They now contain fragments that have been removed or discovered in the course of various restorations.  A small Norman scalloped capital, another of Early English workmanship and a voussoir showing the Norman zig-zag or chevron are interesting relics of structures earlier than anything now existing, while a number of the decayed statues from the tower find here a dark and damp repose very different from the airy outlook enjoyed by them for five centuries.  It will be seen that they are near life size and are executed in a gray sandstone which has stood the weather much better than the red.  The outer north aisle containing the Girdlers’ Chapel on the east and the Smiths’ or St. Andrew’s Chapel on the west of the porch, is plainly of later date.  The windows have depressed, distinctly four-centred arches, and in 1730 their five lights had simply cusped heads, the mullions running up to the architrave.

The north porch has only a slight projection.  Above the four-centred arch are two two-light canopied windows opening into the church.  The soffit of the doorway is panelled.  On the west side where is now a canopied niche was formerly an external pulpit reached from within by the staircase which leads to the roof.  It is shown in the 1730 view.  On the east side are two odd little flying buttresses, intended apparently to repeat the inclined surface of the other side.  The two north aisles are fortunately not carried westward so far as the nave, which projects a half bay beyond them and so prevents the otherwise unrelieved flatness of this part.  The most effective of the porches is that on the west front, just north of the tower.  It appears to have been built after the nave was finished, and may have been added expressly to provide a more dignified entrance to the church when Henry VI came in state in 1451, for it faces directly up the nave.  The groining with cusped panels and numerous bosses has escaped restoration.  The five niches above the porch are statueless, and so are those on the porch front.  May they long continue so!  The doors are largely original and are finely panelled and carved.

[Illustration:  INTERIOR OF ST. MICHAEL’S FROM THE WEST.]

CHAPTER III

THE INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH

From within the door by which the church is usually entered, that near the south-west angle, we obtain an overpowering impression of the special characteristic of the interior, its spaciousness, for it is here more than 100 feet wide and the east window is nearly 240 feet distant.

The nave, which is 37 feet 6 inches wide in the clear, is wider than that of many cathedrals, and much exceeds that of most parish churches, the widest (Worstead) given in Brandon’s “Parish Churches” being 29 feet.  Boston alone exceeds it by about 3 feet.  While the ordinary aisle width ranges from 10 to 14 feet, the north aisle here is 23 feet, the outer north and the south being each 17 feet.