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Johnson of Pontefract visited the place before it was despoiled, 
and he describes the walls as being hung with banners and 
escutcheons, and the windows beautiful to behold. His narrative 
reminds us of the words of a poet who in describing the interior 
of an ancient Abbey Church, says 
Where windows catch the holy light 
On priestly heads that falls 
And stains the florid tracery 
Of banner-dighted walls. 
Wordsworth has a very happy illustration of the present 
beauty of the nave, when compared with the ruined choir. 
And in the sheltered fabric’s heart 
Remaineth one protected part 
A chapel, like a wild-bird’s nest 
Closely embowered and trimly drest. 
We will now enter the choir of the Abbey Church, which is 
in ruins. The first thing arresting our attention is the large 
east window which must in former times have been one of the 
most splendid church windows in the kingdom. Byron’s lines 
are as beautiful and appropriate asif they had been written on 
the spot. 
A mighty window hollow in the centre 
Shorn of its glass, of thousand colourings, 
Through which the deepened glories once could enter 
Streaming from off the sun, like seraph’s wing 
Now yawns all desolate; now loud, now fainter 
The gale sweeps through its fretwork, and oft sings 
The owl his anthem, where the silenced quire 
Lie with their hallelujahs quenched in fire. 
In the arched recess in the wall of the choir was found a 
skeleton and a part of a filleting of brass, with the letters 
N. E. V. I.—supposed to belong to Lady Margaret Neville. There 
is near this place part of a marble slab which is believed to be a 
portion of the tomb of John Lord Clifford, who was slain in 
battle in France in the tenth year of the reign of Henry V. 
We can easily trace the remains of the High Altar, and not 
far from its steps was found a marble slab underneath which 
was found a perfect skeleton. Under this was also found a 
corroded leaden coffin containing another skeleton of a female, 
the head being completely covered with auburn hair. The 
earved arches on the south side of the altar are the Sedilia or 
seats for the priest, the deacon, and sub-deacon, during certain 
parts of the mass. Whitaker says that the carving of these 
seats is almost equal to statuary. On the opposite wall a little 
further from the high altar are two ranges of beautiful arches 
which are the back of the stalls of the choir. There are two 
transepts, north and south, each of which has been richly 
decorated. But as we look at these decorations we see that 
