good niches at the west end above the window, but
there are no figures in them; and there are shallow arches on the
surface of the wall, on each side of the window as well as beneath it.
Above most of the niches are shields with heraldic bearings, twelve in
all. Among these are the coats of Edward the Confessor, the See of Ely,
Bishops Hotham, Montacute, Fordham, and perhaps Barnet.[11] One shield
has a cross, and one a lion between three helmets. The arms of the
monastery--three keys (said to have been adopted from Bishop Ethelwold
of Winchester)--occur four times, in three cases with initials beneath.
These initials are: A. W., which may certainly be assigned to Alan de
Walsingham; J. C.; and C. W. S. From the occurrence of Bishop Fordham's
arms we may conclude that this west end was reconstructed, or at least
that its reconstruction was completed, in his time (1388-1425). In some
of the lower niches are memorial tablets.

On each side of the lady-chapel are five large windows of four lights
each, with very beautiful tracery. Those on the north side have been
thoroughly restored within the last few years. At the same time the
cusps have been replaced in the large circles, of which two are over the
head of each window. Between the windows are buttresses, necessarily
large, to support the vast extent of the stone-groined roof. At the four
corners are double buttresses, with much larger pinnacles, and two
niches toward the top, the upper one shallow, but the lower deep enough
to hold a statue, and with a projecting canopy. The east end is less
decorated than the west. There was once, as it seems, some sculptured
figure or figures in front of the upper part of the window, no doubt
destroyed when the interior was mutilated.

[Illustration: ELEVATION OF ORIGINAL BAYS OF BISHOP NORTHWOLD'S
PRESBYTERY.]

"The #East End# of the cathedral itself (Bishop Hugh's work) is a
grand example of Early English."[12] Except for the windows of the
chapels of Bishops Alcock and West in the aisles, and that the Early
English lancets in the triforium range in the south aisle have been
removed and a plain wall substituted, this eastern front is almost
unaltered. It does not appear when this last alteration was made. In the
view in Bentham, dated 1767, are represented lancets glazed and blank,
exactly similar to those in the triforium on the north. The windows are
all lancets, without any cusping. Their grouping is specially effective.
In t