Baptist; the second:
Zacharias, Joel, Hosea, and Zephaniah; the third: Job, Habakkuk,
Nahum, David; the fourth: Moses, Micah, Jonah, and Jacob; the fifth:
Malachi, Obadiah, Amos, and Isaac; and the sixth: Haggai, Jeremiah,
Isaiah, and Abraham. In the square of the transept crossing are
(following the same order): St. Thomas and St. Andrew, St. Matthew and
St. John, St. Philip and St. Simon, St. Bartholomew and St. Matthias.
At the left the last panel on that side contains St. Peter and St.
Andrew, while another in the opposite corner has St. James and St.
John. In the centre is a figure of Christ, in majesty, surrounded by
the four evangelists.

From this point to the east the panels are devoted to secular subjects
typifying the twelve months, "The signs of the Zodiac," Price calls
them: January, warming at a fire; February, drinking wine; March,
delving; April, sowing; May, hawking; June, flowers; July, reaping;
August, threshing; September, fruit; October, brewing; November,
cutting wood; December, killing the fatted pig. The originals were
white, or rather buff-washed, in the last century. Owing to the
tenacity of this wash, and the friable non-adhesive quality of the
paint it covered, it was found impossible to remove the additional
coating without destroying the original paintings. Tracings of some of
them were made by Messrs. Clayton and Bell; but although the
semi-transparent character of the buff wash allowed the subjects to be
discerned from below; on nearer inspection the details became blurred
and shapeless.

The theory that the paintings of the choir had been re-painted before
their defacement by buff wash seems hardly likely from the state
reported by the restorers. The idea probably arose from an extract,
itself possibly interpolated, frequently quoted from one edition of
Defoe's "Tour through the Island of Great Britain:" "The choir
resembles a theatre rather than a venerable choir of a church; it is
painted white with the panels golden, and groups and garlands of roses
and other flowers intertwined run round the top of the stalls; each
stall hath the arms of its holder in gilt letters or blue writ on it;
and the episcopal throne with Bishop Ward's arms upon it would make a
fine theatrical decoration, being supported by gilt pillars and
painted with flowers upon white all over. The roof of the choir hath
some fresh painting, containing several saints as big as life, each in
a circle by itself and hold