access to the
chantries is obtained.

All these tombs have suffered terrible mutilation at the hands of
fanatics and bigots, but it is surprising to find how much of what was
really fine pierced work, almost as delicate as lace, has survived the
zeal of the destroyers. Close inspection will show that a considerable
amount of repair and refitting has been done in places. It must have
been a task of great difficulty, and involved that "infinite capacity
for taking pains" of which we hear so much but find so seldom; and
considering the date (1825) at which this piece of genuine restoration
was done, more praise must be given to the restorer. Had it not been
undertaken then it might have been done later, and certainly not so
lovingly, and possibly not so well.

=Warwick Chapel.=--This beautiful piece of work [A in the plan] is a
chantry chapel, erected in 1422 by Isabelle le Despenser, to the
memory of her first husband, Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Abergavenny
and Worcester, or, as the chronicle calls him, Ricardus de Bello
Campo. It is situate, as will be seen from the plan, under the
westernmost arch of the north side of the choir. An inscription, which
is only legible here and there, runs round the moulding: "Mementote
dne Isabelle le Despenser, Cometisse de Warrewyk, quae hanc capellam
fundavit in honor[~e] bte Marie Magdalene, et obiit Londiniis apud
Mn[~e]s a[~o] dni MCCCCXXXIX. die Scti Jhis Evngste. Et sepulta est
[~i] choro [~i] dextra patris sui: cuj. a[~m]e ppitietur Deus. Amen"
(_i.e._, "Be mindful of the Lady Isabelle Despenser, Countess of
Warwick, who founded this chapel to the honour of St. Mary Magdalen,
and died in London in the Minories, A.D. 1439, on St. John the
Evangelist's Day. And was buried in the choir on the right hand of her
father. On whose soul may God have pity. Amen").

The chapel was dedicated in the names of St. Mary Magdalen, St.
Barbara, and St. Leonard just two years after Richard Beauchamp had
died.

This Richard Beauchamp, after whom in truth the chapel should be
called, had shown his bravery at Agincourt in 1415, and in 1420 been
made Earl of Worcester. He was slain at the siege of Meaux, in France,
in 1421. In Dyde's "History of Tewkesbury" it is spoken of as "Mary
Magdalen's Chapel, now commonly called 'Spenser's Chapel." It may have
been designed to surpass in glory the chantries previously existing in
the building, and if so, the Countess, who was only twenty-one years
of ag