century, but certainly several
years later than the entry into the choir, further great works were
begun by the monk and sacrist Richard de Eastgate. He probably commenced
by clearing away the two eastern arches of each of the nave arcades,
which, it will be remembered, are thought to have been continued right
up to the choir arch; and, then, having completed the piers at the ends
of the choir walls, laid the bases of the two others that with them
support the central tower. He next began the new north transept (_ala
borealis versus portam beati Willelmi_), and made it half as wide again
as its slender predecessor. Afterwards the north-west tower pier was
erected at the junction of the transept and the nave, and, finally,
there is a discussion as to whether the northern tower arch was built
now or not until later. We are told that all this work, begun by Richard
de Eastgate, was almost finished by Thomas de Mepeham, who became
sacrist in 1255. The laying out of the bases of the western pair of
piers to the central tower was formerly assigned to a much earlier date;
while the eastern piers were supposed to have been finally finished in
William de Hoo's time. This work would, however, scarcely have been done
before the new wider transept was undertaken, and it cannot have been
carried out before the eastern part of the Norman nave was cleared away.

Only a short time elapsed then before the building of the south transept
(_ala australis versus curiam_) by Richard de Waldene, monk and sacrist,
and next came the completion of the supports for the central tower, by
the construction of its south-west pier and the other arches. The
building of the eastern (the choir) arch, and the possible earlier date
of the northern one, have already been spoken of. The two bays of the
nave nearest the crossing, were also rebuilt in their present form, and
the stability of the arches that were to bear the central tower was thus
secured. The reconstruction of the whole nave seems to have been
intended by the architects of this time; but want of funds, probably,
stopped the work.

[Illustration: NORTH SIDE OF THE CATHEDRAL IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
(FROM AN ENGRAVING BY DANIEL KING).]

To leave purely architectural history for a while, we find the church
on which all this labour was so lovingly bestowed undergoing another
terrible experience in 1264. On Good Friday of that year it was
desecrated by the troops of Simon de Montfort, after the