e
said of the window in the south transept gable: the gable, by the way,
is a much plainer affair than that of the north transept.

Here stood the two CLOISTER LADY CHAPELS, but unfortunately their
sites were not marked on the grass after the excavations were finished
three years ago. Thus nothing can be seen from here of the earlier
chapel, and, of the later, only the doorway and the Perpendicular
panelling against the cloister which marks its western end, and the
commencement of the walls. A small quatrefoiled hagioscope may be
noticed in the library above the cloister; it, no doubt, commanded a
view of the high altar of the chapel.

The earlier _Capella B.M.V. juxta claustrum_ is often referred to in
the chapter documents, and was a favourite centre of devotion. It
became a kind of family chapel for the numerous clan of Byttons, after
the first bishop of that name was buried there; it was also sometimes
used as a chapter-house. The Early English doorway which led to it can
still be seen in the cloister wall, on the right of the present
doorway; it is partly covered by an I.H.S. of later date, made with
the instruments of the Passion. The excavations of 1894, when the
foundations were laid bare under Mr Buckle's direction, showed that
this chapel consisted originally of a plain oblong building, earlier
even than the north porch in date (_i.e._ before 1185), which was
afterwards (c. 1275) enlarged by the addition of an aisle on either
side. The excavations showed that arches were used at this time to
replace the western part of the older walls, and thus to throw the
ancient chapel open to its new aisles. The original chapel, then, if
it was not actually part of Bishop Gisa's buildings, spared when John
de Villula destroyed Gisa's cloister, seems to have been built not
long after Gisa's time, and at least on the site of Gisa's chapel.
This would account for its orientation, which was in a more northerly
direction than that of the cathedral, and probably was the same as
that of the pre-Norman church. Excellent plans of the foundations both
of this and the later chapel are to be found in the _Somerset
Proceedings_ for 1894, where the whole matter is discussed in detail
by Canon Church and Mr Edmund Buckle.

The later chapel on this site was built by _Bishop Stillington_
(1466-91): it followed the orientation of the cathedral, and was of
much larger size than the former building, being about 107 ft. in
length. It consi