22 The Twenty-third General Meeting. 
with that noble building, and calling attention to the chief monuments, 
with all which no one is more thoroughly acquainted than the Arch- 
deacon; and it was a real treat, even for those who were familiar 
with its chief beauties, to be thus guided over our glorious Cathedral. 
The Archdeacon began by pointing out a figure in a niche of the 
Close Gate, about which there had been considerable discussion, for 
whereas some declared it to be an exact likeness of Charles II., 
others stated it to be undoubtedly a bust of James I.; the truth 
of the matter however he would leave it to the archzologists to de- 
termine. The Archdeacon then directed the attention of the company 
to the splendid view of the sacred edifice from the point to which 
he bad conducted them, just inside the churchyard: he pointed out 
the site of the old belfry tower, which was destroyed during Wyatt’s 
alterations at the latter end of the last century, portions of its foun- 
dations, owing to the dryness of the summer, being now distinctly 
visible: and he then explained the history of the construction of the 
tower and spire. After remarking upon the insecure state of the 
spire some fourteen years ago, and the steps taken by Sir Gilbert 
Scott to make it secure, he directed their attention to the little door 
near the top of the spire called the “ weather door.” Above this, he 
said, were iron cramps projecting from the spire, by the means of 
which a man used to go to the top annually, to oil the vane. 
There was now sufficient oil there for ten or twelve years, but when 
that period had expired he questioned whether they would find any 
person as ready and willing to go up as had been the man who for- 
merly went. The company then proceeded towards the west front. 
Here the Archdeacon directed attention to the statuary, remarking 
that in 1865, instead of the statues that they saw before them, there 
were only six mutilated figures to represent what once were there. 
The front before them was a theological or Te Deum one, representing 
the praise that they offered to God in the Te Deum. At the top, in 
the centre, was our Lord in Majesty, and underneath five tiers of 
figures. Those in the upper tier represented angels and archangels, 
the second, Old Testament Saints—David, with his harp, and Moses, 
with the tables of the law, being particularly discernible: on the 
_ third tier were New Testament Saints, and descending to the next 
