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Perpendicular, and the arrangement of the parts has a considerable
resemblance to that of the nave of Winchester, although the latter is of a
much bolder character. Winchester nave was going on at the same time with
Canterbury nave, and a similar uncertainty exists about the exact
commencement. In both, a Norman nave was to be transformed; but at
Winchester the original piers were either clothed with new ashlaring, or
the old ashlaring was wrought into new forms and mouldings where possible;
while in Canterbury the piers were altogether rebuilt. Hence the piers of
Winchester are much more massive. The side-aisles of Canterbury are higher
in proportion, the tracery of the side windows different, but those of the
clerestory are almost identical in pattern, although they differ in the
management of the mouldings. Both have 'lierne' vaults [_i.e._, vaults in
which short transverse ribs or 'liernes' are mixed with the ribs that
branch from the vaulting capitals], and in both the triforium is obtained
by prolonging the clerestory windows downward, and making panels of the
lower lights, which panels have a plain opening cut through them, by which
the triforium space communicates with the passage over the roof of the
side-aisles." Chillenden, then, setting to work with the thoroughness
that marks his handiwork throughout, rebuilt the nave from top to bottom,
leaving nothing of Lanfranc's original structure save the "plinth of the
side-aisle walls," which still remains. The resemblance between the naves
of Canterbury and Winchester, pointed out by Professor Willis, will at
once strike a close observer, though the greater boldness of character
shown in the Winchester architecture is by no means the only point of
difference. The most obvious feature in the Canterbury nave--a point which
renders its arrangement unique among the cathedrals both of England and
the Continent--is the curious manner in which the choir is raised aloft
above the level of the floor; this is owing to the fact that it stands
immediately above the crypt; the flight of steps which is therefore
necessarily placed between the choir and the nave adds considerably to the
general effect of our first view of the interior. On the other hand, the
raising of the choir is probably to some extent responsible for the great
height of the nave in comparison with its length, a point which spoils its
effectiveness when we view it from end to end. Stanley, in describing the
e