132 EXCAVATIONS ON THE SITE OF DALE ABBEY. 



satisfied ourselves that nothing more was to be learnt, the lid was 

 replaced, and the grave reverently filled up. In digging down it 

 was ascertained that the slab of a Knight, which lay by the effigy, 

 covered a skeleton, but without a coffin. 



Next, as to the double marble slab in the centre of the Chapter 

 House, which was suggested to commemorate a married couple. 

 The Rev. E. Cutts, in his " Sepulchral Slabs and Crosses," p. 22, 

 says of double coffin stones, that " they are generally placed over 

 two successive abbats," and, as Abbots William de Horsley and 

 Roger de Kirketon died in 1353 and 1356 respectively, this slab, 

 doubtless, is their memorial. To ascertain whether it covered two 

 graves, it was removed, and the ground beneath excavated, with 

 this result : A little to the south was a much decayed wooden 

 coffin, containing the remains of a skeleton, but not sufficiently 

 preserved to enable an anatomist to determine the sex. North of 

 this was a perfect stone coffin, without a lid or covering, also con- 

 taining a skeleton. Nothing could be gathered in either case to 

 throw light upon the subject, and the graves were therefore care- 

 fully filled up, and the slab replaced precisely in its original 

 position. The stone coffin was 2 ins. thick, and measured 6 fc. 

 1^ ins. long within, 10^ ins. deep, 2o|- ins. in width at the head, 

 and ioj ins. at the feet. The upper end was hollowed out in the 

 usual manner for the head. To the north of the slab is another 

 interment, also in a wooden coffin, the oak of which is still quite 

 sound. No measurements were taken of this. The large double 

 slab, at the south-west angle, has not been moved : a hole, dug 

 beneath the end, disclosed the bones of a skeleton beneath the 

 dexter half only. As they were not further examined, the question 

 of the sex of the person, denoted by the shears, could not be 

 ascertained. The removal of the earth from the west end of the 

 Chapter House, shewed that the doorway had a double portal, and 

 closely resembled the doorway into the Chapter House of Lich- 

 field Cathedral. Over the Sacristy, Slype, Common House, and 

 two western bays of the Chapter House, was the Dormitory, from 

 which the Canons descended to say the night offices by a stone 

 staircase into the South Transept, as at Torre, Bristol, Hexham, 



