and Transepts were absolutely empty of furniture of any kind, except that the South Transept contained the fittings of the Dean's Consistory Court (since abolished), and in the North Transept, on the spot where the organ now is, stood the statue of Bishop Ryder, raised on a high pedestal, and looking as if it were about to tumble forward. The walls, arches, and pillars were one uniform, dead, yellowish whitewash, many coats thick; as also the Choir from end to end, and from top to bottom, and indeed the whole of the interior.... The Nave was quite unused; indeed, except during service hours, the Verger's Silver Key alone gave admission to any part of the church.... The two parts of the building were altogether separate from each other. The Choir was entered by a door under a high partition, composed of remains of the original High Altar, fourteenth century screen, and of other materials. This partition filled the whole of the first bay of the present Choir. On each side of the entrance were Vestries for the Lay Vicars and the Choristers, and above these was placed the organ; the rest of the space up to the Roof being filled in with glass, so that the separation of Nave and Choir was complete.... In the Choir itself the remains of the Reredos, which stood at the spot where the present one is now fixed, had been removed by Wyatt at the end of the last century, and the Holy Table was carried to the extreme East of the Lady Chapel. On either side, from the screen up to the very entrance of the Lady Chapel, were pews made of oak lined with green baize and studded with brass nails. The Choir Aisles on either side were entirely shut out from the Choir, the arches being filled in by plaster, in order, as was imagined, to help towards warmth. In the three bays eastward from the screen--the second, third, and fourth, as they are now--stalls were fixed, composed of plaster, wood, rope, nails, and much else, with canopies of the same material over them, which the old Verger of that day used to call 'beautiful Tabernacle work.' The Dean and Canons' Residentiary had stalls facing eastward in the screen under the organ.... The Choir Aisles, shut out from the Choir, were long, narrow passages, never used, ending on the North side in a blank wall, and on the South with the monument of the 'Sleeping Children.'" This was the inside of the Cathedral: the outside was stucco. Such facts as these will have to be borne in mind when the next century passes judgment on Sir Gilbert Scott. For us, it should be sufficient that we have judged Wyatt. CHAPTER II THE EXTERIOR