, a symbol that has at least poetry and
spirituality to recommend it.

Beyond this, and behind the high altar, in the recess of the apse, once
stood the bishop's throne, a plain stone chair, in the days when the
priests did occupy their places in the church. The seat may still be
seen in the aisle, at the back of this spot, by any one adventurous
enough to climb a ladder, and peep into a niche they will find high up in
the wall.

We let pulpits and thrones of the present day speak for themselves, and
leaving the choir, take a brief look at the fine old chapels of St. Luke
and Jesus, on the north and south side of the apse. The former still
remains in good preservation, and is used as the parish church of St.
Mary in the Marsh, destroyed by Herbert, the founder of both these
chapels, as well as the Cathedral. The only font within the precincts is
here; it is an ancient affair, brought hither from the demolished church,
and is decorated with carvings, representing the seven sacraments, the
four evangelists, and divers figures of popes, saints, confessors, &c.
Over this chapel is the treasury of the dean and chapter, from amongst
whose stores, hid up where moth and rust do corrupt, a beautiful and
curious painting of scenes in the life of Christ, has been of late years
rescued, and promoted to the honour of a place in the vestry room (the
ancient prison of the monastery), where it has been placed under a glass
case. It appears to have served originally as some part of the
decoration of an altar, and was set in a frame, the mouldings of which
are richly diapered and ornamented with gilding, with impressed work and
fragments of coloured glass inserted at intervals, a mode of enrichment
of which specimens are very rare in this country. The corners of the
frame had been removed to adapt it to the purpose of a table, at the
period of the great "dissolution," where it had remained with its back
serving for the top of the required table, until accident revealed it to
the eyes of archaeological research.

The painting is divided into five compartments, each on a separate panel,
the subjects being the Flagellation of Christ, Christ bearing the Cross,
the Crucifixion, and the Ascension. The entire back-grounds of the
paintings are gilded and diapered in curious patterns, and the ornaments,
such as the bosses of the harness on the horses of the soldiers, the
goldsmith's work on the cingulum or belt, are in slight relief. Thi