Notwithstanding the long siege of the city, Gloucester Cathedral suffered but little during the Civil War. Within the last ten years (1853-1863) extensive restorations have been made within and without the cathedral, under the superintendence of Mr. F. S. Waller. These consist chiefly of the clearing and draining of the crypt; the restoration of the west front, the south aisle of the nave, the chapter-room, the library and sacristies, portions of the cloisters, the whole of the east end of the choir, and the interior of the nave: to which must be added the alterations entailed in forming and laying out the grounds round nearly the whole of the cathedral; several houses and yards having been removed, and hundreds of loads of soil, the accumulation of years, taken away from against the walls.
II. The ground-plan of the Norman church embraced nave and aisles, choir and sanctuary, short transepts with apsidal eastern chapels, and a choir-aisle, or “procession path,” terminating in three eastern chapels, also apsidal. (The plan of Norwich may be compared.) With the addition of the Lady-chapel and the cloisters, this ground-plan still remains, as in the early part of the twelfth century. The Norman work throughout the building belongs either to this original church, built by Abbot Serlo, and dedicated in 1100; or to the restorations after the fire of 1122. All of it, but especially the great piers of the nave, which remain unaltered, is very interesting and important; but the great peculiarity of Gloucester Cathedral is the later work, ranging from 1329 to 1377, with which the original Norman walls and piers of the transepts and choir are cased and transformed. The manner in which this transformation is effected not only differs altogether from that in which other Norman buildings (the nave of Winchester for example) were re-cased and altered, but the work at Gloucester affords us perhaps the earliest example of English Perpendicular; since it exhibits far more characteristics of this style than of even the later Decorated, which from the date of the work we should expect to find. The Perpendicular work thus begun, is continued through a series of magnificent examples,--the cloister, (1377-1412); the great tower, (1450-1460); and the Lady-chapel, (1457-1498,) almost to the last days of Gothic architecture.