This is among the very few churches in the country which retain the
pre-Reformation stone altar, and if the instance at St. Anne's Hospital
is genuine, Ripon thus possesses two examples of this rare feature. The
altar here is 7 feet 7 inches long, 3 feet 5 inches wide, 2 feet 11
inches high, and has no step. Two of the usual five incised crosses (the
larger cross near the middle is probably spurious) may still be traced
upon the slab, the lower edge of which is chamfered off. In the front of
the substructure are two deep recesses. The altar is flanked by two
stone brackets. On the north wall is a third, and in the south wall a
piscina with two-cusped arch and projecting basin.

In front of the altar is a tessellated pavement 11 feet long and nearly
4 feet wide. It is chiefly composed of red and blackish _tesserae_; but
in the centre is a circular medallion containing a large four-petalled
white flower with a red centre and small red flowers between the petals,
all upon a ground of black. It has been supposed that this pavement was
taken from the neighbouring remains of some Roman building. As regards
the central medallion this is probably the case, but the rest of the
pavement seems to be later work, perhaps of the thirteenth century.[129]
At the south end of the pavement is the slab of another and smaller
altar, retaining three of its incised crosses.

It appears from a document of 1306 that the chapel at that date
contained certain 'relics' of St. Mary Magdalene.

Of the mediaeval bridges of Ripon =The North Bridge= alone survives.[130]
It crosses the Ure on nine arches with bold buttresses, triangular in
plan, between them, and is prolonged, with three smaller arches, over
the low meadow which forms the southern shore. It is from this shore
that the best view of it is to be obtained, a few yards down stream. The
arches, some of them recessed, vary in height and span, but all are
round save two, over one of which there is a corbel-table below the
parapet. The other side of the bridge was remodelled some twenty years
ago.

FOOTNOTES:

[122] In the mediaeval records the street is almost invariably called
Annesgate, and indeed was probably named after the hospital. The form
'Agnesgate' is, however, not modern, for it occurs in 1462. It may have
arisen from a trisyllabic pronunciation of 'Annesgate.'

[123] Thus far I am largely indebted to a paper on this hospital by the
Rev. W. C. Lukis, F.S.A. in the twelfth