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In 1343 the central tower was at last raised by Bishop Hamo de Hythe, and capped by him with a wooden spire in which he placed four bells named Dunstan, Paulinus, Ythamar, and Lanfranc.

He then went forward to Canterbury, and on his return from the archiepiscopal city gave, on the 27th of the same month, seven shillings each for the shrines of SS. Paulinus and Ythamar in the church of the Priory.

Decorated tracery was inserted in the presbytery windows soon after the erection of the tower, and Bishop Hamo is recorded to have reconstructed in marble and alabaster the shrines of SS. Paulinus and Ythamar.

#The Central Tower# is the first feature to claim our attention now that we are come to the description of the exterior and its parts. The earliest tower over the crossing was raised, in 1343, by Bishop Hamo de Hythe, who crowned it with a spire of wood, covered with lead, and placed in it four bells, named Dunstan, Paulinus, Ythamar, and Lanfranc.

An indication of the completion of the church in this new form, or rather, it is safer to say, of the final destruction of its Saxon predecessor, is perhaps contained in an entry that has been found, that "Bishop John translated the body of St. Ythamar, Bishop of Rochester." It seems peculiar that this relic was not moved to the new church at the same time as the remains of St. Paulinus.

Ythamar, the first Englishman to attain the episcopal dignity. Both of these died as bishops of Rochester, and they were buried in its cathedral in 644 and 655 respectively. The other apse, for this is possibly the right meaning to assign to "porticus" in the following quotation, would have contained the altar of St.