y Gunton and Patrick, and the result of their studies was published in
1686. The work is entitled "The History of the church of Peterburgh ...
By Symon Gunton, late Prebendary of that church.... And set forth by
Symon Patrick, D.D., now Dean of the same." Gunton was Prebendary from
1646 to his death in 1676; Patrick was Dean from 1679 till his
consecration as Bishop of Chichester in 1689. Most of the documents in
question have since been printed. Two writers in the last half century
have published monographs on the cathedral, both of great value, both
treating the subject after Professor Willis's method. These are G.A.
Poole, formerly Vicar of Welford, whose paper on the Abbey Church of
Peterborough was published among the Transactions of the Architectural
Society of the Archdeaconry of Northampton in 1855, and the late
Professor F.A. Paley, a second edition of whose pamphlet, "Remarks on
the Architecture of Peterborough Cathedral," was issued in 1859. It by
no means detracts from the value of the method employed that the results
of the investigations of these two careful students of the fabric do not
accord with one another. Much must always be left to inference or
conjecture. Since they wrote many discoveries have been made which have
shewn some of their conclusions to have been inaccurate. But the rule
is a sound one, and indeed it is only by studying the documents and the
fabric together that one can hope to learn the history of any great
building.

Thus, when the chronicle records that Abbot Martin completed the
presbytery, and that then the monks entered into the new church, we
should naturally understand that he built no more than the existing
choir and its aisles. But there can be little doubt that his work
included the eastern bays and aisles of both transepts. The style of the
architecture speaks for itself, "the stones tell their own tale," and
the most careful study, and the most painstaking investigations, have
failed to detect the slightest break in the continuity or character of
the work. This applies to the whole of the eastern part of the
transepts, excepting of course the alterations that were made in later
times. As Martin remained abbot till 1155, it is probable that he went
on with his building after the choir had been opened, and that this work
in the transepts was done in the latter part of his abbacy, but there is
no record of it.

Of Abbot William of Waterville (1155-1175) we are told that in h