Norwich Cathedral does not tell to great advantage from the outside: its chief charm is undoubtedly the interior. It stands in a hollow, on what is probably the lowest ground in the city. The best view of the cathedral is obtained from the low ground to the eastward near the river, and close to Pull's Ferry; here the extreme length of the nave, which Fergusson remarked justified the addition of western towers, is lost partly by foreshortening, and by the projection forward of the south transept, over which the old Norman tower, with its later battlements and spire, rises grandly above the sweep of the apse, with the still remaining circular chapels below.
The Cathedral Precincts, or Close, running from Tombland eastward to the river, are entered by two gates to the precincts and one to the bishop's palace.
The Erpingham Gate, opposite the west front of the cathedral, was built by Sir Thomas Erpingham, and as an architectural compilation "is original and unique." In elevation it consists of one lofty well-proportioned arch supported on either side by semi-hexagonal buttresses taken up as high as the apex of arch; above comes a plain gable, in which, centred over the arch below, is a canopied niche with the kneeling figure of Sir Thomas Erpingham.
Built probably about 1420, and while yet some of the noble simplicity of the thirteenth had not passed into the over-wrought richness of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it presents a type of the best Perpendicular work we have in England.
The form of the arch is lofty, and may have been suggested by the wish to preserve a view through of the cathedral.
The arch moulding is enriched on the outer part with figures of fourteen female saints, and on the inner with twelve male saints; the semi-hexagonal panelled buttresses are covered with the shields of the families of Erpingham, Clopton, and Walton, and each has a seated figure of an ecclesiastic on the top.
The richness of this lower arch stage tells against the plain gable over, and is quite admirable in effect and defensible as a method of design; it is ornament decorating construction pure and simple, and not what later work generally was and is, constructed ornament, suggesting over-elaborate construction thereby made necessary. It will be noticed that labels with the word "Yenk" (think) sculptured thereon are placed between the shafts on either side of the archway; this has been construed "pend" by some writers, and from this the view was taken that Sir Thomas Erpingham was made to build the gate as a penance for favouring Lollardism, and that the figure of himself in the gable over the archway represents him as praying pardon for the offence.
This interpretation, however, amusing as it is, is probably erroneous, and the gate, with its shields of allied families, stands to the memory of its founder. Sir Thomas Erpingham was at Agincourt in 1415, and Shakespeare, in Act iv. of Henry V., remarks of him that he was "a knight grown grey with age and honour." Sir Thomas Browne also (p. 9 of his "Repertorium") says: "He was a Knight of the Garter in the time of Henry IV. and some part of Henry V., and I find his name in the list of the Lord Wardens of the Cinque Ports."