ing, have all gone, though their
caps remain. Within this great recess there is, on the spectator's
right, a small one, with side shafts, containing a piscina. On the left,
in the church's north wall, is a window, which rises to only half the
height of the pointed arch, with side shafts, within which it is
inclosed. It was at one time the general belief that this recess used to
be the site of the parochial altar of St. Nicholas, which may possibly
have stood here during the short time between the completion of the
north transept and that of the new work at the east end of the nave, for
a document published in the "Registrum Roffense" tells us that, after a
dispute about a removal, the position before the pulpitum was assigned
to it in 1322. Arrangements were then made to avoid any mutual
disturbance of the services of the monks and the parishioners, and the
new church for the latter was already talked of. The writer of the
"History and Antiquities of Rochester,"[11] quotes a will that suggests
a possibility that an altar of Jesu stood on this spot.

[11] See note on p. 10.

The transept end and its west wall have windows of the same form at the
triforium level, and there is a similar resemblance in the blind arcades
below, except for the doorway restored by Sir G. Scott, and surmounted
by an obtuse arch. The arch to the east of this doorway was cleared of
masonry in 1840. A large figure, in distemper, of St. Christopher
bearing the Infant Christ was then uncovered, but only to fall away as
the air was admitted to it. Miss Stevens, daughter of the dean, made as
complete a copy of it as possible, as stone by stone was carefully
removed to disclose only a small piece at a time, and her drawing, with
a note by Mr. Spence, is preserved in the British Museum.

The vaulting of this transept is rather remarkable. It is octopartite in
plan, developed from the sexpartite form by the addition of a
longitudinal ridge-rib which divides its larger cells. The fine bosses
in both transepts merit attention, and so do the corbel-heads to the
intermediate vaulting shafts in this one.

#The Font# [4] standing in the centre of the nave, only a short distance
from the west door was erected in memory of the late Canon Burrows, who
held a stall here from 1881 until his death in 1892. Executed for the
subscribers, in Hopton Wood stone, by Mr. T. Earp, it is round in form,
supported by a central column, of quatrefoil section, and four shaft