lear. The characters of the inscription Planche pointed out
correspond in form with those at the time of William the Conqueror,
and as sepulchral effigies are uncommon until the middle of the
twelfth century, the presumption is in its favour; still it is
somewhat pathetic to find that the evidence which serves to connect
this otherwise unknown monument with the famous St. Osmund, the
greatest figure, not merely of the cathedral, but of the English
Church of his time, is not absolutely beyond suspicion. Yet even if
the Roman numerals were a later addition, it is hardly credible that
the shrine of so popular a saint could have been wrongly identified.
When Wyatt, according to his usual habit, explored the interior of the
tomb, nothing was found within it.

[Illustration: ALTAR AND TRIPTYCH REREDOS IN THE LADY CHAPEL.
_From a Photograph by Witcomb and Son, Salisbury._]

In 1540 Leland saw here a "ballet," which he transcribes for his
Itinerary, with an inscription commanding the faithful to pray for the
repose of the soul of Richard Poore.

=Monuments in the Transept, Choir and Lady Chapel.=--The most
important on the west wall of the north great transept is a brass (21)
in memory of John Britton, who did so much to revive a taste for
archaeology and ecclesiastical art by his splendid series of monographs
on the cathedrals, and his topographical works. A fine monument of its
class is one by Bacon (22), which represents Moral Philosophy mourning
over a medallion of James Harris, author of "Hermes" and father of the
first Earl of Malmesbury; to whose memory close by is a full-length
portrait figure by Chantrey. A figure (23) of Benevolence lifting the
veil from a bas-relief of the good Samaritan, by Flaxman, commemorates
William Benson Earle, Esq., of the Close, Salisbury. On the north wall
of this transept is a canopied effigy (24) of a bishop said to
represent John Blythe, who died in 1499. It was originally in the
ambulatory of the Lady Chapel, behind the high altar, until Wyatt
removed it to its present site. In this transept is the statue (25) to
Sir Richard Colt Hoare, author of the "Histories of Modern and Ancient
Wiltshire," and other works. It is a seated figure not without
dignity, by R.C. Lucas, a native of Salisbury. A portrait bust to
Richard Jefferies, with a long and eulogistic inscription, is upon a
bracket on the west wall.

Two other monuments by Flaxman deserve notice. That to Walter Long,
Esq.