H. F. HAILES ON SOME SUPPOSED HUMAN SKIN. 11 



The approach to the Treasury from the north side was walled 

 off, and the Treasury thus reduced in size. Inside and outside of 

 the door by which this passage is entered is nailed the skin of a 

 man. The door of the Sacristy, in the south transept of the Abbey, has 

 also been decorated in a similar manner. 



The more valuable part of the treasures was thenceforward kept 

 elsewhere, and the " Pyx Chapel " was used only to keep the 

 Regalia, relics, some records, and the " Pyx," or box containing 

 the dies of the coin of the realm. The Regalia have since been 

 removed to the Tower, the relics were probably destroyed at the 

 Reformation, and the chamber is now used, I believe, only for the 

 " Pyx," and for the standard weights and measures. It is guarded 

 with great care, and only opened once in five years, as before said, 

 by the Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the 

 Comptroller of the Exchequer, for the time being, with much 

 ceremony. 



The fragments of skin exhibited are from the door leading to 

 the " Pyx Chapel." They clearly show the roots of hairs ; cer- 

 tainly more resembling those of the human body than they do any 

 other animal that I know of, but they do not appear to me to be 

 those of a " fair-haired man," as asserted by Dean Stanley. This, 

 however, would rather tend to bear out his theory, that these skins 

 are not those of sacrilegious Danes as is generally supposed, but 

 are more probably the skins of those concerned in the robbery. 

 We are not informed what was the fate of Richard de Podlicote and 

 his accomplices, but it seems probable that they were executed, and 

 that the sacrist's skin was displayed upon his own door, whilst the 

 other two may have served to line the inside and outside of the 

 door leading to the Pyx chamber. 



