The south doorway of the nave ([Fig. 591]) (now forming the principal entrance to the church) is, like that of the lower church, inserted between two buttresses; but it has no projecting porch, and finishes with a flat roof, above which the top of an ordinary traceried window is seen in the plane of the wall. To give importance to this entrance the flanking buttresses are finished at the top with niches for statues, and in connection with the corbels under these occur the only pieces of foliaged carving to be seen in the whole nave.
The western doorway (see [Fig. 569]) contains two openings with a solid mullion between. This part of the structure has evidently been greatly repaired and altered when the western adjuncts above referred to were removed.
The whole of the cathedral is vaulted except the central alleys of the nave and choir. Vaulting shafts are carried up in the nave ([Fig. 592]) from the string course above the main arcade, and in the choir (see [Fig. 589]) from the caps of the main piers to the wall head, as if the idea of vaulting the central area had been contemplated; but it is quite
Fig. 592.—St. Mungo’s Cathedral. North Side of Nave.
evident from the smallness of the buttresses of the clerestory ([Fig. 593]) that the walls were not calculated to resist the strain which such a vault
Fig. 593.—St. Mungo’s Cathedral. View of South Side, looking West.