arrangement of the nunnery, as it is of the college, for, otherwise, Bishop Alcock would hardly have deviated from the more usual plan, which wisely reserved the warmer south side of the quadrangle for the rooms in which the students were to live. The church was 185 feet long within the walls. It was planned in the form of a cross, with a central tower and transepts. The choir, 65 feet long by 23 feet broad, had chapels on its north and south sides for about half its length, opening into it by two pier-arches in each wall. The transepts are 24 feet broad, and 28 feet long. The nave, 86 feet long and 24 feet broad, had originally seven pier-arches, and north and south aisles. It must have been, as Professor Willis said, "An admirable specimen of the architecture of its period, and two of the best preserved remaining portions, the series of lancet-windows on the north and south sides of the eastern limb, and the arcade that ornaments the inner surface of the tower-walls, will always attract attention for the beauty of their composition." But a large and complex church was obviously unsuited to the requirements of a college, and under the direction of Bishop Alcock, "the side-aisles, both of the chancel and the nave, were entirely removed, the pier-arches by which they had communicated with the remaining central portion of the building were

walled up, and the place of each arch was occupied by a Perpendicular window of the plainest description. The walls were raised, a flat roof was substituted for the high-pitched roof of the original structure, large Perpendicular windows were inserted in the gables of the chancel and south transept, and lastly, two-thirds of the nave were cut off from the church by a wall, and fitted up partly as a Lodge for the Master, partly as chambers for students.

"As for the portion set apart for the chapel of the college, the changes were so skilfully effected, and so completely concealed by plaster within and without, that all trace and even knowledge of the old aisles was lost; but in the course of the preparations for repairs in 1846, the removal of some of the plaster made known the fact that the present two south windows of the chancel were inserted in walls which were themselves merely the filling-up of a pair of pier-arches, and that these arches, together with the piers upon which they rested, and the responds whence they sprang, still existed in the walls. When this key to the secret of the original plan of the church had been supplied, it was resolved to push the inquiry to the uttermost; all the plaster was stripped off the inner face of the walls; piers and arches were brought to light again in all directions; old

foundations were sought for on the outside of the building, and a complete and systematic examination of the plan and structure of the original church was set on foot, which led to very satisfactory results." I

It would lead us beyond the purpose of these descriptive notes to enter upon a detailed description of the church. For this we refer our readers to Professor Willis himself. He has shown that it was erected between 1150 and 1245, so that the style varies from the Norman of the north transept to the Early English of the choir; and that" during that period the work was carried on at several different times, and with changes of plan, each of which was on a more enlarged scale of dimensions than its predecessor, and showed the increased and increasing wealth of the builders." Those who visit the chapel should specially note the piscina, a lovely example in the Early English style. It was evidently thought to be something out of the common, even in the thirteenth century, for it was copied in the parish church of Histon in Cambridgeshire, and at St. John's Hospital.

"The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge." By the late Robert Willis, M.A., F.R.S. : edited by John Willis Clark, M.A., 3 vols., 8vo, 1886. Vol. ii. p. 124.