is the fine
transitional doorway here pictured, with round arches, but with the
well-known dog-tooth moulding. Its inner trefoil arch is of a form very
uncommon in this country, but more usual on the Continent. Having gone
beyond the old wall, Ernulf had to raise a new one; this ran from the
south-east corner of the city to the corresponding corner of the
bishop's precinct. He probably then erected a predecessor to the present
Prior's Gate, for we find a gate of this name mentioned on the site,
before the one now to be seen was erected.

[Illustration: THE PRIOR'S GATE IN 1825
(DRAWN BY H. P. CLIFFORD FROM A LITHOGRAPH BY W. DADSON).]

Ernulf's wall continued to be the boundary of the city until 1344, when
there was again an extension to the south. To this time our present
Prior's Gate probably belongs. The new wall, of which the demolition
must have been complete in 1725, when Minor Canon Row was built on its
line, was about 5 1/2 feet thick, about 16 feet high, and crenellated.
Its foundations have to a great extent been traced. Later--it is not
certain at exactly what date--still more of the monastic property was
enclosed by yet another wall, of which the course is to some extent
known.

In 1344 we find measures taken for the first time to isolate the priory
from the city. The erection of screens and doors guarding the approaches
to the monastic part of the cathedral has been recorded, and we now read
of the raising of a strong wall to the north of the church along the
side of the High Street. This was possibly due to ill-feeling between
the monks and the parishioners of St. Nicholas, possibly to dread of the
bands of travellers, soldiers, and pilgrims passing through the town on
their way to Canterbury or the Continent. It is to be observed, however,
that other ecclesiastical precincts were similarly protected about this
time. The close at Lincoln was walled round in Edward II.'s reign, as
evil-doers resorted thither and made attendances at night services
dangerous, and to the same period is assigned a like protection of the
close at Salisbury. Edward I.'s patents authorizing these walls of 1344
are both printed in the "Registrum Roffense."

#Gates to the Enclosure.# The Prior's Gate, to the south of the main
transept, has already been mentioned as dating from the middle of the
fourteenth century. Our illustration shows it as it appeared in 1825;
when it formed a portion of the Grammar School, of which more is