Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/172

142 continuous arcade within; it was only in the ritual arrangement that they assumed the character of distinct chapels.

In a third variety, to be found in all ages, the altars were placed in the transepts themselves, without any projecting apse or aisle. The altars however are, in such cases, often placed under an arch, sometimes, as in St. Cross, pretty much resembling that of a tomb, while in others, as at Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, it swells into what might have been the approach to a destroyed chapel, only the arch does not go through the wall. This last arrangement is analogous to the false piers and arches sometimes placed against the walls of chancels, as at Cogenhoe, Northampton, and Cuddesden, Oxfordshire. Of this last arrangement the parish church at Battle supplies an excellent instance. On the south side the original blank arcade is perfect; on the north, a later addition has introduced a modification which renders it still more curious.

From these three ways of arranging these altars and chapels, numerous varieties branch forth. As the use of the apse became rare in England, the apses grew into larger and more distinct chapels, with square ends. These often assume a shape not easily to be distinguished from an elongated form of the eastern aisle divided into chapels; while both, again, sometimes approach the character of the ordinary choir-aisles, or chapels, added not to the ends of the transept, but to the sides of the choir. I will bring forward some examples, illustrating my meaning.

Even in Norman times, instead of the apse, we sometimes find a square recess entered by an arch, as may be seen in the south transept at Sompting. There we see every preparation for an altar, within a small quadrangular recess, which one really cannot describe more graphically than as a square apse.

A much larger and more complicated example, of nearly the same transitional date, occurs in St. Mary's, Shrewsbury; but it has been much disturbed by later additions. At were small altar-recesses, approached by arches, and forming externally slight projections; at  chapels, which may be called aisles to a single bay of the choir. But the addition of a large chapel south of the choir, and some smaller additions to the north have greatly obscured the original plan; only, happily, as the great chapel has been added