the demolition take place of the domestic houses that
surrounded it. And inside, the alterations in recent times have been
quite as drastic, robbing the church of all the curious and remarkable
characteristics it boasted until well past the middle of the
nineteenth century, and reducing the whole interior to the stereotyped
features of an average parish church.

If we enter the building to-day without any knowledge of its past, we
merely note a spacious late Perpendicular nave, having galleries in
the aisles with fine dark eighteenth-century panelled fronts, and more
woodwork of this plain and solemn character in front of the organ, in
the aisle chapels, and elsewhere. A soft greenish light from the
clerestory windows (by Powell), with their rows of painted saints,
falls upon the stonework of the arcades and the wealth of dark oak,
but nothing strikes us as unusual until we discover that the pulpit is
on rails, making it possible to draw it from the north side to a
central position beneath the chancel arch. This concession to
tradition is explained when we discover the state of the church before
1863, when Dr. Luard, who was then vicar, raised an agitation, before
which the Georgian glories of the University Church passed away.
Before the time of Laud, when so many departures from mediaeval custom
had taken place, we learn, from information furnished during the
revival brought about by the over-zealous archbishop, that the church
was arranged much on the lines of a theatre, with a pulpit in the
centre, which went by the name of the Cockpit, that the service was
cut as short as "him that is sent thither to read it" thought fit, and
that during sermon-time the chancel was filled with boys and townsmen
"all in a rude heap between the doctors and the altar." But this
concentration on the University sermon and disrespect for the altar
went further, for, with the legacy of Mr. William Worts, the existing
galleries were put up in 1735, the Cockpit was altered, and other
changes made which Mr. A.H. Thompson has vividly described:

... the centre of the church was filled with an immense
octagonal pulpit on the "three-decker" principle, the
crowning glory and apex of which was approached, like a
church-tower, by an internal staircase. About 1740 Burrough
filled the chancel-arch and chancel with a permanent
gallery, which commanded a thorough view of this object. The
gallery, known as the "Thr