The triforium contains a few monuments, chiefly those that have been removed from the nave. Bishop Benson's monument was formerly on the face of the buttress that passes through St. Andrew's Chapel.
The triforium seems a better resting-place than the crypt for monuments which are rejected from the nave and elsewhere. It is to be hoped that in the years to come no restorer will lay hold upon the monuments in the Lady Chapel and transepts, and consign them to oblivion in the neighbouring garden of the deanery. This was done in Dean Law's time, and may in part be the reason why the cathedral is so poor in specimens of monuments of the Queen Anne period.
The South-East Chapel, which is dedicated to St. Philip, contains some interesting features. The arches are of a distinctly "pointed" character, and there are remains of the two bases of pillars which supported the stone altar slab.
This chapel was restored in memory of Sir C. W. Codrington, Bart., M.P., who died in 1864. Various incidents in the life of St. Philip have been painted on the vaulting by Burlison & Grylls, but the paintings have suffered somewhat from damp. The window, which is by Clayton & Bell, is of no special interest, and represents saints, principally British, and striking incidents in the life of each in the panel under each of the figures.
Near the piscina, at the base of a pier, will be found some dog-tooth moulding. This is repeated on the other side of the chapel, but not on the corresponding pier.
Before entering the Lady Chapel, a Perpendicular arch will be noticed, with two eye-shaped openings in the spandrels. The openings are well carved on their bevelled edges. The arch is of later date than the front of the chapel, and seems to have been necessary to support the triforium above. Nothing like it exists on the other side. There is an old cope-chest in this Ambulatory.
The Lady Chapel.—This beautiful chapel, which was built between the years 1457-1499 by the Abbots Richard Hanley and William Farley, stands on the site of a smaller building, dating back to 1224, and erected by Ralph de Wylington and Olympias, his wife, the architect of the work being Elias or Helias the Sacrist, a monk of the Gloucester monastery. As Mr Bazeley points out ("Records," vol. iii. pt. 1, p. 14), "The only architectural evidences of its former existence are two Early English windows in the crypt, in the central eastern chapel."
Mr Waller thinks that this Early English Lady Chapel was "probably not a new building, but simply an alteration of the old east apsidal chapels on each floor to suit the 'Early English' times, just as the fourteenth-century men afterwards recased the cathedral. The inserted windows of this date in the crypt seem to confirm this view."
On the site of this chapel must have stood the chapel and altar (or at any rate the altar) dedicated to St. Petronilla, as Ralph and Olympias gave rentals to provide lights to burn thereat during mass for ever.
The vestibule or entrance to the Lady Chapel is a beautiful piece of work, and is another instance of the genius of the builders shown in making use of existing work. Special interest attaches to this chapel as a whole, as it was the last addition to the fabric by the monks before the Dissolution.