Manchester.
_Magnum Sedile._--Can any of your correspondents throw light on the
singular arched recesses, sometimes (though rarely) to be found on the
south side of chancels, west of the sedilia. The name of _magnum sedile_
has been given to them, I know not on what authority; but if they were
intended to be used as stalls of dignity for special occasions, they would
hardly have been made so wide and low as they are generally found. A good
example occurs at Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire,--certainly not monumental; and
another (but more like a tomb) at Merton, near Oxford, engraved in the
_Glossary of Architecture_. Why should they not have been intended for the
holy sepulchre at Easter? as I am not aware that these were necessarily
restricted to the north side. Is there any instance of a recess of this
kind on the south side, and an Easter sepulchre on the north, in the same
church?