private chapels, endowed for chantries, for priests to chant or sing mass in for souls departed. These were all on both sides of the choir, and the walls of some of them on the south side still remain. Besides these there were eight altars endowed for the same purpose, so that the whole number of chantries in this church, at the above period, was at least twenty. The first of these was founded in 1328, by Richard de Gretford, Alderman, and a merchant of this town, who bequeathed to the Vicar of Hessle-cum-Hull, and to his successors for ever, a messuage lying in Bedford Lane, on the north side of the "great chapel of Hull," with a yearly rent of 36s., and several articles of plate, &c., on condition that a chaplain should be found to sing continually in the said great chapel for the souls of him, his wife, and all Christian souls deceased. The same year, John Rottenherring, merchant of Hull, founded a chantry in the same church, for a priest to sing mass for his own soul every day, and for the souls of all Christian people deceased. About the year 1380, Sir Michael de la Pole founded a chantry here.

Richard Ravenser, Archdeacon of Lincoln, in 1885, founded another chantry here, for the support of a priest to celebrate divine service in the chapel of St. Ann, contiguous to the chapel of the Holy Trinity, for the repose of the souls of King Edward III., Queen Philippa, the founder, and all the souls departed from the world. Robert de Cross founded a chantry here in 1408; John Gregg founded another in 1420; John Bedford founded one about the year 1450; John Alcock, Bishop of Worcester, in 1489, built a small chapel on the south side of this church, in which he founded a chantry at the altar of St. John the Evangelist, for a priest to pray for the eternal rest of the souls of King Edward IV., the founder, his parents, &c. The priest was obliged to teach in the grammar school, besides performing service in the chantry, for which double duty he was to receive £14. 6s. 4d., per annum. Amongst the other chantries were those founded by Hugh Hanby, merchant; Madam Margaret Darras; Robert Matthews, about the year 1500; Dr. John Riplingham, President of the College in Beverley, in 1516; Thomas Wilkinson, Alderman, in 1531; Margaret Dubbing, at the altar of St. John Baptist in Trinity Church, about 1533; and John Elland, Knt., about the same time. The obits kept in this church greatly exceeded the number of chantries.

The Living of the parish of the Holy Trinity is a Vicarage, not in charge, in the patronage of a body of resident gentlemen, who purchased the advowson from the Corporation. Its annual nett value is now about £600. The great and small tithes were commuted in 1771. The clergy attached to the church are the Rev. John Healey Bromby, M.A., Vicar; Rev. John Scott,

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M.A., Lecturer; Rev. John Edward Bromby, D.D., Clerk in orders; and two Curates. Divine service is performed three times on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; and twice on each of the other days.

The Church is a majestic cruciform structure, in the Gothic style, with a lofty and very beautiful tower, rising from the intersection, and is said to be the largest parish church (not collegiate) in the kingdom. It is 272 feet long from east to west; the length of the nave being 144; the breadth of the nave of the transept under the tower is 28 feet; the length of the chancel, 100 feet; the breadth of the nave of the church is 172 feet; the length of the transept, 96 feet; and the breadth of the chancel, 70 feet. It occupies an area of not less than 20,056 square feet. The west front consists of a centre and wings, divided by buttresses. The nave is much higher than the aisles, and is finished by a parapet of blank quatrefoils (formerly surmounted by large trefoils); and the centre is crowned with a dilapidated niche, and the ends with pinnacles. In the centre of this front is a recessed doorway, the mouldings of which are enriched with small flowers, and rest on nine columns, with foliated capitals; and above is a pedimental canopy, ending in a finial. Each side of this doorway is occupied with large niches, the rich canopies of which are much decayed; and above it is a very fine window of nine lights, which occupies the entire breadth of the nave, and reaches to the parapet. In the head of the arch of this immense window are five tier of small perpendicular lights. In the west end of each of the aisles is a similar window of seven lights. The south side of the nave exhibits seven pointed windows of five lights each, and one of the eight divisions into which this side of the nave is made by buttresses, is a stone porch, the inner doorway of which is now built up. The finish of this south aisle is a plain battlement, and the clerestory of the nave, which has sixteen pointed windows of three lights each, is finished in like manner.

The south transept is the height of the aisles, and in front of it is a handsome stone porch, the roof of the interior having longitudinal stone ribs. Over this porch is a pointed window of six lights, with some fine tracery in the sweep of the arch. The chancel is, as we have stated, the oldest portion of the building, and with the exception only of the buttresses, crenelles, and windows, which are of stone, it is wholly built of brick, as is also the transept and the foundation of the tower. Leland remarked that the "Trinitie Church was "most made of brike." It is said that the portion of this church which is built of brick may fairly claim to be the most ancient known specimen of brick building in England, since the time of the Romans. The south side of the chancel is in five divisions, in each of which is a pointed

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window of four lights. A line of low buildings, formerly used as chantries, extend the whole length of the chancel, parallel with the front of the transept, and very much disfigures this side of the church. The finish of the aisles of the chancel is a battlement like the nave, and the clerestory of this part of the church has ten pointed windows of two lights each. The whole of this side of the edifice, like the west end, is in a very decayed state. The east front, which abuts on the Market Place, has been restored, and now presents a very noble appearance; it is similar in form, and nearly so in arrangement, to the west end. In each of the four buttresses is a canopied niche; and the centre window is pointed and of seven lights, having the sweep of the arch filled with quatrefoil and cinquefoil tracery. Above this window is a niche, with a canopy and pinnacle crocketed. There is a large window in this end of each of the aisles of the chancel, and the parapet is finished in a pierced battlement. The north side of the chancel has been restored in an excellent manner, The windows were taken out and well cleaned, and the interior face, after being well saturated with oil, was turned outwards. In each of the five buttresses which mark the divisions of this side of the chancel, is a canopied niche. The transept has also been refaced, and now has an elegant appearance. The doorway is deeply moulded and in the spandrils of the arch are two shields, on which are inscribed A.D. MDCCCXXVIII., the date of the reparation. The nave is similar to the south side and has not been repaired. The noble tower is in two stories; at the angles are buttresses terminating in crocketed pinnacles, and the finish of each face is an elegant pierced battlement, with a pinnacle in the centre. On each side of the lower story are two pointed windows of three lights each, and in the upper stories are similar windows more highly enriched, with pedimental canopies terminating in finials above the battlements. The windows of the upper story are filled with weather boarding, and on each face of the tower is a large clock dial. The height of the tower, from the ground to the top of the pinnacles (according to Tickell), is 1474 feet. The entire church has a very imposing appearance, and adds much to the elegance of the town, though the general aspect of the noble structure is grievously injured by the loss of all the pinnacles, which crowned the buttresses on the north and south sides of the nave and the south side of the chancel, which now present to the eye a naked line of flat coping, utterly at variance with the genius of the pointed arch. Internally the view of this spacious edifice is very striking and handsome. The nave and aisles are divided on each side by eight pointed arches resting on lofty columns, formed by a union of four cylinders. The mouldings of the arches rest on angels, those on the north side playing on wind instruments

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of every kind and form, and those on the south on stringed. These figures are in fine preservation, and are decorated with gilding. The ceilings of this part of the church are flat and panelled, and embellished with stars, &c., on a blue ground. Previous to the year 1846, the west end of the nave, to the extent of three intercolumniations, was separated from the portion devoted to the service of the church, and the latter part had galleries round it. The nave was separated from the transept by an immense screen of oak, the sweep of the arches being also filled with timber; and from the entrances to the aisles, ascended flights of stairs, leading to the galleries of the nave. But happily in the above year the interior of the church was completely restored; and the large Doric screen, the cumbrous galleries, the unsightly partitions, and the old high pews were removed, and the whole of the nave and its aisles were thrown open, and furnished with neat open seats. Three ancient, but light oak screens of Gothic design, which formerly separated the choir from the transepts, were then removed to the arches dividing the nave and aisles from the transepts, and the arches from which these screens were taken were left open. An elegant Caen stone pulpit was erected at the same period.

The chancel or choir is very spacious, lofty, and noble. Indeed it would be difficult to find more simple elegance, combined with grandeur, in a Gothic pile, than in this chancel. The centre is divided from the aisles by five pointed arches, resting on columns similar to those of the nave; the capitals are foliated, and the pillars rest on octagonal plinths. The mouldings of the arches rest on small figures of saints, standing on grotesque masks. The roof is panelled and painted. Round the chancel are two rows of ancient seats, at some of the ends of which were carved various figures with coats of arms. Anciently the windows of the choir were filled with exquisitely stained glass, and adorned with curious figures and shields of arms; and the great east window alone contained the history of the Bible. In 1575 the latter window was so much damaged by the violence of the mob in demolishing the painted glass at the Reformation, that it all fell down, but it was rebuilt by William Gee, Mayor in 1562 and 1573, at his own expense, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Through Mr. Gee's example several others were induced to repair the windows, and other parts of the church, which had fallen into decay; but the zealots of the 17th century, "who," says Tickell, "placed no small part of their religion in demolishing such windows," destroyed the stained glass that escaped the fury of their forefathers, and the very few fragments of that article now left have been placed in the tops of two or three of the windows. The other stained glass in the heads of a few of the windows is modern, and

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has a tawdry appearance. Previous to the restoration of the east end of the church, which was finished in 1833, the great east window was blocked up, and almost the whole of it was occupied by a painting of the Last Supper, by M. Parmentier. Now it is nearly filled with stained glass, exhibiting full length figures of Our Saviour, Saints, &c.; and it would reflect much credit on the respectable and wealthy parishioners who worship in this church, if the four unfinished compartments were supplied with that elegant article. In one of the windows of the north aisle is the date of the repairs of that part of the church, 1829.

Four large brass chandeliers, given by a maiden lady named Plaxton, hang suspended from the roof of the chancel, but as the church is now lighted with gas, they are neither useful nor ornamental. The whole choir was formerly paved with small square bricks (after the manner of Meaux Abbey), upon many of which were the coats of arms of several of the Plantagenets, Earls of Lancaster, Leicester, and Derby, in the reigns of the first three Edwards; and of several other contributors to the fabric. These however have all long since disappeared, and the floor is now mostly laid with large oblong square stones, of a bluish cast, under which many of the principal inhabitants lie buried, as appears by the inscriptions, and coats of arms which are still to be

seen on most of them.

The tower, rising from the centre of the cross aisle or transept, is supported by four strong and uniform pillars, and in it is a peal of eight bells. The view from the top is splendid. The roof of the transept appears to be modern, and has the date of 1755. In the north window of the transept are the Royal Arms, and those of the Corporations of Hull and Trinity House in stained glass. There were formerly no less than sixty coats of arms in the transept and chancel, among which was that of William de la Pole, son and heir of Sir Richard, who lived in 1345.

The Organ is said to have been originally built by Schmidt, "the great father of English organ-builders," who was invited from Germany in 1680 by King Charles II.; and there appears some reason for concluding that this instrument was built for St. Paul's Cathedral, London, and being found too small for that purpose, was removed here. It has been frequently repaired, but during the present year it was completely restored by Messrs. Foster and Andrews, organ builders of Hull, and is now a very beautiful instrument, both in power and tone. It is placed in rather an odd situation, at the east end of the south aisle of the nave. The font, which is situated opposite the west door of the nave, is large, and stands on eight columns of four cylinders each, with a large one in the centre. The faces have quatrefoils, with shields, roses, &c.