N OF THE NORMAN CHURCH.
From Sir Gilbert Scott's Lectures. (By permission of Mr. John Murray.)]

The transept had no aisles either on its eastern or western side; the
eastern termination differed much from anything in existence now.

Mr. Prior in his "History of Gothic Art in England" tells us that two
types of east end were to be found in the Anglo-Norman churches, both
brought from the Continent, one the chevet prevalent in Northern France,
the other derived originally from fourth and fifth century churches of
the East, passing to Lombardy in the ninth century, and then along the
Rhine and even reaching Normandy. Such was the original eastern
termination of St. Stephen's, Caen; such may still be seen in St.
Nicholas', Caen. This east end consisted of a number of parallel aisles,
each with its own apse at its eastern end. "Norman use had squared the
aisle endings of the choir two bays beyond the cross, the apse
projecting its half circle beyond this, as at St. Etienne's, Caen, and
in this form Lanfranc's Canterbury had been built."[4]

[4] Prior's "History of Gothic Art in England," p. 63.

In St. Albans this plan was further developed; from each arm of the
transept two apses projected eastward, the outer ones consisting only of
a semicircular projection from the transept, the inner ones of a
rectangular bay from which the semicircular part ran eastward. The choir
aisles, as we should now call them, consisted of four bays, beyond which
they ended in a projection semicircular within, but rectangular when
seen from the outside, the walls being thickened at the corners. These
aisles were divided from the presbytery not by open arcading but by
solid walls. The presbytery itself terminated in a semicircle projecting
beyond the ends of the aisles. This extended as far as the centre of the
present retro-choir.

Above the crossing rose the central tower, much as we see it to-day,
save that it was probably crowned with a pyramidal cap rising from its
outside walls. Probably also the tower as well as the rest of the church
was covered with whitewashed plaster, thus hiding the material of which
it was built--the Roman bricks of which mention has been already made.
These bricks surpass in hardness and durability those of modern days,
and are of different size and shape from those we are acquainted with.
Those used in St. Albans are of two sizes, 17 x 8 x 2 and 11 x 51/2 x 2.
The joints are wide, the mortar between the cour