of it to the town. For forty years it remained practically a heap of
ruins. Episcopal attention was again drawn to its unseemliness, not
this time by ascending angels, but by the more prosaic instrumentality
of a descending shower. Bishop Montague, seeking shelter one day within
its roofless aisles from a passing thunderstorm, was moved by the
discomfort of the situation to undertake the completion of the fabric.
He finished the work in 1609, but on somewhat economical lines. He
vaulted the roof with plaster, and it has been left to the modern
restorer to make good his work in stone. Externally the church is a
cruciform building with a central tower, characterized by two tiers of
double windows and spired octagonal turrets at the corners. The tower
is a rectangle, the N. and S. sides being shorter than the E. and W.,
and the transepts are correspondingly narrow. Though somewhat stiff and
formal, the general design derives a certain impressiveness from the
lofty clerestory, the immense display of windows, and a profusion of
flying buttresses. The fantastic reproduction of Jacob's Ladder, with
its beetle-like angels, on the W. front, should be carefully observed,
and note should also be taken of the elaborately carved wooden door and
the figures above and on either side (Henry VII. and SS. Peter and
Paul). The two ladders are flanked by representations of the Apostles,
whilst below the gable is the figure of our Lord, with adoring angels
beneath. The interior has something of the appearance of an
ecclesiastical Crystal Palace--one vast aggregate of pillars and glass.
The details are poor (note the absence of cusps in alternate windows of
nave), and the fan tracery (original in choir only) is exuberant. In
some of the clerestory windows are fragments of old glass, and the very
unusual feature of pierced spandrels to the E. window should be noted.
The one really beautiful thing in the interior is _Prior Bird's
Chantry_ at the S.E. of the choir. The delicate groining of the roof,
the foliage, and the panelling will be generally admired. Note the