VIII. Finally, the whole establishment was granted in 1524 to Cardinal Wolsey, who pulled down the three western bays of the nave, as obstructing his new quadrangle: one bay has been recently rebuilt.
IX. In 1542 Henry VIII. founded the new diocese of Oxford. Till 1546 the seat of the bishopric was at Osney Abbey. On the suppression of the abbey it was transferred to Wolsey’s confiscated foundation; and the ancient Priory church became a cathedral, while at the same time it is the chapel of the college of Christ Church. There is an interesting contemporary window in the south choir aisle, showing the first bishop of Oxford, King, with Osney Abbey on one side. The “merry Christ Church bells” came from the tower shown in this window.
X. At the entrance to the Great Hall is the last bit of good Gothic done in England, a sort of chapter-house in fan-tracery.
XI. The cathedral possesses a charming Jacobean pulpit, and a large amount of fine Flemish glass of the seventeenth century—all of it taken out and stowed away in some lumber-room at a recent restoration, except one window at the west end of the north aisle of the nave, in order to insert some sham mediæval windows.
XII. There are also five windows from designs by Sir Edward Burne-Jones—three of them of great beauty; good windows by Clayton and Bell in the end walls of the transepts; and a charming reredos by Mr. Bodley, who also has the credit of the bell tower.
The Cathedral Church of St. Peter, Peterborough.
FROM THE SOUTH.