ibule and the chapter-house. It is joined to the
wall of the chapter-house up to the battlement, and consists of an
irregular mass of masonry ornamented as far as possible in the same
manner as the other buttresses with gables and panelling. The two bays
of the vestibule nearest to the chapter-house have nothing unusual about
them except their buttresses. One of these is set close to the wall up
to the spire of the pinnacle. All the other buttresses of the vestibule,
except the one built against the buttress of the transept end, have
pinnacles joined to the wall by a pierced arch of curious and ingenious
design. The vestibule is crowned by plain battlements like that of the
chapter-house, with small square-headed windows of two lights each. The
windows of the two bays nearest the transept end are of most unusual
design, which will be explained in the account of the interior; these
bays are narrower than the others, that nearest to the transept being
the narrowest of all.

#The Choir.#--The exterior of the north side of the choir is almost
identical with that of the south; but there are some points of
difference between the four earlier bays east of the transept and the
four later ones west of it. In particular, in the four eastern bays the
triforium passage runs outside instead of inside the building. The
clerestory windows are recessed, and in front of them, running flush
with the buttresses, is a screen of three divisions to each bay (see
illustration, p. 62). The triforium passage, hidden by the roof of the
aisle, runs below the screen and the windows, and between the two. The
mullions dividing the screen run straight up to the battlement. The tops
of the divisions are ornamented with cusped arches of open stonework.
There is a transom crossing the mullions of the screen about one-third
of the way up. It is difficult to say what was the object of this
screen. It must have been included in the original design, and so cannot
have been added afterwards to strengthen the walls. Whether it was a
merely decorative experiment or an architectural device for the purpose
of allowing the walls to be pierced with very large windows for the
display of glass cannot now be decided. The effect from the outside is
not good. The mullions break the surface into too many vertical lines,
and, with the transom, take away from the dignity and purity of outline
of the exterior. Inside, whether by a lucky chance or not, this screen,
by darke