MORTUARY CHAPELS, LICHFIELD. i, 7 



part of the original design of the Lady Chapel cannot be for 

 a moment doubted, as the stones from which the vaulting of 

 the crypts spring are a component part of the masonry of the 

 main wall. The roofs of the three chambers are nicely groined 

 with stone ribs and bosses, and the floor of the central one 

 is still partly covered with encaustic tiles of a simple yellow 

 and black glaze, arranged alternately in a lozenge pattern. In 

 proceeding to the exterior of the Lady Chapel, it will be 

 found that these chambers are surmounted by sharply-pitched 

 gables, which have originally covered richly ornamented sepul- 

 chral recesses. Their cuspings must have been something after 

 the fashion of the canopied external tomb to the east of the 

 south transept entrance of this cathedral. The front stones of 

 these recesses have been all removed, probably in the course 

 of last century, owing to their being much decayed. At the 

 same time, or at all events not earlier than the seventeenth 

 century, the windows of the two side chambers were cut down 

 so as to form doorways communicating with the exterior of the 

 building. It seems likely that the doorway nearest the east 

 was the first thus treated. I have carefully looked over all 

 the known engravings of Lichfield Cathedral, beginning with 

 the illustrations to Fuller's Church History and Dugdale's 

 Monasticon, as well as several private drawings and views of an 

 early date, but of those which give a south view, none are 

 executed with sufficient minuteness or accuracy to determine the 

 condition of these recesses. It was not until I came to an 

 engraving of Snape's, of the year 17S1, that any view giving 

 details of this part of the fabric was found, and there the door- 

 way of the eastern chamber is shown in its present condition, 

 and also the two windows over the central recess. After that 

 date there are several views, including the accurate plate in 

 Bntton's History (1836), that give all the recesses as they now 

 are. Fortunately the cinquefoil head of the two-light window 

 of the west chamber still remains, so that this and its fellow can 

 be restored precisely as it was originally constructed. The two 

 plainer two-light windows of the central chamber are yet in 

 situ, though the mullions have been renewed at a later date. 



