in the following verses:-- “Tuz ki cest estorie ont Ou oyront, ou luront, ou veront, Prient à Jhesu en deyté De Richard de Haldingham e de Lafford eyt pité Ki l’at fet e compassé Ke joie en cel li seit doné.” The latter part of the thirteenth century is the date which has usually been assigned to it; but M. D’Avezac, President of the Geographical Society of Paris, who has recently examined the map with much care, arrives, from internal evidence, at the conclusion that it was designed at the beginning of the year 1314[38]. The map itself (drawn on thick vellum, and glued to a framework of oak) is founded on the mediæval belief that all geographical knowledge resulted from the observations of three philosophers, (here named Nichodoxus, Theodotus, and Policlitus,) who were sent forth by Augustus Cæsar to survey the three divisions of the world, when it was about to be taxed at the birth of our Lord. The Emperor is accordingly figured giving his directions to the philosophers. The world is represented as round, and surrounded by the ocean. At the top of the map, which represents the east, is Paradise, [Illustration: ANCIENT MAP. PLATE XI. ] with the Tree of Life, and Adam and Eve. Above is the Last Judgment, with the Virgin interceding for mankind. Jerusalem appears in the centre of the map; and near it, the crucifix is planted on “Mount Calvary.” Babylon has its famous tower; Rome bears the inscription, “Roma caput mundi tenet orbis frena rotundi;” and Troy is described as “Troja civitas bellicosissima.” (These four cities were regarded as the most important in the world: Troy, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, was a favourite subject of romance.) The British Isles occupy a considerable space; and Hereford, with its cathedral, is by no means obscurely placed. A great part of the map is filled with inscriptions taken from Solinus, Isidore of Seville, and others; and with drawings of the monstrous animals and peoples which the mediæval cosmography supposed to exist in different parts of the world. The monkey is assigned to Norway; the scorpion to the banks of the Rhine; and the “oroc” (aurochs) to Provence. Lot’s wife, the labyrinth of Crete, the columns of Hercules, and Scylla and Charybdis, should also be noticed. “The portrait of Abraham is seen in Chaldæa, and that of Moses on Mount Sinai. Amid the deserts of Ethiopia St. Anthony is recognised, with his hook-beaked satyrs and fauns. St. Augustine in his pontifical habit marks the situation of his own Hippo[39].” The history of this very remarkable map is uncertain. It was discovered, probably about a century ago, under the floor of Bishop Audley’s Chapel; and Dean Merewether suggested (but apparently without the slightest authority) that it might have served originally as an altar-piece[40].