of which he rendered a yearly account to the dean and chapter. He found
three clerks to ring the bells, light the candles, and suspend the palls
and curtains on solemn days. He found hay at Christmas to strew the choir
and chapter-house, which at Easter was sprinkled with ivy leaves; and on
All Saints' day he provided mats."(1)

The next great changes were made under Bishop William de Vere (1186-1199).
His work was of transitional character, and bears much resemblance to the
beautiful transitional work at Glastonbury. He removed the three Norman
apsidal terminations at the east end, doubled the presbytery aisles, thus
making two side chapels in each transept which have since been replaced by
the Lady Chapel with its vestibule.

In a paper read before the Archaeological Institute in 1877, Sir G. G.
Scott suggests that the central apse projected one bay beyond the sides;
but this is merely conjecture. A curious feature in De Vere's work was his
putting columns in the middle of the central arch. It is probable that the
part of the presbytery we now have was but the beginning of a larger
scheme never carried out, which included building the presbytery and
dividing the eastern wall into two arches instead of one as at Lichfield
and Exeter.

According to Sir Gilbert Scott's theory, the Early English Lady Chapel was
an extension of the work of Bishop de Vere: it is especially interesting,
and an unique example of its date in being raised upon a crypt.

At the Bishop's palace was a splendid hall of which it seems likely De
Vere was the builder,--at any rate he must have been the first or second
occupier. It was of noble dimensions, being 110 feet in length, consisting
of a nave 23 feet broad, with aisles 16 feet wide, independently of the
columns. This was divided into five bays by pillars supporting timber
arches formed of two pieces of curved oak. Nearly the whole of the present
Bishop's palace is included within the space occupied by this grand hall.

In 1188 when Archbishop Baldwin made pilgrimage into Wales on behalf of
the crusade, he was entertained in this hall by Bishop de Vere, and
doubtless some of those who devoted themselves to the work were Hereford
men.

The central tower of the cathedral, that fine example of decorated work,
covered with its profusion of ball-flower ornament, was built by, or at
any rate during the episcopate of, Giles de Braose (1200-1215), an ardent
opponent of King John.

The remaining