“The tabernacle work and the window tracery of the first three bays, although of the same date, are less rich than those of the eastern half of the choir. In this latter portion remark the triple banded shafts of Purbeck, carried quite to the roof as vaulting-shafts, and the tabernacle-work occupying the place of the triforium, deeper and wider than in the lower bays. Under each arch is a short triple shaft, supporting a bracket richly carved in foliage. The sculpture of the capitals and of these brackets is very good and should be noticed. The foliage has become unconventional, and has evidently been studied from nature. Its diminutive character, as compared with the Early English work in the nave, is very striking. “The east end of the choir is formed of three arches divided by slender piers above which is some very rich tabernacle-work, surmounted by an east window of unusual design. At the back of the altar, and between the piers, is a low diapered screen, beyond which are seen the arches and stained windows of the retro-choir and Lady-chapel.”--(R. J. K.) The stone vault is unusual, a sort of “coved roof,” Freeman calls it, “with cells cut in it for the clerestory windows.” The three western bays are Bishop Reginald’s of the Twelfth Century. Here we are in the very oldest part of the Cathedral. Triple vaulting-shafts of Purbeck marble are carried down to the floor. “The clerestory windows contain flowing tracery of an advanced and not very good type. In some the plain mullions are carried on through the head of the window and intersect each other. Above the tabernacle-work of the east end is the EAST WINDOW of seven lights, the last bit of the Fourteenth Century reconstruction, the last flicker of Decorated freedom. Its curious tracery is still beautiful, doubly so for the glass it enshrines, but the rule and square of Perpendicular domination have already set their mark upon it; the two principal mullions run straight up to the window head, and part of the tracery between them is rectangular.”--(P. D.) The Cathedral possesses sixty-four =Misericords=, from the old choir-stalls, regarded as among the best examples of mediæval wood-carving in England. The skilful hand of the carver has wonderfully represented griffins fighting, mermaids, apes, goats, dragons, wyverns, popinjays, cats, foxes, peacocks, monsters, angels, eagles, hawks, rabbits, kings, peasants--and many other birds, animals and grotesques.