[5] The porches are described by those who saw them before
Lord Grimthorpe swept away the whole west front as some of the choicest
specimens of thirteenth-century work in England. The mouldings were of
great delicacy, and were enriched with dog-tooth ornament. It is said
that Abbot John was not a good man of business, and that he was sorely
robbed and cheated by his builders, and so had not money enough to
finish the work that he had planned. To his successor, William of
Trumpington, it therefore fell to carry on the work. He was a man of a
more practical character, though not equal to his predecessor in matters
of taste. He finished the main part of the western front. Oddly enough
no dog-tooth ornament was used in the central and southern porches, and
the character of the carved foliage differs also from that of the north
porch. In Abbot John's undoubted work the curling leaves overlap, and
have strongly defined stems resembling the foliage of Lincoln choir,
while that of Abbot William's time had the ordinary character of the
Early English style. There is evidence to show that he intended to vault
the church with a stone roof; this may be seen from the marble vaulting
shafts on the north side of the nave between the arches of the main
arcade, which, however, are not carried higher than the string-course
below the triforium.
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