Beneath =St. Mary’s Tower= we find the =Northwest Chapel=; under =St. Hugh’s=, the =Ringers’ Chapel=. Both chapels are vaulted with stone and date from the first half of the Thirteenth Century. The =Nave=, a very characteristic example of the first half of the Thirteenth Century, “exhibits an Early English style in its highest stage of development: massive without heaviness, rich in detail without exuberance, its parts symmetrically proportioned and carefully studied throughout, the foliated carving bold and effective, there seems no deficiency in any way to deteriorate from its merits.”--(G. G. S.) There are seven bays. The first bay was converted into a sort of vestibule by arches constructed in the Eighteenth Century to add strength to the western towers. The big arch, separating the vestibule from the nave, dates from about 1730. The vaulting under the western towers dates from the Fourteenth Century; also the tracery covering the walls of these compartments. “Each pier is surrounded by round shafts of Purbeck marble. The arch mouldings, like those of St. Hugh’s choir, were considered ‘beautiful specimens’ by Rickman. They are deeply cut, and throw good, bold shadows. In the triforium each bay contains two arches, supported by clustered columns with foliaged capitals. The spandrels are decorated with sunk trefoils or quatrefoils. In most cases the arches are each divided into three sub-arches with clustered shafts, the tympanum being pierced with quatrefoils. A difference is noticeable, however, in the easternmost arch and the two westernmost bays (five arches altogether) on both sides. Here the sub-arches are only two in number. The narrowness of the two western bays accounts for the variation at that end. The clerestory is the same throughout its length, having three tall narrow windows in each bay, with slender banded shafts. In the nave we have, according to Fergusson, ‘a type of the first perfected form of English vaulting.’ He calls it ‘very simple and beautiful.’ At the junctions of the ribs are elaborate bosses of foliage. The compartments are covered with plaster, once decorated in colours and gold. In the second bay from the east is the name: W. L. PARIS:--evidently intended as a record of some repairs to the vault. The springers rest on clusters of three long slender vaulting-shafts, rising from foliaged corbels just above the capitals of the nave piers.