d under the curtain which
hangs beneath the western arch of the south aisle of the presbytery. On
the south side we see, as we enter, a fourteenth-century holy water
stoup, and further on, under a window, a wide round-headed archway which
formerly led into a chapel now demolished, which once was dedicated to
our Lady, before the larger chapel at the east end was built. In the
next bay is a blocked Norman window from which the plaster has been
scraped to show the character of the wall, built of Roman tiles; the
quadripartite vaulting is of plaster with lines painted red to make it
appear like stone. Opposite is a large oak money-chest, and above it on
the wall is the figure of a mendicant (see p. 63), carved in wood by a
verger in the eighteenth century, hat in hand, as if asking the
passer-by to put a coin in the poor-box below. In the south wall is a
doorway which led into the treasury. The next bay is largely rebuilt; on
the south side is a door and opposite is the back of John of
Wheathampstead's chantry. From this we pass into the south aisle of the
Saint's Chapel.

[Illustration: SOUTH AISLE OF PRESBYTERY.]

First we see the doorway on the north side, under which are steps
leading up into the chapel, and further on we come to a trellis-work of
iron through which we can look across the space once occupied by the
monument of "Good" Duke Humphrey of Gloucester into the Saint's Chapel.
This grill is older (about 1275) than the rich canopy over the duke's
grave, and was doubtless erected to allow of a view being obtained from
this aisle of the martyr's shrine. There are a number of figures of
kings in the canopied niches over the grave, but it is not possible to
identify them. Opposite are some remains of a stone screen of the
Perpendicular period; it probably divided the aisle from some external
chapel. After the chapel perished the wall was built up; but during the
restoration this arcading was discovered. Through an oak screen, Lord
Grimthorpe's work, we pass into the #retro-choir.# This, as we have
before seen, was sadly mutilated after the Reformation, when the public
path was made through this part of the building and the Lady Chapel
turned into a grammar school; hence we shall find more modern work here
than in any other equal area of the church. The part east of the passage
was for long used as a covered playground for the boys and suffered much
in consequence. It was originally built at the end of the thirteen