tradition that Elias de Dereham was the
architect of this stately pile, and the information gathered together
by the Rev. J.A. Bennet, in a paper read before the British
Archaeological Association at Salisbury on August 5th, 1887, certainly
does much to strengthen the belief. From this account, and other
sources, we find that Elias de Derham is first mentioned in the Rot.
Chartarum, Ap. 6 (6 John, 1208)? where he is described as one of the
King's clerks and Rector of Meauton. In 1206 he appears to have been a
royal official. In 1209 he is reported to have been the architect for
the repairs of King John's palace at Westminster. In 1212 he attached
himself to the opposite party, but was taken again into the King's
favour in the following year. We have specially interesting notice of
his work in 1220, when he was engaged upon the shrine of St. Thomas at
Canterbury. Matthew Paris, in his account of the translation of St.
Thomas, distinctly states that the shrine was the work of that
incomparable officer, Walter de Colchester, Sacrist of St. Albans,
assisted by Elias de Dereham, Canon of Salisbury. Leland mentions, in
an extract from an old "Martyrologie" of Salisbury, that he was
rector--or director--of the new church for twenty-five years from the
beginning, whether he means architect or clerk of the works is not so
clear. His name, as one of the Canons of the Cathedral, occurs eleven
times in the "Osmund Register" at Salisbury. There are also references
to him in the "Book of Evidences" (Liber Evidentiarum) among the
bishop's muniments, as the builder of the original Aula
Plumbea--Leden-hall--a famous old house in the close. The document is
entitled "_Scriptura de domibus de Leden-hall per Eliam de Dereham
sumptuose constructis_," "a deed concerning the house called
Leden-hall, built at great expense by Elias de Dereham." This
residence house remained six centuries after in the gift of the Bishop
of Sarum.

During the year in which he accompanied Bishop Poore in his
translation to Durham, and from 1230 to 1238, he was employed upon
some architectural work connected with Durham Cathedral, which, when
Bishop Poore accepted it was a stately Norman fane with an apsidal
choir; he removed this east end, and remodelled it in the early
English manner. The chapel of the Nine Altars, as this portion is
called, is remarkably similar in its details to much of the work at
Salisbury. It is curious that two southern churches so near as