[fU] Chancel beyond them at the eastern end. [Il

[Archdale <mul...@ql...>]

 both clearly incised and gilded. #The Ambulatory#, which encompasses
the choir, and is open to it on the inner side throughout its course, is
an interesting part of the original fabric, and displays to full
advantage the characteristic features of early Norman work--here made
more conspicuous by the low pitch of the roof, which gives the columns
and arches an appearance of even greater solidity than really belongs to
them. The semicircular arches which support the roof spring from the
capitals of the main arcade, and are merely wide bands of stone, without
moulding or adornment of any kind. The intermediate spaces are equally
plain, each compartment simply taking the quadripartite form (without
vaulting-ribs) to accommodate it to the arcading on which it rests. The
ceiling has been repaired with stone, and overlaid with plaster in the
panels, but the design has been left undisturbed, as a specimen of early
vaulting, rare enough to be worth preserving.[5] [Illustration: THE
AMBULATORY AND ENTRANCE TO THE LADY CHAPEL _E. Scamell. Photo._]
Perpendicular work occurs here and there throughout the ambulatory,
conspicuously in the three recesses in the exterior wall on the north,
each of which contains a three-light window in that style. The first and
second of these recesses, or small chapels, are open to the ground
level; but the third (nearest the east) has been walled up beneath the
window sill. Beyond it is the door of the clergy vestry, which occupies
the site of another chapel: and in the curve of the wall towards the
Lady Chapel there is a tablet which usual