bytery was apsidal or square; and whether his
church had aisles or not.[70]

[Illustration: CONJECTURAL PLAN OF THE CRYPT AND PRESBYTERY IN THE
TIME OF WILFRID, BY MR. J. T. MICKLETHWAITE, V.P.S.A.
(By permission of the Archaeological Institute.)]

There remains the question whether this crypt was or was not under the
church of the monastery. In Leland's description of Ripon,[71] "the Old
Abbay of Ripon" is certainly represented as having stood on the site
which in Leland's time was occupied by the Lady-kirk, adjacent, that is,
to the west side of the street now called St. Mary-gate;[72] and it has
been argued with great ability[73] (on the supposition that "the Old
Abbay" means the Saxon Monastery) that this crypt, though almost
certainly Wilfrid's, was under a second church outside the monastery
wall.[74] It is, however, still possible to suppose that the site in St.
Mary-gate may have been that of the domestic buildings only, and that
the monastery church stood over this crypt; or that "the Old Abbay"
means the Scottish Monastery, the site of which was also probably not
far from St. Mary-gate and may have been confused by Leland with that
afterwards occupied by the Lady-kirk. Nor in any case, perhaps, are the
mere statements of Leland a sufficient foundation for the argument that
has been constructed upon them. Indeed, an elaborate _confessio_ like
this would hardly have been made for any church other than that of the
monastery.

And if, after all, Wilfrid's monastery church stood above this crypt,
there arises a very interesting probability in connection with that part
of the south passage which extends 15 feet westward from the doorway
opening into the central chamber, namely that it was the original
burial-place of Wilfrid himself, whom Bede declares to have been laid
_juxta altare ad austrum_.[75]

The position of the crypt suggests the history of the ground plan of the
Cathedral. After the destruction of Wilfrid's Church, the site of his
nave became that of the choir, and a nave was added westwards. Thus it
came about that the crypt is now in the centre of the building. The
central line or axis of the church in all stages of its history has
probably always passed over this crypt.

=The Aisles of the Nave.=--As no aisles were contemplated when the west
towers were built, the east side of the latter shows, of course, the
same external decoration as the other sides. At the back of the
surviving portio