confined proportions of the chantry, formed by the erection of a wooden lattice. All definite trace of such an arrangement is, however, now destroyed, and its existence is suggested by the area of the floor being sunk three or four inches below the general level of the transept. The time and occasion of this presumed change is, probably, best indicated by the presence of a noble sepulchral slab, of the fourteenth century, which covers a grave in the middle of the depressed space. It has, unfortunately, never been inscribed, but is a singular, and perhaps unique, specimen of this class of memorials; inasmuch as, besides the sculpture of a finely foliated cross and a sword, it bears, on the other and south side of the shaft, the incised form of an object, to which no name or use has been, satisfactorily, assigned, unless a sling for casting stones was thus intended to be represented.

Another sepulchral slab, of smaller dimensions, forms part of the step of the doorway in the south wall of the transept. It has been placed there, most likely, within the century preceding the Reformation, when many such objects were used in the repairs of ecclesiastical buildings, though with what pretension to Christian feeling is difficult to understand, unless casuistical avarice had suggested that the appropriation of personal memorials to the service of the church was to be deemed venial or commendable. The design represents the head of a cross, formed in the plain, unfoliated, Maltese fashion, the bar and stem being represented by a tremendous sword-a mere fanciful variation, it may be, from the conventional form, but in its high antiquity, and most appropriate display of badge and weapon, awaking the idea that it may have covered the bones of a crusader.

Beside the doorway, to the north, which has been renewed in the Early English period, there has been a communication from the transept with the cloister court, by a plain and lofty arch, still partly remaining. There is also a doorway in the southern wall, with an adjacent opening for a staircase to the gable, and a long flight of rude stone steps in the south west angle, leading to apartments that have surmounted the chapter house. At the time of the excavation there were visible also, in the adjacent termination of the wall of the nave, traces of steps that had led to the rood loft, which appears, from marks of insertion of the timbers, to have been placed here before the extension of the choir.

In clearing the floor of the transept a lead pipe was found to have been left along the greater part of its length; its entire

course could not be traced, but no doubt it had supplied a lavatory.

There are no very evident or conclusive traces of a tower at the intersection of the transept, though it may be presumed that one of a slight elevation has existed. The choir, however, was doubtless continued through this portion of the church, andthough inconvenience might arise by the absence of immediate communication between the north and south cross, and an entire division between those parts and the nave-that it was prolonged to the confines of the latter.

The walls of the original Norman choir, which still retain their original length and about nine feet of their elevation, disclose, in that space, no trace of windows, and the only light by which its gloom could be made visible may have come (as at Kirkstall, where the choir has had, before the Perpendicular period, the same character and appearance) through, perhaps, three narrow loop holes in the east wall, of which the groundwork below the floor only remains. But the monks of Sawley bore this inconvenience less patiently than their brethren on the Aire, and in that period of unusual architectural activity-that "Cantio Cygni," that occurred before the Reformation, undertook the erection of a new choir, in a style more suitable to the condition of the house. As this work is now nearly torn down to the foundation, we can only infer the fact of its completion from the existence of a few plain paving tiles in the north aisle,. some fragments of plaster on the wall hard by, part of the floor of the high altar, and the discovery, upon and around it, of a large quantity of stained glass of the Perpendicular period: the anomalous presence of the lower part of the lateral walls of the old choir being, perhaps, retained until the erection of a then fashionable lofty central tower: more particularly, as, in the erection of the rood screen, the piers of the old arch above have not been sufficiently respected. The internal length of the new choir, from the outer face of the screen to the eastern extremity, is 118 feet; the width 63 feet, the side walls joining the transept so as to include the width of one of its chapels, on each side of the original choir. When the exterior walls of the old building, which governed the width of the main aisle of the new work, should have been removed, it appears that another intercolumniation was to have been added to the four which had been formed on each side; a number, however, which has only been inferred from the discovery of the bases of the pillars below the floor, for the whole of the superstructure has been entirely swept

away, with the solitary exception of part of the base of the eastern pier, on the north side. Two courses of the pillar have, however, been left; the rest that now appear here having been collected from cottages in the village, or the adjacent farmholds, where one had served as a cheese press, and others had been scooped for hogs' troughs. After the erection of the new choir, the space which the old one had borrowed from the transept was thrown open, and a stone screen placed at the western extremity. As little more than the foundation of this work now remains, it can only be inferred that there had been a cell or closet within its substance on the south, and that a circular staircase was carried up on the opposite side. No part of the front, which has been violently detached, was discovered near the site; but I am convinced that several canopies and fragments of ornamental work of suitable size and character, which were found in the cloister court, near the chapter house, have formed a portion of the screen.

It is grievous to reflect, while viewing this scene of sacrilege and desolation, that, though several unexpected portions and features of the structure have been disclosed, no trace has been observed of those sepulchral memorials of the Percys that might have been reasonably anticipated. "Neither stone nor brass now remains to tell where they lie, and nothing is left to protect their remains but the rubbish which an undistinguishing Reformation has heaped upon their heads." Records disagree as to the burial place of the founder, who died at Mountjoy, on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The chartulary of Fountains, and a MS. in St. Mary's tower, at York, transcribed by Dodsworth, state that he was buried at Whitby; but Dr. Whitaker quotes a MS., in the More collection, which says that he was interred at Sawley. It is, however, certain that the founder's great grandson, Lord William de Percy, who died in 1244, was buried here, and that his son, Lord Henry de Percy, who sided actively with king Henry III. during the baronial war, rests in an adjoining grave. Since these interments were made before the enlargement of the choir, it is probable that the graves are either within the original portion of it, or in the chapter house; yet, after the most diligent investigation, no particular spot can be invested with the interest of entombing these long departed chiefs of an illustrious and time honoured race.

At the south end of the transept, and divided from it by a narrow apartment which may have been a vestry, is the chapter house, of which it can only be ascertained that it has been a plain

rectangular, unaisled room, 47ft. long, by 28ft. 10in. wide; and judging from the bases of the doorway shafts, built during the Early English period. The stone benches remain tolerably perfect, and of equal elevation with the walls to which they are attached, but the pavement has been removed; and, except a plain stone, bearing a foliated cross and a pair of shears, in the south-west angle, no traces have been found of the sepulchral memorials of the abbots, or of those persons of distinction whose graves-ten at least in number-are known to remain below.

On the south side of the chapter house are two apartments extending in the same direction, but of which the former use is not satisfactorily ascertained. The one which adjoins the chapter house, and has apparently been entered from it, is 28ft. 6in. long by 15ft. 8in. wide. The next is only 10ft. 5in. wide, and communicates with the other room at the south-west corner.

The entrance of a passage, which runs parallel with the south wall of the last-mentioned apartment, has completed the eastern side of the cloister court, and led from thence to the eastern garth. But the. range of buildings has been continned southward, and contained on the basement floor, one spacious apartment 80ft. in length and 23ft. in width. This, or the story above it, has, no doubt, been the frater house or common refectory; but to whatever purpose it was originally appropriated it has been subsequently discontinued, for the remains of a partition wall divide it longitudinally, and other traces of minor divisions are apparent. It communicates, on the west, with an apartment destroyed to the foundation, that may have been the buttery, and on the east with ruined fragments that may now represent the minor offices of the house.

One feature in this part deserves particular notice, more indeed for the satisfaction of the curiosity which may be excited by its appearance on the plan than for any other reason. It is part of a conduit or drain 58ft. long and 3ft. wide, and, enclosed, east of the frater house, under which it runs, between two massive walls. 12ft. high. Both the bottom and the sides, for the height of about two feet, are lined with stone of much closer grain than the shale of the superstructure; but this precaution has failed to preserve the foundation of the southern wall, which has declined so far from its perpendicular as to have demanded the application of a ponderous buttress. As several arches that have been connected with a demolished superstructure cross this drain during its course, it is probable that a garderobe, and perhaps contiguous dormitories, were placed over this part of a

sewer which carried the refuse of the house to the mill stream which runs at a short distance to the west. There is, at present, no current of water in this direction, but as a large pond immediately above the abbey has been filled up within memory, the course, no doubt, has been supplied from thence. The rising ground to the west is, indeed, full of springs, and one near the park wall still retains the name of "St. Mary's well."

The buildings that form the south side of the cloister court have been demolished nearly to the foundation. It is evident, however, that the refectory-an apartment that has measured 102ft. by 28ft., and has had an Early English doorway-occupied, as usual, the central position; and that the kitchen-of the capacious dimension of 40ft. by 29ft., and sufficiently identified by the presence of three fire hearths-was on its west side. I thought I traced the sill of a hatchway between them, near a great mass of masonry in the refectory, that may have been a kind of sideboard, and stands opposite to what appears to have

formed the base of a water cistern.

The west side of the cloister court has also been pulled down nearly to the ground, with the exception of some buildings at the northern angle, which have escaped by their inclusion within some hovels which have recently been removed. The presence of a fireplace here, 15ft. wide, leads me to believe that in the Perpendicular period this part of the structure was enlarged, to form, however unusual the position, part of a residence for the abbot, more particularly, since, at the opposite end of this range, though beyond the limits of the quadrangle, a portion of a domestic building, with an upper and lower floor, is preserved so entire as to have been inhabited ever since the dissolution of the house. The north side was constructed, within memory, of wood and plaster, indicating disruption from some adjacent work; and from the ruin of two large fireplaces in the outer face of its eastern wall, it is evident that it had been annexed to the conventual buildings on that side. The house is of Tudor work, and has, in the west gable, a square-headed window of three lights, having the arms of Old Percy, (azure), five fusils (or), and their badge of the crescent, carved on the corbels of the weather table. The identity of these insignia with those that decorate a very beautiful Tudor bay window of two stages, at Little Mearley Hall, not only confirms the tradition that it was brought from Sawley, but, also, goes far to prove that it formed part of the abbot's house; especially, since a semi-octagonal foundation, of suitable dimension, has been discovered attached to a wall connecting the buildings of which I have just spoken.