le of the Rev. Theodore Williams in April,
1827, passed into the famous collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps for
L189.

Leaving the library we pass to the #South Choir Aisle#. This is twice as
wide as that on the north side, and has acquired its present form by a
curious series of changes. It was originally of the same width, and the
south tower stood in the angle between it and the south transept. After
the great twelfth century fires, a wall was carried eastwards from the
middle of the tower to form the north side of the cloisters, which were
then being repaired. A little later, possibly at the time when the south
choir transept was built, the original aisle wall was removed and the
whole space between the choir proper and the new cloister included in
the aisle. The tower was not yet removed, in fact its demolition did not
occur until about one hundred years later, towards the end of the
thirteenth century. The present wooden roof was then erected, instead of
a fine vaulting springing from a central pillar, which seems to have
been originally intended.

[Illustration: TOMB OF BISHOP BRADFIELD
(FROM A DRAWING BY R. J. BEALE).]

The flights of twelve and ten steps, which together take up the whole
width of the aisle, lead respectively, up to the eastern part of the
church and down to the crypt. The wooden enclosure over the crypt
entrance is used as a vestry. Two doors open into the south choir
transept, one from the vestry and one directly from the aisle itself.

[Illustration: THE CRYPT, LOOKING TO THE NORTH-EAST
(FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MESSRS. CARL NORMAN AND CO.).]

The massive buttress supporting the choir wall, at the head of the steps
to the undercroft, is divided into stages by a flat niche or panel with
side-shafts of Purbeck marble. This was found, in 1840, to contain a
mural painting of the Crucifixion, with the Blessed Virgin and St. John
at the foot of the cross. The principal face below had a gigantic
representation of the Madonna and Child, more than 12 feet in height. At
about the same time the elegant little doorway at the west end of the
aisle was found. It could not be reopened, but its mouldings were
uncovered. It is of the Early English period and has a dripstone ending
in a bishop's and a female head.

In this aisle, on its north side, is the tomb thought to be that of
Bishop John de Bradfield, who is stated by Edmund de Hadenham to have
been buried on the south side of the church, "juxta ostium