142 Original Position of the High Altar 
The several conclusions to which these investigations lead us 
would seem to be as follows :—that, from the first, what is now the 
choir was enclosed by a screen or grating ;—that there is no evidence 
that what is now included in what we may call the presbytery, w7z., 
the space extending from the line ¢ d to the line m 1, was so enclosed, 
as undoubtedly it would have been had it been the original pres- 
bytery ;—that the floor of the space east of the line ¢ d was at the first 
not raised at all, but was on a level with the aisles. And the result 
at which we arrived was the conviction that this portion of the 
Church was not originally considered a part of the presbytery at all; 
the latter ending at the line marked ¢ d. Moreover we thought it 
probable that this part of the Church, which was thus neither en- 
closed nor raised, might have been used by the /aity; and, if so, the 
comparatively secular subjects of the roof-paintings are easily to be 
accounted for. The term comparatively secular is used advisedly, for 
of course they are capable of the interpretation given of them by 
Mr. Beresford Hope, and a similar series of subjects is to be seen in 
a large circular arrangement of encaustic tiles in a small side chapel 
at Chester Cathedral,! and also round an ancient font at Burnham 
Deepdale, in Norfolk.? In this last instance the names of several 
of the months indicated by the emblems are distinctly traceable in 
the stone-work, though the font itself is much mutilated. 
Our theory then, by which we account for what is undoubtedly a 
difficulty at the first sight, is as follows. When the Cathedral was 
built, the choir extended as we believe from the eastern arch of the 
central tower to the line marked on our plan a 6. The space between 
the lines a 4 and c d formed the presbytery, and was occupied by 
the officiating clergy. The space east of the line ¢ d, as well as the 
1The subjects of the tiles at Chester are as follows:—JaNnuUARY, a man 
warming his hands ; Fesruary, drinking wine ; Marca, digging the ground ; 
APRIL, sowing seed; May, hawking; Jun, plucking flowers ; JuLY, reaping ; 
Aveust, threshing ; SEPTEMBER, gathering fruit; OcroBer, brewing; Novem- 
BER, felling timber ; DECEMBER, killing the Christmas pig. 
2 See Archwologia, Vol. x., p. 177. Dr. Sayers, in his ‘ Disquisitions,” pub- 
lished in 1808, at p. 257, says that ‘similar figures are to be seen on some 
circular stones in the pavement of the Holy Trinity, in Canterbury Cathedral, 
and also in the porch of St. Margaret’s Church, York.” 
