(according to the _Chronicon Angliæ Petriburgense_), or on the 28th of
September 1238, according to Matthew Paris. The Bishop of Lincoln,
Robert Grostête, took the chief part in the ceremony, assisted by
William Brewer, Bishop of Exeter. The other chronicle calls the second
bishop suffragan of the Bishop of Lincoln, which may mean no more than
that he assisted on the occasion. The dedication took place in
accordance with the provisions of certain constitutions which had been
drawn up at a council held in London. No doubt the building had before
this been completed. This date agrees well with the period which all
architectural experts accept as the probable date of the erection of the
west front. It may have been, and probably was, finished some few years
before the dedication. The very fine gables at the north and south ends
of the western transept are of the same date as the west front.

Considerable changes in the fabric, as well as additional buildings,
belong to the latter part of the thirteenth century. The documents
mention two of these. In the time of Richard of London (1274-1295), but
before his election to the abbacy, while he was still sacrist, the
bell-tower was erected, in which were hung the great bells which were
called Les Londreis, because he was himself a Londoner, and had caused
them to be brought from London. A previous abbot, John of Calais
(1249-1262), had contributed a great bell to the monastery, which he had
dedicated to S. Oswald. On it was inscribed the rhyming hexameter _Jon
de Caux abbas Oswaldo consecrat hoc vas_. The other great work of this
period was a magnificent Lady Chapel, since destroyed, begun in 1272 by
William Parys, then Prior, who laid the first stone with his own hand,
and placed beneath it some writings from the gospels. He lived to see it
completed, and at last his body was interred within it. Its altar was
consecrated in 1290, as is recorded in the register of Bishop Oliver
Sutton. It is described as having been built of stone and wood, with a