[Illustration: CAPITAL IN CHAPTER-HOUSE.]
This chapel is now approached by a staircase, leading from a doorway in the fourth bay on to the gallery, usually and incorrectly known as the "minstrel gallery," from which again two short flights of steps, right and left, lead into the chapel.
The lower storey was originally the sacristy: it is now used as the consistory court. Against the west wall are some of the old Jacobean stalls, which were put into the choir in Bishop Hacket's time; while in the corner are let into the floor some of the old tiles and slabs of cannel coal with which, and alabaster, the cathedral was at one time paved. The windows are filled with Perpendicular tracery, replacing the old Early English windows. Underneath, and reached by a staircase in the south-east turret, now closed, is a vault, at present used as the burial vault of the Paget family. Probably it was once a dungeon.
In the west wall can be seen the place where a doorway led into a chamber built in between the sacristy and the south transept aisle. This was no doubt the treasury of the cathedral, where all the most precious relics and valuables were kept. It is now entered by a doorway in the choir aisle. At present it appears to be a receptacle for odds and ends, and cupboards are placed along the walls. On the west side are several large aumbries, in which, no doubt, the relics were kept. The floor in this chamber has been raised at some time or other, and it is now much higher than that of the adjoining consistory court, so that there are steps in the south-east corner leading to a door into the consistory court. This is not the old doorway already mentioned, which is blocked up, but probably a much later entrance. Some old cannon balls which have been discovered in and round the cathedral may be seen in the treasury. On the north wall in both the consistory court and the treasury can be seen the remains of an old course or housing which, though in both cases incomplete, appears to have a semi-circular form. No theory seems to have been advanced as to these remains, and in this book it were wiser to follow precedent.