each side of her was a censing angel. The central figure has been shattered to pieces, and the heads of the angels have been destroyed with ruthless bigotry; but the drapery of the robes shows how lovely the figures must once have been, as their wings and faces stood out on the foliated diaper of the tympanum.

If the visitor will look up, he will see on the central boss of the cloister the pulley, centuries old, over which once passed the rope for the lamp that was kept ever burning before this figure of the Virgin. It was this "superstitious use" which led to the demolition of the image.

As we pass through the vestibule we may notice several things:

It is low, because the dormitory of the monks ran over it, and it is supported by small pillars of Purbeck marble, which once shone with polished lustre. These pillars have been attached to the capitals by lead, over which was placed the stone moulding; but the expansion and contraction of the metal, small as it is, has been sufficient entirely to destroy the stone moulding, and in many places to leave only a ring of lead.

The door to the right led into a crypt, or treasury. It is of solid oak, with ancient iron lock, and on part of it are still to be traced fragments of the human skin the skin of some thief who had been executed -which was once nailed over it to terrify depredators. The same was also the case with the door opposite to it, which leads into the Chapel of St.

Faith (erroneously called the Chapel of St. Blaise), which was the old Revestry.

On the left-hand side is the stone coffin of Valerius Amandinus, a Roman, which was found on the north side of the Abbey. It has evidently been utilised by some later ecclesiastic, as may be seen by the cross on the upper stone.

Entering the Chapter House, we see at a glance

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an octagon of the noblest proportions, of which the roof is supported by a slender and graceful pillar of polished Purbeck, thirty-five feet high, "surrounded by eight subordinate shafts, attached to it by three moulded bands." The capital, though of marble, is richly carved. All round the building run seats of stone, under arcades with trefoiled heads. The marble capitals are carved with foliage; the work is diapered with roses and other flowers; the floor, long preserved by a wooden covering, is "one of the finest encaustic tile pavements now remaining," and, among other interesting designs, one of them preserves the only known copy of the ancient rose window at the end of the north transept, which has just been restored to its original condition. The walls under the arcades were once covered with frescoes. Those of the thirteenth century, in the sedilia of the abbot and his priors, are exquisitely beautiful figures of Cherubim and Seraphim, Angels and Virtues to whom Christ is setting forth the mysteries of redemption. On their wings are inscribed the names of the chief Christian virtues. The other frescoes, which are still preserved, are much coarser. They represent scenes from the Apocalypse, and were painted in the reign of Edward IV. by a monk named John of Northampton. The painted windows were placed there as a memorial to Dean Stanley. One was given by the Queen, and one by Americans. In the central light, at the summit of each, is represented the greatest man of each century-the Venerable Bede, St.

Anselm, Roger Bacon, Chaucer, Caxton, and Shakespeare. In the window over the door is Queen Victoria. The central band of the windows represents many of the great historical events connected with the Abbey.

The series of scenes on these Chapter House windows is so interesting that the reader may spend a delightful quarter of an hour in identifying them. As few people are able to do so, I here give them, and I should recommend the visitor to get a pleasant history-lesson by making them out with the following key:

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Beginning with the first large window on the left, which was Dean Stanley's own gift-the window which has St. Anselm in the upper circle-the four kings on the top row are William the Conqueror, William Rufus, Henry II., and Richard I.; the historical scenes are: 1. The coronation of the Conqueror in the Abbey. 2. The miracle of St. Wulfstan. He was the only Saxon bishop who was allowed to retain his see, and the legend says that,' refusing to give up his crozier to any one but the Confessor, from whom he had received it, he laid it on his tomb. There it miraculously stuck, and no one could lift it, until when he stretched out his hand for it, it was easily raised. He was therefore allowed to retain it. 3. The conflict of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, described farther 4. The gathering of the Crusaders under Cœur

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