:

An upright stone contains the following lines, evidently not original :

Few of the remaining memorials exhibit any thing striking in their structure or inscriptions. There is an ancient and ponderous tomb near the church wall, but the name is quite gone, and the remainder of the lettering too much obliterated, to allow of its being read. On each side of the porch are railed burial enclosures: one of which, (Champion's of Blyth,) I noticed, was grown over with mallows, in full flower; and the other, (Dethick's,) no less appropriately with red poppies. An adjoining headstone records the following instance of fecundity and mortality:-" In memory of William and Martha Wright, and of seventeen of their children, whom THEY SAW interred near this place."

Of the exact size of the plot of ground, originally appropriated for interments, it is not pos sible now to form an accurate estimate; but that it included the croft, now Mr. Hooson's, appears certain, both from the circumstance of its being called "the old churchyard close,” and the fact, that both wooden coffins and bones were found, when digging therein, a few years ago.

• On opening this tomb, or a grave adjacent, about forty years ago, for the interment of a Mr. Sims, a stone coffin is said to have been found, and the lid removed in the presence of

Mr. Ward, the vicar, when a body was presented nearly perfect, but which presently crumbled into dust on exposure to the air.

The next ancient relic of attraction is the remains of St. Mary's Chapel, at the north-east angle of the church-yard; this ruin is universally admired as an exquisite architectural gem. The elegance of the design, the beauty of the workmanship, and the exact symmetry of all the parts render it interesting to the eye of taste, however little practised on such subjects, while the connoiseur in architecture regards it as one of the rarest vignettes of the art. At what period this elaborate appendage to the monastery was built, it would not be easy to determine, but evidently long subsequent to the original foundation; for, while the massy pillars in the church, the vaulted stone roofs extant in the ruins, and the zigzag ornaments of the doorways, both in one place and the other, would clearly indicate, even without any written evidence, that those portions belonged to a period soon after the conquest; the characteristics of the present fragment, with equal clearness, refer it to an era, not earlier than the time of Edward the Third, when a lighter and more elegant style prevailed. The ground site of this chapel, which was originally attached to the south transept, is about fourteen yards by eight, and the windows, six in number, on the side remaining, afford one of the finest specimens in the kingdom, of that tall, narrow, pointed, light, denominated the lancet shape.

As it is not possible, accurately to fix the period of the erection of this chapel, it would be still more difficult to assign the founder, or even, perhaps, to offer a plausible conjecture, as to whom the claim belongs. I once inclined to the opinion that it was built by Gerard de Furnival,

P

after his return from the Holy Land, where he might have seen the Saracenic originals, from which the style is said to be derived to us; or, that he, furnishing the design, the building might be a pious memorial erected by his mother, out of gratitude, in honour of the Virgin Mary, when, in obedience to maternal commands, Gerard a second time visited, and returned from Palestine, with the dust of his brother Thomas, who had there been slain, and was afterwards buried in consecrated earth at Worksop. Against this presumption, the silence of Pigot, who is particular about this Thomas, must be admitted to depose rather unfavourably. Be that as it may, and which soever of the noble patrons of this religious house, might build and dedicate this chapel to St. Mary, they had probably no less a reference to a perpetual sanctuary for their ashes after eath, than a regard for the honour of the Virgin, while living. In this, however, they were mistaken; for, although it seems to have received the remains of William and Gerard Furnival, Maud, the daughter of Sir Thomas Nevil, and Sir John Talbot; yet, not only has the building which once canopied their memorials, been roofless, and ruined for centuries,-the very ruins disparting and threatening to fall, but even their coffins have been dug from the earth, and after lying exposed and neglected above ground, have probably long ago sanded the floors of the inhabitants, or been used for other purposes not less degrading. Two stone coffins, said to have been found here, were once to be seen in the church, but these have long since disappeared. The Froggatt family have appropriated this little ruined chapel, as their burying place, which is now grown over with yew, elder, and bramble-bushes; and in making the grave, some years ago, two other stone coffins are said to have been discovered, one of which was taken up and broken, and the other left in the earth whether these enclosed any of the illustrious defunct mentioned by Pigot, it does not seem necessary to determine, but the history of one of their monuments must not be passed over without a notice.

The poetical chronicler states, that Sir William Furnival " In our lady chappell was beried," and that he there "Lyeth tumulate full worshipfully, all in free-stone;" he then gives the leonine verses, which the reader will recollect in the poem: these, however, he has somewhat inaccurately transcribed, and we are indebted to Dr. Pegge for the true reading, which is as follows:

Upon this Mr. Hunter observes, in reference to the poet and the epitaph," Most incorrectly has he copied the monkish epitaph. It may still be read, the letters printed in italics only excepted, the most perfect memorial of the ancient lords of Hallamshire, now at Worksop." So it was

• Perhaps the sense of these monkish rhymes may thus be given in plain prose:-" Remembering me, turn pale! and as thou art running in a like path, sing a psalm, I entreat thee, for William de Furnival”

+ Hallamshire, p. 34. Perhaps the reader, who takes the

trouble to collate the fac-simile inscription in the engraving, and the verses in the Chronicle, p. 89, with the reading of Dr. Pegge, will think, that the charge of having copied the epitaph "Most incorrectly," is hardly justified.

when the historian wrote; and for several years afterwards, it lay in the churchyard, near the old vicarage, neglected by the inhabitants, but still an object of interest and curiosity to strangers.

DRAUGHT OF THE INSCRIPTION, IN LANGOBARDIC CHARACTERS, ON THE MONUMENT OF WILLIAM DE FURNIVAL, BURIED ABOUT 1260.

When I last visited the town, I inquired what was become of the old stone coffin-lid, as it used to be called; what was my surprise and regret to be be told, that it was carried away and converted into a sinkstone! I forthwith went to the house of its present possessor, and there I saw the ponderous and venerable monument, which once covered the body of a noble Furnival, built into the kitchen-wall of an adjacent dwelling, excavated in part for the domestic purposes to which it is designed, and the traces of the letters still legible on the remaining surface. What an impressive lecture on the mutations and insecurity of monumental distinction, does the brief history of this gravestone afford!

I have not hesitated to speak of the above ruin, as the remains of the chapel mentioned by Pigot, and in which the above-mentioned Sir William "ordeyned five candells perpetuall to brynne before our Lady;" although I am aware that this has been by some writers, denominated St. Peter's Chapel, which was also on the south side of the church, but probably nearer the porch. If any proofs were wanting to establish its claim to this distinction, we might adduce the elegance of the workmanship, the exhumation of the stone coffins, and lastly, the testimony of popular phraseology, for, by the following item in the parish books, it appears that the ruin has

borne its present appellation, for, at least, more than a century:-" 1722. Mr. Lane and Jno. Chambers charged going to Nottingham about St. Mary's Chapel, 2. 4. 5." A poor etching of this ruin and the gateway, are given by Throsby in his edition of Thoroton, where, by a strange blunder of the engraver, they are both mislabelled, the sketch of the ruined chapel being designated The Abbey Gateway, while the view of the entrance is called St. Mary's Chapel.

The remainder of the fragments which still exist of the conventual buildings, are some portions of the cloisters on the north side of the church: these are so mutilated and altered, by their adaptation to small dwelling-houses, and the accumulation of rubbish, as to exhibit few traces of their original character. Still, however, there is enough remaining to attract and interest; and, perhaps, the present occupancy of the ruin may retard its destruction; but the visitor cannot, without something like displacency of feeling, observe, that beside the two dwellings above-mentioned, a beautiful fragment is appropriated as a cow-house and piggery. It is true, the monks used to keep cattle at their granges; and, moreover, that the "Porcarius" was a regular servant in the monastic institution, but little did old Pigot, when he chronicled the glories of his house, foresee that "such things should be," within a fathom of the church. A fine specimen of that ornamented circular-headed arch, which characterises the Saxon portion of the buildings, may be seen in the house occupied by the sexton, and at the entrance of the pantry. This room, which is 19 feet long by 13 feet wide, exhibits a perfect specimen of the original crypt-like dwellings of the canons; the roof is curiously vaulted, and cross-ribbed with stone, and the outlines of similar cells are to be traced on the walls, in the little garden behind the dwellings. Here, also, is a large mass of firmly cemented stones, which, at first sight, might be mistaken for a portion of the original walls, but which, on nearer inspection, is found to consist of pieces of arches, fluted stones, capitals, broken pillars, and other wrought materials; all compactly imbedded in lime. These are evidently a collection of fragments and rubbish, thrown together when the buildings were demolished, and the rain having insinuated itself plentifully through the mass, the lime and sand became mortar, which, hardening through subsequent years, is now so perfectly solid, that it is difficult to detach even a small specimen of the stone.

In the field containing this curious breccial accumulation, various foundations, and other vestiges of architecture, have, at different times, been discovered, but nothing remains. that can tend to ascertain the exact extent of the original walls. At present, a smooth green sward affords attractive footing to the casual visitant, where the topographer would rather have seen corner-stones, and inchnographical demarcations; albeit, the owner of the pasture will probably concur with the former description, notwithstanding his antiquarian predeliction, for, seeing the writer of these pages on the spot, he came up, and very gratuitously informed him that "this place was once a great nunnery, and had been built a thousand centuries !"

• So it was in January, 1825: but on visiting Worksop in June the same year, I found the ruin and its humiliation

removed together, and a trim coach-house erected on the site.