l, and the
fact that it was never finished renders it only the more interesting,
since thereby the whole process from the first outline to the final
touch of colour is evident. A legend concerning Hugh of Avalon,
afterwards Bishop of Lincoln (associated with this book), is worthy of
mention. Henry II., who founded the Carthusian Monastery of Witham, in
Somerset, had appointed Hugh prior in 1175 or 1176, and finding that his
monks needed MSS. to copy, and in particular a complete copy of the
Bible, promised to give them one. To avoid expense, he borrowed this
superb Vulgate from Winchester and sent it to Witham. A chance visit
long afterwards of a Winchester monk revealed what had happened, and on
the matter becoming known to Hugh, he returned the volume without the
king's knowledge.[4] Among other important MSS. in the Library are an
eleventh century copy of Bede's "Ecclesiastical History"; a twelfth
century "Life of Edward the Confessor," by S. Aelred, Cistercian Abbot
of Rievaulx about 1160, containing a portrait of the king within one of
its initial letters; a copy of the "_Promptorium Parvulorum_"; a charter
of AEthelwulf, King of Wessex, dated 854 and bearing the signatures of
the king, his young son Alfred, and S. Swithun. There are also the
chapter-books for 1553-1600; the cathedral statutes, with the signatures
of Charles I. and Bishop Laud; the original charter of Henry VIII. to
the cathedral, on the dissolution of the priory; and many interesting
documents and printed books, some with the original chains which were
fastened to their covers. Here also are kept the great seal of Henry V.,
the pastoral staff from Bishop Fox's tomb, his ring, those of Bishops
Gardiner and Woodlock, and the one, set with a sapphire, which comes
from the tomb of "William Rufus"--probably, as we have said, belonging
to Henry of Blois. The library was built in 1668 A.D.

[4] It is now, however, on record that the book was bequeathed by
Bishop Nicholas of Ely in 1282.

We may now return to the body of the cathedral and pass to the
surroundings of the choir.

The #Feretory#, where the _feretra_ or shrines of the saints were
placed, lies behind the high altar and reredos, and the two doors in the
latter give access to it. At one time, before the erection of the
reredos, the feretory must have been visible from the choir. Behind the
doors is a raised platform, seven feet in breadth, extending right
across. The upper surface o