The entrance to the chapter house is by a vestibule opening from the north aisle of the choir. The interior of the wall over the doorway has not been thickened like the other sides, and near the top of this blank wall are four niches (see [Fig. 553]), now empty, and these are surmounted by a smaller niche, also empty.
On the east side of the vestibule is a small vaulted apartment, containing a stone trough, which was, doubtless, formerly used as a lavatory. In more recent times it was occupied as a living-room by the mother of General Anderson (a benefactor of the town), and the trough is said to have formed the future General’s cradle.
A wheel-stair, in the south-east angle of the chapter house, leads to the roof.
The north and south aisles of the choir have been vaulted and provided with ridge ribs and liernes. In the north aisle one bay and in the south aisle three bays of the vaulting still remain (see [Figs. 552] and [548]). The latter, called the Lady Chapel, has been restored in the fifteenth century, when traceried windows were inserted and the vaulting built.
In this aisle several monuments have been erected. That of Bishop Winchester (1437-58), in the wall next the choir (see [Fig. 548]), is a good example of the work of the period. The recumbent effigy of the Bishop is in fair preservation, and some traces of paintings of angels are still visible in the interior of the vaulted canopy of this tomb. The monument to another Bishop, in the same wall, is of a simpler design.
This aisle has long been the burial-place of the ancient family of the Gordons. The central tomb at the east end is that of the first Earl of Huntly, who died in 1470.
In the north wall of the choir is an early example of a tomb of peculiar design (see [Fig. 545]).
Fig. 554.—Elgin Cathedral. Caps in Chapter House.