pyllors and Ahalffe.

orate pro animabus.

****

Behind-Johis Croslay Mercatoris et Johanne uxor eius The fourth pillar in front bears this inscription, Thes to pyllors made gud; on the back, Histarum pro arum * * * m ** the front of the fifth, Wyffys God reward thaym; behind, * * * ite p* * myale The inscription on the front of these two pillars is complete, and runs thus:-Thes to Pyllors made Gud Wyffys, God reward thaym—from which it appears that the fourth and fifth pillars were built by the pious ladies of Beverley. The sixth or the easternmost pillar is inscribed :-Thys pyllor made the meynstyrls; and behind, Orate pro animabus pro Hysteriorum; and the upper front or capital is ornamented with the sculptured effigies of five minstrels, dressed in the fashion of the times-with short blue coats, red stockings, and yellow girdles and socks. They formerly held musical instruments in their hands, nearly all of which are gone.* The corbels on the pillars on the south side are busts of Bishops, Kings, &c.

The bounding cornice of the clerestory windows rest on corbels, composed chiefly of angels of large size, holding shields, &c. The most perfect of these figures exhibit some beautiful carving. Some of those on the south side appear to have in their hands the various instruments used in the Passion

A fraternity of Minstrels or gleemen had been established in Beverley during the reign of King Athelstan, and were well supported by their profession for many ages after the Norman Conquest. The minstrels seem to be the descendents of the ancient bards, for they exhibited in one person the musician and the poet, It is stated that the courts of Princes swarmed with poets and minstrels. The King and most of the nobility retained their own minstrels, who wore their respective liveries. The minstrels of Beverley were governed by stated rules, and played at weddings, feasts, fairs, cross days, &c., under the direction of their leader, who was of necessity an Alderman of the borough, They waited for no invitation, but considering admission into the halls of the nobility as an undeniable privilege due to their talents, they entered without ceremony, and seldom departed without a liberal reward. The excessive privileges which the minstrels enjoyed in all parts of the kingdom, and the long continuance of public favour, with the gratuities collected by them, induced great numbers of loose and dissolute persons to join the fraternity, and its reputation became much diminished in the public estimation. These evils became at last so notorious, that in the reign of Edward II., it was found necessary to restrain them by a public edict. In little more than a century afterwards these grievances again became the subject of complaint to the King. In the reign of Elizabeth, the professors of minstrelsy were ranked amongst rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars. The society or guild of minstrels which existed in Beverley, endeavoured, in the reign of Philip and Mary, to restore the credit and respectability of the profession, by a formal establishment of a series of regulations for their future government. In the order for the re-establishment of the fraternity the minstrels are identified with waites, and in the town's records of the period they are styled histriones. This body has left a lasting memorial of their existence in Beverley in the abovementioned pillar, which was undoubtedly erected by them, when the church of St. Mary underwent a thorough repair, after the falling in of the roof in 1513.

of Our Lord. The first perfect figure from the east end has a ladder; the second the crown of thorns; the third holds the spear and reed, with the sponge; the fifth figure has the chalice; the next, the cross; the seventh, the pincers, &c.; the next, the seamless garment; and the ninth represents St. Veronica holding the napkin, upon which is imprinted the features of Our Redeemer. The south pillar of the arch, between the south aisle of the nave and the transept, is very Early English in style, and there is not another pillar or capital in the church of the same pattern. The ceiling of the nave is panelled, and painted of an oak colour, but before the year 1829 it represented a serene sky, with stars of gold. The fine west window of the nave and the west window of the north aisle are filled with elegantly stained glass, executed by Hardman and Co., of Birmingham, from designs by Pugin. The centre figure in the lower tier of the large window represents the Blessed Virgin, with St. James (minor), St. Thomas, and St. Matthias, on her right hand; and St. John, St. Matthew, and St. Simon, on her left. The centre figure in the second tier represents Our Saviour, having St. Peter, St. James (the great), and St. Bartholemew, on his right; and St. Paul, St. Andrew, and St. Philip, on his left hand. The two rows of figures above the bend of the arch represent the Prophets of the Old Law; and those in the top of the window are the Blessed Virgin and the Angel Gabriel (the centre figures), and angels playing upon musical instruments.

Over the west door, and at the sill of this window, is an elegant parapet of open quatrefoils; and on either side of the door is a niche, the pedestal of which exhibits some excellent carving. The subjects of the small window are St. John preaching in the wilderness, St. John baptising Our Saviour, and the beheading of the same Saint. In the tracery at the top are angels holding scrolls, bearing scriptural passages. The niches, &c., of these windows are extremely rich. The costly glazing of both was defrayed by subscription, that of the smaller one being entirely at the expense of the ladies of the town and neighbourhood, and hence is called the Ladies' Window. Both were glazed within the last five years. Beneath the Ladies' Window is the font, a very large octagonal basin, on a similar stand, and a very fine specimen of work in marble. On each face is cinquefoil and quatrefoil tracery, very much defaced by the puritanical rage of the 17th century. Round the ledge is the following inscription, in old English letters:-Pray for the soules of Wyllm Feryffaxe, draper, & his Wyvis whiche made this font of his pper costes, the day of March V., yere of Our Lord MDXXX.

The pulpit, which is octagonal, is fixed against a pillar at the west end of the nave. It stands on a base, enriched with some good carving, but which,

with very bad taste, is partly sunk into a deep hole made in the floor, and hid by the reading desk, which stands close to it. At the west end of the nave are two very large unsightly canopied pews, which exhibit some good wood carving. One of these belongs to the Corporation of Beverley, and the other has carved on it the inscription already alluded to:

Pray God have marce of al the sawllys of the men and wymen and ccheldryn whos bodys was slayn at the faulying of thys cchere whych fown ***** thys fawl was the XXIX day of Aperel in the yere of owr Lord A MVC. and XIII. and for al the sawls of thaym the whyth haws hyn * * ys schal be gud benefactors and helppers of the sayd ccherc up a gayn and for al crystyan sawllys the whyth God wold have prayed for and for the sawllys of ser Recherd Rokkysbe knycht and daym Jone his wife whych gave two hundreth poundes to the building of thys cchere and for the sawllys of Willm Hall cooper and his wife.

The organ stands on a small gallery, erected beneath the beautiful eastern arch of the nave, which is entirely filled up with unsightly panelling. This instrument was built by Donaldson, of York, in 1792, at a cost of £311. 8s., which was raised by subscription. In the year 1616 the nave of the church was disfigured by the introduction of a gallery over its north aisle; in 1726, an addition was made to it; and in 1754 this loft was taken down, and two new galleries erected over both aisles; but happily these excrescences were removed a few years ago.

The south transept has a flat ceiling panelled, and once richly painted and decorated; but now a perfect ruin, propped up by rough timbers. Two arches separate this transept from a side aisle on the east side, which was doubtless a chapel or chantry before the Reformation. The ceiling is panelled, and painted of an oak colour, but it was formerly decorated with the figures of Saints, with legends on scrolls. This chapel was open to the south aisle of the chancel, but a brick work, erected to support a monument, now blocks up that passage. There are some traces of rich shrine work here. Gent tells us that this sacred oratory was once converted into a blacksmith's shop; and not many years ago it was used as a depository for useless lumber, and a workshop for the stonemasons employed in repairing the church.

"To what base uses may we return, Horatio."

The north transept has also a painted ceiling in panels, not quite so much decayed as the other, but all traces of the subjects are lost. On the east side of this transept, and divided from it by two arches of an early character, is a large space, which was originally open both to the transept and the north aisle of the chancel. Here it may be supposed were anciently one or two chapels; but the place is now roughly enclosed by brick work, and converted

into vestries, &c. The ceiling of this part of the edifice is of wood, in square panels, painted an azure colour, and powdered with golden stars. The bosses of several portions of this ceiling are charged with Latin inscriptions, and the oaken beams belonging to a part of it, which covers the west end of the north aisle of the chancel, have carved upon them the following, in Old English letters:-Mayn in thy lyffyng lowfe God a bown all thyng and euer thynke at the Begynyng quhat schall cowme off the endyng. These inscriptions were placed here by the benefactor to the church, who gave this ceiling, and whose gift is commemorated by the following sentence, carved on the bosses, formed by the junction of the ribs-a single letter on each boss-W. Hal. Carpenter mad thys Rowffe.

The choir or chancel is divided from the aisles by five pointed arches; those of the south side springing from columns formed by the union of four cylinders, and those on the north from three cylinders attached to each pier. In the spandrils of the arches are circles enclosing enriched trefoils; and the windows of the clerestory are about one third panelled. All the work of the north side of the chancel is of a much richer character than that of the south. Near the centre of that side is a splendid niche, with an enriched canopy. There being no stained glass in either of the windows, nor the least attempt at decoration either behind or about the communion table, the aspect is anything but devotional. The eastern part of the north aisle has a curiously groined stone roof, which has attracted the attention of many antiquaries and architects.

In describing this peculiar roof, Mr. Poulson says, "The ribs which form the groins of the roof unite on the north side in a cluster at the impost, and are continued down the pier, forming with it one unbroken line, being destitute of impost, mouldings, or capital; but on the opposite side they all enter into rings, without appearing below them; they do not spring, as is usual, from the same circumference of one circle, but are distributed; the arrangement produces this singular effect, that the ribs upon the south side cross each other, whereas those on the north side diverge uniformly; a contrast which is extremely curious. The mouldings of these groins are highly indented and characteristic; their strongly marked indentures produce a great effect in the crossings, and upon the north side all the mouldings, except the most prominent, coincide and disappear in the body of the column, the upper fillet and mouldings of each groin only appearing, and producing, by their assemblage, a set of flutes not unlike those of a Corinthian column. The diagonal arch is a complete semicircle."

This part of the aisle, the windows of which are very rich in Decorated tra

cery, has evidently been a chapel, for on the 30th of June, in the present year (1855), the sexton discovered a piscina in the wall near the east window of the aisle, which had long been concealed by the timber work at the back of the seats. There is also a small side chapel out of this aisle, which is likewise groined, and contains the remains of a piscina.; and there is a large room over the groined part of the aisle, which is approached by a winding staircase in one of the large octagon buttresses or turrets at the east end of the church. This staircase is accessible from the chancel. It is somewhat remarkable that the heads of the busts above both sides of the pillars of the south aisle are (save one) turned towards the west-looking, as it were, towards the chapel on the east side of the south transept.

It may not be uninteresting to know that a number of casts have been taken from the decorative sculpture of this church, and of the Minster, for the enrichment of the new Houses of Parliament, at Westminster.

On each side of the chancel aisles are fourteen oaken stalls without canopies, the seats being ornamented with carved shields and grotesque figures and devices, similar to those in the Minster. The ceiling of the south aisle of the choir is flat, and the panels are in blue and gold; and that of the middle aisle is also flat, and divided into forty panels, with paintings, which represent the portraits of forty Kings of England, each in his robes of state, with a scroll behind him. The royal portraits commence with the fabulous Brutus, and finish with Edward IV.; at the end of whose reign, therefore, it may be reasonably conjectured that these designs were made.

There are several monuments in this church, the most imposing of which are those of the Wartons. Drake, the historian of York, lies buried here; his monument, which stood within the west door of the nave, has lately been removed. (See vol. i., p. 639.)

Underneath the north-east portion of the church is a crypt, simply groined with circular arches, and originally supported, as is conjectured, by nine pillars or more; but a part of it has been evidently walled up in times comparatively modern, so that only three pillars are now distinctly visible. On one of the buttresses on the south side of the church is an oval tablet, to commemorate the sad fate of two Danish soldiers. (See page 220.) In addition to the churchyard there is an extensive burial ground on the opposite side of North Bar Street Within, which was opened in 1829.

Besides the grant of Queen Elizabeth, lands, tenements, &c., were left and given by pious individuals for the support of the fabric of St. Mary's Church, in the same manner as to the Church of St. John. The rents have hitherto been totally inadequate to this purpose, as the parishes have no church rate,