a strong pillar; this pillar sustained a vault which proceeded from
the walls on three of its sides," etc. Prof. Willis considers that as far
as these parts of the building are concerned, the present fabric stands
exactly on the site of Lanfranc's. "In the existing building," he says,
"it happens that the nave and transepts have been transformed into the
Perpendicular style of the fourteenth century, and the central tower
carried up to about double its original altitude in the same style.
Nevertheless indications may be detected that these changed parts stand
upon the old foundations of Lanfranc."

The building, however, was not destined to remain long intact. In A.D.
1174 the whole of Conrad's choir was destroyed by a fire, which was
described fully by Gervase, a monk who witnessed it. He gives an
extraordinary account of the rage and grief of the people at the sight of
the burning cathedral. The work of rebuilding was immediately set on foot.
In September, 1174, one William of Sens, undertook the task, and wrought
thereat until 1178, when he was disabled by an unfortunate fall from a
scaffolding, and had to give up his charge and return to France. Another
William, an Englishman this time, took up the direction of the work,
and under his supervision the choir and eastern portion of the church
were finished in A.D. 1184. Further alterations were made under Prior
Chillenden at the end of the fourteenth century. Lanfranc's nave was
pulled down, and a new nave and transepts were constructed, leaving but
little of the original building set up by the first Norman archbishop.
Finally, about A.D. 1495, the cathedral was completed by the addition of
the great central tower.

[Illustration: PLAN OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, ABOUT A.D. 1165.

From a Norman drawing inserted in the Great Psalter of Eadwin, in the
Library of Trinity College, Cambridge. First published in _Vetusta
Monumenta_ (Society of Antiquaries, 1755). For full description and a
plan of the waterworks see _Archaeologia Cantiana_, Vol. VII., 1868.]

During the four centuries which passed during the construction and
reconstruction of the fabric, considerable changes had manifested
themselves in the science and art of architecture. Hence it is that
Canterbury Cathedral is a history, written in solid stone, of
architectural progress, illustrating in itself almost all the various
kinds of the style commonly called Pointed. Of these the earliest form of
Gothic and Perp