North Side 81
The Reredos 84
The Lady-Chapel 85
Doorway of the Lady-Chapel 86
The North Choir Aisle, looking West 89
The Presbytery and the supposed Shrine of S. Etheldreda 91
Bishop Alcock's Chapel 94
Bishop West's Chapel 95
The Choir, looking East 98
The Chapter Seal (from Bentham) 99
Bishop Alcock's Chantry from the Retro-Choir 112
The North Choir Aisle, looking East 122
Bishop West's Chapel 123
The Brass of Bishop Goodrich 124
Bishop Woodford's Tomb 129
Prior Crauden's Chapel 131
Plan of the Infirmary (from Bentham) 132
Ely Porta, The Great Gate Of The Monastery, 1817 133
Ground Plan Of Ely Cathedral _At end._

[Illustration: THE NORTH SIDE OF THE CATHEDRAL.
_Photochrom Co. Ltd. Photo._]

[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL FROM THE SOUTH.
_Photochrom Co. Ltd. Photo._]

ELY CATHEDRAL.

CHAPTER I.

THE HISTORY OF THE BUILDING.

No mention has been found of Ely as a town before the time of the virgin
queen S. Etheldreda. The district known as the Isle of Ely--which now
includes the whole of the northern part of Cambridgeshire above the
River Ouse, together with a few parishes east of that river that are in
the county--is spoken of at the time of the marriage of the princess as
if it were a district well known and perhaps of some importance, as it
was assigned to her as a dowry. Some writers have held that the
expression the Isle of Ely applied only to the rising ground on which
the city now stands and to its immediate neighbourhood. If this were
ever the case, the name was soon used for a larger district. In the
"Liber Eliensis" the limits of the isle are given as seven miles in
length by four in breadth, while the extent of the two hundreds
belonging to Ely reaches from Tydd to Upware and from Bishop's Delf to
Peterborough. We have many examples of large inland distri