gour; the three newer
arches are all feminine elegance; but it strikes me that feminine
elegance, thoroughly in its place in the small chapels, is hardly in
its place in the presbytery."

Certainly, the mouldings of the later arches will not bear comparison
with those of the earlier. The suave strength of the transitional
mouldings forms a most instructive contrast to the less effective
minuteness of the decadent work. The same is true of the capitals:
those of the later period have little architectural significance, and
many of them are further weakened by the fact that not the capital
only, but the adjoining part of the shaft as well, is cut out of white
stone.

With the exception, however, of the three pier-arches themselves,
there are few signs of the twelfth-century work. For, when the new
presbytery was finished, the clerestory over the old arches was
altered, and the triforium cased with tabernacle work (though not in
quite so rich a style), so as to bring them into harmony with the
fourteenth-century work, and to fit them to carry the new vault. The
tabernacle work of the presbytery must have been completed first; for
no attempt was made to keep it at the same level with the old part,
which, when the builders determined to adapt it to the new, caused a
very marked break at the juncture.

[Illustration: CHOIR, LOOKING EAST. PROCESSION PATH AND LADY PATH
BEYOND.]

There is, strictly speaking, no triforium, the space being occupied by
the rather florid tabernacle work, the effect of which is, of course,
considerably impaired by the absence of statuary. The niches in the
presbytery are deeper than those in the choir; they spring direct from
the pier-arches, having no spandrel, and they contain richly-foliated
brackets, which rest on triple shafts. This part is also marked by
triple vaulting shafts of Purbeck, which are carried down to the
floor.

The clerestory windows contain flowing tracery of an advanced and not
very good type. In some the plain mullions are carried on through the
head of the window and intersect each other.

Above the tabernacle work of the east end is the east window of seven
lights, the last bit of the fourteenth-century reconstruction, the
last flicker of Decorated freedom. Its curious tracery is still
beautiful, doubly so for the glass it enshrines, but the rule and
square of Perpendicular domination have already set their mark upon
it; the two principal mullions run straight up to