Crossing the nave, we see opposite to us a door, introducing us to the CLOISTERS of this once powerful Abbey. The arch we are now passing under is a Norman specimen of exceeding purity; and disfigured as it has been by modern _improvements_, yet affords a high degree of interest to the intelligent antiquary. The CLOISTERS once formed a quadrangle of 110 feet square; but the south portion has almost entirely disappeared, the bases of some of the pillars alone remaining. The east walk has a doorway leading into the CHAPTER HOUSE, through a vaulted Vestibule of great architectural beauty. These two apartments were the favourite places of sepulture of the puissant Norman earls, as well as of the earlier abbots of the Monastery. In the Chapter House, which is a noble building of the twelfth century, are deposited the Cathedral Library, as well as some vestiges of antiquity found within the Abbey and its precincts. Of these, a part of the stone coffin of Abbot Simon Ripley, and a Roman red sandstone inscription found near the present Deanery, are the most prominent and interesting. Over the door hang two bullet-tattered flags, once belonging to the 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment. A passage beyond the Chapter House leads, by the Maiden’s Walk, into the Abbey Court; and a doorway at the northwest corner to the Dormitory, now totally destroyed. A beautiful Norman chamber runs along the side of the western walk, and is variously designated the Promptuarium and _Abbot’s Hall_. This apartment, although an engraving of it appeared in Ormerod’s “History of Cheshire,” was but little known to Chester antiquaries until the year 1849, when this city was honoured with a visit from the British Archæological Association. A vast amount of rubbish, the accumulation of centuries, at that period blocked up the chamber; but the greater part of it was removed at the expense of the Association, and an able paper delivered on the subject, by Mr. Ashpitel, at their Chester Congress. That gentleman pronounced it to be the _Promptuarium_, or _Buttery_ of the Abbey; but a room, originally 105 feet long, seems of undue proportions for such a purpose. Mr. W. F. Ayrton, Secretary of the Chester Archæological Society, with greater apparent probability conceives it to be the _secunda aula_ of the Monastery, such as we find described in the charter of Henry VIII. Here it was that audience was given to strangers and dependants, and where friends of the abbot were temporarily entertained during their visits to the Monastery. The wall of the obliterated south walk, notwithstanding the cloister itself is ‘no more,’ is yet not without interest to the real lover of antiquity. Two rude arcades of late Norman work stretch along this wall, the arches of which mark the place of sepulture of four early abbots of the foundation. Some of the bases of the pillars once supporting the roof of the south walk are still visible on the Preese, or Cloister Green.