of wood, is the muniment chamber. Traces
of a cross on the central pillar support the theory that the "Altar in
the Treasury," referred to in various early documents, stood here. The
solidity and strength of the building, and the fact that it was
undoubtedly the store house for the vestments and treasures of the
church, leaves little doubt that the supposition is true.

A very fine cope chest, reproduced by Mr. William Burges in his
"Architectural Drawings," 1870, until lately preserved in the vestry,
now in the north choir aisle, has a quaintly-carved capital on one of
its shafts that suggests a very early date for its construction. The
heavy lid was originally lifted by a rope and windlass. Although
possessing no traces of painting or gilding, and but little carving,
it is both curious and interesting as a specimen of woodwork coeval
with the cathedral itself. A somewhat similar one exists in
Westminster Abbey, in both the lifting lids worked on very slight
pivots. At Westminster the chains remain. In 1834 a writer described
the room as "a feast for moths and spiders;" now it is kept in
admirable order. The most important of its extremely valuable
documents have been printed in a volume devoted to Sarum in the
"Master of the Rolls Series," in the late Canon Jones' "Fasti
Ecclesiae: Sarisberiensis." In addition to these historic papers there
is an immense quantity of Chapter Registers and other MSS. of more
local interest. Many of the chests and presses date from early times,
when the three keys needed to open each were severally in the charge
of three of the cathedral dignitaries. The contemporary copy of Magna
Charta, made for William Longespee, first Earl of Salisbury, and
referred to elsewhere, is sometimes exhibited here.

The documents which contain "the statutes and ordinances" by which the
cathedral is governed, extend over six centuries, commencing in 1091
and ending 1697. These were edited by Dr. Edward A. Dayman, and the
late Rev. W.H. Rich Jones, Vicar of Bradford-on-Avon, whose researches
in the past history of not merely the cathedral, but the whole
district, were so extended, that it is impossible to do justice in
every instance to many facts which have been taken from his pages in
the preparation of this handbook. The privately printed volume,
published in 1883, contains the Latin text with English notes of these
various documents. The details of most of these, although of immense
value to antiquarian