As soon as the visitor enters the church, he will be able to contrast the Norman work of the twelfth century with that which succeeded it in the thirteenth, as both are brought into juxtaposition immediately within the western doorway. The surviving Bay of the Nave, which probably marks the boundary of the monastic choir, now answers the purpose of a vestibule to the church, from the body of which it is separated by the organ-screen, the instrument being carried on a gallery built against the western wall. The nave arches, at each end of the passage thus formed, are semicircular in shape, with a zigzag moulding on the inner sides, and rest on massive rounded piers, with square bases and abaci and simple cushioned capitals—the whole obviously of early twelfth century date. The northern arch has been built up, and a small Tudor doorway, inserted in the wall, gives access to the transept.

At right angles with the southern arch, and on each side of the entrance to the choir aisle, or ambulatory, there is a cluster of Early English Columns, still bearing a portion of the vaulting-shafts, from which it can be seen that the pitch of the roof to the nave aisle was much higher than that of the ambulatory to which it was attached, probably implying a corresponding difference in the height of the nave. The slender columns on both sides are alike in their moulded bases, which resemble those left (in situ) among the ruins outside, as far as the latter can be discerned; but there is an interesting variety in other details, the capitals of the northern group being cut into foliage, while they are moulded on the south, where also the shafts are banded. The Organ-screen (modern) is an elegant piece of work in oak, panelled and canopied in the Perpendicular style. With the organ-front above, it forms an admirable background to the choir-stalls, which are arranged in the space within the old central tower, the seats for the congregation being carried along towards the east, facing each other chapel-wise, in continuation of the stalls on either side. A description of the organ will be found in the Appendix.

The Tower Arches are worth particular notice. Those on the north and south are pointed, and much narrower than the others, which have a bold semicircular sweep. An intelligible reason sometimes assigned for the difference is that the area enclosed is not exactly square, and that it became necessary for the builders to carry the transept-arches to a point, to accommodate them to the oblong plan, and bring the upper mouldings into line with those of the rounded arches between the choir and nave. On this supposition the result has been called "an incidental use of the pointed arch," examples of which occur elsewhere (e.g., at Christ Church, Oxford, and other churches of the transitional period) before it became a distinguishing feature of the later style. It is tolerably certain, however, that the tower was rebuilt in the fifteenth century, and that the north and south arches were then altered from their first design. And their appearance is strongly in favour of a reconstruction; for it will be noticed that, instead of the usual elegant inclination in a continuous curve from the spring to the apex, they rise perpendicularly for some distance above the piers on either side, and then take rather an abrupt turn inwards, suggesting the imposition of a pointed heading on an original stilted form. Further signs of alteration appear on the northern side, where the capitals have been recut in the Perpendicular fashion; but the Norman pilasters and mouldings on the south remain untouched. On both sides the double serrated line of moulding claims attention, as an example of the "saw-tooth" ornament found in early work. A difference will be observed in the corbels supporting the mouldings of the eastern and western arches. The former are much more boldly cut, with all the appearance of original work, while those on the west would seem to have been modified by some architect of the Perpendicular age. In the decoration of the inner tower walls there is a lozenge-shaped panel in each of the spandrels, sculptured into a floral ornament something like the Greek honeysuckle, a shallow arcading in the angles, and a cornice of zigzag moulding extending round the walls, immediately below the modern ceiling (1886) of panelled oak. The piers at the angles of the tower are not very much more massive than the adjacent walls, and do not strike one as capable of sustaining a superstructure of any great weight. It may therefore be inferred that the tower was a low one, as is in fact borne out by the representation on the Priory seal, where the circular turrets at each end of the church are shown to exceed it in height. The North Transept, which had been occupied for many years as a blacksmith's forge, was re-opened on 5th June, 1893, after restoration to something like its original state. It is now used as a morning chapel, with an altar in a recess on the north side, slightly to the east of the porch already described, by which the church is entered from Cloth Fair.[1]

Both transepts had been injured by fire, and were originally much deeper than they are at present, but to have rebuilt them exactly on the old lines would have involved the suppression of a right of way and the purchase of neighbouring properties, besides adding to the cost of heating and maintenance, expenses which the funds would not allow. Here, as elsewhere, the old work, as far as it remained, has been left undisturbed, and simply incorporated into the new, the architect contenting himself with removing the modern walls which had been set up at the extremities to keep out the weather, providing abutments to strengthen the central arches, and supplying what was wanted to complete the first design within the more limited area. During the reconstruction of this transept the fine arcaded Stone Screen was revealed which separates it from the space within the tower. The screen was buried some four feet in earth, and the upper part entirely concealed by the smithy. The style shows it to be of the fifteenth century, when there was probably a similar screen on the opposite side of the choir, the two backing the stalls, which are known to have been carried under the tower. The existing screen is divided into two wide arches, slightly depressed, with a moulding in four orders. It has been refaced on the choir side, and a partition of ironwork, ornamented with coloured coats of arms, inserted in the open spaces, to serve as a barrier without obstructing the view in either direction.

Under one of the arches there is a stone coffin, with a much decayed cover of Purbeck marble, which is supposed to have contained the body of a Prior. It was opened for examination during the rebuilding, when a skeleton was found within it, with sandals still on the feet, but as the skull was gone it was evident that the coffin had previously been opened. In the arch by its side there was another coffin of the same character, which has unfortunately been shifted to the north ambulatory. It is without a cover, and the skeleton is no longer there; but the leaden envelope remains, more or less in the state in which it was folded round the corpse. The arched recess on the east, by the side of the opening to the ambulatory, is supposed to have been the entrance to the Walden Chantry; but it has been built up with a return-wall.

The triforium is continuous through all three walls of the transept, each bay consisting of a double pointed arch, except that above the ambulatory, where the surviving Norman fragment shows three round-headed openings, included in a semicircular arch with billet moulding. The clerestory in the north wall, where the work is entirely new, is ornamented with a traceried arcading on an interior plane, which has a very beautiful effect. The South Transept, opened after restoration on 14th March, 1891, had been turned to account as a burial-ground, supplementary to that at the west end. The side walls were allowed to stand for the enclosure, but the south wall was pulled down, and another erected within the space, to separate the "Green Churchyard," as it was called, from the church. In this case, therefore, the restoration meant little more than the removal of the intercepting wall to open out the transept, and building a new one at the extremity, with a partial reconstruction of those which were decayed to connect them with it. In the renovation of both transepts blue Bath stone has been used internally, and Portland stone with flints for the exterior. The conservative nature of the work is here seen in the side walls, each of which retains a bay of the old Norman triforium, with its round-headed divisions, to which a new bay has been added, with a slightly pointed arcade, as a connection, without any violent contrast, between the older parts of the transept and the new south wall. This presents an agreeable variety to that facing it in the opposite transept. In the upper stage, instead of a triforium and clerestory, there are three tall windows of two lights each, the central being carried above the others, and distinguished by a more ornate tracery, here taking a cruciform pattern above the trefoil-headed divisions, instead of a foliated circle as in the side windows. The arcading in which they are all placed is severely simple in character, the slightly pointed headings resting on plain shafts, with moulded bases and capitals—the whole composition a pleasing relief to the heavier architecture on each side without being discordant. The same may be said of the lower stage, also arcaded in three divisions, corresponding with those above, but rather more massive in character. The central arch forms a porch, giving access to the church on that side, with a recess to the east and west of it, each lighted by a dwarfed window. The eastern of these recesses answers the purpose of a baptistery. The Font dates from the early fifteenth century, and is octagonal in shape, with a tall cover, crocketed at the angles, suspended on a swivel above it. The facets of the octagon are perfectly plain, but there is an oblong incision in one of them which looks very much like the matrix of a brass, or the seat of a sculptured panel, which has been removed. There is a traditional interest attaching to the font as that in which William Hogarth, the famous painter and satirist, was baptized. He was born in Bartholomew Close on 10th November, 1697, and his baptism is entered in the parish register on the 28th of the same month.[2] It is recorded that the font had a narrow escape in the eighteenth century, when the Vestry ordered it to be removed for a new one, but fortunately the order was never carried out.

In a recess on the eastern side of the transept there is a monument to Elizabeth Freshwater, whose effigy, in the costume and ruff collar of her time, is shown kneeling at a small priedieu, with English and Latin inscriptions beneath:

The doorway beneath the monument opens on the staircase to the south triforium. The Choir, now restored as nearly as possible to its original state, consists of five bays on each side, with an apsidal termination of five arches, distinguished from the others (mainly semicircular) by their "stilted" form and much narrower span, which, in fact, measures no more than the diameter of the intervening columns, and gives an appearance of extra massiveness to the east end of the church. All the arches display some approximation to the "horseshoe," in a slight inward inclination on either side towards the capitals on which they rest; but the shape is very definitely assumed in each of those immediately contiguous to the transverse curve. These are of the genuine "horseshoe" pattern characteristic of Arabian or Moorish buildings; and their exact similarity in detail, with their position facing one another at each extremity of the apse, would seem to indicate a structural necessity, or deliberate intention in the design, which, neither here nor elsewhere in the arcading, is to be attributed to any subsidence, or imperfect workmanship, sometimes held to account for the deflection as a mere accident.

The character of these arches, with the slightly domical vaults noticeable in the adjacent aisles, has led some persons to detect an Oriental influence in the building—possibly traceable to the visitors from Byzantium whom the founder is said to have consulted while it was in course of erection—though it is argued to the contrary that these features are sufficiently accounted for by the general tendency of Anglo-Norman architecture at the time, as illustrated elsewhere.

The arcading throughout rests on massive piers and circular columns, with square bases and abaci (incised at the angles) and low cushioned capitals, ornamented with a simple scallop. Above the arches, on the choir side, there is a billet moulding, which is considered unique in that, instead of forming a separate decoration to each arch, it is carried along horizontally above the abaci on either side in a continuous line of ornament.

The Triforium consists of a series of rounded arches, the piers from which they spring being placed directly above those of the main arcade. Each of the side bays is divided into four compartments by small columns, above which the tympanum of the enclosing arch is occupied by a blank wall. The sequence is, of course, interrupted by the oriel window in the central bay on the south; and the narrower openings in the apse only admit of a twofold division. There are said to have been originally windows at the back of the triforium-gallery, as at Durham, Peterborough, and other Norman churches of the same period; but the mutilation and rebuilding in the external walls have greatly destroyed the original work. Prior Bolton's Window was probably inserted about 1530, when the device of a "bolt in tun" was officially authorized for Bolton's arms, on his own choice, as presenting his name in the emblematical form then in vogue. The window is an "oriel" in the Perpendicular style, separated vertically by mullions into three lights in front, with one at each end of the projection, and horizontally by transoms into an upper and lower tier, the former having a trefoil heading to each division. There is a sloping hipped roof to the window, and a broad moulded corbel below it. The well-known rebus is boldly displayed upon the central of the five square panels (all sculptured) which adorn the face of this picturesque chamber (oriolum), probably built as a convenient private pew for the Prior, from which he could survey the whole of the choir and the Founder's tomb. The Tudor doorway, which now opens into the choir vestry at the eastern end of the south wall, has the Bolton rebus in the spandrels of the arch.[3]

The Clerestory.—In his reconstruction here Sir Aston Webb has followed the precedent of the Perpendicular work introduced in the fifteenth century, which, fortunately, had not been seriously injured in the upper part of the side walls. He has accordingly adopted that style in the apse, where the clerestory arcade is entirely new. It displays a series of five windows of two lights each, with traceried headings, and slender columns on the inner and outer plane, sufficient to uphold the arcading without intercepting the light—none too abundant in any part of the church, though it is entirely destitute of stained glass at the present day.

The walls of the triforium and clerestory are perforated longitudinally to form a continuous passage on each side of the choir—interrupted, however, by the interposition of masonry at the junction of the lateral walls with the apse.

The passage along the clerestory is formed by a succession of "shouldered arches," as they are commonly called, though each merely consists of a flat lintel resting on corbels, which is not strictly an arch at all. As there are no signs of vaulting-shafts, it may be fairly assumed that the original roof was a wooden one, probably painted, like those still in existence at other Norman churches. The present ceiling, about forty-seven feet above the level of the floor, is of panelled oak (uncoloured), and supersedes an unsatisfactory timber structure which had taken the place of the earlier Tudor work. It was divided into compartments by a tie-beam and king-post at intervals, supported on corbels representing the heads of cherubim—an innovation more modern, and even more out of character with the building, than the ceiling itself. The cross beams from the latter have been retained in the modern work.

The Founder's Tomb occupies a bay on the northern side of the sanctuary. Resting on a simple base of rectangular stones, it consists of an altar-tomb in the Perpendicular style, ornamented by four quatrefoil panels in front, each displaying a shield of arms, above which runs the inscription: Hic jacet Raherus Primus Canonicus et Primus Prior hujus Ecclesiae.

The painted effigy of Rahere lies upon its back, vested in the black Habit of the Augustinian Canons, the hands joined in prayer, and the tonsured head reposing upon a tasselled cushion. At the feet an angel, with flowing black hair, and crowned, is represented rising from clouds, holding towards the recumbent figure a shield, on which the Priory Arms are embossed and illuminated: Gules, two lions passant guardant: or, two ducal coronets in chief.

On each side of the effigy a kneeling monk of the same Order is reading from a book, opened at Isaiah, li, 3, as may be inferred from the words distinguishable on the page nearest the spectator, the text obviously having been chosen with reference to the ground on which the Priory stands: "Consolabitur ergo Dominus Sion, et consolabitur omnes ruinas ejus: et ponat desertum ejus quasi delicias, et solitudinem ejus quasi hortum Domini."

The group is enclosed in a canopied frame of tabernacle work in three divisions, elaborately carved, with a vaulted ceiling; and each of the panels in the back wall is perforated with a small decorated window, unglazed, probably inserted not only for ornament but for the benefit of pilgrims on the ambulatory side of the shrine. The design is continued in a fourth panel towards the east, with a blank wall behind it, and another separating it from the actual tomb. Originally there were two other panels beyond this, similarly arcaded, and carried over the face of the adjacent Norman arch, which had a doorway beneath it leading into the ambulatory (see illustration, p. 46). The canopy and panelling were added to the tomb in the fifteenth century. It was repaired in the reign of Henry VIII, and the painting has been more than once renewed, apparently with some rearrangement of the arms in front, as they do not appear in the present order in old engravings. Taking them from left to right they are now those of the City of London, the Priory, England and France, and Sir Stephen Slaney, Lord Mayor of London in 1595.

The sanctuary is paved with coloured tesserae and marbles, in a series of five steps, the uppermost of which forms the predella, or footpace, to the altar. The latter is of oak, and was presented by Miss Overbury, sister-in-law to the Rev. W. Panckridge, Rector of the Parish from 1884 to 1887.

The somewhat classical design of the pavement is uniform throughout, but the higher and lower portions are distinguished by separate inscriptions, one across the chord of the apse, the other along the step immediately within the railing. These inscriptions are respectively as follows:

The Pulpit is built against a pier on the north side, midway between the ordinary seats and the choir-stalls. It is a low oblong structure, with a short flight of steps at each end, and is ornamented in the upper part with a series of panels, arcaded and perforated to resemble small windows. The Hopton Wood stone, or marble, as it is sometimes called, has a delicate gray vein, which is brought out by polish on the cornice and balustrade, as a relief to the unpolished surface elsewhere displayed. There is no inscription; but visitors are usually told about Mrs. Charlotte Hart, the apparently impecunious pew-opener at the church, who surprised her friends by dying worth close upon £3,000, and by leaving £600 to the restoration fund. A new pulpit happened to be wanted at the time, and the bequest was applied in its erection.

On the wall above is the Monument of Sir Robert Chamberlayne, an elegant piece of Jacobean work, deserving a closer examination than can be bestowed upon it without mounting the pulpit, and even there the inscription is scarcely legible. The sculpture, which is extremely well executed, represents Sir Robert kneeling in prayer within a circular pavilion, the curtains of which are held up by an angel on either side. The figure wears a partial suit of plate armour over the costume of the period, and the (bearded) face is turned obliquely towards the east yet away from the spectator, in the attitude of secret devotion. The tent is surmounted by a rich cornice, above which the monument terminates in an ornamental pediment displaying the crest of the deceased. The Latin inscription beneath relates his descent, through the holders of Sherburn Castle, Oxon, from the most ancient Tankerville family of Normandy; and adds that he was knighted by James I, and died between Tripoli and Cyprus, on a journey to the Holy Sepulchre, at the age of thirty-five, in the year 1615. The monument was erected by an unknown friend (amico amicus), who concludes with the pious ejaculation Coelo tegitur qui non habet urnam—Heaven covers him who has no sepulchre!

On the south wall, facing this monument, there is another of some interest and artistic merit. It is to the memory of Percival Smalpace and Agnes his wife, whose boldly sculptured heads are projecting from separate panels above the tablet containing the inscription. This is chiefly in Latin, and informs us that the deaths occurred respectively on 2nd February, 1568, and 3rd September, 1588, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and that Michael and Thomas erected the memorial jointly to the best of parents.

The moral of the English lines

is enforced by a drawing, in outline, representing the nude figures of the departed lying side by side upon a couch in the sleep of death—no doubt intended as a memento mori of a less repulsive kind than the usual desiccated corpse. The monument has been invested with a coating of black, which at once conceals the whole of the marble (said to be brown), and shows up the inscription and the figures, both clearly incised and gilded. The Ambulatory, which encompasses the choir, and is open to it on the inner side throughout its course, is an interesting part of the original fabric, and displays to full advantage the characteristic features of early Norman work—here made more conspicuous by the low pitch of the roof, which gives the columns and arches an appearance of even greater solidity than really belongs to them. The semicircular arches which support the roof spring from the capitals of the main arcade, and are merely wide bands of stone, without moulding or adornment of any kind. The intermediate spaces are equally plain, each compartment simply taking the quadripartite form (without vaulting-ribs) to accommodate it to the arcading on which it rests. The ceiling has been repaired with stone, and overlaid with plaster in the panels, but the design has been left undisturbed, as a specimen of early vaulting, rare enough to be worth preserving.[5]

Perpendicular work occurs here and there throughout the ambulatory, conspicuously in the three recesses in the exterior wall on the north, each of which contains a three-light window in that style. The first and second of these recesses, or small chapels, are open to the ground level; but the third (nearest the east) has been walled up beneath the window sill. Beyond it is the door of the clergy vestry, which occupies the site of another chapel: and in the curve of the wall towards the Lady Chapel there is a tablet which usually attracts attention for the curious device upon it—three pillars crowned by a garland of roses—and the poetical conceit of the epitaph, which explains the emblem, and otherwise speaks for itself:

Before leaving this northern side of the ambulatory it may be noticed that the pavement is made up of an intermixture of gravestones with encaustic tiles. The latter are not so old as they look, for they only date from 1863, when the floor was reduced to its original level, exactly twenty-seven inches below that which was removed, as shown by the marks on the wall backing Rahere's tomb, at the line where the pavement was taken away. The advantage as regards the proportions of the church is obvious enough; but a question has been opened as to whether the intermediate pavement was really so modern as had been taken for granted. It is suggested to the contrary that it may have been first introduced during the Middle Ages, when the increasing veneration for the East required a greater elevation for that part of the church, to distinguish it from the less sacred nave, and give proper dignity to the High Altar and its surroundings. In some accounts it is positively stated that the floor was raised two feet six inches by Prior Bolton early in the sixteenth century. Continuing our perambulation past the Lady Chapel and Prior Bolton's door (now leading into the choir vestry) at the eastern end of the south wall, we come to the magnificent Tomb of Sir Walter Mildmay. It formerly stood facing that of the Founder in the sanctuary, but was shifted to its present place in 1865, and renovated by Henry Bingham Mildmay in 1870, as stated in an inscription upon it, which, however, shows more signs of decay than any other part of the monument, and is scarcely legible. This very fine altar tomb is composed of various coloured marbles, panelled and gilded in a design combining the Elizabethan form with the classical ornament of the Renaissance, and is remarkable for the absence of figures usually conspicuous in monuments of the same age. This peculiarity is perhaps accounted for by the strong Puritan leanings of Sir Walter, who took no pains to conceal them in his lifetime. He founded Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1583, where his architectural work is pointed out, in illustration of his principles, as running counter to all the traditions of the Dominican Friars, whose buildings came into his hands after the Dissolution, and formed the nucleus of his foundation. Instead of saints and angels, or kneeling effigies, we have here eight shields of arms, showing the family alliances, arranged in panelling round the central inscription:

There is a commendable absence of eulogy in the epitaph, and, instead of any direct quotation from scripture, the motto, Mors nobis lucrum is given, as an adaptation of Phil. i, 21. The tomb is surmounted by three classical urns and the escutcheon of the deceased, with the legend, Virtute non vi. Sir Walter was one of the Royal Commissioners appointed in 1586 for the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Fotheringhay Castle.

There are numerous other monuments in the church, and there were formerly many more than now remain, but those selected for description are the most important and the most interesting for their artistic merit.

The first rector of the parish, Sir John Deane, is commemorated in a modern brass (1893) let into the pavement of the ambulatory on the southern side of the chancel. It was inserted by the pupils of the Witton Grammar School, Northwich, founded by Sir John in the year 1557. The Lady Chapel is a restoration of that built about the year 1410. At the Dissolution it passed into the hands of Sir Richard Rich, who converted it into a dwelling-house, and in more modern times it was occupied by a fringe manufacturer, as related in our historical sketch. The building was recovered by purchase in 1885, and the reconstruction begun, which was completed eleven years later. There are signs of an earlier chapel on the site, which was considerably altered, or entirely rebuilt, in the fourteenth century, as appeared from the architectural remains of that period discovered within the fifteenth-century fabric—itself in a frightful state of dilapidation—when the restoration was taken in hand.

Though every care has been taken to preserve the old work, with a strict adherence to the general design, the greater part of the chapel is necessarily new. It is separated from the ambulatory by an elegant screen of ironwork, surmounted by a crucifix of white metal, which has been blackened into uniformity with the rest of the screen so that it can hardly be distinguished in the dim light. This characteristic of the church is preserved in the chapel by the omission of an east window. In place of it the wall-space above the altar is laid out in an arcading of five niches, with canopies and pedestals arranged in parallel lines, providing for a double row of statues, not yet inserted. The lower part of the wall is curtained, with a small canopy over the altar, containing an oil painting of the Virgin and Child as an appropriate form of reredos. There are three rather large windows on each side, of which those on the south are entirely new, but the sills and jambs on the north show a retention of fifteenth-century work. This appears again in the walls on either side of the sanctuary, each of which contains an arcaded recess of three divisions (the central glazed), those on the south forming the sedilia. The sanctuary is paved with Roman tesserae and coloured marbles, in agreement with the pavement beneath the High Altar, but of a less elaborate pattern.[7]

The Crypt beneath the Lady Chapel has no internal connection with it, but is entered by an outside door in the south wall. Like the rest of the Priory buildings it has gone through many vicissitudes. Obviously built at the same time as the chapel, it is supposed to have been used originally as a receptacle for the bones exhumed from time to time in the neighbouring canons' cemetery. Passing into secular hands at the Dissolution, it was partly filled up with earth, and then used as a coal and wine cellar to the dwelling-house above, and eventually formed part of the manufactory before mentioned, the marks of which have been left here and there upon the walls. The little building is now equipped as a mortuary chapel, with an altar against the east wall, and an oblong space marked off on the floor before it, with the usual lateral candlesticks, for the reception of a corpse. As a general rule, however, the funeral services are held in the choir, where there are greater facilities. Though extremely simple, the architectural features are very interesting, the old work having been retained in the walls, piers, and windows, the vaulting alone being new. This merely consists of depressed arches, carried across from the north to the south wall, the intermediate spaces being overlaid with plaster.

At the eastern end, above the altar, one of the window recesses has the socket of an old iron hinge within it, and otherwise shows signs of having been formerly occupied by a door, which may possibly have been the original entrance. It is supposed that all the windows were left unglazed for the sake of ventilation, but plain glass is now inserted. The recesses are very deeply splayed in the thickness of the walls, and it will be noticed that the exterior openings are above the level of the roof, so as to admit the daylight obliquely, an ingenious contrivance to intensify the solemnities within, where an artificial light is almost a necessity. The plain bands of stone which constitute the vaulting are supported by shallow piers, or pilasters, built against the lateral walls, and all alike in their general structure and moulded bases; but there is a curious difference between those on the north and south, which has given rise to some antiquarian speculation. In one case (the north) the pilasters are carried down to the floor: in the other they rest upon a stone plinth or skirting a few inches above it. The Cloister, as next in importance to the church itself, and so characteristic of a monastic foundation as to give a name to the whole, was in all probability begun by Rahere, or at least some time in the twelfth century. This may be inferred from the Norman work found and preserved at the restoration—at present confined to three bays of the eastern side, at right angles to the south wall of the church. The cloister was originally continued parallel with this wall to the extremity of the nave, whence it extended in the usual quadrangular form, each side consisting of eight bays, enclosing the area known as the cloister-garth. That there was a reconstruction under Prior John Watford, early in the fifteenth century, is clear from the evidence already given, which is confirmed by the architectural remains within the restored fragment—all that was in existence, as a ruin, when the renovation was attempted.

The entrance is through a round-headed doorway in the south aisle—an interesting piece of Norman work—but the doors are probably those inserted during the fifteenth century reconstruction. It seems that they were taken out when the nave was destroyed, and fitted to the main entrance in the wall then built at the west end. Subsequently stored within the church among the lumber which might possibly come in useful, they were found exactly to fit the opening into the cloister, where they were re-hung in what seems to be their proper place. The first bay on the right, which formerly opened into the northern side of the quadrangle, is now occupied by a blank wall, with some fifteenth century work on each side, and the Tudor door-jambs within it, supposed to have been inserted by the Dominican Friars in their restoration of the following century. The second and third bays contain windows, with very fine modern tracery in the headings, and some old Perpendicular work retained at the sides. The wall on the left (eastern) side shows a similar intermixture of styles in its three unlighted bays. The elaborately vaulted roof is for the most part new, but a few of the old bosses, and some portions of the original vaulting-shafts recovered during the excavations, have been incorporated into it, without renovation of their surfaces, so that the ancient and modern can be easily distinguished. The new bosses are sculptured with shields bearing respectively the royal arms, the arms of the Diocese, the Priory, the late Rector (Sir Borradaile Savory), and the City of London. The Priory arms form the central point in the vaulting, surrounded by smaller bosses containing the emblems of the four Evangelists.

On a table at the end of the cloister there is a small collection of stones and encaustic tiles from the old building, and some more precious relics in a case. These include a few broken pieces of stained glass, the metal seal struck by Father Perrin for the Dominicans, a book of "Spiritual Exercises" by the same Prior, and a charred fragment of Rahere's coffin and sandal, which had been surreptitiously taken from his tomb.

Before leaving the church, the visitor is recommended to look through the scrap-book of old engravings in charge of the verger, showing the buildings in various phases of their history since the Dissolution. These interesting pictures were presented anonymously, but a note on the fly-leaf by Dr. Norman Moore, dated 23rd May, 1885, informs us that the donor was William Morrant Baker, F.R.C.S., Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Lecturer on Physiology, and Warden of its College. There is a tablet to his memory in the Church of St. Bartholomew-the-Less. A special permit is required for an inspection of the church registers. They date from 1616, and show an average death-rate of ten in each month till the year 1665, when the Plague of London brought up the entries to about eighteen on each day. The interior of the church presents an interesting perspective from almost any point. A good general view may be obtained from the north-east or south-west corner, and another from the organ-gallery, which is recommended as commanding features not well seen from below in the scanty light.

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