"chronogram" indicating the year 1634 thus:--sInt DoMUs hUjUs pII reges nUtrItII regInae nUtrICes pIae. The larger letters, picked out in red, serve as Roman figures which added together make up the required number. [Illustration: THE CHOIR STALLS. _Photochrom Co. Ltd., Photo._] From the commencement of the choir to the high altar are eleven steps, making nineteen in all from the level of the nave. This elevation, of course, much enhances the imposing effect of the altar and reredos as seen from the lower plane. It is due to the existence of the Norman crypt beneath, and can be paralleled both at Canterbury and at Rochester. The raised platform includes the presbytery with its aisles and the retro-choir, and extends under the central tower to the second pillar beyond. The nave and transepts are thus on a lower level. Before the altar are rails which date from the reign of Charles I., while the Altar Books were presented to the cathedral by Charles II. The great #Reredos#, which separates the presbytery from the feretory and the eastern end of the church, is, to judge from its style, late fifteenth-century work. It has been attributed to Cardinal Beaufort, and to Bishop Fox and Prior Silkstede, but no inscription or armorial details can be discovered to confirm either of these suppositions. It is similar in character to the altar-screens of Christchurch Priory, Hants, and S. Mary Overy (S. Saviour's, Southwark); but, less fortunate than the former, it was despoiled of all the statues which once filled its niches, while it has not "the exquisite grace of detail which marks the choir of angels at Southwark." The reredos at S. Albans, in the same style, though not so large, was erected between 1476 and 1484; and, as at Winchester before 1899, shows a cross-shaped space where, according to legend, a huge silver crucifix was placed. Now once more, as in the sixteenth century, there is a figure on the great cross. It is curious to note an attempt, during the rage for pseudo-classic architecture in the last century, to beautify the reredos by placing sham funeral urns in its niches. These were fortunately removed in 1820, and in recent years they have been replaced by a series of statues intended to reproduce as far as possible the original effect. In the _Builder_ for October 10, 1892, a large reproduction was given of a very interesting drawing by the late Mr J.W. Sedding, showing the whole screen completely restored; but this scheme was unfortunately not used. A large oil-painting, "The Raising of Lazarus," by Benjamin West, purchased in 1782 by Dean Ogle, till 1899 hung immediately over the altar. Before 1818 a huge wooden canopy in Jacobean style, freely enriched with gold, covered all the central portion of the screen. This was due to Bishop Curie.