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Wt\t i&ortttarg ejjaptls of Utrijficttr 

 Catijetrral. 



Paper read in Lichfield Cathedral, July 27TH, 

 By J. Charles Cox. 



HE term " Mortuary Chapels " has been adopted as 

 the title of this paper, inasmuch as it is the name 

 by which that portion of the Lady Chapel that it 

 is intended to restore to the memory of the late Bishop Selwyn 

 is usually distinguished, and is not to be understood as expressing 

 the concurrence of the writer in the accuracy of the term. 

 These structures, whatever be their right designation, are three 

 in number, and consist of small vaulted chambers built between 

 the buttresses on the south side of the chapel of Our Lady. 

 The chamber nearest to the east has an area of 8 ft. 8 in., by 5 

 ft. 9 in., and has a doorway communicating with the interior of 

 the cathedral. The central one is the largest, being 13 ft. by 

 5 ft. 9 in., and can only be gained by a square-headed doorway 

 from the east chamber, which passes through the intervening 

 buttress, having a thickness of 3 ft. 3 in. The chamber to 

 the west is gained by another small doorway out of the Lady 

 Chapel, and has an area which almost exactly corresponds with 

 that of the east chamber. From this room a low doorway in 

 the west wall gives access to a flight of stone steps that leads 

 down to three crypts or vaults, below the three chambers. The 

 floor of these crypts is on solid rock, and level with the founda- 

 tions of the fabric itself. A narrow gangway round the inter- 

 vening buttresses gives access to the central and east crypts. 

 That these crypts and the superincumbent chambers formed 



