Leaving this room, we pass through the two cloister walks already described, and proceed towards the hall until on the right hand we see a staircase with balusters of oak, black from age. We mount this, and when we reach the top find ourselves in the upper corridor that runs along the north side of the cloister-garth. This is lit by windows looking into the cloister, and is covered with a wooden ceiling, just at the head of the staircase is the doorway leading into the private rooms of the governor, with exquisite oak fittings; on the north side of this corridor are doors similar to those that we noticed in the corridor below, opposite to the hall; these lead into the librarian's rooms; beyond these, to the west, stands a beautiful Tudor table of carved oak. At the west end of the corridor is an iron studded door. The carvings over the doorway on the west side should not be passed by unnoticed (see p. 65). The corridor over the west walk of the cloister is filled with bookcases plentifully supplied with books. [Illustration: CHETHAM'S LIBRARY, FORMERLY THE DORMITORY.] Parallel to this runs the old dormitory of the College, a room with a fine timber roof lighted from above; on the west side of this are a number of compartments formed of tall bookcases, and entered from the corridor by open-work doors. At the north end of the corridor is a window filled with painted glass, one light of which represents St. Martin of Tours dividing his cloak with a beggar, and the other Eutychus falling out of the window. At the south end of this corridor we find a staircase which leads from the ground floor close to the main entrance to the library, and is, in fact, the way by which readers usually enter it. There is a room with a similar timber roof running along the south side of the building parallel to the corridor above the south walk of the cloister. This was once a chapel dedicated to St. Mary, and now, like the dormitory, is filled with bookcases; but an oak altar rail, dating from the middle of the sixteenth century, with double spiral rails, may still be seen here. At the east end of the south corridor is a door leading into a beautiful room, now used as the reading room; formerly it was the warden's room, and many a man well known in history has sat within its walls. Here Sir Walter Raleigh and the courtiers of his day were entertained by the warden, Dr. Dee, of whom mention was made in the last chapter,--a wizard as he was then thought to be, whom even the Queen did not hesitate to consult when she wished to know the future. This room, like many others in this building, has an open timber roof and a cornice, dating from the time of the foundation of the College in the days of Henry V. The walls are wainscoted up to the level of the spring of the roof which spans the room from east to west. [Illustration: THE WARDEN'S ROOM, NOW THE READING ROOM--NORTH SIDE.]