that has probably belonged to the screen of the choir, and standing on a pedestal, inscribed in black letter: "S'CTA MARIA ORA PR' NOBIS." The monks have been liberal in the heraldic commemoration of their benefactors. Two noble shields, bearing respectively the lion rampant, of Percy, and the pike fishes of Lucy, are placed over the door of a cottage in the village. The shields of old Percy and Louvaine, which are enclosed in a piece of Tudor tracery, appear in another house; and there have recently been removed from farm buildings to the site of the abbey, boldly sculptured shields of Percy quartering Lucy-Tempest, anda lion rampant-perhaps Lacy. The well-known judgment and ability of Mr. Humphries, of Ripon, under whose direction the excavation of the abbey, as well as the various improvements in the village, have been conducted, might render it as impertinent, as it would otherwise have been pleasing to me, to comment either on the felicity of the design or on its results. The work may be followed as a precedent; and is, unquestionably, the most satisfactory of its kind that has yet been undertaken. Nothing has been added for the sake of ornament or uniformity, nor has anything been substituted or removed as, apparently, superfluous or unseemly. But as the most precise and judicious direction is, too often, unavailing, especially when it cannot be accompanied by continual supervision, it is not only gratifying but just to acknowledge that the work has been executed by the bailiff of the estate, with such unusual care and fidelity, as to have secured a collection of relics, almost equal in interest to the scene which has been disclosed. First, both in quantity and curiosity, is the stained glass which has been sifted from the rubbish. Every fragment, however small, has been preserved, and the aggregate is a collection of many hundred pieces, of all shapes and sizes, from half an inch to upwards of four inches in diameter. Many of them retain their texture and brilliancy, particularly those in which the enamel process has been employed; but, by long retention in humid soil, the laminæ of the coated glass have become disintegrated, and the yellow pot metal been rendered so friable, as often to retain little trace of the design which has been committed to it. The greatest mass was found in the chapels of the transept, and not a little under the east window of the choir. It had, apparently, been pulled down for the sake of the lead, and left, unheeded, on the floor until it became hid by the rubbish from the walls. The Decorated style, approaching in many instances to Early English, prevails, the inconsiderable exception being the draperies of figures of the Perpendicular period. The length to which my observations have already extended will not now allow me to say what I could have wished, of the many curious specimens of borders, canopies, diapers and drapery, not only useful as records of the history and practice of this beautiful art, but highly suggestive of particular information as to the appearance of the storied windows of this long desolated pile. One series of subjects, however, must be mentioned, on account of the peculiarity of its treatment. It is of the Early Decorated period, and represents the twelve apostles, each figure with its canopy being represented on a single unleaded piece of glass, 94in. long and 3in. wide. These figures have been but slightly injured, and the best of them is now exhibited. The encaustic tiles which have been found are chiefly of the Perpendicular period, but unfortunately most of them form only portions of patterns, that require the combination of nine or twelve tiles for their completion. One of these has represented a hunting scene, probably in the adjoining forest of Bolland, wherein the circular border is represented by the pales, and the foliage through which the dogs are chasing the stag, is designed with some elegance. Another has borne a shield with a circumscription, of which the words, MERCI GOD, are only legible. Part of a third subject shows a naked figure shooting at two hares, or rabbits, with a bow. Several single tiles have a large Roman W, enfiled by a crosier, forming perhaps part of the sepulchral memorial of one of the abbots. The rose and fret pattern appears to have been as common here as at Fountains, and, like many more, has probably circulated from abbey to abbey. To this practice here is, however, one exception, both as to design and the manner in which it is executed. It is a tile of the Decorated period, wherein the words, "Johe's Sallay Abbas. xps. ihu.," have been traced with a pointed instrument, when the clay was moist, not improbably, by the hand of the abbot himself. Besides these specimens of the ordinary mode of ecclesiastical decoration, five examples of works in metal have also been retrieved. One is the branch of a candlestick, which has moved in a grooved perpendicular stem, probably fixed to the stalls or the lectern. Another is part of a very late ornament in latten, which has been intended for application to some article of wooden furniture. The rest are perforated plates of lead, three inches square; two of them displaying a traceried design like that of a rose window; the other, a simple trellis. They are all designed with remarkable taste, and show how skilfully and almost intuitively the medieval artists produced a class of ornaments, for which we can, now, substitute little better than a mere quotation of incongruous architectural detail. There has also been found here, during the excavation, a long bronze pin, similar to those often found in Roman stations; part of the plain clasp of a book; a small pair of tongs for trimming the lamps; and, more unexpectedly, part of the bell of a falcon. The only other relics that require particular mention are three pieces of sheet lead, which have been cut by a chisel into their present shape, as templets for tabernacle work. They retain the puncture of the compasses and the lines by which their proportions have been determined; and are, so far as I can ascertain, the only working models of a mediæval artist which have yet been discovered. IX.—ON KIRKHAM PRIORY. Read at the Meeting of the Yorkshire and Lincoln Diocesan Architectural Societies, at Doncaster, Sept. 23, 1857. By JOHN RICHARD WALBRAN, Esq., F.S.A., Mayor of Ripon. Among the various and conflicting motives that originated the foundation of religious houses, few-after the testing revolution of seven centuries of opinion-will appeal more directly, or more sensitively to our hearts than that which made Kirkham a place "Holy unto the Lord for ever." Of the conscience-stricken pangs that were comfortably to be stifled by the bestowal of a superfluity which cost the givers nothing, of the death-bed concessions that were to charter a seat in heaven by a forgone inheritance in earth, it would ill become us-beings weak and imperfect as our forefathers-to dogmatize on that which, we trust, eternal purity may have pardoned; yet, too surely must I deem that many a sorrowing heart within these walls can sympathetically interpret that stern M. VOL. II. message to our founder-" Behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke." The facts of the incident were first published in the Monasticon Anglicanum' from a volume of collections, now preserved among the Cotton MSS. in the British Museum, where it is marked Vitellius, F. 4. It records with considerable minuteness that, in the reign of King Henry the First, Walter L'Espec was the Lord of Kirkham and other large estates in Yorkshire and Northumberland-the rewards of uncommon bravery in the wars of the period; and that by Adeline his wife he had an only son, who bore his father's Christian name, and was distinguished by the same high mental qualifications and noble form. This young man delighted much in equestrian exercise, a pleasure which eventually cost him his life; for, one day, when riding at a great pace towards Firby-a hamlet about a mile to the northeast of Kirkham-his horse, urged beyond its speed, stumbled near a small stone way-side cross, and threw his rider to the ground, who, having broken his neck, immediately expired. When the intelligence of this sad bereavement reached the young man's father, he sorrowed not as they who have no hope, but as the record says-having invoked the grace of the Holy Spirit, consulted with his friends as to the disposal of his property, especially with his uncle William, the Rector of Garton near Driffield, on whose counsel he much relied. His advice was, that a portion of his estate should be devoted to the service of Him who had given and taken away; and, after the prevailing fashion of the day, this purpose was effected ultimately by the foundation of three monasteries-Kirkham, Rivaulx, and Warden in Bedfordshire. Kirkham, from its proximity to the spot where the misfortune occurred, was, of course, the first offering of his submission to the will of God. It was founded on the 22nd of February, 1122, when it was dedicated to the honor and glory of the Holy Trinity, and devoted to the rule of St. Augustine; William, L'Espec's uncle, who was a Canon of Nostel, being appointed the first Prior. Rivaulx was founded in 1131, and Warden in 1136; but both these houses were colonised with Cistercian monks, the diversion of the founder's bounty having been directed towards this rising and reforming Order by (1) "Dominus Walterus Especke miles strenuus et decorus in ætate juvenili uxorem duxit quandam, nomine Adelinam, quæ concepit, et peperit ei unum filium nomine Walterum, similem patri suo. Qui formosus factus adolescens multum delectabatur in equis velocibus equitare. Contigit ut quadam die, cum equum velocem ascendisset et ipsum ad currendum ultra vires urgeret, apud parvam petrinam crucem, versus Frithby, equus suus graviter cespitavit : et ille subito de equo cadens, collo suo fracto, vitam finivit temporalem," &c., &c.-Cotton MSS. Vitell. F. 4.-Mon. Angl. i, 727. Thurstan, archbishop of York-a friend of St. Bernard-who, in 1132, founded the great abbey of Fountains. "Pro reorum venia Kirkham domus bona Pro quorum meritis datur illi trina corona.' It is a remarkable circumstance that in the charters by which these abbeys were founded, Espec, though he states particularly in that of Rivaulx that the donation was made for the souls of kings William and Henry, for the souls of his parents, his wife's parents, and their ancestors, and for that of Hugh de Wildecher, never alludes in any shape whatever to the loss of his only child. There is a parallel case, however, in the charters of the foundress of Bolton Priory. The tradition of the neighbourhood has kept, as usual, its irregular pace with the more authentic record; and I have been told by one born near Kirkham, and much more able to have addressed you on the subject than myself, that when peasants— "In winter's tedious nights sit by the fire and tell their tales, it is their legend that the Lady Adeline had such a strange prevision of coming sorrow, as led her vehemently to dissuade her son from hunting on the fatal day-that, after he had slighted her admonition, he was observed about evening, by a wayfaring man, riding at full gallop towards Firby, and had scarcely ascended to a place where a spring of water gushed from the hill side, when a wild boar, darting across the road, startled the horse, which dashed its master's head against a stone that now forms part of the cross before the Gatehouse, and then dragged him by the stirrups to a place where he was found, and therefore chosen as the site of the high altar of the Priory. Like many other traditions, this, evidently, is but an adumbration of the truth; yet in the present state of society, when so much of our folk-lore is passing away from us, it must not be left unrecorded. Of the personal history of the founder, who must ever occupy a prominent position among the worthies of the kingdom, all who are but imperfectly acquainted with the history of their country will-amongst other services which he rendered during a long and earnestly-purposed life-remember that wherein his eloquence and his valour contributed in a triumphant degree to the victory gained by the English over the Scots at the memo |