150 feet." This work of pillars and
arches led him to conclude that the architect laid his first floor of
timber 40 feet higher than the vault beneath.

Dr. Walter Pope, in his "Life of Bishop Seth Ward," 1697, describes
the restorations accomplished by this excellent prelate: "There being,
therefore, not much to be done as to reparation, he employ'd himself
in the Decoration of the Cathedral: First, at his proper charges
Paving the Cloyster. I mean that side of it which leads out of his
garden into the church. At his exhortation, and more than
proportinable (_sic_) expence the Pavement of the Church was mended
where it was faulty, and the whole Quire laid with white and black
squares of marble. The Bishops, Deans, and all the Prebendaries Stalls
made New & Magnificent, and the whole church was kept so clean, that
anyone who had occasion for Dust to throw on the Superscription of a
Letter, he would have a hard task to find it there.... His next care
was to repair, I might almost say rebuild his Palace, which was much
ruined, the Hall being pulled down, & the Greater part of the House
converted to an Inn ... what remained of the Palace was divided into
small Tenements and let out to poor Handicraft-men. This dilapidation
was the work of one Van Ling, a Dutchman, by trade a Taylor, who
bought it of Parliament when Bishop's lands were exposed to sale."

In the minutes of the chapter for August 26th, 1789, we find
instruction given to Wyatt "to make new Canopies to the Stalls, to
build a new Pulpit and Bishop's Throne, to put new Iron Rails to the
Communion, with coping thereon, and set new blue stone steps to
receive the same, to put two Wainscot Screens across the Aisles, to
lay blue stone paving in the Lady Chapel, in squares to be cut out of
the old gravestones, and enrich the side walls according to the
drawings, to clean and colour the church from the East end of the
Transept, and make the Screen to the Western Side of the organ." They
also ordered "the beam in the choir to be removed, the North and South
Porches to be taken down, the south door near the Verger's house
stopped up, and another opened near the Chapter Vestry, to open out
the Chapel in the great North and South Transepts, and to convert the
north-east transept into a morning chapel, to remove certain monuments
in consequence of alterations in St. Mary's Chapel, & to take down the
Beauchamp & Hungerford Chapels, on the plea that they were in a state
as