The nave consists of nine bays, from the west front to the central tower. Of these all are Norman to the top of the triforium, except the two western bays, which are Perpendicular, (Abbot Morwent’s work). The Norman clerestory was altered, and the Norman portion of the nave was newly vaulted, in the first half of the thirteenth century. (The nave roof was completed in 1242. The monks themselves, according to Froucester’s Chronicle, laboured at it,--considering, suggests Professor Willis, that they could do the work better than common workmen.) The nave _piers_ have plain bases and cushioned capitals. The arches have the zigzag in the outer moulding and a double cable in the soffete. A cable moulding runs along above them. In the _triforium_, two arches in each bay circumscribe four smaller ones, the tympana above which are quite plain. In constructing the new _clerestory_, the Norman work immediately above the triforium arches was entirely removed; and only the jambs of the side lights which extended beyond the triforium arches, with the wall between them, were allowed to remain. The jambs of these Norman lights, with zigzag moulding, may still be traced in each bay of the clerestory. The windows of the Early English clerestory were filled with Perpendicular tracery, possibly by Abbot Morwent. The Norman portions of the nave may have belonged to the church of Abbot Serlo, (completed in 1100); but it is impossible to say how much alteration or rebuilding was rendered necessary by the fires of 1122, 1179, and 1190. The red colour of parts of the piers where the stone has become calcined, still bears witness to the fierceness of, most probably, the last of these fires; by which the wooden roof of the Norman church was destroyed. This was replaced during the abbacy of HENRY FOLIOT, (1228-1243,) by the existing _vaulting_; which is plain quadripartite, with a central rib and bosses at the intersections. The groining, of a light porous stone, is plastered on the underside. The vaulting-shafts, (of the same date as the roof,) in groups of three, are of Purbeck marble, with stone capitals of leafage, and Purbeck abaci. These rest on a series of brackets supported by shafts which descend between the pier-arches. The first five of these brackets, counting from the third (the first Norman) bay of the nave, are perhaps Transitional Norman, and the cable-moulding at the head of the pier-arches passes round them. The next three eastward have the cable-moulding cut away for them; and on either side is a shaft of Purbeck marble with foliaged capital, from which a moulding is carried round the bay of the clerestory. This part was perhaps more injured by the fire, so that the earlier work required greater alteration. (The peculiar arrangement, suggests Professor Willis, may have been one of the consequences of the monks’ amateur workmanship.) The capitals and corbels of the vaulting-shafts were richly coloured[6]; and remains of painting were