in the most substantial manner, as
we now see them."[17] It has been reasonably conjectured that this extra
weight was the cause of the ruin of the northern part of the west
transept, or that it was then damaged beyond repair. To Bishop Gray is
also assigned in particular the insertion of two windows in the north
aisle of the presbytery, near the place where he was afterwards buried.
The undoubted Decorated character of the upper stage of the west tower
marks it as belonging to the very earliest years of the century. There
is not the least tendency towards any features of the Perpendicular
style. Without reckoning tombs and chapels, there is no structural work
of distinct Perpendicular character to be seen at Ely Cathedral, except
some remains of the cloisters, and the windows in the nave aisles and
clerestory, and those in the upper parts of the great transept, and the
large supporting arches which have been inserted beneath the Norman
arches of the west tower. The triforium walls in the nave were raised in
the fifteenth century, as those in the presbytery had been raised in
the fourteenth. The style of the tracery shews that this alteration was
carried out quite late in the century, perhaps about 1480. In the south
transept there is also a large Perpendicular window. The very late east
window of the south presbytery aisle was inserted as part of Bishop
West's Chapel, who died in 1533.

In 1539 the monastery was surrendered to the king. Such of the domestic
buildings as were not required for the use of the dean and canons were
as usual sold. The Constitution of Henry VIII. provided for the
customary officers of a cathedral establishment. The prior became the
first dean, and remained in office till his death, eighteen years later.
Though the minster had become a cathedral when the bishopric was
instituted, yet the prior and convent were always custodians of the
fabric, and apparently supreme therein; and there was nothing strictly
corresponding to a capitular body. A memory of the fact that the bishop
was in place of the abbot remains to this day in the position of the
bishop's seat in the choir. There is no throne, properly so called. The
bishop occupies what is in most cathedrals the dean's seat--on the south
of the entrance at the screen. The north side is in consequence the
Decani side, and the Cantoris side is on the south. This position of the
dean's stall on the north, though very unusual, is not unique. It occur