The north walk of the cloister contained the chief entrance into the refectory of the convent, which still remains a magnificent apartment, now divided by a modern passage, the eastern and greater portion being used as the King’s School. It was seventy-eight feet long, and thirty-four feet high, with a roof of oak resting on brackets, which was removed some years ago. Six pointed windows with intervening buttresses lighted the north side, and four the south. At the east end were three lancet-shaped windows, with slender detached shafts, all included within one greater arch. In the south east angle of this once noble room, is a flight of steps within the wall, with a projection at the upper end like a stone pulpit; these steps led to the ancient dormitory, and opens into the refectory by an elegant range of pointed arches, trefoiled within, whose spandrils are pierced with a series of quatrefoils. [Picture: Norman Vaulted Chamber, Chester Cathedral, date about 1095] We now direct the visitor’s attention to a portion of the Norman edifice, which has of late excited very deep interest, the Promptuarium, lately excavated: “the chamber is a sort of gallery or cloister on the ground floor, about ninety feet long by forty feet wide, traversed in the centre by a row of pillars (with one exception cylindrical), which divide it into six double bays, from which pillars, and four corresponding ones at each side, spring the intersecting arches by which the building is vaulted. The side pillars are as entirely Norman in their character as the centre ones, being simply the square pier, on each face of which is the pilaster attached; the groining of the roof is without the finish of ribs at the joints, a finish characteristic of a later period. The chamber, which has at present only a borrowed light from the cloisters on the east, was originally lighted from the west side, by a window in each bay, except the second bay from the south end, in which was a principal entrance. This doorway and the windows are now all choked up by the adjoining garden. On the same side, and at the north end, is a very large chimney and fire-place. A glance at the groining and arches at the north end, informing us that the chamber did formerly end here, I was induced to think, by this situation of the fire-place, that its length was originally very much greater. I have since found the termination of the chamber in the cellars of the present Registry, where the groining is supported by corbels, which shew that the vaults extended there, but no further. One double bay, therefore, added to the present remains, gives us the entire length of the building,—about one hundred and five feet. In this last bay, on the east side, is a principal doorway (four inches wider than the one on the west side), leading towards the refectory. On the east