The door into the south aisle is known as The Monks' Door, and is the regular entrance into the cathedral from the south. It opened from the eastern walk of the cloister. It is of later date than the wall in which it is placed. The ornamentation is very rich; one spiral column is especially noteworthy. There is a trefoiled arch, the cusps having circular terminations with the star ornament. In the spandrels are quaint, crouching monks, each holding a pastoral staff. Above are two curiously twisted dragons.
The Prior's Door is nearly at the west end of the north alley of the cloister. Like the monks' door, it is an insertion, being later than the wall. It is a very fine specimen of late Norman. The tympanum is filled with carving in high relief. In the centre is the Saviour, seated, enclosed within a vesica piscis, His right hand uplifted in blessing, His left hand resting on an open book; His bare feet rest upon the border of the oval enclosure. This oval is supported by two angels, the arms which hold the upper part being abnormally lengthened. On each side is a round shaft, enriched with a deeply cut series of ornaments running in a spiral; and at the head is a cushion capital with interlacing ornamentation. On each side of the shaft is a square pillar, the outer one having some curious figures of beasts and other objects enclosed in circular rings, while the foliage of the inner one is singularly like a premature specimen of Early English conventional decoration. The topmost stone of this inner jamb is enlarged into a corbel to support the lintel, and is carved with a large face. The expense of the restoration of this doorway was undertaken by the Bedfordshire Architectural Society.[15]
One or two bays of the north alley of The Cloister have been lately restored by Canon Dickson as a vestry for the choir-boys. These are not, of course, now open to the air. Against the wall of the church can be seen the Norman arcading, showing there were cloisters from the first; while the remains of the windows towards the cloister enclosure, to be seen in the north and east alleys, tell us that they were rebuilt in the Perpendicular period, probably in the last quarter of the fifteenth century. Some corbels remain in the wall of the cathedral. The roof of the cloister was therefore of wood; but there are remains of vaulting to the west of the prior's door, so perhaps the western alley had a stone roof. The first window to the west of the prior's door is original Norman; all the rest (except one) were changed into three light windows, apparently of the same date as those in the north aisle, but have lately been reconstructed in the Norman style. This applies only to the windows in the aisle; those in the triforium are of three lights, similar to those removed from the aisle; and those in the clerestory are the original Norman, just as on the north side.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Not many persons who travel by the Great Northern main line know that a good view of Lincoln Cathedral is to be obtained from it.
[2] Introduction to Farren's "Cathedral Cities of Ely and Norwich."
[3] Population of Ely, 1891, was 6,646; of Wells, 5,899.
[4] Ely is almost universally called a city, upon the supposition that the mere fact of its having a cathedral constitutes the town a city. But since the Norman Conquest the dignity of a city has always been conferred by grant, and no such grant is known to have been made to Ely.
[5] An American visitor whom the writer was once conducting over Peterborough Cathedral observed, "This is a very large church for so small a place." Ely is about a quarter of the size of Peterborough in respect to population.
[6] But there is no indication that such a roof actually reached the tower.