his country, and the former is
interesting, also, as possibly giving us some idea of the appearance of
this part of the Norman church at Canterbury. The connection between the
archiepiscopal cathedral and this its eldest daughter was always close,
and the resemblances that can be pointed out in them are still numerous.
Mr. Parker, by the way, was so struck by the similarities in later,
Early English, work, as to suggest that the Rochester William de Hoo may
have been the William the Englishman, the younger William, of
Canterbury.

It has been noticed that the architecture is plainer here than in
contemporary examples in France, but lighter, probably because intended
to have a wooden roof. From the west wall the Norman work extends as far
as the sixth bay of the nave arcades, the seventh and eighth bays being,
with part of the sixth, the work of Early Decorated builders. The half
piers at the west wall and the Norman piers facing each other in the
nave arcades form pairs, but each pair differs from the rest. The pier
capitals are flat, with scalloped ornaments. The semi-cylindrical shafts
starting from them are now stopped by the plain string course that
divides this from the next story. If they were continued further they
would only emphasize the irregular placing of the Perpendicular
clerestory windows, but they probably rose originally to bear the main
timbers of the roof. The arches of the lowest story are semicircular, of
course, and are in two orders. Both orders were, it is believed, plain
throughout, in early Norman times, and they still continue to be so on
the aisle side of the south arcade. The inner order is still plain
everywhere, but the outer has zigzag and other mouldings. In each bay of
the triforium, the tympanum is filled with an elaborate diaper around a
central ornament. This decoration varies in every bay, and is thought to
be a later insertion. It is noteworthy that the triforium arcades open
into the aisles as well as into the nave, an unusual arrangement, which
seems, however, here to be part of the design of the twelfth century.
This opinion is supported by the existence of the narrow gallery, now
blocked up, in the thickness of the wall. The early Norman triforium
arcades seem to have been removed by the architects of the following
period, and replaced in the present form. The aisles were perhaps
originally vaulted; the flat pilasters of their outer walls might then
have been built as vaulting