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singular and misplaced work at the west end-I mean the base of another tower of exquisite workmanship,-begun by the last prior, which partly hides, and partly darkens, the beautiful west front of the church. To compensate, however, for this injury, it is built of the finest masonry, and adorned with shields, statues, and one window of exquisite tracery. Amongst other ornaments on this part of the work is the statue of a pilgrim, with a staff in one hand and a broad flat round hat in the other, facing the south; and on the west, two sitting figures of dogs, resembling stout greyhounds, by which it may be doubted whether prior Moone did not mean to commemorate his uncanonical office of master forester to his patron.

"The design of this front shows great taste and originality of invention. The tabernacles, in particular, instead of terminating according to the style of the age, in an oblong pointed arch, expand above the springers into diminutive castles of two towers each, with battlements and embrasures, carved with all the delicacy of statuary in mezzo relievo.—

"The roof of the nave appears to have been relaid by prior Moone, about the time when he began the new tower. It is of flat oak-work, covered with

lead; and has been painted, like most of the roofs in Craven about that time, with broad lines of minium. The springers of the beams are adorned with rude figures of angels. On the south side is a triforium running the whole length of the nave.

say

"Bolton was the burial-place of such of the Cliffords as died in Yorkshire. It is difficult to what became of their remains at the dissolution. The earl of Cumberland would certainly be able to protect them from exposure and insult. Yet the vault at Bolton was empty when explored about thirty years ago; and they were certainly not removed into that at Skipton. On the whole, I am inclined to believe that the vault was left closed at the dissolution; but that in the progress of subsequent decay, part of the arch may have fallen in, which would leave the lead a prey to sacrilegious hands, in consequence of which the bodies so ex posed would gradually disappear.

"The entire outline of the close at Bolton cannot now be traced; but it certainly extended from the great gateway north and south, and touched upon the Wharf behind the churchyard at one point, and near Prior's Pool at another. Part of the wall, however, by the way-side, yet remains strong and

well-constructed of ashler. Within this inclosure, as usual, were all the apartments and offices of the house.

"The cloister-court, containing the chapterhouse, refectory, kitchen, dormitory, &c. with the exception of a few fragments, is destroyed. The chapter-house was an octagon, and perhaps the only specimen of a chapter-house of that form which was not placed northward from the choir. All these apartments appear to have been coeval with the translation of the house, and to have been vaulted and groined with excellent masonry, of which some of the grotesque carved key-stones remain. To the south-east, but connected with these, stood the prior's lodgings, of which the outline is distinctly traceable by the foundations. On the site of the kitchens stands the schoolmaster's house, a foundation of the incomparable Robert Boyle. The present school was one of the offices of the priory, as old as the foundation.

"At a small distance from this stands a most picturesque timber-building, in which tradition reports that the last prior ended his days. In the parlour has been a long oblique perforation through the wall, turned towards the kitchens, through

which the inhabitants, whoever they were, might receive their commons.

"All the modern additions in the inside of this building having lately been removed, an entire hall appeared in the centre open to the roof, and in the middle was the base of an ancient reredoss, resembling a millstone much smoked and burnt. Here the fire had evidently been kindled, and the smoke had found its way out at some aperture in the roof. Some chimneys had been added to the building at some later period. On the whole, from the situation of this building near the gateway, and still nearer to the kitchens of the house, I am inclined to believe that it was the Aula Hospitum!

"Near this, and unconnected with any building, was the priory oven; of such extent that the tenant of the demesne, missing sixty sheep, after some research found them sheltered under that ample arch. It was, in fact, an hemisphere eighteen feet in diameter.

"In the general wreck of the offices at Bolton, the gateway alone escaped. Probably the earl of Cumberland thought it might be of use as a temporary retreat for himself, or a residence for his bailiffs. Here, too, the records of the priory were

kept; and in the same repository many of the evidences of the Cliffords have been discovered. It is a strong square castellated building, of late gothic architecture, of which the outer and inner arch having been walled up, a handsome groined and vaulted apartment has been obtained within *."

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The earl of Cumberland survived this large acquisition of property but a very short time, being prematurely cut off at the age of forty-nine, on April 22d, 1542, only nineteen days after the grant of the estates and priory of Bolton. In his will occur two particulars which, as well from their juxta-position as from their own import, are worthy of notice, exhibiting not only a provident regard for his own spiritual welfare, but a laudable anxiety for the corporeal comfort and safety of those whom he had left behind. "I will that c markes be bestowed on the highways in Craven, and c m'kes wthin Westmoreland. It I will that ev'ry curate whin Westmoreland and the deanery of Craven, and elsewhere wher I have any land in England, doe cause a masse of requiem and dirige to be songe or saide for my soul wthin every yr p'ish church,

* Whitaker's Craven, pp. 417, 418, 419, 420, 421, 423.

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