through a hole in ye wall. This Church has
ye most popish remaines of any I have seen. There still remains a Cross
over the alter; the Candlesticks are 3 quarters of a yard high, massy
silver gilt, very heavy. The ffont is One Entire piece of White Marble,
stemm and foote; the Cover was Carv'd Wood, with ye image of Christ's
being baptised by John, and the holy Dove descending on him, all finely
Carv'd white wood, without any paint or varnish."[22]

In the eighteenth century some extensive repairs became necessary, and
some alterations in the arrangements of the choir were carried out. The
former chiefly affected the roofs of the octagon and presbytery. Other
parts of the cathedral seem to have needed some repair, but not to a
considerable extent. The latter consisted in the moving of the ritual
choir to the extreme east end of the church, the returned stalls at its
western limit being at the sixth piers from the east end. This
alteration was effected in 1770.

The position of the high altar has been perhaps more often moved in this
cathedral than in any other. In the Norman choir the altar was situated
in the centre of the fourth bay east of the present octagon. When Bishop
Northwold enlarged the presbytery it was moved one bay further east.
After the rebuilding of the three bays west of Northwold's work, it
seems to have been moved again westward, as far as the first piers east
of the octagon. Again in 1770, at the time of which we are now speaking,
it was moved to the extreme east end, and was placed just against the
east wall. Now it stands between the second piers from the east.

It is not a little singular to notice the enthusiasm with which this
eighteenth-century change was greeted. Bentham says[23] it was "an
alteration which had long been wished for, by all persons of true
taste." And again: "It is allowed by the best judges to be one of the
most useful and ornamental Improvements that could have been effected";
and he gives a long disquisition highly praising the alteration. The
eastern portion, formerly "an useless encumbrance," was now brought into
use. The organ and voices could be better heard, the view of the octagon
was greatly improved, and the nave and transepts "have acquired their
due Dimensions." Compare this with Hewett's observations less than
eighty years later: "Never was there a more ill-judged step than the
removal of the Choir hither, towards the latter portion of the last
century. To giv