The present Cathedral was the collegiate church of the monastery of St. Augustine, originally founded by King Henry the Second, and Robert Fitzharding, father of Maurice, the first of the Berkeley family. At the suppression of the monasteries by king Henry the Eighth, after that of St. Augustine had been destroyed, with the exception of the gate, and the west end of the collegiate church had begun to share the same fate, the King changed his mind, and resolved upon erecting it into a bishopric, directing the church to be repaired, and thenceforth termed the cathedral church of the holy and undivided Trinity, appointing Paul Bush, rector of Winterborn, to be the first Bishop, appropriating the revenue of the suppressed monastery, amounting to 765_l._ 15_s._ 3_d._ per annum, partly to the bishop and partly to the chapter; consisting of a Dean and six Prebendaries. He likewise took the county of Dorset from the see of Salisbury, transferring it to that of Bristol. The interior of the Cathedral, though not to be named with those of Gloucester and Worcester, is still worthy of attention; particularly its vaulted roof, those of the side aisles, and an emblematic picture of the Holy Trinity, by Vansomers, over the altar. The windows of the side aisles, which are of enamelled glass, are said to have been the gift of Nell Gwynn. On the south-west of the cathedral are the cloisters; and at the south-east corner of the cloisters is the bishop’s palace, which was in great part rebuilt in 1744, when the following extraordinary circumstance happened. “A parcel of plate, supposed to have been hidden during the time of the civil wars, fell through the floor in the corner of one of the rooms; this accident occasioned the floor to be taken up, when, to the surprise of those persons present, a dungeon underneath was discovered, in which were found many human bones, and instruments of iron for torture; at the same time was laid open a private passage to this dungeon, which passage was part of the original edifice; it was an arched way only large enough for one person to pass, and was made within the wall; one end led to the dungeon, and the other end to an apartment of the house, which by appearance had been made use of for a court of judgment. Both the entrances of this mural passage were walled up, and so concealed, that no one could suspect the wall to be hollow.”