Proceeding to the chapter-house, it will be found that the lower part
was built in the later years of the Lancet period. To the same date
belong the misereres of the choir. This bishop gave the cathedral body
its present constitution: dean, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, and
canons; it is natural that he should have constructed for them their
chapter-house, with its fine arcade; and their stalls. The misereres,
with their stiff trefoiled foliage, are the earliest set in the kingdom,
and of exceptional interest. Bishop Bruere had travelled in the East, and
designs in tapestry brought back by him may have been copied: _e.g._,
there is the earliest representation of an elephant; a later one occurs
at Boston; there are mermen and mermaids, and an illustration of the
Romaunt of the _Chevalier au Cygne_; also Nebuchadnezzar saddled—unless
this is the favourite subject of the weakness of philosophers before the
charms of women, as exemplified in the temptation and fall of Aristotle.