bays westwards.
It should be noticed that toward the aisle the choir arches have one
more order in the three Decorated bays than they have in the rest. In
the Decorated vaulting several chamfers are introduced among the
mouldings of the cross-springers, and both in these and in the
groin-ribs the most prominent moulding has a fillet. Otherwise the roof
roughly matches that of the older bays. The older and the later period
meet in the fourth bay from the west, where two of the groin-ribs have
the fillet, while the other two are without it. In the two easternmost
bays there are fine bosses at the crown of the vault.
It is thought that the Shrine of St. Wilfrid was in the east end of this
aisle.[103] Unfortunately Leland's words _S. Wilfridi reliquiae sub arcu
prope magnum altare sepultae_ are too vague to decide its exact
position.
=The South Choir Aisle.=--This aisle, in some respects, has been altered
more than the other, but the south wall is Archbishop Roger's work as
far as the end of the fourth bay, if not farther. About 14 feet from the
west end occurs that 'straight joint' in the masonry which shows the
separation of this aisle from the Mallory Chapel to have been an
afterthought; and a little further east a round-headed doorway, moulded
with the edge-roll and retaining a panelled door of some age, opens into
the Chapter-house. There was evidently a second and similar doorway a
few yards further on, but it has been blocked (doubtless when the
cross-wall was built at the back of it between the Chapter-house and
vestry), and a square-headed doorway has been made to open into the
latter. To the right of this entrance is a square-headed lavatory with a
projecting rectangular basin and a hole knocked through into the lobby
behind. This lavatory is of course an insertion, probably of the
fifteenth century; indeed the whole of this part of the wall has been
much repaired with limestone. The aisle is somewhat darkened by the fact
that its first four windows look into the Lady-loft. Fortunately the
three westernmost are original. They are as usual round-headed and
plainly splayed, and their sills descend to the string-course in steps.
Archbishop Roger's vaulting-shafts here are in better preservation than
in the other aisle. The original vaulting itself must of course have
been taken down when the three westernmost columns of the choir-arcade
were rebuilt, but in the reconstruction the old ribs seem to have been
use
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