decayed, and by rendering it as secure as its delapidated state would admit of. It may thus remain secure for many years, with ordinary attention, but the east end must be always considered at the mercy of the elements. At this period two side screens were thrown across the transept. Steps were raised of figured encaustic tiles in front of the Altar, and the Decalogue was newly and beautifully lettered and inserted in the recess of the door-way to the Choir. The space above the screen was filled up with stained glass by Wailes, having the effigies of the Virgin, St. Peter, and St. Cuthbert. The stone screen was also partially repaired. The floors were removed from the lantern tower, and the lower windows were glazed, having been previously filled up with plaster. This is a very great improvement, and the effect of the Tower as seen internally is very good. We would however see the unseemly and misplaced painting of the Lord's Supper taken from its elevated and unmeaning situation. The organ was removed and two unsightly lofts were taken down, Till the present gallery on the north side of the nave be removed, we cannot allow that the work of restoration is complete. It cannot be viewed with patience, and its removal should be the next, and an early step, in the progressive improvements which have been made and which yet remain to be done. Stained glass was put into the three south windows of the nave in 1841, as also into other windows of the building. Of the three named, beginning with the one eastward, the first contains the arms of Saltmarsh, Sotheron, Bethell, Empson, Worsop, and Estcourt. The middle window contains the Royal Arms, those of the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Ripon, Lord Hotham, Viscount Galway, and Lord Howden. The third window, those of Clarke, Dunn, Jefferson, Thompson (Lord Wenlock,) Athorpe, Wyndham, Menzies, and Broadley. The Chapter House is on the south side of the Choir. It is small, being twenty-four feet across, but very beautifully proportioned. There are seven windows of three lights each, with pointed arches and varied tracery. There are thirty-four seats round the interior, the form is octagonal, and the whole is rich in the extreme, in tabernacle work, canopies, niches, and every specious of ornament into which stone can be cut. Fully to appreciate its beauty, it must be seen, words cannot convey an adequate picture of it. Its groined roof and spire fell down on St. Stephen's day, 1750. 66 Hutchinson regarded this Chapter House as the finest specimen of pointed architecture in England. Whilst," he says, "it is the greatest disgrace to suffer this building to go to decay, we acknowledge that we have seen nothing in this island of such elegant work in stone, except at Melrose Abbey, in Scotland, with which this small building may justly vie, and in one particular it excels any part in the Scottish Abbey, by its exquisite and exact |