Amongst these despoilers and desecrators of churches there was a mighty hunger for lead ("I would that they had found it scalding," exclaims an old chaplain of Wells). Once the richest of sees, it would probably have been suppressed altogether, but for the advent of Queen Mary to the throne, who appointed Bishop Bourn and restored the palace. In the Civil War it escaped. Some damage was done, the palace was despoiled, and at the Restoration much repair was found needful. Monmouth's rebellion wrought havoc here. The rebels came here in no amiable temper, defaced the statues on the west front, and did much wanton mischief, and would have caroused about the altar had not Lord Grey stood before it with his sword drawn and thus preserved it from the insults of ruffians. Then came the evils of "restoration." A terrible renewing was begun in 1848, when the old stalls were destroyed and much damage done. Better things were accomplished in 1868, save that the grandeur of the west front was belittled by a pipy restoration, when Irish limestone with its harsh hue was used to embellish it. In the palace, too, modern ideas have effaced much of the refinement of its thirteenth-century beauty.
Fergusson declares that though Wells is one of the smallest it is perhaps, taken altogether, the most beautiful of English cathedrals. Some of the distant prospects are perhaps the best. There is a fine view from the Shepton-Mallett Road. We enter the precincts by Browne's Gate at the end of Sadler Street, and see before us the magnificent _West Front_, a masterpiece of art superior to any in this country or abroad. It is 150 feet in width and 70 feet high. Six deep buttresses project from its face. There are six tiers of sculpture. The doors are small. Not for the living throng, but to the dead was this front dedicated who lie in the cemetery at its feet.[12] Here is the history of God's Church on earth expressing its faith and pointing to the hope of the Resurrection. Its style is Early English and is intermediate between the west front of Lincoln and Salisbury. The upper part of the towers is Perpendicular, that on the north being finished by Bishop Bubwith (1407-1424), that on the south by Harewell (1366-1386). In the lowest tier the sculptures have nearly all gone. In the second are angels in small quatrefoils. In the third subjects from the Old and New Testaments. In the fourth and fifth there are 120 statues of kings and bishops and heroes of English history from Egbert to Henry II. The sixth is called the Resurrection tier. And above are the angels and Apostles, and finally the Lord in glory. It is difficult to identify the statues with any feeling of certainty, though many lists have been published which may, or may not, be correct. There can be no doubt about the excellence of the sculpture, and all authorities unite in praising them as being the perfection of design and execution. Flaxman said of them that in them there is a beautiful simplicity, an irresistible sentiment, and sometimes a grace excelling more modern productions.