In 1294, Edward I held a great council of clergy and laity in the Refectory at Westminster. On this occasion the King was demanding a subsidy of half their possessions, to the consternation of the assembled council. The Dean of St. Paul’s was trying to persuade the King not to ask so much, and in his anxiety and excitement the poor man fell dead at Edward’s feet. The old history says that Edward took very little notice,—“passed over this event with indifferent eyes,” and insisted on having what he asked. It was in the Refectory that the Commons impeached Piers Gaveston, the favourite and bad adviser of Edward II. And besides this, the Commons met here several times during the reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V, so we see that this great hall has been very closely connected with the history of England. It is supposed that part of the large quantity of stone granted to Protector Somerset was taken from the Refectory. This stone was used by him in the building of Somerset House. Another important part of the monastery was the Infirmary, the place where the old and infirm monks lived in their old age. It stood on the site of what is now called the Little Cloister, but the present Little Cloister is much more modern, and belongs to what is called the “Jacobean” time. The low, barrel-vaulted passages which lead from the Great Cloister to the site of the old Infirmary are some of the very oldest parts of the Abbey buildings, as they were built, if not actually during the Confessor’s lifetime, at any rate by the first Norman Kings. They are therefore more than 800 years old. In one of the ancient Norman rooms, below the former Dormitory of the monks, the Dean and Chapter have lately arranged a very interesting kind of museum, containing various fragments of old carving and other valuable relics of former times. There, too, have been placed the very oldest of the wax effigies, which are too battered and ragged to be shown with the others in the Islip Chantry. Here are the rather ghastly remains of the effigies of Edward III and Philippa, Henry V and Katherine de Valois, of Mary Tudor and some others.