“The enemy was very near and fierce upon them, especially on that side of the city where the church stood; and had planted their great guns mischievously against the church; with which constantly in prayer’s time, they would not fail to make their hellish disturbance by shooting against and battering the church; insomuch that sometimes a cannon bullet has come in at the windows and bounced about from pillar to pillar (even like some furious fiend or evil spirit) backwards and forwards and all manner of sideways, as it has happened to meet with square or round opposition amongst the pillars.”
On February 2, 1829, Jonathan Martin, brother of the painter, John Martin, hid himself behind the tomb of Archbishop Greenfield, in the north transept during evening service; and after the church had been closed, set fire to the choir. The stalls, organ, and vault were destroyed and much of the stone-work was damaged. Restorations were started in 1832. Another fire occurred in 1840 in the south-west tower, occasioned by some workmen who were repairing the clock in the south-west tower. The wooden vault of the nave and the tower and bells were damaged. In 1871 some of the side walls were rebuilt.
Every one is familiar with the West Front of York; but the traveller who looks upon it for the first time is, nevertheless, overwhelmed.
“The West Front is more architecturally perfect as a composition in its details than that of any other English Cathedral, and is unquestionably the best cathedral façade in this country. The lower part, with the entrances and lower windows, belongs to the Early Decorated period. Above the windows the work is Late Decorated and the towers above the roof Perpendicular. Numerous niches cover the surface. It is doubtful whether they ever contained statues. The principal entrance is divided by a clustered pier, and above it is a circle filled with cusped tracery. Over the whole doorway is a deeply-recessed arch, and over that a gable with niches, one of which contains the statue of an archbishop, supposed to be John le Romeyn, who began the nave in 1291, and other niches have figures of a Percy and a Vavasour, who gave the wood and stone for the building. The favourite ballflower ornament of the Decorated style is seen on the gable, and the mouldings in the arches have figures representing the history of Adam and Eve. Above the entrance is a large eight-light window, pronounced by many to be too large even for York Minster, containing very elaborate and beautiful tracery, and over it is a pointed gable. On each side of the west window are buttresses covered with panelling and niches. The noble towers rising on each side of the west front, have buttresses similarly adorned, and each three windows, and over the second an open battlement forms a walk along the whole front. The towers have battlements and pinnacles. The south-west tower (1433-1457) was injured by fire in 1840; and the north tower (1470-1474) has the largest bell in the kingdom, Great Peter, which cost £2,000 in 1845 and weighs ten tons.”—(P. H. D.)
The twin-towers rise to a height of two hundred feet and are ornamented with windows, battlements, and pinnacles.
The Central Tower at the crossing of the transepts, built in 1410-1433, Perpendicular, is also two hundred feet high. It is the largest in England, and is considered not only one of the triumphs of Fifteenth Century architects, but one of the finest towers in the world. Much of it is supposed to be the work of Walter Skirlawe, Bishop of Durham, and its resemblance to the central tower of Durham Cathedral justifies the assumption. It has never been finished.
“The central tower rises a single story above the ridge of the roof and is open inside to the top. But for small gables on the buttresses, it is quite plain up to the level of the roof ridge. Above this it contains two long and narrow Perpendicular windows on each side, of three lights each, with a transom. These windows are ornamented ogee gables, and between them are three niches, one above the other, with canopies. The external buttresses are split up with vertical mouldings and ornamented with niches and panelling. The tower is crowned with a battlement. Horizontal string-courses with gargoyles divide the buttresses at intervals. There are no pinnacles on these buttresses, and they appear never to have been finished. It is possible that it was intended to set another story on the top of the present one, but this is merely conjecture.
“The English architects of the Fifteenth Century, if they were inferior to earlier builders in invention and vigour, were at any rate supreme in the management of towers. Their wonderful sense of proportion, their habitual use of vertical lines, and the character of their windows helped them to build what are perhaps the finest towers in Europe, and the central tower of York Minster
