monastery, which was burned by the Danes 793. Again, in 1069, by William I. and rebuilt after, 1074. On the south side are ruins of the domestic buildings. A gable with a round window, and considerable remains of walls, probably formed part of the refectory.

The excellent Benedict Biscop, the tutor of Bede, accumulated here those precious historical manuscripts of which his pupil made such use; he built his church after the Roman manner, with workmen brought from France, and glazed the windows, an art hitherto strange to Britain. From Jarrow Aldwin migrated to Melrose, and Renfrid to Whitby.

King's Lynn.—(Benedictine.)

THE priory church of St. Margaret, founded by Herbert, Bishop of Norwich, in the reign of William II., is of twelve bays, and consists of a Norman nave, and Early English choir, with aisles, a transept, and two western towers, 86 ft. high; the latter, of four stages, are principally Early English, but have Perpendicular additions. The central tower was blown down in 1741, with a spire 258 feet high. The west window is of seven lights, Perpendicular. There are some carved stalls, and some Flemish brasses; the principal is that of R. Braunch. The east end is of two stages; the lower has a rich band and three fine niches; the upper has a circular window and two octagonal turrets as flanking buttresses. The north chapel is that of the Holy Trinity. The organ was built by Snetzler. St. Nicholas' Church, 194 ft. by 74 ft. received a new reredos, and was restored 1853. The building is of the fifteenth century, some thirteenth century work remains in the tower. There is a rich timber roof. St. James' Church, now attached to the workhouse, has some fine Early English features. The octagonal lantern of the Grey Friars' Church, 90 ft. high, is standing. The cruciform chapel of St. Mary of the Red Mount, of stone, 17 ft.

by 14 ft., is 13 ft. high; the roof is richly groined. It is of three stages the first a chapel for relics, built after 1482; the pilgrim's and priest's house, a massive octagon of brick, 26 ft. in diameter; and a crypt with a barrel vault. The Town-hall, Perpendicular, formerly the Trinity Guild-hall, has a good roof. The other observable buildings are-the Perpendicular gate of Thoresby's College; the Carmelite's gate, of brick, Late Perpendicular; the square South Gatehouse, of the fifteenth century; St. George's Hall, Bridge-street; a Perpendicular house in Nelson-street; a Jacobean house in Bridge-street, 1605; and an Early Decorated house in St. Nicholas'-street.

Arms: Az., three dragons' heads, transfixed with three crosses crosslets fitchy, or.

Lanercost Priory.-(Austin Canons.)

THE priory church of St. Mary Magdalene, Lanercost, was founded for Austin Canons, by Robert de Vallibus, lord of Gilsland, 1169. The church, which was mainly built of stone from the Roman wall, is seated in the pleasant valley of St. Mary Holme, through which the river Irthing flows under wooded banks; it is crossed by a bridge of two Pointed arches. The nave only is used for service: it is of eight bays. The west front has a Norman door of three orders, below an arcade of trefoiled arches; above this are three tall lancets set in a double-headed arcade, with quatrefoils in the spandrils. In the gable-niche is a statue of St. Mary Magdalene. The nave-clerestory consists of eight round-headed lancets. The transept, 96 ft., is of two bays in each wing, with two long round-headed windows in either front: it contains monuments of the Howards and Dacres. The clerestory is of contiguous lancets, and there is an east aisle. The choir, 78 ft., was lighted by two tiers of lancets at the east end, and by two windows on either side. The tower is low and battlemented; it retains a bell-cot at the north-west angle. There

is a Norman entrance-gate. Edward I. was here with Queen Eleanor 1289 and 1299; with Queen Margaret in 1306. The Scots burned the priory in 1296. Robert Bruce lodged in it in 1311, and David pillaged it in 1346. In the crypts there are some Roman relics.

Maidstone, Kent.

MAIDSTONE is Meghams-tone, in Saxon, "the mighty strong town." Through this town passed the great tide of Canterbury pilgrims: they halted for the night at the Travellers' Hospital, founded in the West Borough by Archbishop Boniface, of which the chapel, now St. Peter's Church, remains. As the town was agreeably situated in a fertile valley, and on a navigable river, the Primates, at an early date, fixed their residence here. In 1395 William de Courtenay obtained the royal licence to convert the parish church into a collegiate church, when, very probably, the new buildings were ready for consecration.

The church of All Saints', Maidstone, Perpendicular, of Kentish rag-stone, stands on a cliff; the site was admirably selected. The tower, 78 ft. high (which had a spire 80 ft. high till 1730, when it was shivered by lightning), is on the southwest of the building, with an engaged turret on the north-west angle. Over the bend of the valley and the Medway, whether lifting up its dark mass against the deep blue of noon, or blushing all over with the glow of sunset, the church presents a noble appearance, with the expanse of the west front, and the projecting buttresses of the aisles,-to the north the palace, to the south the old grey college. The choir is of three bays, the eastern severy being parted off from the aisles, on the north by an oak screen once highly painted; on the south by four superbly canopied sedilia with a piscina. The east window like the west window of the nave, is of six lights. Embedded in the pavement is the original altar-slab of Kentish stone, 7 ft. by 3 ft. 3 in.; at the west end of the choir is a range of

twenty-four stalls. The reredos of Caen stone was the gift of Miss Sweetlove, 1858. Of the rood-loft only a portion of late date remains. At the east end of the north choir aisle, once south of the Lady Chapel, is a three-light window; the three side windows are of Caen stone and of similar design; but the north-west window differs both in design and material, being five-light and of red sandstone. The same change is remarkable in other windows of the 15th century in this position, and on the south-west, owing to some ecclesiastical custom of the period. The south aisle was St. Thomas à Becket's Chapel. The parapet of the clerestory and aisles was embattled. The flat wooden roofs throughout the church have been replaced by lath and plaster. At the east end of the north aisle is an ascent by two stairs to Vinter's chantry, founded 1366: in the south aisle was Arundel's chantry, 1406, with bracket, piscina, and holy-water stoup. In the centre of this aisle is the doorway to the sacristy and upper parvise. The font, of rag-stone, is Jacobean. The aisles of the nave are almost as broad as the mid alley, and double the breadth of those of the choir. In the north aisle, which has four-light windows, was the Corpus Christi: at the east end of the south aisle, which has two-light windows, was St. Katharine's Chapel. The tower, embattled, has a porch and squareheaded two-light windows in the belfry: it contains ten bells. The chancel has stained glass, by Wailes.

The principal monuments are the following:

Choir.-A large slab; the brass to the memory of Archbishop Courtenay is lost; Lord Astley, Baron of Reading, a gallant cavalier, died 1646.

Arundel's Chantry.-John Wotton, died Oct. 31, 1417, first master of the college; a canopied tomb with a slab of Bethersden marble, the brass lost; remains of a fresco Wotton offered to the Blessed Virgin in the presence of SS. Mary Magdalen and Catharine, Richard of Chichester and Thomas à Becket.

Here also was buried the learned William Grocyn, eleventh master of the college.

The gate-house of the college, faced with rag-stone and ashlar, has a lofty archway with a side path for foot passengers. There are rooms, the height of the gateway, one on either

side; over these is a large and lofty chamber, 49 ft. by 20 ft., entered by a turret staircase. On the west of the court are the lodgings of the fellows, two stories high, terminated by the Master's Tower, of three stories, towards the river side: each story on the north and west fronts is lighted by a range of square-headed windows, with cinque-foiled lights; the lowermost was the refectory, the upper the dormitory. On the south side of each story there was a cloister corridor with traceried panes, into which the refectory and chambers lead. From the small turret staircase on the south-east angle of the tower, the buildings turned southward, but the only remains are a part of W. de Cornhill's ancient castle, Early English and Decorated: at the south end was a hall. The west front looks upon the Medway, bordered by a terrace walk and wall, in which is the water-gate, and adjoining it are the picturesque gate-tower and turret of another court now destroyed.

Malmesbury, Wilts.

Our ancestors did feelingly perceive
What, in these holy structures, we possess
Of ornamental interest, and the charm
Of pious sentiment diffused afar,

And human charity and social love :
Thus, never shall the indignities of time
Approach their reverend graces unopposed;
Nor shall the elements be free to hurt
Their fair proportions, nor the blinder rage
Of bigot zeal madly to overturn.

They shall continue to bestow

Upon the thronged abodes of busy men
(Depraved and ever prone to fill their minds
Exclusively with transitory things)

An air and mien of dignified pursuit ;
Of sweet civility to rustic wilds.

THE Abbey of St. Michael, Malmesbury, was mitred and
Benedictine; Maidulph, a Scottish hermit, founded the