A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



have swept away most of them, and often those of greatest interest. Re- 

 cords of them have to be disinterred from archaeological pubhcations, in 

 which occasionally representations of them may be seen, but these are seldom 

 of a satisfactory nature, either from want of skill on the part of the copyist 

 or from the inadequate scale of the copy, or from both. There is room 

 in this account for the description of only a small selection ; those here given 

 being chosen as the best and most typical of the many which exist, or 

 have existed, in the county. 



Taking these examples in order of date, as the most convenient for 

 purposes of description, the first and earliest is to be found, as might be 

 expected, in the Cathedral Church at Norwich (PI. i.). It was discovered 

 in 1898, and the colours are still fresh after being hidden for centuries 

 beneath the various coats of yellow wash with which the interior of the 

 great church was covered until that year. Unfortunately only a small 

 portion of the painting remained, but enough was left to show that the 

 period in which it was executed was the latter half of the twelfth century. 

 It occurred on the Norman vaulting and on one transverse arch of the first 

 bay of the south aisle of the nave west of the quire screen, and adorned a 

 chapel in this bay, the dedication of which is now unknown. Originally, 

 outlining each triangle of the vaulting, was a broad dark red line bordered 

 on each side by a yellow one. A band of greyish white came next, and 

 within it the ground was a bright blue. A small portion of the design 

 painted on this ground exists in the western triangle, and shows part of a 

 throne on which is seated a king with perhaps another figure beside him. 

 He is represented in a pale green robe, and has purple shoes. Before his 

 feet is a footstool. Beneath this personage are traces of two youthful male 

 figures standing and looking upwards. One wears a long green tunic with 

 yellow sleeves, and a green mantle fastened on the left shoulder. The other 

 is clad in a short purple tunic edged with blue, a yellow mantle with 

 border of the same colour, and tight green hose. The broad surface of the 

 transverse arch separating the compartment on which is this painting from 

 that next to it on the west, has been adorned with a series of roundels, of 

 which only three remain. These are formed by narrow interlacing stems 

 upon a ground approaching the colour of emerald green, and scrolls with 

 flowers of various shades, slaty grey, gold colour, and white on a blue ground, 

 fill the spaces between the roundels. The ground of the roundels is blue, 

 within broad bands of greyish white and buff alternately, the subjects painted 

 upon them filling the whole circle, and encroaching upon and in places 

 covering the white bands. These subjects though much injured can be made 

 out fairly well. The first and lowest represents a church with central tower. 

 The masonry of the aisle wall and of the triforium is gold colour, while that 

 of the clerestory with an arcade of semi-circular arches is greyish white, as is 

 also the masonry of the tower. The roof of the church and the pyramidal 

 roof of the tower are coloured green. In the next roundel above is a seated 

 mitred figure wearing a blue robe, with a cope of reddish purple over it. 

 The hands are elapsed as if in prayer, and a crosier rests against the body 

 in the bend of the right arm. To the right are traces of a standing figure 

 habited in a green robe. Upon the buff-coloured border of the roundel 

 and close to the mitre of the former figure are some letters in white of an 



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