Prient à Jhesu en deyté
De Richard de Haldingham e de Lafford eyt pité
Ki l'at fet e compassé
Ke joie en cel li seit doné."
Prebendary Havergal says: "It is believed to be one of the very oldest maps in the world, if not the oldest, and it is full of the deepest interest. It is founded on the cosmographical treatises of the time, which generally commence by stating that Augustus Cæsar sent out three philosophers, Nichodoxus, Theodotus, and Polictitus, to measure and survey the world, and that all geographical knowledge was the result. In the left-hand corner of the map the Emperor is delivering to the philosophers written orders, confirmed by a handsome mediæval seal. The world is here represented as round, surrounded by the ocean. At the top of the map is represented Paradise, with its rivers and trees; also the eating of the forbidden fruit and the expulsion of our first parents. Above is a remarkable representation of the Day of Judgment, with the Virgin Mary interceding for the faithful, who are seen rising from their graves and being led within the walls of heaven.
"The map is chiefly filled with ideas taken from Herodotus, Solinus, Isidore, Pliny, and other ancient historians. There are numerous figures of towns, animals, birds, and fish, with grotesque customs, such as the mediæval geographers believed to exist in different parts of the world; Babylon with its famous tower; Rome, the capital of the world, bearing the inscription—'Roma, caput mundi, tenet orbis frena rotundi'; and Troy as 'civitas bellicosissima.' In Great Britain most of the cathedrals are mentioned; but of Ireland the author seems to have known very little.
"Amongst the many points of interest are the columns of Hercules, the Labyrinth of Crete, the pyramids in Egypt, the house of bondage, the journeys of the Children of Israel, the Red Sea, Mount Sinai, with a figure of Moses and his supposed place of burial, the Phœnician Jews worshipping the molten image, Lot's wife," etc.
Bishop's Cloisters.—At the eastern end of the south[pg 057] nave aisle a door opens to the cloisters connecting the cathedral with the episcopal palace. In the cloister is placed a monument and inscription to Colonel John Matthews of Belmont, near Hereford, who died 1826. The subject, "Grief consoled by an Angel," is carved in Caen stone.
Other monuments are:—one to the Hon. Edward Grey, D.D., formerly Bishop of Hereford, 1832 to 1837. He died July 1837, and is buried beneath the bishop's throne. A monument to Bishop George Isaac Huntingford, D.D., 1815 to 1832. He died in his eighty-fourth year, April 1832, and was buried at Compton, near Winchester. Also a monument to Dr. Clarke Whitfield, an organist of the cathedral.
The following inscription, on an ancient brass, affixed to a gravestone near the west part of the cathedral, which, being taken off, was kept in the city tolsey or hall for some time until it was finally fastened to a freestone on the west side of the Bishop's Cloisters:—