Our illustration is of the central octagon in Ely Cathedral. The sacrist, Alan de Walsingham, and his carpenter, probably William Hurley, were given the opportunity to construct this unique feature by the collapse of the central tower in 1322. The octagon takes the entire breadth of the nave, transepts, aisles and choir as its base, rising on four large and four small arches, Above it the wooden lantern is set with its angles against the faces of the stone walls. The effect, writes Nikolaus Pevsner, is ‘a delight from beginning to end for anyone who feels for space as strongly as for construction.’