tained. This the style and execution of the monument, or the mouldings or ornaments upon it, an effigy, or the casement where there has been a brass, may in many cases supply.
To revert in conclusion to the primary object of this paper, I trust I may express a confident hope that the Institute, with its extended means of correspondence and collection, will at least in the first instance render these important facilities available for the purpose of obtaining the further information required for an improved Ordinary of arms; and that eventually we may have such a work of that kind as will be a truly valuable aid to the archæological inquirer. w. s. w.
NOTICE OF RECENT DISCOVERIES IN CHESTER CATHEDRAL,
ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE ORIGINAL ARRANGEMENT OF THAT STRUCTURE IN NORMAN AND LATER TIMES.
Excavations which have been made within the last few years in the choir of the cathedral at Chester, in effecting certain alterations in the internal arrangements, have brought to light the foundations of some of the pillars of the Norman church, which are exhibited in the accompanying plan. From this discovery it appears that, according to the custom usually followed during the prevalence of the Norman style, the choir was of much shorter proportions than is common in churches of later date, and that its eastern end was semicircular in plan. The round pillars were 6 ft. 9 in. in diameter, including the moulding of the base, which was a plain torus 3 in. in diameter. The large mass of walling at the junction of the curve with the straight part of the choir, on the north side, was 6 ft. broad, and extended over the whole space between the bases of the pillars of the existing church: a corresponding mass of walling was discovered on the south side of the choir before the other remains were laid open, but, as no precise dimensions of it were taken, it is not marked upon the plan; this last-mentioned piece of walling was found to have been partially disturbed by a grave which
