In 1862 Scott was requisitioned by Bishop Thirlwall to examine the fabric and make a report on its proposed complete restoration, and in 1869 he was able, in his second report, to announce the satisfactory repair of the tower. This work was one of extreme difficulty, as will be seen from the Appendix (see p. 97). The church was then for the first time properly drained; and the next parts to be taken in hand by Scott were the Choir, Presbytery and their aisles, and after that De Leiâ’s original Transitional work, at a cost of about £40,000. This amount included Willis’s organ, and the reconstruction of the West Front in memory of Bishop Thirlwall (of which latter the Very Rev. James Allen,
[Illustration: SOUTH-WEST VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL BEFORE THE RESTORATION OF 1862.]
afterwards Dean, was the inaugurator). Dean Allen contributed in a most generous way towards the restoration, as, _inter alia_, the expenses of the renovation of the North Transept, St. Thomas’s Chapel, Library, and Treasury, and the roofs of Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel and the ante-chapels he defrayed entirely. The Rev. J. M. Treherne and his wife each gave £2,000 by legacy, and the latter gave an annual subscription of £200 during her life.
It is most welcome news that the present Dean and Chapter have already started a fund for the final section of the restoration, viz., that of the ruinous eastern chapels, wherein is exquisite work being surely destroyed. And it is hardly too much to expect that the Welsh will not fail to respond to this dual opportunity for at once reverencing their Patron Saint and removing what is to-day indeed a national reproach.
[Illustration: SOUTH VIEW ABOUT 1700, FROM AN OLD PRINT.]
=The Cathedral Precincts.=--The wall of the Close, which extends to almost a mile, dates from 1330, but of the four GATEWAYS only one remains. This, to the south-east of the cathedral, is the main entrance to the Close from the secular part of the city. It is about 60 feet high, and the gateway is flanked on the north by an early Decorated (or Transitional) octagonal tower--once the janitor’s lodge--and on the south by a semicircular tower of an earlier character. This latter was probably a detached bell-tower and contained a prison. It also formed a Record Office and Consistory Court. The Precentor’s house abuts on the southern enclosure; the Chanter’s orchard is to the south-west; the Archdeacon has his residence to the west, and north of this is another for the Archdeacon of Brecon; beyond this again are the Chancellor’s, the Archdeacon of Cardigan’s, and the Treasurer’s houses. Adjoining the bridge is a prebendal house.