velled to make space for the famous churchyard of St. Paul's."
Maurice died before the work was anything like finished, but Richard
de Belmeis, a most munificent prelate, devoted his episcopal revenues
for the purpose.

An earthquake in the second year of Rufus, followed two years later by
a destructive November storm, impeded the progress, but in spite of
all drawbacks and hindrances, builders and workmen toiled on, Henry I.
exempting the stone from toll. "Such is the stateliness of its
beauty," said William of Malmesbury, "that it is worthy of being
numbered amongst the most famous of buildings; such the extent of the
crypt, of such capacity the upper structure, that it seems sufficient
to contain a multitude of people." It was the variation of an inch or
two in the regularity of the arching of Maurice's new nave that
afterwards sorely vexed Wren.

We have now come to a time when Domesday gives us some interesting
information. A commencement had been made of endowing separate stalls.
Certain of the estates were parcelled out in this way, partly because
they may have been safer from alienation, partly that the canons might
be responsible, if necessary, for the services of religion in the
manors and townships in which their endowments, technically known
afterwards as _corpses_, were situated. In Domesday, St. Pancras,
Rugmere (in St. Pancras), and Twyford, in Willesden, appear, and may
fairly be set down as the three original _prebends_, although the term
"prebend" does not yet appear, neither do the distinctive names of the
stalls. To these three some would add Consumpta-per-Mare in the Essex
Walton, so called because the glebe was _consumed_ by the
encroachments of the sea. We will dismiss this obscure subject by
anticipating a little, and stating that, what with parts of the old
endowments and what with additions, by the end of the twelfth century
the thirty prebends were complete. The names and inscriptions will be
found in the account of the interior of the present Choir.

The two Caddingtons were a gift in Bedfordshire in the diocese of
Lincoln; the remaining twenty-eight were in Middlesex and Essex. The
corporate property of the Chapter by the same date must have reached
24,000 acres.[7]

The Conquest brought other changes in its train. Originally the bishop
was head of the Chapter, and the canons his assistants. But, beginning
not later than with Maurice, who held high office under the Crown, the
bishops be