as the execution of the above order left
it, will be understood from the view (fig. 41), taken from the roof of an
adjoining alley of the cloister. Internally the room is 66 feet long, 20
feet wide, and 12 ft. 9 in. high. It has a flat plaster ceiling, part of
the "new and lighter roof" imposed on the lowered walls in 1758. The
fittings are wholly modern.

The library attached to S. Paul's Cathedral, London, by which I mean the
medieval cathedral commonly called Old S. Paul's, was in a similar
position. Its history is succinctly recorded by Dugdale. After describing
the cemetery called Pardon Church Hawgh, with the cloister that surrounded
it, he proceeds:

_The Library._

Over the East quadrant of the before mentioned Cloyster,
was a fair _Library_ built, at the costs of _Walter
Shiryngton_, Chancelour of the Duchy of Lancaster in
King Henry the 6th's time: But in the year MDXLIX. 10.
_Apr._ both Chapell, Cloyster, and Monuments, excepting
onely that side where the _Library_ was, were pulled
down to the ground, by the appointment of _Edward_ Duke
of Somerset, then Lord Protector to King _Edward_ 6. and
the materialls carried into the Strand, towards the
building of that stately fabrick called Somerset-House,
which he then erected; the ground where they stood being
afterwards converted into a Garden, for the Pettie
Canons[248].

[Illustration: Fig. 42. Plan of the Library in Wells Cathedral.

Scale 1/10 inch=1 foot.]

[Illustration: Fig. 41. Exterior of the Library at Salisbury Cathedral,
looking north-east.]

Nothing is known of the dimensions or arrangement of the above room; but,
as it was over a cloister, it must have been long and narrow, like that
which still exists in a similar position at Wells Cathedral, which I will
briefly mention next.

The Chapter Library at Wells Cathedral occupies the south end of a long,
narrow room over the east pane of the cloister, approached by a spiral
staircase from the south transept. This room is about 162 feet long by 12
feet wide; the portion assigned to the library is about 106 feet long
(fig. 42). The roof was originally divided into 13 spaces by oak
principals, very slightly arched, resting on stone corbels. There were two
windows on each side to each space. In the part fitted up as a library the
principals have been plastered over to imitate stone, and the joists
between them concealed by a ceiling. There i