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formed by mullions and transoms, enriched with tracery and foiled headings. The forms of the triforium arches, of the clerestory, and of the arches opening into the chapels and choir-aisles, were changed from round to pointed; but within the triforium the round arches remain, and the wall on which the panelling is laid is the original Norman. The great distinction between the work here and that in the nave of Winchester, with which it may be instructively compared, is, that in the latter instance the Norman work was completely hidden, and recased with Perpendicular masonry: at Gloucester the later work was only laid on the Norman walls and arches. This is more evident in the choir than in the transepts.

The south transept, according to Abbot Froucester, was the first part of the Church to be thus treated. The panelling, however, although dating from the first half of the fourteenth century, (1329-1337,) has much of Perpendicular character; and the alterations in this transept may accordingly be regarded as perhaps the earliest approach to Perpendicular work in England. The design is indeed wanting in one chief characteristic of true Perpendicular; as the mullions are not carried straight up to the head of the arch, but branch off into arches before reaching it. But although the work in this transept retains much of Decorated character, the tendency to change is sufficiently marked; and in the rest of the cathedral (north transept and choir) the Perpendicular style is completely developed. According to Professor Willis, it may have commenced here

"It must have begun somewhere; in some place the mullion must have been carried up for the first time, and no place is so likely as Gloucester to have produced the change of style"."

On the east side, the entrance to the choir-aisle is closed by an open screen, with two doorways in the lower part, one leading to the aisle, the other into the crypt. The form of their arches is very unusual, and deserves notice. The rib of a great buttress, supporting the wall of the choir, runs through the triforium above. In the south-east bay is an arch, long closed, leading into the Norman chapel, on either side of which are canopied brackets for figures. In the panel filling the first bay, just above the top of the crypt door, is the socalled Prentice's bracket, [Title,] in form resembling a builder's square. Two figures support it, curiously placed, the lower with a bag at his waist. It is traditionally said to be a memorial of the master builder and his son, or prentice, but was in all probability a bracket for light. (For a description of the Norman. (St. Andrew's) chapel, restored and decorated since 1863, see APPENDIX, note 4.)

On the south side of the transept is a large Perpendicular window (the glass by HARDMAN) of good design, below which is a passage, behind an open arcade. The passage is entered from a Norman staircase-turret in the south-west angle, and leads upward to the triforium. The effect of this arcade, with its unusual depth of shadow, is very good.

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Report of Professor Willis's lecture at Gloucester, Gent. Mag., Sept. 1860.

In the wall under this passage are two doorways, now closed, above one of which (eastward) is a grotesque monster; the other forms what is called the confessional. [Plate II.] Three steps ascend to the door, between panels which slope like the sides of a chair, and are supported by figures which seem to be those of angels. The heads, however, are gone, and the figures are otherwise much defaced. The local tradition asserts that those who came to confess entered by the first door, with the monster's head above it, typical of sin; and left by the other, with the sorrowing angels, representing penitence. How far the doorways were at all connected with a confessional is, however, quite uncertain.

Against this wall is an ugly Elizabethan mounument for RICHARD PATES, (died 1588); and the high tomb with effigies of Alderman BLACKLEECH, "who was admitted to the glory of eternity 1639," and his wife Gertrude. The figures are in alabaster, and are wonderful examples of costume. All the details-boots, rosettes, sword-belt and sword-handle; and the lady's lace and short jacket-deserve notice. It was not for her beauty that Dame Gertrude was thus commemorated.

In the west wall is a Perpendicular window, with blank panelling below. An open screen-work covers the arch into the nave, and the choir-buttress runs through its upper division. The roof is a plain lierne, without bosses, and ", one of the earliest specimens of this complex class of rib-vaulting. Owing to the difference of the angles of the ribs, such a vault was very difficult of construction; most skilful workmanship was neces