“The stalls which extend from the eastern tower-piers to the first pier of the nave, are of oak, as black as ebony, and probably exhibit the very finest woodwork of their date and style (which is the best) in the Kingdom. They are early Decorated (Geometrical) work and their canopies and gables bear considerable resemblance to those of the tomb of Edmund Crouchback in Westminster Abbey. This would place their date about 1296. The beauty and variety of the carvings are wonderful. There is no repetition; and the grace and elegance, as well as the fidelity, with which the foliage is represented, are nowhere to be surpassed. The human heads are full of expression; and the monkeys and other animals sporting among the branches have all the same exquisite finish. The mode in which the cusps of the circles in the canopies are terminated, is worthy of attention; and in short, at this period of the revival of wood-carving, no better examples could be found for study and imitation. The _misereres_ below are of early character and interesting. Their date is rather later than those (Early English) in Exeter Cathedral--the most ancient in the Kingdom. The desks and stools in front of the upper range bear the initials of Henry VIII., Bishop Stephen Gardiner, and Dean Kingsmill and the date 1540. The rich pulpit on the north side bears the name of its donor ‘Thomas Silkstede, prior’ on different parts of it.”--(R. J. K.) The =Presbytery= is Early English, the work of Bishop Lucy (1189-1204). It has a central alley of three bays. The arcading is very graceful. The presbytery is closed at the sides by screens of stone tracery, most of them erected by Bishop Fox, and bear his motto, _Est Deo Gratia_. Upon these screens stand six mortuary chests (also the work of Bishop Fox) containing the bones of the West Saxon Kings and bishops removed from the crypt of the old Saxon cathedral into Walkelyn’s church by Bishop Henry de Blois and placed in leaden sarcophagi. The chests are of wood, carved, painted and gilded in the Renaissance Style, which was being introduced into England in Fox’s time. “The vaulting of the presbytery (of wood) is the work of Bishop Fox (1500-1520), and displays on its bosses, a mass of heraldry besides (at the east end) the various emblems of the Passion together with a number of faces representing Pilate and his wife, Herod, Annas and Caiaphas, Judas, Malchus with the sword of Peter dividing his ear, Peter himself and many others. All are curious and are best seen from the gallery below the east window.