§ 33.

On leaving the quire by one of the upper entries, the Sunday procession first visited the altars in the transept on that side, and, while the celebrant sprinkled each with holy water, anthems were sung by the convent. The transept-chapels varied in number. In the great abbey churches of the Norman period, as at Norwich, Gloucester and Tewkesbury, a single apsidal chapel projected from the east wall of either transept. In churches with short presbyteries, such chapels formed an effective group with the apse and its chapels. Thus at St Mary's, York, and St Albans, where the plan of the eastern apse without a processional path was followed, the apse, projecting beyond the rest of the church, was flanked on either side by a row of three chapels, of which two opened out of the transept; and of these two, the inner one, nearest the aisle, projected further east than the outer. At Durham, Ely and Peterborough, the transepts were provided with eastern aisles, divided by low screens or perpeyn walls into three chapels on either side. There were thus in the plan of these three churches, eight altars in the transepts and presbytery aisles: at St Mary's, York, and St Albans there were six: at Westminster four; while at Norwich, Gloucester and Tewkesbury, where there was a processional path round the high altar, there were five.