choir and its transepts. All the windows, excepting those immediately contiguous to the altar, consist of single lights of the lancet form. The others, which are divided by mullions, were undoubtedly once filled with stained glass, remains of which are still existing. The eastern transept is divided into aisles; its extremities were formerly shut out from the choir by screens, which were occasionally hung with tapestry. The northern side of this transept is called the chapel of St. William, from the shrine of the saint, which was here deposited. The vaulting both of the choir and its transept is of stone, the ribs springing from capitals of tall shafts of Petworth marble.

The altar was originally placed at a distance from the eastern wall, and its position is ascertained by a triple stone seat in the southern wall under the third window. These stalls placed on the southern side of altars were intended for a priest, deacon, and sub-deacon, to sit in during the celebration of high mass.20 On the front of this triple seat are the arms of the see of Rochester; of the priory of Christchurch, Canterbury; and of the priory of St. Andrew, at Rochester. Beneath these shields were formerly representations of three episcopal figures, and this inscription :—

O altitudo divinaq sapiencie et scientie

Dei quam incomprehensibilia sunt

Judicia ejus et investigales vie ejus.

The crypt of this church is very spacious, extending under the buildings of the choir eastward of the great transept, and was the work of William de Hoo. There are remains of fresco painting in that part of the crypt beneath Saint William's chapel. Within a circle is a representation of a vessel sailing and a large fish in the water below. On one side is a monk, with uplifted hands as if in prayer; under the whole is a shield of gold charged with an eagle displayed, sable.

The entrance of the present chapter-house is near the southern end of the eastern transept; its pointed arched doorway presents

20 By one of the constitutions of Archbishop Langton, made in 1222, every large parish church is enjoined to have two or three priests, according to the extent of the parish and state of the church, and three stalls on the southern side of the altar are not uncommon in ancient churches. One of the most elegant of these triple stone seats, formerly in the chancel of Chatham church, is engraved in the third volume of the "Vetusta Monumenta ;" and there are four stalls in the church at Maidstone, and in that of Cotterstock, in Northamptonshire.

the finest specimen of canopied niches, with effigies, to be seen in England. The sculpture is very rich, and is continued from the base in detached recesses rising above each other, and contains figures, of which the lowermost are supposed to represent King Henry I. and his queen Matilda. Above on each side are Bishops Gundulf, Ernulf, Lawrence de St. Martin, and Hamo de Hythe, to the last of which the erection of the doorway is attributed."1 The hollow moulding surrounding these figures is perforated and entwined with foliage. Over the effigies of the bishops are represented cherubim and seraphim glorifying Christ, whose figure is sculptured standing beneath a canopy on the apex of the arch. Branches of foliage forming the outer mouldings appear to spring from piers ornamented with graduated buttresses on the sides of the doorway.

A library is contained in cases on the northern side of the chapter room. Amongst the manuscripts are "Textus Roffensis," and the "Costumale Roffense," the last written chiefly by Prior John Westerham, who died in the year 1320. It contains many particulars relative to the ancient tenures, services, &c., of the manors, within the diocese of Rochester, which belonged to the priory of St. Andrew, together with the valuation of the Peterpence payable from Cathedral Churches in England to the popes.

The monuments of the bishops of Rochester now remaining in this Cathedral are interesting from their antiquity as well as from the style of execution. A very plain stone chest, on the southern side of the choir, near the altar, is supposed to be the tomb of Bishop Gundulf, who died in 1107.

Westward from this is a monument of Bishop Inglethorp, who died in 1291. The cumbent figure of the bishop, and canopy under which it reposes, are both cut out of a single block of Petworth marble, highly polished; the canopy is enriched with crockets,

21 Costumale Roffense, p. 176.-There is also an engraving of this doorway in "Carter's Specimens of Ancient Sculpture and Painting," a work of admirable design, tending to elucidate obscure and doubtful points of history, as well as to preserve portraits of eminent personages.

Sculptors from Italy are supposed to have traversed Europe at an early period in the exercise of their art, and to have brought it to this country, since an advance of excellence in sculptured designs of this period is very perceptible; and in the attitude of some of the monumental effigies of the thirteenth century, which are conceived to have been designed by or after these foreign artists, a graceful simplicity is preserved, and in the drapery a freedom of arrangement not always found in the more elaborate and finished productions of a succeeding age.—Bloxam on the Monumental Architecture and Sculpture of Great Britain, p. 129.