It will be noticed, also, that the pier between the
two arches is Decorated in style, and not Early English, like the rest
of the transept. Further, the triforium and clerestory do not accord in
their division with the main arches. There is no triforium, but merely a
blank space of wall with a small ornamental opening, next to the pier of
the lantern; and this blank wall only covers a small part of the space
over the arch below it. Near to the centre of that arch is a vaulting
shaft, and south of it a full-sized division of the triforium, with a
full-sized division of the clerestory above it, and the division fills
the space above both the remaining half of the first arch and the whole
of the smaller second arch. It is as if the _strata_ of the building had
been broken by a violent change, and this is exactly what happened. As
has been said, the old Norman nave and choir had much narrower aisles
than the present nave and choir; consequently, the bays of the transept
nearest to the piers of the lantern were narrower than the other bays,
so that their main arches might be exactly of the same size as the
arches of the Norman aisles which at that point joined on to them. But
when the far wider aisles of the present nave and choir were built these
narrower arches did not fit them, and their outside piers blocked up the
centre of the new aisles. The builders of the nave therefore determined
to remove these piers and to alter the whole scheme of the arches, so as
to make them fit the new aisles. By an extraordinary and daring feat of
engineering skill, they were able to do so without disturbing the
triforium and clerestory above them. This was effected in the following
manner:--The pier in the middle of the new aisle was removed, together
with the whole of the narrow arch which it supported on the one side and
the wider arch which it supported on the other. No doubt, in the
meantime the upper storeys of the two bays were kept from falling by
temporary props. A pier in the Decorated style was then placed so that
the arch above it fitted the arch of the new aisles, and the two
arches--the narrower one nearest the pier of the lantern, and the wider
one beyond it--were made to change places bodily, so that the same space
was occupied by the two together as before, and it did not become
necessary to disturb the rest of the piers. This narrower arch was then
walled up to give support to the lantern. Meanwhile, of course, with
this new