e chilly white stone, and the all-pervading woodwork of the
seats, which adds the muddy gloom of oak that has been stained and
varnished to the miserable poverty of the whole.

The cause of all this desolation was just the ignorance of its
promoters as to the functions of a cathedral. The choir was looked
upon as a select church for the leading families of the town, and the
seats in it were appropriated; the nave was a vast empty space that
was never used for worship at all. Hence the organ on the screen,
hence the setting back of the stalls, so that the choir might be
widened, and more seats "rammed, jammed, crammed," to use Freeman's
indignant words, into the space. Instead of the long continuous range
of stalls which formerly existed, there are now groups of five under
each arch, with the result that ten of the prebendaries are without
accommodation. Such is the heavy legacy of blunders with which the
dean and chapter are burdened. It will take many a year before the
choir can be redeemed from its unfortunate state; but the present
arrangement of the altar is a great improvement on its position only a
few years ago, and no doubt similar measures will in time completely
efface the traces of 1850.

Of the old woodwork the MISERICORDS have alone escaped destruction.
Sixty-four of these remain, fifty of which belonged to the prebendal
stalls of the upper row, though they were removed from their proper
position at the restoration. Sixty of the seats are now in the lower
rows of the stalls, the other four are preserved in the library. It is
enough to say of them that no finer examples of wood-carving can be
seen in England. The following description of the wonderfully fresh
and varied subjects was supplied by Mr St. John Hope for a paper read
by Canon Church before the _Society of Antiquaries_ in March 1896:--

_South side, first row._--1, a goat (broken); 2, a griffin
fighting with a lion(?); 3, a man in hood and drawers riding with
his face to the tail of a barebacked horse; 4, a hawk preying on
a rabbit; 5, a mermaid (unfinished); 6, two popinjays in a fruit
tree; 7, an ape carrying a basket of fruit on his back (broken);
8, a double-bodied monster; 9, a dog-headed griffin; 10, two
goats butting (unfinished); 11, a monkey holding an owl
(unfinished); 12, two dragons interlocked and biting each other's
tails; 13, an ewe suckling a lamb (unfinished); 14, a wyvern and
a horse fighting. _Sou