Passing west, down the steps worn by the pious pilgrims we reach St. Anselm’s Tower and Chapel. Anselm’s Tower (like St. Andrew’s opposite) is Prior Ernulf’s work. The elaborate south window (1336) is Decorated of five lights.
St. Anselm’s Tower is entered through splendid gates of ancient wrought iron.
At the east end behind the Altar of SS. Peter and Paul, the great Anselm (1093-1109) was buried. Over the chapel is a small room with a window looking into the Cathedral. This was the Watching Chamber, in which, as we have seen, a monk was stationed at night to keep watch over the Shrine of St. Thomas. There is a tradition that King John of France was imprisoned here.
We now reach the South-east Transept, the work of both William of Sens and English William on Ernulf’s walls.
At the corner of the South-west choir-aisle architects love to notice the round arch and double zigzag of the Norman style fitted into the Pointed Arch and dogtooth of the restoration of 1180. Under the windows are the tomb of Archbishop Reynolds and the monument to Hubert Walter, the latter the warrior-prelate and Crusader who kept the Realm for Richard Cœur de Lion and raised the ransom for his release.
The steps leading down into the great South Transept are similar to those of the opposite Transept of the Martyrdom.
Opening east from this Transept is St. Michael’s, or The Warriors’ Chapel, so named because of the martial monuments and tombs contained in it.
The famous East Kent Regiment “The Buffs” place their memorials here. This Chapel is particularly notable for containing the tomb of Stephen Langton, the author of the Magna Charta, which is of earlier date than the chapel. A very beautiful alabaster monument of Lady Margaret Holland with her two husbands, John Beaufort, son of John of Gaunt, and the Duke of Clarence, son of Henry IV., beautifully represents the armour and dress of the Fifteenth Century.
The Warriors’ Chapel is Perpendicular (about 1370), with a complex lierne vault. The architect is unknown.
Directly opposite, on the other side of the Choir, is the Transept of the Martyrdom. Here was erected a wooden altar to the Virgin, where a portion of the Martyr’s brains were exhibited under a piece of rock-crystal and fragments of Le Bret’s sword.