuilding of all the upper part of the central tower was commenced and continued for some years. It was not complete in 1474 when Richard Bell was prior, as in a letter written at the time he mentions the "reedificacion of our steeple, begun but nogt fynyshed, in defaulte of goods, as God knoweth." It is therefore most probable that the upper portion was not completed until towards the close of the fifteenth century.
We have now reached a period when the glories of Gothic architecture were fading, during which many of our finest churches suffered considerably. Durham is no exception to the rule, and we find during the next two centuries a long record of destruction and so-called improvement. This, perhaps, reached its worst stage during the time of Wyatt, who in 1796 pulled down the magnificent Norman chapter-house. During the last decade, however, this has been completely rebuilt from as nearly as possible the original design. Wyatt also rebuilt the turrets on the eastern transept or Nine Altar Chapel from his own design, and removed the great Early English rose window in the east end and replaced it by the present one. The original stained glass was taken out of all the windows of the east end, and Raine, in his history, tells us that it "lay for a long time afterwards in baskets upon the floor, and when the greater part of it had been purloined, the remainder was locked up in the Galilee.... At a still later period, about fifteen years ago, portions of it were placed in the great round window, and the rest still remains unappropriated." This was written in 1833. It is also on record that Wyatt formed a scheme to re-open the great western doorway of the cathedral by the pulling down of the Galilee Chapel, from which he intended constructing a carriage-drive to the castle. This abomination was actually commenced when Dean Cornwallis arrived, and he, with the assistance of John Carter, and the Society of Antiquaries, was fortunately able to put a stop to it. Thus was this beautiful and unique specimen of Transitional Norman architecture preserved to us.
Wyatt contemplated several other "improvements" of a similar character, one of which was the surmounting of the central tower by a spire, but fortunately he was not allowed to carry them out.
During the present century many restorations have been made, of which we will mention only the most notable:--The central tower was restored by Sir Gilbert Scott in 1859.
During 1870 to 1876 extensive internal alterations were made. A new choir screen and pulpit were erected, the floor of the choir laid in marble mosaic, the choir stalls returned to their original positions, and the walls of the church scraped in order to clear them from the many coats of lime and distemper which lay on them.
[Illustration: The West End (from an Old Print).]
The Norman chapter-house has lately been restored and in great part rebuilt as a memorial to the late Bishop Lightfoot.

[Illustration: The Exterior, From Palace Green.]
CHAPTER II
DESCRIPTION OF THE EXTERIOR
Approaching the Cathedral Church of Durham from the north by the large open space between it and the Castle, known as the Palace Green, we obtain a complete elevation of the whole structure. There is little room to doubt, though the details naturally vary with the date of erection, that the original plan of Carileph's church has been carried out in its entirety, with two exceptions. These are the addition of the eastern transept or nine altar chapel at the east, and the Galilee or Lady Chapel at the west end. The entire length of the building, not including the Galilee chapel, is 431 feet, which is made up as follows:--Nine altar chapel 51 feet, the choir 120 feet, the transept 57 feet, and the nave 203 feet.
The #Western Towers# are square and solid, and were evidently included in Carileph's own scheme, as the wall arcades on both the interior and exterior are carried round them.