latter pressure is thrown wholly upon the buttresses in front, which
project seven feet beyond the base of the great pillars." The room above
is called by Browne Willis the Consistory Court. It is now used for the
Minster Library.

[Illustration: Map, 1610.]

The alterations and additions during the Perpendicular period can be
detected at a glance. All the Norman windows which had remained
unaltered were now filled with tracery, not of particularly good design;
the great west window and the others in the west wall were similarly
treated; the conical tops to the transeptal corner turrets were altered
into battlements; the screens in the transepts were made, and, probably,
the groined wooden ceiling in the choir. The most important addition was
the New Building at the east end of the choir. This is often erroneously
called the Lady Chapel; but when this edifice was erected the Lady
Chapel to the east of the north transept, and for more than 150 years
afterwards, was still standing. The new building was begun by Abbot
Ashton (1438-1471), and finished by Abbot Kirton (1496-1528). The rebus
of each of these abbots can be seen in its decorations: an ash growing
out of a tun or barrel, and a church or kirk with a tun.

[Illustration: The West Front in the Seventeenth Century.]

In 1540 the reign of the abbots came to an end, and in 1541 the church
became a cathedral. For a hundred years the church itself, as well as
all the buildings attached to it, appear to have remained in their full
glory. There is no reason to discredit the account given of the
preservation of this church, when so many others were dismantled or sold
at the suppression of the monasteries. It was suggested to King Henry