XXXVI REPORT. 
of past ages when time and talents were ungrudgingly bestowed 
over their work. The exhibition of plate brought together by the 
Society was a very happy idea ; he felt strongly the importance of 
preserving these sacred vessels with the greatest care. The 
amount of real loss in past years from culpable carelessness could 
scarcely be over-estimated. For himself, he made it a rule never 
to consecrate a new church without having a complete inventory 
of everything belonging to it.” 
During the past year there have been ten. meetings of the 
Council, at which a fair proportion of the elected members of 
Council have attended with great regularity, and their deliberations 
have been aided by the same Vice-Presidents, who have always 
displayed so keen an interest in the work of the Society. 
The first expedition of the Society for the past year was held on 
Saturday, June the 2nd, to Steetley Chapel and Welbeck Abbey. 
The party, in number about one hundred and thirty, left Derby, at 
9g a.m., in a special train provided for their use by the Midland 
Railway Company, and travelled, via Ambergate and Pye-Bridge, 
to Whitwell Station, where breaks from Mansfield were in readi- 
ness to drive to Steetley Chapel. Here the party was received by 
the Vicar of Whitwell, the Rev. G. E. Mason, who pointed out 
all the interesting features of this unique specimen of Norman 
architecture, and read the following paper on the “ History of 
Steetley ” :— 
The neighbouring village of Thorpe Salvin is said by some lovers of romance 
to be the celebrated Castle of Front de Boeuf. If that be so, I maintain that 
Steetley Chapel is the ruined shrine where the Black Knight enjoyed the hos- 
pitality of ‘*the holy clerk of Cotmanhurst.” Certainly when ‘‘the gentle 
and joyous passage of arms of Ashby-de-la-Zouch ” took place, this chapel had 
been standing nigh a hundred years. For it was probably built by Gley de 
Breton, when Stephen was on the royal throne of Westminster, and seated 
Roger de Clinton, 33rd successor of S. Chad, on the episcopal throne of 
Coventry. It was the hand of a Clinton that first blest this altar and these 
walls, and now, when seven centuries have rolled away, it is under the noble 
patronage of a Clinton that this altar and these walls have been restored. 
Steetley Chapel, then, is older than Welbeck Abbey. Gley de Breton built it, 
perhaps for his own convenience as a private chapel to stand near his house ; 
and no doubt Parson Hugh or Parson Walter used sometimes to walk down 
