r which he substituted the
present roof, a groined wooden vault, admirable in its lofty pitch and
judicious colouring. Its chief feature, however, is the splendid bosses
along the ridge, which are survivals from either the Decorated or a
subsequent Perpendicular vault. In some of these bosses the figures are
five feet long.

From west to east the subjects are as follows: (1) A head; (2) an
angel, with foliage; (3) a head; (4) a man conducting a woman to a
church door; (5) a bishop in benediction; (6) a king enthroned; (7)
a bishop enthroned; (8) a king and a bishop enthroned together; (9)
the Crucifixion (modern); (10) the Annunciation; (11) the expulsion
from Paradise; (12)? the good Samaritan; (13) a head.

There are also good foliage bosses against the walls between the
pendentives. The westernmost pendentive on either side rests on a
Perpendicular corbel carved with delicate foliage.

The general arrangements of the presbytery have been much changed since
the middle ages. The altar then stood against a screen one bay in
advance of its present position, and the iron hooks upon the second
complete column from the east end on either side held, it is supposed,
the Lenten Veil. Before the last restoration the altar stood, as now,
against the east wall (on a single step, however), but the Sanctuary
still extended two bays westward and was three steps above the rest of
the choir, which was all on one level. Since then the floor has been
raised one step at the east end of the stalls, and the steps to the
Sanctuary have been diminished by one, while there are now two steps to
the altar, and the Sanctuary and the raised portion of the choir have
received an inlaid marble pavement. The reredos, an arcading of slender
arches each enclosing a trefoiled arch impaling a trefoil, is a
restoration of the original Decorated work. The latter had been covered
by a painted screen of wood--possibly of late mediaeval workmanship--and
this again by a huge oil-painting of the time of Charles II. Both were
removed to make way for a high reredos by Blore, which in its turn was
taken down by Sir Gilbert Scott.[96] On the pavement south of the altar
is a piscina, which (if this be its original position) must have
belonged to a chapel or chantry behind the high altar--possibly the
chantry of the Holy Trinity _subtus altare_.[97] From its position it
would seem that in those days the floor here was considerably low