XI. The Perpendicular period commences with the choir-stalls, so much eulogised by Pugin; and, but little later, the miserable statues of English kings over the west door, and the west windows of the nave and its aisles. The western towers were also raised to their present height, and all three towers were vaulted. All this work belongs to the last forty years of the fourteenth century.
The west front now consists of an oblong area of Early Norman work, which is decorated above by a Late Norman arcade of semicircular intersecting arches, and midway by a row of Late Norman sculptured plaques, and by the Perpendicular niches with the kings: the windows are also Perpendicular; but the central doorway is Late Norman and the side doorways Transitional. The central arch of the Early Norman work has been replaced by a pointed one; and the whole of the Early Norman work is surrounded by Lancet work, which in turn is crested with a Curvilinear parapet. The lower stages of the towers are Late Norman; the upper stages Early Perpendicular. The west front has been constantly censured for hiding the western towers, “like prisoners looking over the bars of their cage.” But any one who has seen the western towers of St. Stephen’s, Caen, will recognise that, but for the west front, the Lincoln towers would look top-heavy.
FROM THE SOUTH.
XII. To the fifteenth century belong the battlemented parapet of the Galilee porch; Bishop Fleming’s chantry; the screens of the chapels in the north and south transept; and Bishop Russell’s chantry.
XIII. In Tudor days was built Bishop Longland’s chantry (1521-1547), the niches of which have Renaissance detail. The three chantries are so low that they do not interfere with the main lines of the cathedral; and, being low, give scale to it.
XIV. The date of the brass Eagle is 1667. In 1674 Wren built the Library in the Cloister. The brass chandelier is of 1698. The supporting arches of the western towers were inserted in 1727.