s' Close, and the screen
that now breaks the light had for a century and a half been the
outside window, just as the blocked window of the transept had been
the outer light for the fifty years before the staircase itself was
thought of. It was just a practical matter-of-fact device; but what
magnificent utilitarianism, what an inspired after-thought!

[Illustration: Steps Of Chapter-house Vestibule And Passage Over Chain
Gate.]

The main gallery of the Chain Gate is shut off by a door which, if it
were kept open, would make the prospect even more beautiful than it
is. Two corbels which support the vaulting-shafts of the lower
staircase should be noticed; they both represent figures thrusting
their staves into the mouth of a dragon, but that on the east (wearing
a hood and a leathern girdle round his surcoat) is as vigorous in
action as the figure on the west side is feeble. A small barred
opening in the top of the east wall lights a curious little chamber,
which is reached from the staircase that leads to the roof.

THE CHAPTER-HOUSE is entered by a double-arched doorway, the small
vault between the arches having an odd boss composed of four bearded
heads. There are marks in the wall which lead one to think that the
doors were hung in a wooden screen under this vault. The old doors are
now used in the house of the Principal of the College, where they were
identified by Canon Church. They have little slits in them, through
which those in the chapter-house could speak with those without, who
no doubt waited for admittance on the stepped stone bench of the
staircase. Grooves in the two inner shafts of the doorway seem to have
been made for the insertion of some light screen, by which the
entrance was divided into two passages for ingress and egress. The
absence of doors certainly adds to the rather cold unfurnished
appearance of the chapter-house in its present condition.

[Illustration: Chapter-House--Doorway.]

The room itself ("a glorious development of window and vault" it has
been called) is one of the best examples of that type of chapter-house
which belongs mainly to the thirteenth century, and is a peculiar
glory of English architecture. Of octagonal plan, its vaulting ribs
branch out from sixteen Purbeck shafts which cluster round the central
pillar, typifying the diocesan church with all its members gathered
round its common father, the bishop. Each of the eight sides of the
room is occupied by a window of