the fall of the _tholus_ in
1248. The caps must therefore have been carved during the episcopate
of Burnell (1275-1292). Mr Irvine, indeed, suggests that the figure of
the woman taking a thorn ("bur") from her foot may contain a reference
to Bishop Burnell. The undercroft passage, with its curious corbels
and bosses, was probably also a part of the old work then completed,
as it contains one "toothache" head. Although the introduction of such
finished figure-subjects into the capitals suggests this lateness of
date, they are still completely Early English in style, and a great
gulf is fixed between them and the Decorated caps of the chapter-house
begun by Burnell's successor, William de Marchia (1293-1302).

[Illustration: The South Transept From North Side Of Nave.]

[Illustration: Capitals In Transept]

THE FONT is of peculiar interest as the one surviving relic of Bishop
Robert's Norman church. Whether it also stood in the still earlier
Saxon church is still an open question: it is as likely to be of
pre-Norman as of Norman date, and the fact that whatever ornament
there may have been in the spandrels of its shallow arcades has been
hacked off, makes conjecture unsafe. Its unusual position in the south
transept may be due to the Bishop Giso's quasi-conventual buildings on
the south of the church, which would have made this transept the most
common entrance to the cathedral at the time of the Conquest. A
Jacobean cover rests upon the font, and with it forms a charming
combination of pre-Gothic and post-Gothic Romanesque design.

[Illustration: The Font. (Drawn by W. Heywood.)]

At the south end of the south transept is the tomb of Bishop _de
Marchia_ (_ob._ 1302). The effigy lies in a recess, and is covered
with a canopy of three bays, the ogival arches, finished in sumptuous
crockets and finials, painted red and gold, the spandrels being
alternately green and red, powdered with a little pattern, the cusps
and mouldings scarlet and crimson and green and gold, with a dark
colour in the shadows. The effigy of the bishop is one of the best in
the cathedral, but even more lovely are the three little figures so
charmingly supported on foliage at the back of the tomb--two angels
and a bishop between them. The heads of these three figures have been
wickedly destroyed, but parts of the chains of the angels' censers
remain. Of the two beautiful angels which hold the cushion the heads
fortunately remain. Along the plinth o