SOUTH TRANSEPT.—Crossing the choir, we pass down a flight of steps to the south transept. At the top of these steps are the bolt-holes of the iron gates, which are now placed in the north-west corner of the nave, but which once stood here as a barrier to the pilgrims, who were allowed access to the north transept and choir aisles, but not to the choir itself, or to the south transept. They entered the cathedral by a doorway which may still be seen from the outside at the south-east corner of the north transept. In the south transept the same two periods of Norman work are recognisable which we saw in the north transept; but the three aisles have been shut off by walls and screens, forming chapels on the east side, and a chapter-room and treasury on the west. [Illustration: LADY-CHAPEL.] THE CENTRAL TOWER fell in 1107. Its fall was regarded as a judgment; William Rufus having been buried under it in 1100. The piers, as strengthened, are “most unwieldy and intrusive from their excessive size and squareness of form; the largest tower-piers in England in proportion to the span of the arches that rest upon them.” The tower-windows could formerly be seen from below, as well as a grand specimen of late Norman arcading: now hidden from view by the wooden fan-vault erected in 1634. The eastern and western arches of the tower are left wide, so as not to interfere with the principal vista of the cathedral; the northern and southern arches are contracted to gain strength. The northern and southern sides of the piers were designed nearly flat, so as not to interfere with the stall-work of the monks. This is one of the cathedrals where the choir occupies, in part, its original position, and has not been moved eastward into the sanctuary. But originally the monastic choir of Winchester extended still farther to the west, occupying not one, but three bays of the nave; and was separated from the western bays of the nave by a great rood-screen. The old arrangement has been preserved at Norwich and Gloucester, and has been restored at Peterborough. Before leaving the south transept, the northern bay of the western triforium should be noticed. It has been only partially transformed into Perpendicular after the style of the nave; for the semicircular upper arch of the triforium can still be seen. This helps us to restore in imagination the original triforium of the whole Norman nave. [Illustration: STALLS.]