amage to
their own heads and limbs. From here we get a good view of the grille
which protects Eleanor's effigy, and on sunny mornings the outlines of an
ancient picture can be traced on the stone panel below. The painting was
done by Master Walter of Durham, the same artist who decorated the
Coronation Chair, and represented, it is thought, one of the miracles
attributed to the Virgin. In the eighteenth century a knight, a woman
with a child in her arms, and a sepulchre were still clearly visible.
From this side also one gets a better idea of Henry the Third's tomb in
its original state than from the royal chapel, for the mosaic work has
remained untouched on the upper part, where the arm of the relic hunter
could not reach. We turn from the King's monument to a stone in the
floor which marks the place where a very different sovereign, Pym, the
King of the Commons, lay for a brief while. The coffin was buried under
the brass of a famous warrior, Sir John Windsore, who fought for Henry
IV. at Shrewsbury, a battle familiar to us in Shakespeare's historic
play. The bodies of Pym {107} and of his friend Strode, the "Parliament
driver," were disinterred and ejected with those of the other
Commonwealth magnates after the Restoration. On our right is the Chapel
of St. John the Baptist, called the Abbots' Chapel, for here are buried
four of our mitred abbots, two of whose tombs form the screen. The
original doorway is closed by that of Ruthall, Bishop of Durham, sometime
private secretary to Henry VII.; a wealthy man ruined by his riches,
which drew down upon him the cupidity of Henry VIII. and Wolsey,--not,
however, before Ruthall had spent part of his vast wealth in the public
service by building many bridges, notably one at Newcastle-on-Tyne. The
present entrance was cut through a little chapel, where were once an
altar and an image of St. Erasmus, which were originally given by Queen
Elizabeth Woodville, and removed here when the old Lady Chapel was
destroyed. Next to this is the chapel where Abbot Islip used to lie in
solitary splendour, before the vaults were invaded by other coffins. A
black marble table tomb, with an alabaster figure of the Abbot on the
lower slab, stood formerly in the centre. Above, in the chamber where
prayers were offered for the dead man's soul, are now the wax effigies.
We {108} have referred before to most of these, except to the more modern
ones of Nelson, a particularly attractive rep