thus--PIO EPISCOPO FRIDESTANO. The
translation of this inscription is to the effect that Aelfled commanded
the stole to be made for the pious Bishop Frithestan. The maniple is of
a similar character, and also bears ornament, figures, and
inscriptions.[4] Frithestan was made Bishop of Winchester in 905.
Aelfled, who was Queen of Eadward, the son and successor of Alfred, died
in 916. It was therefore during these ten years that she caused this
stole and maniple to be made for the Bishop Frithestan. It is recorded
that the son and successor of Eadward, by name Athelstan, when on a
journey in the north visited Chester-le-Street and the shrine of S.
Cuthbert, which was then at that place. Among other presents he left as
offerings a stole and maniple, and a girdle and two bracelets of gold.
It is a curious fact that a girdle and two gold bracelets were found
along with the stole and maniple in the grave, in 1827, and leaves very
little doubt that they are the ones mentioned above. The bones of the
saint were quite intact, and none were missing. They were, with the
other relics, placed in a new coffin, and the grave re-covered. Some
portions of the inner coffin, with the stole, two maniples, the girdle
and bracelets and fragments of the robes are now carefully preserved in
the Dean and Chapter Library. A large gold cross found among the robes,
decorated with garnets, and of workmanship of the time of S. Cuthbert is
also preserved in the library. These discoveries seem to speak for
themselves, and to leave very little room for doubt that the body
exhumed and examined in 1827 was really that of the patron saint of the
church.

[4] Photographs, coloured by the late J.I. Williamson, are
exhibited in the South Kensington Museum.

There were also found in the grave bones of infants, supposed to be
relics of the Holy Innocents, and a skull, most probably that of S.
Oswald, which was known to have been placed in the coffin of S.
Cuthbert.

Two smooth grooves may be observed on the platform, which are _said_ to
have been worn into the stone by the knees or feet of generations of
pilgrims visiting the shrine.

There are several other tombs and monuments in this chapel, chiefly wall
tablets of not exceptional interest. At the north end, however, is a
colossal statue of the last of the prince bishops, Bishop van Mildert,
who died in 1836. The monument is of white marble, the figure seated on
a throne and holding a book. It wa