On receding to either end of the Lady Chapel, the amplitude of its dimensions, the graceful, aspiring, heavenward tendency of its

component parts must

captivate and astonish even a vulgar and careless mind. Not a little of its peculiar effect results from

those lofty arches which span it in prolongation of the clerestory of the choir, sustained on each side only by an octagonal pillar, 2 feet 5 inches in diameter. Their cylindrical bases are, unfortunately, buried in rubbish; and much of the original effect is also lost by the destruction of the

marble shafts that enriched the angles, and were banded midway in the elevation.

In this transept or Chapel, nine altars were instituted by John de Cancia, but none of their dedications have, as yet, been ascertained. Their sites-divided either by lattices or wainscotmay, however, be traced by the indications of their wooden piscinas in the wall, and one, of stone, remaining at the south end, is a curious example of its age.

THE CLOISTER COURT.

From a door at the south-east angle of the nave, a few modern steps descend to a quadrangular court, formerly environed with a penthouse or cloister, of which a portion of the round-headed arcade remained in the last century. The north and west aisles were occupied, I believe, by the carrels where the monks studied, and the place where the novices were taught; the other must necessarily have been used as passages.

The area of the court-about 128 feet square-is still surrounded by the buildings of the Monastery. The north side is formed by the lofty walls of the Church. On the west, the Cloisters, surmounted by the Dormitory, stretch in one unbroken line. The Buttery, Refectory, and Kitchen flank the southern range; and on the east, the portals of the Chapter-house join the south Transept, which still, by its massy strength, retains its original elevation.

THE CHAPTER-HOUSE.

The Chapter-house, divided by the Sacristy from the north Transept, is of a date between it and the Early English Choir, but bears no local assimilation of style to any contemporary building of the Abbey. It is, indeed, I apprehend, judging from certain peculiarities of style and the magnificence of its dimensions, the work of Richard, the fourth Abbot, who had been previously Prior of Clarevall, in France, and may have brought or procured the design from that great head of the Cistercian houses. In size, it is little inferior to any rectangular Chapter-house in the kingdom, being 84 feet 7 inches long, by 41 feet wide; though a vestibule of inferior height, formed by the intervention of a wooden screen, has occupied 24 feet of the western extremity. The ten round marble columns that divided the area into three aisles, have been ruined to their bases; but the triple tier of benches, used by the Convent in their deliberations, still remain.

From the decease of Abbot Richard, in 1170, to that of Copgrove, in 1345, the Chapter-house was the invariable burial-place of the Abbots, except of Pherd and Eston, who died elsewhere; and during that period nineteen of them were interred here. These facts, partially communicated by Dr. Burton, in his "Monasticon,” from a chartulary of the Abbey, led, in 1790, to the excavation of the apartment, when the following evidence of their particular graves was obtained.

Within the last bay eastward, are four coffins, laid side by side, that most probably have contained the remains of Abbot Richard Fastolph and his three immediate successors. Two of them have lost their proper slabs, the cover of another is uninscribed, and that of the last indicates only, in the sacred emblem incised on its head, that it covers one who preferred the expression of his dying faith to the remembrance or gratitude of posterity.

At their feet, and immediately below the seat where he so long and worthily presided, is this memorial of the great Abbot, John de Cancia, who died November 25th, 1247, inscribed, in Longobardic characters, on a ridged slab of grey marble :

HI. REQIESCIT: DOMPNVS. JOH'S. X: AbBAS. DE FONTIV.'

Close by the south side is a slab of similar character, but somewhat humbler dimension, on which the following inscription is said to have appeared on its discovery, though, in consequence of the heedless steps of visitors, such parts of it only as are inclosed by brackets can now be deciphered :—

HI]. REQI[ESCIT DOMPNVS] JOH'S X[II ABBAS DE
FONTIB' QI: OBIJT] .

This reading was, however, certainly erroneous; since, according to the enumeration used on the adjacent stone, supported by the records of the Abbey, William Allerton was the twelfth Abbotand imperfect also, by the supplementary words, "qui obiit,” still visible. It commemorates, perhaps, John de Ebor., the eighth Abbot, who died June 14th, 1211.

A plain ridged gravestone on the south of the last, covers, I apprehend, the said Abbot Allerton, who died December 11th, 1258.

On a detached fragment, which has formed part of the tomb of the thirteenth Abbot, who died April 30th, 1259, are the words,

ADAM. XIII. ABBAS.

Near the middle of the room is a flat stone, from which, though now much shattered, has been rescued the following fragment—

a portion, perhaps, of the memorial of Reginald, the fifteenth Abbot, who died October 27th, 1274.

Beside this, is a small marble slab, which, though much broken, retains the matrix of a figure that has held a crosier, and of a circumscription with corner pieces.

On the opposite side of the aisle is a stone that has had a similar design; but so worn that the head of the crosier can only be distinctly traced. Here is also a fragment of another memorial, of the same date, and part of a plain-ridged stone of the thirteenth century.

The slab near the entrance may be placed over Abbot Otley, who died 24th Dec., 1290; though he is said, more particularly, to have

been buried" in hostio Ca° de Fontibus."

Above the Chapter-house, was the Library and Scriptorium, with other apartments, the extent of which is indicated on the outside of the south transept, which they joined, and from which they were approached.

The notes of Leland, who saw the Library just before the

G

Dissolution, do not suggest the idea that it was of that importance that was demanded, at least, by the wealth and high position of the house.* Several of its members in the first century after its foundation were learned men, and authors of considerable reputation; but in after days, though several of the abbots were possessed of high intellectual attainments, the general literary character of the house was insufficiently maintained. The following sketches, selected at random from a book written in this

Scriptorium, may show, however, that it was occasionally tenanted by men not wholly deficient of sarcastic and graphic power of

† See Leland de Script.. vol. i, pp. 232, 235, 245. Pitseus de Rebus Angl. vol. i., pp. 216-217. Bale, Script. Illust. c. ii. p. 198.