The ceiling of the lantern, 102 feet from the pavement, is painted with the red and white roses of the houses of Lancaster and York, together with various coats of arms. The lofty arches beneath the tower (55 feet high) are of great grandeur, as will be seen from the illustration. The four inside faces of the lantern are alike, each containing windows above the three arches of the arcade, each of which comprises two subarches springing from a quadrilateral shaft.
[Illustration: THE CROSSING, LOOKING WESTWARD.]
To the east is the #presbytery#, closed by the Wallingford or high altar #screen.# This screen was sorely dilapidated, and all its niches were stripped of their statues, no record remaining of whose statues originally filled them. Mr. H. Hucks Gibbs (now Lord Aldenham) undertook to restore this screen, making good the canopies and filling them again with statues. The screen is of clunch, a hard stone from the lower chalk formation quarried at Tottenhoe near Dunstable, a stone much used for interior work in the church, though it will not stand exposure to weather in exterior walls. The new statues are by Mr. Harry Hems of Exeter; the larger ones of magnesian limestone from Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, and the smaller of alabaster. They are excellent examples of modern carved work. The general idea was to represent "the Passion of our Lord and of the testimony of the faith in that Passion given in the lives and deeds of men"[8] of English race. A careful comparison of the screen (see illustration, p. 58), with the key given (p. 59) will enable the reader to identify the persons represented.
[8] Lord Aldenham's words in describing his scheme.
The coloured altarpiece in high relief is by Mr. Alfred Gilbert, R.A., and is a work quite unique in character. It represents the resurrection. In the centre is the upper half of our Lord's figure; on one side is an angel holding a cross, emblem of faith; on the other, one holding a crystal globe, emblem of dominion; the wings of these angels are formed of mother-of-pearl, and before them are grills of brass scrollwork, intended to give an air of mystery to their appearance. The work does not appear to be fully finished, the grills being only roughly attached to the wall. The space before the altar is paved with slabs of marble.