by Rickman) it had been hidden from sight by
wood-work and a clerk's desk at a lower level. The lower part is
boldly corbelled out and the junction of the octagon with the pier
shafts is well managed, but the upper open-panelled part is rather too
definitely cut off from the lower by the battlemented cornice. Very
few examples of this class of pulpit exist in England, and none equal
in importance.

The eagle =lectern= is a magnificent example of brass casting. It is
generally attributed to the late fifteenth century. This eagle
narrowly escaped being sold by the Puritans for old brass, as happened
to that of St. Michael's. It closely resembles one belonging to St.
Nicholas' Chapel, Lynn, save that the latter is not equal in
refinement of detail and proportion, and the bird is less vigorous in
pose and modelling. In 1560 there was "paid for skowring ye Egle and
candell styckes, _10d._," and "for mending of ye Egle's tayle, _16d._"

[Illustration: PULPIT.]

At least nine chapels and fifteen altars are known to have existed in
the church. The present choir vestry on the north side was the Lady
Chapel. A simple piscina on the south side, about a foot above the
present floor, shows that the old floor level was much lower.

The =north aisle= is lofty and has a clearstory of three windows over
the arcade. In the outer aisle was located Marler's, or the Mercers',
Chapel, founded in 1537, and beneath it is a crypt or charnel house,
now closed save for small ventilating openings.

[Illustration: ARCHWAY BETWEEN THE NORTH PORCH AND ST. THOMAS'S
CHAPEL.]

The black oak roof of low pitch has the panels of the western bay only
richly carved with vine leaves and grapes. Its date is, perhaps, as
late as the foundation of the chantry. The piscina is in the north
wall.

West of the north transept is =St. Thomas's Chapel=. Dugdale says that
Allesley's chantry was founded in the time of Edward I, at the altar
of St. Thomas the Martyr, "in a chapel near adjoining to the church
porch." The chapel is certainly older, for the beautiful double
doorway from the porch is not later than mid-thirteenth century. The
outer doorway of the porch was rebuilt in the fifteenth century. The
inner one, with a finely moulded arch with angle shafts and the vault
with simple diagonal ribs carried on shafts, is of the early
thirteenth century. It is to be regretted that this fine porch is not
better seen. Signs of the puzzling reconstructions that have