land's time books were apparently kept in the vestry, though it is
not certain that the present vestry is meant.[119] Except a few MSS. of
Chapter Acts, Fabric Rolls, etc., none of the books now here are known
for certain to have belonged to the church before the Reformation;[120]
indeed the present collection began with the bequest of his books by
Dean Higgin in 1624. The books were in this chapel in 1817, but in 1859
they were at the Deanery. There are now over 5000 volumes, including
seven MSS., of which one of the most notable is the Ripon Psalter
(1418), containing the special offices for St. Wilfrid, and many printed
books of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, among them two fine
Caxtons. Many of the books have beautiful old bindings in stamped
leather. The most interesting items in the collection are exposed in a
glass case at the east end of the room.[121] Near the opposite end is
another case containing the bones recently dug up under the site of the
mediaeval altar in the Saxon crypt.

[Illustration: THE OLD CHAPEL OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE'S HOSPITAL.
(From a pen-drawing by the author.)]

FOOTNOTES:

[55] This is what was meant by saying in Chapter II. that in each tower
one side is older than the others.

[56] In the interior of these towers the courses run level with those of
Archbishop Roger's work--a fact which has been taken as indicating that
the lowest portion of the towers internally (but not, of course, the
tower arches) may be actually his work. The theory that his west front
was flanked by towers or chambers of some kind is not improbable.

[57] A triforium is properly a gallery, open to the church, between the
internal and external roofs of the aisles, but here there were no
aisles, and the gallery or passage is in the thickness of the wall.

[58] This term will be used wherever the usual term 'vaulting-shaft' is
inapplicable.

[59] The earth here has apparently been brought in from outside. Can it
have come from some sacred spot abroad? The original floor, if not
earthen, may possibly have rested on the set-off.

[60] It has been suggested, however, that they may be relics of a feast
buried here to defile the site of the altar. The bones in question are
now in the Lady-loft.

[61] With one of the deposits was found a brass bodkin of the type used
in the sixteenth century.

[62] It was Walbran, again, who gave these reasons for assigning the
crypt to Wilfrid. Before his time it