loft, now the gallery for one of the finest
organs and choirs our country can boast, we enter the choir, which, as it
extends westward considerably beyond the tower, is of unusual length, and
imposing in its effect; the lantern, or lower part of the tower, rising
in the centre, supported by four noble arches, that bear the weight of
the whole tower and spire, is impressively beautiful, albeit modern
decorators have been at work to spoil the harmony that should prevail, by
medallions and wreaths that should have no place there, however pretty in
themselves.

The connoisseur may here find an abundant field to exercise his
architectural knowledge, in deciding the various dates of the several
portions of this beautiful part of the building. The long row of stalls,
with their high-backed and projecting canopies, crowned with multitudes
of crocketted pinnacles, the richly decorated screen-work, that shuts out
the plainer Norman aisles, the mysterious-looking triforium running round
the curious apsidal termination, the light clerestory, with its tier of
windows, divided by feathered and canopied niches, whence spring the main
ribs of the vaulted roof,--form a whole, that it needs no skill in art or
science to be enabled to appreciate and enjoy. Of painted glass, perhaps
the less said the better--we may be wanting in taste or judgment; certain
it is, it forms no very prominent feature of beauty, and a kaliedoscope
of mediocre arrangement, and a rather indifferent illumination
transparency, may, we fancy, each find a counterpart among the specimens
of colour that do exist. Something is in progress--perhaps on an
improved scale.

But we must not omit to glance at a few of the quaint old carvings, that
remain almost as sole relics of the ancient furniture of the church.
Entering any stall, we observe the seat turns up on hinges, and beneath
is a narrow ledge, which it has been presumed was a contrivance to
relieve the old monks from the fatigue of standing, during the parts of
the service where that position is prescribed by the rubric; they were
supposed to lean upon these ledges in a half-sitting posture; but a much
more reasonable conjecture is, that they were intended as rests for the
elbows and missal when kneeling in prayer; a glance at them when turned
up instantly suggests the idea of a _prie dieu_, which they closely
resemble. The lower parts of these _misereres_, as they were called, are
decorated in a most elaborat