e lowest stage of the tower consists of four arches
and four massive piers. The arches have two plain orders. The piers have
double shafts supporting the central order, and single shafts supporting
the outer orders. The four arches are not of the same width, those on
the east and west being wider than those on the north and south. In
order to get the arches to spring from the same level and also to reach
the same height at their heads, the wider arches are of the shape known
as "depressed," while the narrower ones are of the "horse-shoe" type.
The choir being somewhat narrower than the nave, the walls on each side
take the place of the shaft which would have supported the outer order
of the eastern arch. The capitals and bases of these arches are very
plain, in fact nowhere in this church can the elaborately-carved
capitals so often met with in late Norman work be found. This central
tower was undoubtedly gradually raised stage by stage, as the character
of the architecture indicates: probably during each interval the part
already finished was capped by a pyramidal roof.

[Illustration: THE TOWER ARCHES.]

[Illustration: NORTH TRANSEPT AND CROSSING.]

The #Nave Aisles# were widened in the fourteenth century, the
Norman walls being removed and their roofs raised; a single stone of the
weather moulding, which may be seen on the west face of the north
transept, shows the height and slope of the roof of the Norman aisle.
The windows of the aisles on either side are two-light Decorated
windows; the three on either side to the east of the north and south
porches are of the same character, while the two on each side to the
west of the porches are also alike but differ in their tracery from
those to the east. The south porch is much smaller than the north, and
is very plain; it is composed of two solid walls projecting six feet
from the wall of the aisle.

The #Transepts#, as has been described in the preceding chapter,
were lengthened in the fourteenth century--the southern one by the
incorporation of some low Norman building, thought by some to have been
the Lady Chapel, the walls of which were raised; the northern one by the
addition of Bembre's chantry. This has caused the north transept to be
somewhat longer than the south. The original Norman transepts seem to
have been of the same length on either side. Bembre, who died in 1361,
is supposed to have been buried here. A stone slab lay until 1857 in the
centre of the pa