dry wood with some turf and other combustibles. About
noon (in the cross, in the body of the church, where he remained at his
work until after Mass) he descended before the procession of the
convent, thinking that the fire had been put out by his workmen. They,
however, came down quickly after him, without having completely
extinguished the fire; and the fire among the charcoal revived, and
partly from the heat of the iron, and partly from the sparks of the
charcoal, the fire spread itself to the wood and other combustibles
beneath. After the fire was thus commenced, the lead melted, and the
joists upon the beams ignited; and then the fire increased prodigiously,
and consumed everything.' Hemingburgh concludes by saying that all that
they could get from the culprits was the exclamation, 'Quid potui ego?'
Shortly after this disaster the Prior and convent wrote to Edward II.,
excusing themselves from granting a corrody owing to their great losses
through the burning of the monastery, as well as the destruction of
their property by the Scots. But Guisborough, next to Fountains, was
almost the richest establishment in Yorkshire, and thus in a few years'
time there arose from the Norman foundations a stately church and
convent built in the Early Decorated style.

Glimpses of the inner life of the priory are given in the Archbishop's
registers at York, which show how close and searching were the
visitations by the Archbishop in person or his commissioners, and one of
the documents throws light on the sad necessity for these inspections.
It deals with Archbishop Wickwaine's visit in 1280, and we find that the
canons are censured for many short-comings. They were not to go outside
the cloister after compline (the last service of the day) on the pretext
of visiting guests. They were not to keep expensive schools for rich or
poor, unless with special sanction. They were to turn out of the
infirmary and punish the persons lying there who were only pretending to
be ill, and the really sick were to be more kindly treated. There had
evidently been discrimination in the quality of food served out to
certain persons in the frater; but this was to be stopped, and food of
one kind was to be divided equally. A more strict silence was to be kept
in the cloister, and no one was to refrain from joining in the praises
of God whilst in the choir. There seems to have been much improper
conversation among the canons, for they are specially adjure