o pull down the
towers flanking it, so much wider was the new building than the old.
Even Roger's transepts did not extend beyond the aisle walls of the new
choir, and their place was taken by the present eastern transepts, which
are each merely a bay of the aisle, raised to the same height as the
vault of the choir itself, and open to the choir from top to bottom.

There has been a dispute whether or no this presbytery was completed in
Thoresby's lifetime. According to Stubbs, Thoresby provided tombs for
six of his predecessors, and placed them in the choir in front of the
lady chapel--that is to say, in the presbytery.

He also says that _Idem Archiepiscopus ... Capellam ... Virginis Mariae
Mirabili arte Sculpturae atque notabili pictura peregit_.

The building must certainly have been roofed before it was decorated,
and if Stubbs is accurate, and there is no reason to suppose that he is
not, the work was completed by Thoresby. Thoresby died in 1373, and if
he finished the presbytery, there was a gap of seven or eight years
between its completion and the beginning of the choir. There is internal
evidence to support this presumption. The presbytery, though
Perpendicular in its main features, shows many traces of the transition
from the curvilinear Decorated to the Perpendicular style, especially in
the tracery of the great east window and the clerestory windows. In the
choir proper these traces have vanished, and the work, though apparently
of the same character as that in the presbytery, is altogether
Perpendicular. A lapse of ten years in the continuity of the work would
account for this change, and becomes still more probable when we
consider that the circumstances of the time were not favourable for
great expenditure on building. The presbytery had been completed
unusually quickly. Indeed, we know that L627 were spent upon it in one
year, and this was an unusual amount. The average expenditure, for
instance, on the choir of Ely was L318. It was natural, therefore, that
there should be a halt to collect further funds. The work of the choir
itself proceeded much more slowly. There was a complaint in 1390 on the
archbishop's visitation--_quod fabrica ecclesiae negligenter
tardatur_--and it was not roofed in until 1400.

The contract for the glazing of the great east window is December 10,
1405--that is to say, thirty years and more from the date of its
construction. But there is nothing unusual in this. It was cust