wheel window has been packed in its bed with roofing tiles. Upon the whole, with reference to the design of this beautiful façade, it appears to me far less probable that it was prepared in or before the year 1177, when the monks retired from Stocking to this place, than that it was adopted when the rest of the church had been completed. At the earlier period, though a tier of lancet lights with dog-tooth mouldings surmounted by a wheel window might have been projected, I apprehend that a roundheaded doorway would have been introduced within a slight projection or porch, in the central compartment, and no such reduplication of the shafts of the arcade above would have appeared as adds gracefulness to the present structure. How the architect tre ited a gabled extremity at the earlier period may be seen in an extant engraving of the south end of the transept, now nearly destroyed.

There has been a Galilee porch attached to the west front of the nave, as shewn by the corbels for the support of its roof. It was in existence in the year 1426, when one Wm. Tirplady desired, in his will, to be buried in the Galilee of St. Mary's Abbey at Byland.

I have not been able to obtain access to the wheel window in the gable, but by measuring a corresponding space on the ground below, I find that it is not less than twenty-six feet in diameter, and therefore probably as large as any coeval specimen of its kind that is known. So far as I can observe, there have been no mullions or spokes connected with the portions of the lower half that remains. May it have been that the glass was enclosed in a wooden rim or frame like those of the lights of the choir, and that there were radiating spokes attached to it of the same material?

The nave has been two hundred feet in length and seventy feet in width, leaving a space of thirty-eight feet nine inches for the central part. Though the inner or main walls have perished, it is still possible, by a careful examination of the fragments which remain attached to the western wall, and a comparison of thei with the south-east angle of the transept, to acquire a tolerably accurate idea of its former appearance. Eleven windows in its still perfect north aisle, and the intervening vaulting shafts of the roof, suggest the idea that it was divided in length into twelve bays or compartments. The responds, at the west end, shew that each side was divided in height into three stages; an arcade, a triforium, and a clerestory.

The bases of all the pillars on each side of the nave are either

destroyed or buried beneath the sward; but their design may be inferred from the western responds, as well as that of the pillars with their capitals, and the section and curve of the archivolt which they supported.

A string course ran above the arcade and divided it from the next story, which contained the triforium. It was not customary, in the earlier Cistercian houses, to introduce a triforium. There is none at Fountains, none at Kirkstall, none at Buildwas in Shropshire; indeed, it his been said that this feature does not occur in any house of that order; but here it must have been well developed, and formed a prominent and striking feature in the long drawn perspective of the nave. The fragments that are left in the western extremity are not sufficiently large to enable me to speak with certainty of its design, but I think that so much supplementary evidence can be obtained from the triforium of the transept as to warrant the supposition that each compartment shewed an arcade of three pointed members, resting on single shafts, the central one pierced through the thickness of the wall, and probably subdivided. Had we lost the example in the transept, we might have supposed that the central opening had a semicircular head, as in the choir and transept of Ripon cathedral and elsewhere; but as the transept was certainly built before the nave, we cannot reasonably suppose that, in this part of the work, the builders would revert to an antiquated form of treat

ment.

Behind the arcade of the triforium was a vacant space or passage between the crown of the vaulting of the side aisles and the roof, the pitch of which may be traced on the north side, and, on the south side, one of the supporting corbels. On the north side, a passage from this gallery leads to a staircase in the turret-buttress at the west end, communicating with the base of the wheel window and the clerestory; but, singularly enough, it opens also, not into the sill, but into the void head of the northernmost of the west lights of the nave. I cannot imagine what purthis device may have been intended to serve; but there is an horizontal groove in the opposite jamb of the window, on a level with the base of the doorway, as if to receive a board for the support of a person occupied there, either in observation of what was passing below, in or out of the church, or otherwise. In the southern triforium, there is also a transverse passage from it to a geometrical staircase in the gable buttress of the west front, but, at the height of about six steps it has been discontinued, by design, and has no communication with the wheel window or clerestory above.

pose

Of the design of the clerestory, we may speak with something like certainty, glancing from its fragments to the corresponding vestiges in the transept. Like the triforium below, each bay has been apparently divided into an arcade of three pointed members, the central one having been filled with a lancet light. In the interior, the window would appear between two pointed arches recessed in the wall, for the purpose of a gallery, and supported by a detached and an engaged shaft.

Each bay of the triforium and clerestory-determined in width by the span of the arcade below-has, no doubt, been divided from the next by shafts, but whether they have been single, or triple, or decorated at the extremities, can only be decided by an examination of the ruins that may be turned up below. Judging from the space between the vaulting shafts of the aisles, the cross rib of which would impinge against the centre of the opposite pillar, I think each bay of the triforium and clerestory was eighteen feet three inches wide.

Outside, the wall of the clerestory has been finished with a plain coped parapet, resting on a moulded cornice enriched with masks or corbels.

The design of the aisles of the nave, together with the plan and section of the groined vaults can be easily ascertained from the ruins on the north side. It must be remembered, however, that the south aisle had, at the least, four windows less than the north, in consequence of the dormitory and a passage on the west side of the cloister having abutted on its western extremity. Part of the doorway which led to the dormitory may still be traced here, but, a century ago, when this south wall was more perfect, there was also a way from the church to a passage which was parallel with the east side of the undercroft of the dormi

tory.

The transept is 135 feet long and 74 feet wide, including its side aisles. It had, as I have previously observed, an aisle on the west as well as one on the east, like the churches of York, Ely, Winchester, Wells, and Beverley, and those of the Cistercian houses of Clairvaux and Pontigny in France; a peculiarity which caused all the four piers of the central tower to be detached, and influenced also the elevations of its northern and southern extremities. The elevation of these facades cannot have been exactly alike, in consequence of the lower part of the south wall having been attached to a contiguous building. The south end of the transept remained entire and formed the most prominent feature in the building, until about forty years ago, when it fell in the

night. I exhibit a plate of it' as it appeared previously; but a drawing which I have seen leads me to doubt whether the lower tier of lights was on a level with the lateral triforium, as here represented. It is certain, however, that the windows above the triforium have not had pointed, but semicircular heads. The former appearance of the lateral walls of the transept is sufficiently suggested by the ruins that remain.

The central tower, no doubt, produced a much more powerful effect, internally, by the detachment of the lower part of its piers than by its external elevation of one square only above the roofs, which was generally all the display that the Cistercian rule allowed. The character of the piers may be inferred from the elegant base that has been uncovered. The arches were probably semicircular, springing from the base-line of the clerestory, and we may suppose that each of its external faces had two shafted lights, either with round or lancet heads. On its north side may be seen the monumental slab of one of the abbots, and supposed, in particular, to be that of Robert de Helmsley, who was elected in the year 1370.

We come now to the Choir.

It is

Whether this portion of the church was prolonged, for ritual purposes, within the structure of the nave cannot at present be ascertained; but, if the rubbish was removed, we might perhaps trace in the bases of the pillars of the nave some such grooves or indications of a rood screen as appear at Fountains and Kirkstall. The area of the structural choir, from its junction with the aisle of the transept to its eastern extremity, is 52ft. 8in. long; but, as the last bay, which joined it to the east piers of the tower is wanting, we may add twenty feet to this measurement. 70ft, wide, including both its aisles. As I have previously stated, it has presented the peculiarity of an aisle passing across the east end. The same feature, I believe, existed (and a discovery made a few days ago tends to confirm my opinion) in the church of Ripon, erected by Archbishop Roger, which may have been completed before this work was commenced; and Professor Willis supposes that such was the case in the old choir of York minster, erected by the same prelate. I am not aware that this arrangement exists in any other English Cistercian house, but the object was evidently to gain all the space that was available for the sites of the minor altars; as was effected shortly after by

(1) A Plan of the Abbey of St. Mary at Byland in the Archdeaconry of Cleveland and Deanery of Bulmer, N.R. Yorkshire, with a S.E. View. Thos. Atkinson, Ebor.. delin. Published by Rob. Wilkinson, London, 1806. This plan, I believe, was prepared for Dr. Burton's Monasticon Eboracense, about 1758. See his preface, p. xii.

the introduction of an eastern transept or chapel of nine altars at Fountains and Durham. The choir was divided from the side aisles by four arches on each side, and there were three of lesser span between the altar-space and the aisle behind. Of the superincumbent triforium and clerestory there are no visible remains; probably they were of a similar character to those of the transept, with some enrichments. The outer walls of the aislesmuch more perfect on the south side, thirty years ago, than now -differ in design, as in the transept, from those of the nave, in the internal casing of the windows and the plan of the caps of the vaulting shafts. In the former instances, the outer angle of the splay is moulded, and the caps are of earlier shape, and semioctagons. In the latter, they are plain and semi-cylindrical. Each of the lateral windows is 15ft. high, and 4ft. 8in. wide; the bays in which they are placed being 17ft. 4in. wide. At the east end, in consequence of the peculiarity of the plan, the bays are narrower, and the lights five in number. The clerestory of this façade had, probably, three lights, surmounted by a wheel window in the gable.

The tesselated floor of the central portion of this eastern aisle or chapel, which is reported to have been a beautiful work and in a fine state of preservation, was uncovered many years ago, but-after having escaped, perhaps for six centuries, the envious tooth of time-only to fall a prey to the ignorance and cupidity of man. It was raised on three steps, each decorated, in front, with geometrical tesseræ. Three altars were also discovered there. The cover of one, 7ft. 3in. long, and 3ft. 3in. wide, since removed to Myton, was supposed to have been the slab of the high altar; but that object and its platform, I hope, still remain undisturbed,

The chief offices and domestic buildings of the convent were placed on the south side of the church, and ranged round the other sides of the cloister quadrangle. The area of this court was 145ft. square; a proportion so unusually large as to exceed that of any other Cistercian house in Yorkshire, perhaps even in the kingdom; but occasioned, in one direction, by the equally unusual length of the nave of the church. It appears, from the plan which I exhibit, that, a century or more ago, these buildings were in a less fragmentary and disjointed condition than they are at present. In the few observations I have still to make, I will therefore avail myself of its assistance, and, if by chance, I speak of objects that are not now visible, you must understand that this is my authority. All these buildings are of the very plainest