It is hard to compare the figure work of England with that on the Continent owing to the disastrous effect of the Reformation. But when we examine the roofs of the Eastern counties, the bench ends of Somerset, or the misericords in many parts of the country, we can appreciate how largely wood sculpture was used for purposes of decoration. If as a rule the figure work was I not of a very high order, we have conspicuous exceptions in the stall elbows of Sherborne, and the pulpit of Trull, Somerset. Perhaps the oldest instance is the often mutilated and often restored effigy of Robert, Duke of Normandy, in Gloucester Cathedral (12th century), and carved, as was generally the case in England, in oak. At Clifton Reynes, Buckingham, there are two figures of the 13th century. They are both hollowed out from the back in order to facilitate seasoning the wood and to prevent cracking. During the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries there are numberless instances of figure carving of the most graphic description afforded in the misericords in many of our churches and cathedrals. But of figures carved in the round apart from their surroundings hardly an instance remains. At the little chapel of Cartmel Fell, in the wilds of Westmorland, there is a figure of Our Lord from a crucifix, some in length. The cross is gone, the arms are broken away, and the feet have been burned off. A second figure of Our Lord (originally in the church of Keynes Inferior) is in the museum of Caerleon, and a third, from a church in Lincolnshire, is now in a private collection. On the continent some of the finest figure work is to be found in the retables, some of which are in the Victoria and Albert Museum. A Tirolese panel of the 15th century carved in high relief, representing St John seated with his back to the onlooker, is a masterpiece of perspective and foreshortening, and the drapery folds are perfect. The same may be said of a small statue of the Virgin, carved in lime by a Swiss hand, and some work of the great Tilman Riemenschneider of Wurzburg (1460–1531) shows that stone sculptors of medieval times were not ashamed of wood.