“‘The arch facing the nave is very much injured, and the wall which it sustains, up to the commencement of the later stages, is utterly disintegrated, so much so as to render it dangerous very closely to investigate the defects; and the same state of disintegration extends itself some feet into the north and south walls, but especially the former, which is at this point crushed throughout its whole thickness. “‘It will be seen from what I have stated, that the whole remaining portion of the first tower is crushed and left at the mercy of the various walls which abut against, and, so to speak, bolster it up; and that this terrible failure extends itself to a certain distance into the later and, in themselves, better constructed portions; in fact, that of the four supports of the tower, two are sound, and two wholly untrustworthy.’ “It will be seen from the above, that the object to be aimed at was little (if anything) less than the rebuilding from their foundation of two of the four piers which sustained the tower, each of them bearing a load of 1,150 tons, which had to be supported by timber shoring during the operation. “Our first work, however, was to take measures for binding together, and otherwise strengthening the tower itself, so as to avoid the danger of its becoming fractured, or otherwise injured, during the reconstruction of its supporting piers; and this was rendered the more necessary by the disintegrated state of the lower walls immediately resting on the arches, and the enormous cracks by which the north and south walls were rent throughout their entire height. This object was attained by the introduction of permanent iron ties of great strength, at several different levels, binding all the walls together; by the use of temporary girders of massive timber-work round the exterior of the tower, throughout the greater part of its height; and by repairing with new stone and strong cement many parts of the disintegrated walls.