This was John Ruskin's favorite view of the cathedral seen from atop the walls of the citadel to the north west of the city.
The same viewpoint is represented in the accompanying image which shows the city still intact.
John Ruskin:  "I have never been able to make up my mind which was really the best way of approaching the cathedral for the first time.  If you have plenty of leisure and the day is fine, and you are not afraid of an hour's walk, the really right thing to do is to walk down the main street of the old town, and across the river, and quite out to the chalk hill out of which the citadel is half quarried--half walled;--and walk to the top of that and look down into the citadel's dry 'ditch,' ... and thence across to the cathedral and ascending slopes of the city; so, you will understand the real height and relation of tower and town:--then. returning, find your way to the Mount Zion of it by any narrow cross streets and any chance bridges you can--the more winding and dirty the streets the better; and whether you come first on west front or apse, you will think them worth all the trouble you have had to reach them."