The _south transept_, according to Abbot Froucester, was the first part of the Church to be thus treated. The panelling, however, although dating from the first half of the fourteenth century, (1329-1337,) has much of Perpendicular character; and the alterations in this transept may accordingly be regarded as perhaps the earliest approach to Perpendicular work in England. The design is indeed wanting in one chief characteristic of true Perpendicular; as the mullions are not carried straight up to the head of the arch, but branch off into arches before reaching it. But although the work in this transept retains much of Decorated character, the tendency to change is sufficiently marked; and in the rest of the cathedral (north transept and choir) the Perpendicular style is completely developed. According to Professor Willis, it may have commenced here. “It must have begun somewhere; in some place the mullion must have been carried up for the first time, and no place is so likely as Gloucester to have produced the change of style[12].” On the _east_ side, the entrance to the choir-aisle is closed by an open screen, with two doorways in the lower part, one leading to the aisle, the other into the crypt. The form of their arches is very unusual, and deserves notice. The rib of a great buttress, supporting the wall of the choir, runs through the triforium above. In the south-east bay was an arch, now closed, leading into the Norman chapel, on either side of which are canopied brackets for figures. In the panel filling the first bay, just above the top of the crypt door, is the so-called _Prentice’s bracket_, [Title,] in form resembling a builder’s square. Two figures support it, curiously placed,--the lower with a bag at his waist. It is traditionally said to be a memorial of the master builder and his son, or prentice, but was in all probability a bracket for light. Filling the centre of the blank arch is a monument with medallion for Bishop BENSON, (died 1755). On the _south_ side of the transept is a large Perpendicular window of good design, below which is a passage, behind an open arcade. The passage is entered from a Norman staircase-turret in the south-west angle, and leads upward to the triforium. The effect of this arcade, with its unusual depth of shadow, is very good. [Illustration: THE “PRENTICE’S” BRACKET.] [Illustration: CONFESSIONAL. IN THE SOUTH TRANSEPT.]