The West Front, From the Minster-yard. details

The Exchequer Gate [...] admits us into a small paved square—the Minster-yard—surrounded on three sides by low ecclesiastical dwellings. Filling the whole of the fourth side, just in front of us, rises the enormous façade of the church, peculiarly English in conception, and very individual in its naïve union of Norman and Gothic features. The front which remained after the earthquake—with five great round-arched recesses of graduated height, three of them inclosing [sic] low round-arched portals—was made the nucleus of the new façade. Wide wings finished by turrets were thrown out on each side of it; a high reach of wall was built up above; all were covered with Lancet-Pointed arcades in close-set rows; and to bring a little harmony into the effect, the top of the tall central recess was altered to a pointed shape and surmounted by a gable. (p. 169)