e very remarkable: one has S. Etheldreda
with pastoral staff; one has the coronation of the Virgin Mary; one has
the foundress bearing the model of a church, in which (as Dean Stubbs
has pointed out) both arms of the western transept are represented, so
that it is a fair inference that at the time this roof was constructed
the whole of the western transept was standing.

[Illustration: THE TRIFORIUM OF THE CHOIR AND PRESBYTERY.
_Photochrom Co. Ltd. Photo._]

Between the choir and presbytery there rise the massive Norman piers
built as the entrance to the apse; and these are the only remains of the
Norman church east of the octagon. Since the careful examination of the
foundations here, made by Professor Willis in 1850, it is not thought
certain that the apse was actually built. The foundations of the apse
were very manifest, and the design did not include a passage round it;
but there was also clear evidence that the apsidal foundation was
altered into a straight wall of the same thickness, and the probability
is that before the apse was built "it was resolved to convert it into
a square-ended presbytery, such as we now see at Oxford Cathedral and
St. Cross."[6]

[Illustration: THE CHOIR STALLS: NORTH SIDE.
_Photochrom Co. Ltd. Photo._]

The two most western triforium arches in the presbytery are glazed, the
roof of the triforium itself being wholly removed. The object of this
alteration has been fully explained in the account of the exterior of
the cathedral. On the ground beneath were the shrines; and under one of
the arches was erected, not long afterwards, the monument of Bishop
Barnet, in whose time and at whose expense the alteration was made.

The arrangement of the lancets at the east end is even more effective
within than without. The east end of Ely, says Professor Freeman, "is
the grandest example of the grouping of lancets.... Ely is also
undoubtedly the head of all east ends and eastern limbs of that class in
which the main body of the church is of the same height throughout, and
in which the aisles are brought out to the full length of the
building."[7]

It will hardly be believed that the magnificent stalls which were
formerly ranged in the octagon, and at a later period in the presbytery,
were once painted all over with a mahogany colour. They are the finest
Decorated stalls in England, the beautiful ones at Winchester being of
late thirteenth-century date. The carved p