the altar. (1) The inscription on the step of the altar, in the north transept, is ALFRIDI DE HVNTON R In this superb church lie many of the Lords Fitzhugh, founders of the Abbey. The founder, Akar, who died in 1161, and his son Herveius Fitz-Akary, were the first interred there, the latter in 1182. Afterwards followed Henry Fitz-Randolph, who died in 1262; and his daughter-in-law, Albreda, wife of Hugh Fitz-Henry, Lord of Ravenswath, whose neglected tomb may yet be seen in Remaldkirk church. She was buried February 22nd, 1302. Henry Fitz-Henry, grandson of Hugh and Albreda, died in his father's lifetime, 1352, and was buried at the foot of the high altar. His second son, and heir, Henry, who married Joan, daughter of Henry, Lord Scrope of Masham, was likewise buried before the high altar, October 25th, 1386. Henry, Lord Fitzhugh, K.G., his son and successor, aged twenty-three years at his father's death, attended Henry V. in his wars in France, with 66 men at armis, and 209 archers. He is described as tres noble and tres vaillant chivaler," and the very beau ideal of a gallant knight. He visited Jerusalem on pilgrimage, and also Cairo, and fought against the Saracens and Turks. He married Elizabeth Gray, heiress of Marmion of Tanfield, and dying at Ravenswath, January 11th, 1424, was interred with his ancestors at Yorevalle. His lady died in 1427, and was buried there also. It is the mutilated effigy of this illustrious warrior which is 66 (1) “Tabula, non quæ altari superponitur, sed ea quæ solida et figuris exomata ipsi Altari prætenditor. Tabulam quoque unam ex auro et argento, et gemmis electis artificiose constructam. Vitæ Abbs. Sci. Albani." Again, "facta est magna tabula, cujus pars est de metallo, pars de ligno artificiosissime perfecta, quæ est ante majus altare in ecclesia nostra." Ibid. It appears too that these were frequently wrought by the more ingenious monks, or even by ecclesiastics of higher rank; for it is said of a Bishop of Verdun, " Tabulam ex auro purissimo quæ in diebus festis arcta altare ponitur, fabrili opere compegit." See Du Cange in voce Tabula. now seen by the visitor at the eastern extremity of the centre aisle. The interlaced chevronels and chief upon his heater shield-the cross-legged attitude, betokening one who had been in act or vow, a soldier of the crossthe hand sheathing the sword, always indicating a victorious knight, who died in peace-lastly, the fragments, now indeed no longer visible, of the shield of Marmion, the bearings of his heiress-wife,-establish the identity. Others of the House of Ravenswath found here their last resting-place. I have only enumerated some of the principal. "All these memorials" says Whitaker “lead to a painful recollection of what that beautiful church once was, when the successive monuments of this great family (now reduced to a mutilated statue and a mere fragment) appeared in their original splendour. But Jervalx suggests many other topics of regret." (1) When eve's soft dews bathe the roses, And the owlet wanders by, Long its inmates have departed, Up the long aisle spectral gliding, Vested priests and monks appear- (1) Whitaker. Richmondshire. Vol. i. p. 125. Sudden night is round me dark'ning, Dies away the organ's swell, Yet, entranc'd, I still seem heark'ning To the Abbey's vesper bell! The Chapter-house is a fine apartment, 48 feet by 35, originally supported by six marble pillars, three of which remain entire-stone benches run round the sides. Here are seven monumental slabs, including that to the pious John de Kingston, the first Abbot, and builder of Jerveaux, who died in 1150; the letters are as legible as on the day when they were graven, albeit seven centuries have since passed away. Others commemorate William the third; Eustache the fifth; John the eighth; and Peter de Snape, the seventeenth Abbot. The inscriptions are as follows: XTVMBA: JOH'ES: P'MI: ABB'IS: IORVALLIS. TVMBA IOH'IS: OCTABIS: IOREVALL: DE- X TUMBA (PTIS DE SNAHE ( AB BATES\xvij s JOREVALT. This last, which is the only one in old English black letter, has a cross and chalice between a crosier and mitre. Abbot John de Brompton, if buried here, has no memorial but the chronicle he left behind him. "To one who seeks for the plain tomb of the first abbot in the Chapter-house, it may truly be said, as of another great architect in much later times, 'si tumulum quæras, despice; si monumentum, circumspice;' for all this vast pile is a monument of the skill, the perseverance, and the piety of John de Kingston.”(1) (1) Whit. Richmondshire. Vol. i, p. 429. There were in all, twenty-three Abbots of Jorevalle; one, whose name is unknown, lies buried at Ainderby Steeple, whilst the handsome monument of Robert Thornton, the twenty-second, may be seen in the Collegiate Church of Middleham, of which he was Dean. I subjoin Whitaker's corrected list of Abbots, which is, however, still imperfect, as it will be seen four are wanting: 5. EUSTACIUS QUINTUS ABB'AS JOREVALL. 7. SIMON DE MIDGLEY. 8. JOHANNES OCTÆVUS ABB'AS JOREVALL. 9. THOMAS DE GRISELHURST. 10. HUGO. 11. JOHANNES. 12. JOHANNES DE NEWBY. 18. RICARDUS GOWER. 14. THOMAS. 15 and 16. (WANTING.) 17. PETRUS DE SNAPE, ABB'AS DECIMUS SEPTIMUS. 18. (WANTING.) 19. JOHAN BROMPTON, 2DUS. 20. WIL'MUS. 21. WIL'MUS DE HESLINGTON. 22. ROBERTUS THORNTON, ABB'AS VICESSIMUS 2DUS. East of the Chapter-house stand the Abbot's lodgings, and further to the east the great kitchen. In this last are three immense fire-places, the stones of which are yet marked by the action of the flames. How many a poor widow and hungry orphan has blessed the food always prepared for them in that now deserted kitchen in Catholic days. West, is the refectory, a noble room; at its south end we find a small chapel, with a nearly perfect altar. In this chapel an early Mass was probably said daily, for the benefit of those Abbey servants whose occupations obliged them to be abroad before the usual hour of offering the Holy Sacrifice in the church. Various absurd uses have been assigned to this chapel and altar by speculative antiquaries, such for example as that it was for the monks to "hear prayers in, before dinner!!!" and one writer gravely ruminates on the probable haste with which the good fathers would discharge this duty in order to perform a more palatable one. In a house of the magnitude of Yorevalle, there must necessarily have been a considerable number of farm servants and others, although the monks and even the clergy engaged personally in the labours of husbandry. Even St. Thomas, as we find recorded in Gervase's Chronicles, while he filled the See of Canterbury, was accustomed to go into the fields with the monks of the monasteries where he happened to reside, and to join them in reaping their corn, or in making their hay. The monks were, in fact, the great improvers of agriculture in the middle ages. They possessed a large portion of the finest land in the country, and they were careful to have it cultivated to the utmost extent which the knowledge of the times permitted. Peculiar protection was extended also, by canonical law, to those engaged in agriculture. (1) Our modern horticulturists owe a generally unacknowledged debt of gratitude to the monastic orders. "The monks," says a pleasing writer, (2) "after the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, appear to have been the only gardeners. As early as 674, we have a record, describing a pleasant and fruit-bearing close at Ely, then cultivated by Brithnoth, the first Abbot of that place. The ecclesiastics subsequently carried their cultivation of fruits as far as was compatible with the nature of the climate, and the horticultural knowledge of the middle (1) By the 26th canon of the 3rd Council of Lateran (1179) it was decreed "That all presbyters, clerks, monks, converts, pilgrims, and peasants, when they were engaged in the labours of husbandry, together with the cattle in their ploughs, and the seed which they carried into the field, should enjoy perfect security; and that all who molested or interrupted them, if they did not desist when they were admonished, should be excommunicated." (2) Vegetable Substances. Vol. i. p. 215, 216. |