l more, and generally been far less conservative of the work of
former generations than the mediaeval enlargers of the minster were.
However, his work is now done--nave, towers, and choir were thoroughly
restored about fifty years ago, and the transepts in 1891. No further
work is contemplated at present. In fact, there seems nothing more that
could well be done.

[Illustration: THE MINSTER FROM THE SOUTH-EAST BEFORE 1891.]

The church is built partly of a warm brown sandstone, partly of stone of
a pale yellow or drab colour, the two kinds being in many places mixed
so as to give the walls a chequered appearance. This may be noticed both
outside and inside the building. In some of the walls the stones are
used irregularly, in others they are carefully squared. The red stone is
to be met with in the neighbourhood: some of that used for raising the
transept walls in 1891 was obtained from a bridge in the town that was
being rebuilt; and from marks on some of those stones it appeared that
before being in the bridge they had been used in some ecclesiastical
building, so that they have now returned to their original use. There
is little ornament to be seen outside, save on the upper stage of the
tower; in fact, the whole building excepting the arches of the nave and
the tower may be described as severely plain in character. The college
was never wealthy, hence probably it could not employ a number of
carvers; then again it was not a monastic establishment, so that there
were no monks to occupy their time in the embellishment of the building,
carving, as monks often did, their quaint fancies on bosses and
capitals. We miss the crockets and finials, the ball-flower, and other
ornaments that we meet with in so many fourteenth-century buildings; but
the very simplicity of the work gives the church a dignity that is often
wanting in more highly ornamented structures. The small number of the
buttresses in the body of the church is noteworthy; save at the angles
there are only five--namely, two on each nave aisle, and one on the
north choir aisle. At each of the eastern corners of the choir aisles
the buttresses are set diagonally, as also are those on the northern
corners of the north porch. There is a buttress on each of the side
walls of the north porch, and two set at right angles to each other
at each of the two corners of the north transept, and also at the
south-west corner of the south transept; beneath the east window of t