onastery, which he had
dedicated to S. Oswald. On it was inscribed the rhyming hexameter _Jon
de Caux abbas Oswaldo consecrat hoc vas_. The other great work of this
period was a magnificent Lady Chapel, since destroyed, begun in 1272 by
William Parys, then Prior, who laid the first stone with his own hand,
and placed beneath it some writings from the gospels. He lived to see it
completed, and at last his body was interred within it. Its altar was
consecrated in 1290, as is recorded in the register of Bishop Oliver
Sutton. It is described as having been built of stone and wood, with a
leaden roof, and with glass windows. There was a statue of the Virgin,
and round the walls, or perhaps in the stained glass in the windows,
there were figures of those named in the genealogy, with a compendium of
their lives beneath each. The Prior contributed five pounds of silver
and upwards of his annual revenues towards the decoration of this
chapel. From an engraving in Gunton's History, which may be taken as
fairly representing its appearance, for it was standing in his time,
although the drawing is manifestly inaccurate and must have been
sketched from memory, we gather that the windows were of the same
character as four which are still to be seen, three of them in the
eastern chapels of the south transept, and the fourth on the north side,
near the site of the Lady Chapel. These are all of excellent geometric
work, and precisely of the date given. This chapel was built, as at Ely,
to the east of the north transept. The position of the roof can be
traced on the east wall of the transept; and it can be there seen how
the Norman triforium windows were originally arranged. These being
covered by the Lady Chapel, had not been altered like those in other
parts of the church.

Other works of this century, not mentioned in the annals, are the entire
removal of the lower stage of Norman windows in the aisles, these were
replaced by wide windows of five lights each; the addition of a parapet
to the apse; the erection of piscinas and other accompaniments to side
altars, at the east ends of the choir aisles.

For the rest of the architectural history we have no chronicles to guide
us, and are left to the stones themselves. But there is very little
difficulty in fixing at least approximate dates for all the later work.
The most important alteration in the fourteenth century was the removal
of the stages above the four great arches of the centra