63.
In St. Albans this plan was further developed; from each arm of the
transept two apses projected eastward, the outer ones consisting only of
a semicircular projection from the transept, the inner ones of a
rectangular bay from which the semicircular part ran eastward. The choir
aisles, as we should now call them, consisted of four bays, beyond which
they ended in a projection semicircular within, but rectangular when
seen from the outside, the walls being thickened at the corners. These
aisles were divided from the presbytery not by open arcading but by
solid walls. The presbytery itself terminated in a semicircle projecting
beyond the ends of the aisles. This extended as far as the centre of the
present retro-choir.
Above the crossing rose the central tower, much as we see it to-day,
save that it was probably crowned with a pyramidal cap rising from its
outside walls. Probably also the tower as well as the rest of the church
was covered with whitewashed plaster, thus hiding the material of which
it was built--the Roman bricks of which mention has been already made.
These bricks surpass in hardness and durability those of modern days,
and are of different size and shape from those we are acquainted with.
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