146 The Abbey-church. 



windows of the aisles may be read the words, JSomas mea 

 Ji0mu0 or[ati]oni0. 



We will enter, and furnish our short survey with a glance 

 at the interior which, as now restored, is more than worthy 

 of its external framing. Observe the loftiness of nave and 

 choir, flooded with light through large windows in the clere- 

 story : feast the eyes on the rich beauty of the stone-groining 

 set with escutcheons of the great, of patrons and benefactors, — 

 that of the choir and its aisles of the time of Bishop King, 

 and of the best type of design ; that of the western part 

 modern, but after the pattern of the old : note particularly 

 the noble square-headed east window, fiUed with coloured 

 glass illustrating the events of the gospel-story ; the equally 

 fine " Jesse " window in the south transept ; and the many 

 other excellent examples of this branch of decorative art, 

 mostly of a memorial character.* Then visit the chantry- 

 chapel of Prior Birde, a chaste and elegant little structure in 

 the southern arcade of the choir, and note thedeUcacy of the 

 design and workmanship of the sculpture (most of it restored 

 after the original) in which, among " pomegranates, maple- 

 leaves, thistles, and conventional foliage and figures," may 

 be seen, many times repeated, the rebus of the builder's name, 

 a W with the figure of a bird. The chapel is beautifully 

 roofed with fan-traceried groining, except at the east end 

 where this is met by a ribbed coving, or demi-vault, in the 

 midst of which are set the prior's insignia and escutcheon. 



* All these are new : but old glass, formerly in the east window, has been 

 re-inserted, billet-wise, in two of the clerestory windows on the north side 

 of the choir. Other old glass may be seen in the escutcheons in most of the 

 clerestory windows : and some fragments are preserved in the Birde chapel. 



