with the "glorious Choir of Conrad" built by Anselm. There is
much in the planning of his work to show that he was influenced by the
example of Conrad's choir.

[Illustration: The Minster (from an Old Print).]

At the end of the twelfth century the minster was utterly unlike the
present building. Except in the crypt, and in certain parts of the nave
and tower not visible to the casual observer, there are no vestiges of
the work of the earlier builders. There is now no Norman work to be seen
in the minster itself, and in 1200, nave, choir, transepts, and towers
were all Norman. Of these the transepts appear to have been the poorest
part. They were probably short, and had no aisles. The nave also was of
rude Early Norman character. The Early English architects having
determined, probably, to rebuild the nave and transepts, made a
beginning with the transepts about 1230. Roger's choir, only finished
about fifty years before, no doubt seemed to them grand enough. The
transepts were built on a totally different scale to the rest of the
church as it then stood. They were both longer and broader, and they had
aisles on each side of them. No doubt the object of this was to get a
standard for the ultimate rebuilding of the nave. The greater width of
these transepts made it difficult to join their aisles with those of the
nave and choir, and were the cause of a curious and daring expedient,
which will be described in the architectural account of the building.
The south transept was the first to be rebuilt. It is the work of Walter
de Gray, archbishop from 1216 to 1265, who was buried under an arch of
his own building, in a tomb which still remains the most beautiful,
perhaps, in the minster. The north transept seems to have been begun as
soon as the south was finished; it is said to have been the work of John
Romeyn, or the Roman, an Italian, and the treasurer of York. Walter de
Gray probably also had a large part in the building of them. These
transepts are the earliest part of the existing minster. John Romeyn
also built an Early English central tower in place of Thomas's Early
Norman tower. It remained for John Romeyn the younger, son of the
treasurer, and archbishop from 1286 to 1296, to begin the rebuilding of
the nave. It was planned on a far larger scale than the old nave, and
was wider even than the Early English transepts. The old nave had been
83 feet wide, the transepts were 95, and the new nave 103. The
difference i