the window-head, and
part of the tracery between them is rectangular.

The inhabitants of Wells are, or were, exceedingly proud of the
"vista" into the procession-path and Lady Chapel, which is afforded by
the three dainty pointed arches of the east end. So proud were they
that they would suffer nothing to stand behind the high altar but a
low stone wall, barely higher than the altar itself, an arrangement
which, it is hardly necessary to point out, defeated its own end by
reducing the whole effect to absolute baldness. Mr Freeman wisely
pointed out the need of a respectable reredos, remarking that the
original founders never dreamed of the Lady Chapel acting as a
"peep-show to the choir." A Lady Chapel, he added, was built specially
not to be peeped into, but to be a thing apart from the great whole of
the church, from the high altar westward. After a while, a reredos was
offered to the church, and approved by Mr J.D. Sedding, who was then
the cathedral architect; but there was much opposition, and the scheme
was dropped. Dean Plumptre, with characteristic temerity, went so far
as to appeal to the witness of the _vox populi_ that the open view was
the best. Since then, wiser counsels have prevailed, and a curtain
(small and dingy, it is true, but still a curtain) now hangs behind
the altar. While giving a measure of dignity to the east end, it, of
course, emphasises, as every architect must have known that it would,
the charm of the "peep" into the chapels beyond.

A larger reredos would further enhance the peculiar charm of the east
end. There can, indeed, be little doubt that the ancient reredos was
of tabernacle work, so as to carry on the effect of niches of the
triforium storey. Their present disconnectedness can be no part of the
original plan, and a reredos full of statues, which was high enough to
group adequately with the rich canopies above could have been the only
way to secure dignity and unity of effect. Till an architect is found
capable of mastering so delicate a problem of proportion as such a
reredos must present, we may well be content with a larger and
brighter curtain. The low east wall, with its ugly cresting, warns us
not to embark too rashly upon modern stonework.

The lierned stone vault, with its heavy, angular ribs, is of a very
unusual kind. Mr Freeman described it as "a coved roof, such as we are
used to in woodwork in this part of England, only with cells cut in it
for the clerestory win