found many years ago in the Abbey, but only recently retrieved from the building in which they had been subsequently walled.

The dedication of the next Chapel is shown to have been to St. Michael the Archangel, by a weather-beaten inscription over its entrance: Altare s'ci michaelis arch'. In its south wall-part of the original or first Choir-is a large, round-headed piscina, with a recess or locker in the side; and at the east end some faint indication of the wooden altar screen may be observed.

The South Chapels have been partitioned, by lattices, from the transept, and that adjoining the Choir has gained an entrance also from its aisle, in the Perpendicular period, when it was also briefly elongated and improved by the insertion of a large east window. The piscina has been of wood.

The next and last Chapel has been but recently cleared of the rubbish of its vault, which was re-set with most rigid attention to the original work. Sufficient remains of the tesselated pavement were found, during the excavation, to show that it had been of John de Cancia's time, as, indeed, may be inferred from the frag

Within the muti

lated piscina-large and round-headed like that in the North Chapel

-has been recently placed a large sculptured tablet, representing the Annunciation of the Virgin, which had been removed from the Abbey, and walled into a neighbouring cottage. It is rude and late in style, but the conventional expression is worthy of observation. The inscription is the Salutation of Gabriel, Aue maria plena d'n's tecu’. Near the entrance of this Chapel, is, also, placed part of the monumental slab of one of the Abbots. In its present inconvenient position, it is difficult to decipher the worn and mutilated circumscription; but from the occurrence of the word robertus, and the character of the design, I presume, it has commemorated Robert Burley, the twenty-fourth Abbot, who died 13th of May 1410.

At the south end of the transept, and occupying the space between it and the Chapter-house, is the Vestry; a narrow and gloomy apartment, built at the same time as the Chapter-house, with which there was a communication, now walled up. Above it was the Sacristy, where a fine round-headed Lavatory was, recently, cleared from rubbish, with which the apartment is yet filled. It was approached, like the Library and Scriptorium over the Chapterhouse, by the doorway in the south wall, which has now become partly inaccessible, in consequence of the destruction of the wooden stairs.

THE TOWER.

This majestic and scientific specimen of the Perpendicular style is placed at the end of the north transept, since its introduction could not have been, conveniently, effected on the site of the old tower, and, at the west end of the nave, would not have grouped as effectively with the chief buildings of the Monastery. It is composed in a grand and bold outline, unfrittered by minute detail, or elaborate decoration. The height is 166 feet 6 inches, and the internal area of the base about 25 feet. With the exception of the floors of the several chambers, pinnacles, glass, and the tracery of a single window, which fell out many years ago, the goodly structure remains as perfect, sound, and stable, as when the builders left it; and, for anything that appears to the contrary, will rear its noble head above the dell, and defy the storm, when many proud structures of to-day shall be crumbled to their base. On fillets above and below the belfry windows are inscriptions in the Tudor black letter, boldly relieved, and also round the top of the tower; but this series is so weather-beaten as to be illegible.

ON THE EAST SIDE.

Benediccio et caritas et sapiencia [1] et [2] graciarum accio bonor.
Soli deo i’hu x'po [3] honor [4] et g'lia in s'cla s'clor.

NORTH SIDE.

Et virtus et fortitudo deo nostro [5] in [6] secula seculorum amen.
Soli deo i'hu x'po honor et gl'ia in s’cla s'clor ame'.

WEST SIDE.

Regi autem seculorum [7 8] immortali invisili

Soli deo i’hu r’po honor et [9] gľ’ia [10] in s’cla s'clor.

SOUTH SIDE.

Soli deo honr et gloria [11]in [12] secula seculorum amen.

:

The numerals introduced into this copy indicate the corresponding position of armorial shields in the inscriptions, thus charged 1, Three Horse-shoes, two and one, the arms of the Abbey; 2, a Maunch, surmounted by a bend, Norton of Norton, Conyers, and Sawley; 3, a Cross flory, between a Mitre and Key erect, in chief, and a Key erect and Mitre, in base; 4, the arms of the Abbey, as the first; 5 and 6, Norton, as before; 7 and 8, the Abbey and Norton; 9, as the third; 10 and 11, the Abbey; 12, Norton, and individually, perhaps, Sir John Norton, grandfather to old Richard, the memorable promoter of the "Rising in the North."

Above the lowest west window is an angel standing on the canopy of a vacant NICHE, holding a shield, on which is carved a mitre enfiled with a crosier, and the letters M. H., the initials of Marmaduke Huby. The date 1494, the year in which he was elected to the abbacy, is on the bracket of a niche above the basement window on the east side. In a niche on the north side is a crowned figure holding a pen in his right, and a book in his left hand; in another above is a mitred figure sitting, holding a crosier; and in one above the ridge of the transept roof a gowned but bare-headed effigy, no doubt of Huby, holding a crosier in his right, and a book in his left hand.

THE CHOIR.

The outer walls of the Aisles are of elegant and powerful design. Each bay contains, indeed, only one plain lancet light, but, as it is placed in the interior, under an arcade of one pointed, between two round-headed, members, a remarkable effect is produced by

the archivolt of its adjuncts; which, resting one extremity on the single columns flanking the light, descend on the opposite side, with the curve of the groining, to a shaft, capped at an inferior elevation, and clustered with that which has carried the ribs of the vault. A very appropriate and picturesque effect is contributed also by the deeply recessed and trifoliated arcade which supports this arrangement, though it is now much diminished, by the absence of the grey marble shafts and the suppression of its base below the sward.

During a temporary excavation in 1840, the foundation of the rood-screen at the west end of the choir was observed; and, within its porch, a marble gravestone, 9 feet 6 inches long, 4 feet 8 inches wide, and 7 inches thick. It had been richly inlaid with brass, and, no doubt, covered the Abbot, John de Ripon, who died at the Abbey Grange, at Thorpe Underwood, on the 12th of March, 1435, and is said, in the records of the Monastery, to have been buried before the entrance to the choir.

The tesselated pavement of the high altar is doubtless part of the "pictum pavimentum" that was bestowed on the church by Abbot John de Cancia between the years 1219 and 1247; and, therefore, an early and valuable example of this elegant mode of decoration. The simple patterns, divided in the upper and chief platform into three chief compartments, are formed of many-shaped tesseræ of red, black, and yellow, which have been relaid, I am informed, with proper attention to the original design.

The reredos behind the high altar presented, both to the choir and Lady Chapel, but a continuation,-prolonged, also, for one bay or more on each side,-of that beautiful arcade which circumscribes the Lady Chapel and the choir. Part of its materials are now in a modern and obtrusive gallery, under the east window, and more of it will be found in the apartment now leading to the Court-room.

Not far from the north-west corner of the altar is a stone coffin, 6 feet 3 inches long, which is usually said to have contained the remains of Henry, Lord Percy, of Alnwick, who died in 1315. As, however, the herald Tong, who learned on his visit to the Abbey, in 1530, that he was buried "before the high auter," observed that "also in the said quere lyeth buried the Lord Mowbray," it is as probable that the coffin was covered by the effigy of Mowbray, now in the North Chapel, more particularly since it is remembered to have stood against the wall opposite to it.

THE LADY CHAPEL.

This most beautiful portion of the Abbey Church was completed by Abbot John de Cancia, who had superintended, probably, the greater part, if not the whole, of its erection. "This addition to

ecclesiastical structures, though not common, is productive of great magnificence, for the eastern façade thus formed here extends 150 feet in length, and presents a specimen of Early English architecture -plain and somewhat massive in its general appearance, but with many well-proportioned details. Some additions which have been made to this portion of the Abbey are, however, as late as the end of the fifteenth century. The great east window and appurtenant buttresses display the magnificence of the latest style of Gothic architecture, which, guided by judgment and taste, are combined with the earlier style of the adjoining portions of the building. It had nine lights and a transom, but exhibits now a void space of 60 feet in height, and 23 feet 4 inches in width. The other, and original, windows of this front are adorned, outside and in the lower range, with banded shafts, and divided by semi-octangular and unusually massy buttresses.

Besides the east window, one of large dimensions, but plain detail, has been inserted, at the same period, in each gable of the Lady Chapel. Below that in the southern elevation, the keystone of one of the three Early English lights has received a SCULPTURE which shows these innovations to have been made in the time of Abbot Darnton, who presided over the house from 1478 to 1494. It is indeed a rebus on his name, displaying the bust of an angel holding a tun, with the word dern inscribed on its breast. Above this is a large bird, apparently an eagle-as seen before above the nave-and a scroll, which bears the same allusive character in its legend, B'n'd fontes d’no (Benedicite fontes Domino). In the inside of the Chapel, the same keystone bears an angel holding a blank shield, a mitred head, and the figure of a pilgrim, or perhaps St. James of Compostella, standing on an encircled serpent, the emblem of eternity. The angular keystone of another lancet light, at the north-east angle, displays a head entwined with snakes,—a symbol of the Evil principle, or more particularly of Pride; and in the interior, the figure of an angel, holding a scroll, inscribed Anno Domini 1483.