Equally unsuccessful was the general search for the sepulchral memorials of those many distinguished persons who, no doubt, must have been buried in the choir. It remained, therefore, only to ascertain whether the stone coffin on the north side, generally called that of Lord Percy, remained or not in its original position. When the bones of its tenant had long ago been scattered to the winds, this object might have been sufficiently absurd, if it had not proved that, as the coffin stood in its original position on the floor, it had no doubt been covered with a sculptured effigy; and that the cross-legged figure, bearing a shield charged with a lion rampant, which is remembered traditionally to have stood against the opposite wall of the aisle, was originally such a covering. This fine figure, which is now in one of the chapels of the transept, and is usually said to be that of Roger Lord Mowbray, who died in 1298, and was buried in the choir of Fountains, was, whilst standing in its old position against the wall, wantonly thrown down and broken one Sunday afternoon, about fifty years ago, by a party of drunken militiamen from Ripon. It was afterwards placed in the cloisters, and, subsequently, where it now remains. From the inconvenience of its position it is not easy of examination; but the elegant cast of the drapery, the rendering of the sinewy robust frame and form of the grim warrior, and the feeling thrown into the "supplication of the dying hour," evince that it has been the work of a masterhand during the best period of English sculpture.

When the work reached the west end of the choir, it was found that the screen had been torn down to the ground. It had been of lime-stone, and built, very probably, in the century preceding the Reformation, and at the same time as the great tower; but, even as to its general outline, no definite idea could be formed, as no fragments were found during the excavation that could be reasonably supposed to have formed a portion of it. There used to be a tradition that the screen in Ripon minster was brought from hence, but this can be demonstrated to be untrue. Such transfers, however, were not uncommon at the period of the Reformation. The wooden stalls and appurtenant screens were removed from Easby Abbey to Richmond church; and in the

church of Aysgarth, in Wensleydale, is still preserved the gorgeous rood screen that was saved on the destruction of Jervaux. Within the porch, or central passage of this screen, was rediscovered that magnificent slab of blue marble, the wanton disturbance of which by the workmen, in 1840, caused the cessation of the excavation recommended by me to Mrs. Lawrence, and approved of. The design has represented, in graven brass, the figure of a mitred abbot under a canopy, holding his crozier over his right shoulder, with a circumscription having circular corner pieces, no doubt for the evangelistic symbols. There is, of course, now no trace of brass, but the rivets by which the plates were fixed to the stone still remain, and the channels by which the solder was cunningly conveyed to them may be observed. When the slab was disturbed in 1840, the skeleton below, being that of a man apparently above six feet high, was found resting on a paved bed. On being again removed, during the present work, to refit and secure the broken portions, the bones were found still in a sound condition, and it was then observed that the grave had been originally filled with sand.

From an entry in the "President Book" of the Abbey, now in the muniment room at Studley, it appears that this is the tomb of the abbot, John de Ripon, who died 12th March, 1435, and is there said to have been buried in the entrance of the choir. He was one of the most noted and talented men whom the house produced; and was deputed, with four other English abbots, to attend the Council of Constance, where the doctrines of Wickliffe and Huss were condemned; and, also, afterwards, as the representative of the English clergy, to the Council of Basle, where, in the controversy that arose as to the power of a general council of the Church over the authority of the Pope, he maintained the cause of the latter.

We now come to the transept. Here I was justified, by the manuscript to which I have just alluded, in expecting the memorials of several of the abbots that are buried here; but, with the exception of two slabs, the floor presented only a hopeless blank. One of these slabs is placed at the angle of the transept joining the north aisle of the nave, but it is uninscribed. The other is at the south end of the transept, not far from the stairs that led to the vestry. From the broken inscription, however, no further information can be gained, but that, singularly enough, it records another "Brother John de Rypon," and that, from the character of the incised letters, he seems to have been an inmate of the house after the time of his namesake. The grave had been ran

sacked; the bones being found in a disturbed condition, as was the case, also, in another walled grave to the north side of it.

On the east side of the transept are four chapels-two in each wing-used for purposes which I have previously explained. In that next to the tower nothing has been found; indeed, I have been told by an aged man, long since dead, that there had been a vault below, and that it was filled up to the general level of the transept, within his recollection. In the next chapel, through which the former is approached, were disclosed portions of a stone altar, like those in the Lady Chapel, together with two small, but interesting, fragments of John de Cancia's geometrical pavement. The floor under the altar is evidently hollow, and of course was not disturbed, but, as it was customary, on the dedication of an altar, to place some relic of a sainted personage below, it probably has contained nothing but what has, long ago, been resolved to its mother earth.

Passing now to the southern chapels, there was nothing observed in that adjacent to the choir, except that the floor had been renewed not long before the dissolution of the house, with lozenge-shaped flag stones, similar to those that had been used on the altar-platform of the abbot's private oratory; and that at some time after the Reformation, large quantities of stones had been hewn and dressed here, as was proved by the large accumulation of fragments and chippings found upon the surface of the floor. The southernmost chapel was cleared out in 1849, and shows nothing upon the floor, except a slightly elevated altarplatform, and some small fragments of geometrical pavement that adhere to the walls.

Abutting on the western wall of this wing of the transept, was found the base of a staircase, that formerly led to the vestry or sacristy. Of the situation of this apartment, which is entirely inaccessible to any one who has any respect for their comfort or their bones, you may derive the best idea from the knowledge that it is immediately above that dark vaulted passage intervening between the south transept and the chapter-house, where many paving tiles were formerly strewn about, and a place generally described by the guides as the "bone-house;" wherein, as I will mention anon, they spoke more truth than they intended. On clearing out this apartment, there was nothing remarkable observed, with the exception of a lavatory in the south wall, under a well-moulded semicircular arch-in fact a sink where the vessels used in the church were washed; but in the olden time, the interest and value of its contents must have been

extreme, for here were deposited the most valued treasures with which four centuries of wealthy patrons and benefactors had endeavoured to testify the devotion of their faith, and to dignify the ceremonials of the house. In how triumphant a degree this intention was consummated, is not, fortunately, a mere exercise of imagination or of romantic fancy, for there remains still, among the archives of the monastery, a schedule minutely descriptive of the nature and value of each article found here at the dissolution, which leaves little that an educated mind might not delineate in all but visual reality. In the massive oaken presses of a long, low, narrow, and imperfectly lit apartment, depict, thenafter having glanced at the nineteen silver chalices and patens in use on the several altars-at the two great gilt candlesticks, the silver-gilt basket for incense, the gilt ewer, the parcel gilt basin, the great silver censors, and other minor paraphernalia of the high altar; depict, then, I say, grouped here picturesquely together, and graven and decorated in all the florid magnificence of these elder days, the "ymage of or Lady, silour and gilt," which weighed not less than 104 ounces; the great holy water vat of 53 ounces, with the "strinkil" by which its contents were distributed on kneeling reverential crowds; the silver shrine which contained "a ribbe of Saynt Lawrance" (whose bones, you may remember, were said to have been placed in the same grave with those of the martyr, St. Stephen); the great shrine of silver-gilt that was displayed on Corpus Christi day; a large silver image of St. James, who, it otherwise appears, was a favourite here; another smaller one of our Lady, in a case of silver-gilt; the silver-gilt head of a cross, decorated with an image, and no doubt used in processions; the massy and magnificent crosier carried by the abbot on high days; another of half its size, for ordinary occasions; the state mitre, too, gilt and adorned with pearls and jewels, and the smaller one "having the edges of silver and gilt, and set with round pieces of silver white like pearl, and flowers of silver and gilt in midward;" the two corporas cases of cloth of gold with which the host was covered; the piece of St. Anne's scalpe set in silver, which the incredulous appraisers at the dissolution valued only, by its weight of metal, at seven shillings and eleven pence; the silver-gilt cruets; the great gilt and jewelled cross of 120 ounces; the three lesser crosses; the massy gilt brooch to secure the lord abbot's cope; the great silver-gilt paten and chalice; and pre-eminent in radiant and dazzling beauty, the cross of solid gold, enriched with jewels and “part of the holy crosse ;" and the table to be placed "on

the high altar on principal days, with three images of silver-gilt, with beads and plates of the same, and some part gold set with precious stones," which was valued, even in the money of King Henry VIII., at not less than one hundred pounds.

But there were treasures of another sort deposited here; and since Master Brian Higden and Edward Abbot of Rievaux, King Henry's visitors, once opened, with cunning, calculating eye, those other chests that never before had undergone such a mercenary inspection, let us, at least, for our present purpose, take advantage of their information, and learn that they contained those costly vestments and richly-wrought articles of ecclesiastical furniture with which an unselfish and faithfully-directed wealth, or the still more unappreciable worth of woman's piety and devotion to the church, had enriched this favoured community. See now, then,—and associate for ever, in your visions of the occupants of these now bare, ruined walls, wherein the voice of prayer and praise is for ever silenced, not less than eighty copes, or richly-decorated garments, without sleeves, and reaching below the knees, that were worn over all the other robes with which the celebrating priests were encumbered: of these, six were of cloth of gold; twenty-six of white damask; four of white velvet; two of white fustian; five of embroidered work; six of "flowryd wark;" eight of "dyvers warks;" one "very well wrought wth ymages; one of green damask, "wrought with ymages;" six of red silk, wrought with stars of Bethlehem and flowers; one of black velvet; three of black say; nine of red damask; and two of red silk. See too, then, the twenty complete "suits" or sets of robes, as they were worn, one above another, on festivals. One first named in the inventory-as, doubtless, having been the most superb of all-was of "white Baldkyn" (a material which took its appellatiou from Beldocco, an oriental name for Babylon, whence it originally came, and was the richest of all their materials for robes; the web being gold, and the woof silk, with embroidery. Another suit was of course cloth of gold.” others "of silk and worstetts, gud and bad;" another suit of cloth of gold; another of red velvet; another of red silk, with stars wrought upon it; another of white velvet; another of white damask; another of "reide silk, wt sternys upon thame;" and another of black say. There was then, also, to be viewed and valued-a "cloith of wroght velwett for the crucifix;" a suit of tawney silk; another "of white for Lent;" another "of black for funerals," and after, many other articles of inferior note, a pillow for the high altar, of cloth of tissue; two cushions for the

Ten