The piers below are in some cases like those above, in others a portion of a vast round pillar is substituted for the row of three-shafts, the rest remaining as before described; and in one instance, on each side is a simple round column with spiral flutings, as at Durham, Waltham, etc. (Fig. 265). [Illustration: Fig. 266.--Plan of Abbey Church, Bury St. Edmund’s.] The zigzag and billet appear in the arches, and mouldings are, though sparingly, introduced. The capitals are mostly either of the cushion type, or varieties of the form I have shown you from the Tower of London, Caen, and Lincoln. The whole internal effect is magnificent and noble in a very high degree. The transept-fronts are divided here into three bays instead of two, as in the churches hitherto described. The arcades of the eastern arm differ considerably from those of the nave, while those of the apse unite in a very pleasing manner into a continuous range. Beneath the central arch are still remaining the shattered vestiges of the original episcopal throne. I may mention in passing the remarkable plan of the great East Anglian abbey church at Bury St. Edmund’s. I exhibit a ground-plan, from which its remarkable features and extraordinary magnitude may be judged (Fig. 266). The length was 500 ft, and that of its western façade 250 ft. The latter is of a unique type, being flanked by two vast octagonal towers. A very different type of the same age is found at Gloucester, the erection of which commenced in 1089. Here, as was so usual where the foundation was of the Anglo-Saxon period, the sanctuary has a vast crypt beneath it (Fig. 267). [Illustration: Fig. 267.--The Crypt, Gloucester Cathedral.] The peculiarities of this church are two,--first, the triforium or gallery of the eastern arm is vaulted with a demi-vault, and from it opened repetitions of the apsidal chapels, which are placed somewhat as at Norwich; and second, no such gallery exists to the nave, but the height is there thrown into the aisle; so that we have a very lofty aisle of one storey to the nave, and two ranges of aisle of very low proportions to the eastern arm, the two arrangements coming face to face in the transepts. The piers throughout were vast cylindrical columns, with very plain and uncouth round capitals. This remarkable type was followed, with minor variations, in the two neighbouring monastic churches of Tewkesbury and Pershore. In all it has been greatly altered; but, by comparing one with another, the same scheme is shown to have prevailed in all three. In none were there aisles to the transepts. The church at Tewkesbury was built just at the same time with Gloucester, and retains a feature which Gloucester has lost, a magnificent Norman central tower. This church is of peculiar value from its retaining, like those of St. Alban’s and Norwich, so much of the original Norman outline, and few there are which exceed it in the solemn dignity of its external aspect.