llars consisted of a stone casing filled with
rubble, he changed his plans.

The #West End# of the nave, as also the corresponding portions of the
two aisles, was pulled down and reconstructed by Abbot Morewent
(1421-1437) in the style known as Perpendicular. It is uncertain whether
Morwent's work was built on the same foundation line as the previously
existing Norman work. Some have thought that he lengthened the original
nave to the extent of one bay. Mr. Hope considers that he curtailed it
somewhat, and that the present Deanery building was similarly shortened.
Anyone who will take the trouble to space out with a compass the
distance between the centres of the piers in the nave on the plan will
be inclined to fall in with this suggestion.

Abbot Morwent, according to Leland, intended, "if he had lived, to have
made the whole body of the church of like worke." It is a matter for
rejoicing that he was not spared to carry out his intentions. His work,
though it has been censured, is, as Mr Waller points out, exceedingly
good of its kind. Morwent may have found the west end in danger of
falling, just as the towers that flanked the Norman west front had
collapsed in the twelfth century.

How Morwent would have made the whole body of the church "of like worke"
is another matter for speculation. Would he have kept the Norman piers
in their present position, and revaulted the roof after the model of his
vaulting in the second bay from the west end, or would he have
diminished the number of piers so as to give a distance between them
equal to the space between the west wall and the first pier he erected?
It is difficult to realise how such a herculean task would have been
carried out with safety to the fabric.

As to the work demolished by Morwent to make room for his own, it is
only possible to hazard the conjecture that the original west front of
Gloucester was something like that of the abbey at Tewkesbury, but with
the additional finish of two larger western towers. As the two churches
were being built almost at the same time, this conjecture seems
reasonable.

[Illustration: SOUTH AISLE OF NAVE.]

The #South Aisle# of the nave was originally of Norman work, similar in
style to that of the north aisle; but was remodelled and rebuilt to such
an extent by Abbot Thokey, in or about the year 1318, that the piers and
portions of the south wall are all that remain of the Norman work. He
desired probably to preserve the N