In several instances, however, it was found both more convenient and more effective to erect a special chamber, so placed and so elevated as to command a good view of the church, or of the portion of the church to be watched; and here a constant succession of watchers kept guard. One of our most interesting examples of this is at S. Albans. Near the site of the shrine of the patron saint (on which the fragments of the shattered shrine have been skilfully built up once more) is a structure, in two storeys, of carved timber. The lower stage is fitted with cupboards, in which were probably preserved relics, or such jewels and ornaments as were not kept permanently upon the shrine. A doorway in this storey admits to a staircase leading to the gallery above. This is the watchers' chamber; the side fronting the shrine being filled with perpendicular tracery, whence the monks in charge could easily keep the treasures around them under observation. A somewhat similar structure is still seen at Christ Church, Oxford, and is sometimes spoken of as the shrine of S. Frideswide. It is really the watching-chamber for that shrine; and was erected in the fourteenth century upon an ancient tomb, supposed to be that of the founder of the _feretrum_ of the saint, though popular report describes it as the resting-place of the bodies of her parents. [Illustration: ABBOT'S PEW, MALMESBURY ABBEY.] In not a few cases, both in England and abroad, these chambers were built in a yet more durable fashion. At Bourges may be seen a stone loft on the left side of the altar; at Nuremberg also is one. In addition to the wooden chamber, already described, S. Alban's Abbey (now the cathedral) has a small one of stone in the transept. Lichfield has a gallery over the sacristy door, which served the same purpose; and at Worcester an oriel was probably used by the watchers. Westminster Abbey has such a chamber over the chantry of King Henry VI., and Worcester Cathedral has one in the north aisle; and there are several other instances. Many churches had rooms over the north porch, as the cathedrals of Exeter and Hereford, the churches of Christchurch (Hampshire), Alford (Lincolnshire), and many others; and these in some cases, as at Boston, had openings commanding a view of the interior.