An early copy of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and a copy of Magna Charta, supposed to be the transcript committed to the care of William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury, as one of the original witnesses, should also be mentioned.

XXXVI. The cloisters themselves [Plate XIV.]— they were not, it must be remembered, the cloisters of a monastery, since Salisbury is a cathedral of the old foundation, and at no time had monks attached to it— which are of later date, and exhibit a more developed style than the rest of the cathedral, are among the finest examples in England; and nothing can be more beautifu than the contrast of their long grey arcades and graceful windows with the green sward of the cloister-garth, or 'Paradise,' the 'layers of shade' of the dusky cedars in its centre, and the patch of bright blue sky above. The length of each side is 181 feet. The arrangement of the windows, with their large six-foiled openings above, and the double arches below, again subdivided by a slender shaft, is very striking. They should be compared with the triforium of the cathedral. Remark also the gradation of the clustered shafts, originally of Purbeck marble, between and in the centre of each window. The upper part, above the mullions, was originally glazed, and fragments of the stained glass still remain. Plate XV. A blind arcade fills the opposite side, between each bay of the vaulting, which, like that within the cathedral, has no ridge-ribs. The clustered columns at the angles of the cloister have enriched capitals, the rest are simply moulded. The building of

the cloisters must have immediately followed that of the cathedral, since the chapter-house, which opens from them, and is perhaps of slightly later character, dates early in the reign of Edward I., many of whose pennies, during the recent restoration, were found in those parts of the foundations which required underpinning. The cloisters were restored by Bishop Denison, who died in 1854, and is buried, with his first wife, in the central enclosure. The original Purbeck shafts were then replaced by common stone, "to the no small detriment of the general effect."

XXXVII. In the centre of the eastern walk of the cloisters is the entrance to the chapter-house [Plate XVI.], dating, as has already been said, early in the reign of Edward I. It is "a noble octagonal building, having an internal diameter of about fifty-eight feet. Each side is occupied by a large window of four lights, with an arcade of seven bays below it; the vaulting-ribs fall upon a central pillar, and their filling-in is composed of the same light concrete found throughout the cathedral. Whether there was or was not anciently a high-pointed roof remains a disputed point. All we know is, that the present roof is modern, and that the poinçon has evidently formed part of an older roof contemporary with the building. The great defect of the structure is its want of boldness; externally the buttresses do not project far enough, and internally the small columns at the angles look flat, and resemble reeds. Altogether, the impression is left on the spectator that the architect, whoever he might have been,