CITY OF WORCESTER. 361

and his skin may still be seen nailed on the ancient door of the Cathedral now lying in the crypt. I possess a small specimen of this hide, which has been pronounced, after scientific examination, to be undoubtedly human. The rest of the legend may be believed or not, as the reader chooses. Bishop Wulstan rebuilt the Cathedral in 1084, and portions of this edifice still remain in the crypt and other parts of the structure. Frequent fires, sieges, and the falling of the Norman towers, destroyed much of Wulstan's work, but the fame of the good Bishop's miracles and the great image of "Our Ladye of Worcester", were always equal to the emergency, and the Cathedral was reconstructed time after time, the Lady Chapel, upper transepts, choir, and aisles, in the Early English period, the nave in the Decorated (except the two western arches, of transitional Norman, left unhurt by the fires), and the cloisters in the Perpendicular. The crypt is one of the earliest and most remarkable apsidal specimens in England, and the Early English work of the choir, upper transepts, and Lady Chapel, is admirable. The visitor should likewise inspect the ancient sculpture in those transepts, as being peculiarly interesting: among other subjects the Last Judgment and the weighing of souls being represented; and in the aisle of Lady Chapel is a saint or bishop holding a Cathedral in his hand, as though in the act of dedication. The carvings under the subsellae of the choir seats and the ancient encaustic tiles in the "Cromwell's rooms," above the south aisle of the choir, are also well worth examination. As for monuments, Worcester Cathedral cannot compare with Tewkesbury Abbey and other places, owing to the havoc perpetrated in the civil wars, which totally destroyed all the brasses and the stained glass. Nevertheless there is an average share of "lions" here. First and foremost, of course, is the tomb of King John, the oldest regal monument in England; for though it has been said there was an effigy of a Saxon King in Wimborne Minster, it has been found to be a posthumous work of the fourteenth century. Yes, the