a
string, with gargoyles. Except at this end the wall, as in the
clearstorey of the nave, is not buttressed, notwithstanding the size of
the windows and their nearness together.

[Illustration: FLYING BUTTRESSES, SOUTH SIDE OF CHOIR.]

=The East End.=--The rebuilding of the east end of Archbishop Roger's
choir was probably the object of an indulgence of 1284 by Archbishop
Wickwaine, a brief of 1285 by Pope Celestine V., two indulgences issued
in 1288 and 1300 respectively by Archbishops Romanus and Corbridge, and
some credentials issued by the latter in 1302 for a collector of funds.
And yet it is hard to fix the date of the work with any exactness. It
had apparently not begun in 1286, for a mandate of Archbishop Romanus in
that year begins _Cancellus Rypon' ruinosus reparetur_; but it may have
been completed before the irruption of the Scots in 1318. Two
indulgences of Archbishop Melton, one of which is dated 1328, do indeed
allude to some "new work" as still unfinished, but this "new work" may
have been the repairs necessitated by the violence of the Scots.[51] The
east end of the Cathedral, then, recalls that period in our history when
Edward I. was wrestling with the Scottish problem, and was also carrying
into effect those lessons in representative government which he had
learnt from Simon de Montfort.

[Illustration: THE EAST END.]

The well-marked plinth of this east end has been already noticed. Either
corner of the choir contains a staircase, and is strengthened by a pair
of massive buttresses and crowned by an octagonal turret with a conical
stone cap and a finial. These buttresses have a projection of 8 feet,
rise to the top of the aisles, and are surmounted by gables with
finials, and at the north corner the gables and the coping of the aisle
are crocketed. At the south corner the upper part of the turret has
been used as a cell. It is lighted by a small slit and has a wooden
floor with a trap in it, from which a ladder once descended to the head
of the staircase; and at the west side, in the parapet of the aisle,
there is a garderobe seat. It would be interesting to know whether this
turret was a prison, or a place of penance, or whether it was occupied
by a watchman or sentinel, or, as is not improbable, by one of those
recluses who were so often attached to religious communities in the
middle ages. The central compartment is flanked by two huge buttresses,
which have a projection of 10 feet at the