A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



moulded capitals, and bases raised 5 ft. above the 

 chapel floor. The recess thus formed may have 

 originally contained an altar, and it has been 

 suggested that the altar of Our Lady of Pity 

 first stood there and was removed by Langley 

 to its present position,'^ a position probably 

 occupied originally by the principal altar to the 

 Blessed Virgin which Langley placed in front 

 of the great doorway. In the soffit, jambs 

 and back of each of the recesses on either side of 

 the doorway are considerable remains of paint- 

 ing, those in the northern recess being in a fine 

 state of preservation. This painting, which is 

 for the most part contemporary with the build- 

 ing, consists of a band of conventional leaf orna- 

 ment running round the recess at the level of 

 the springing, a larger pattern of similar nature 

 on the soffit, and a panel on the inside face of 

 each jamb ; on the panels on the north and 

 south sides respectively are figures of a king and 

 bishop, probably St. Oswald and St. Cuthbert, 

 in architectural canopies. The colours — green, 

 blue, red and yellow, with dark brown outlines — 

 are still very fresh, and the figures are boldly and 

 effectively drawn in the finest style of 12th- 

 century painting, in round arched niches with 

 masonry towers in spandrels and apex. The 

 back of the recess, below the ornamental band, 

 is occupied by a painted representation of hang- 

 ings, or looped drapery, with borders at top and 

 bottom, but the middle part on which no doubt 

 was the picture of Our Lady ' carryinge our 

 Saviour on her knee, as he was taken from the 

 cross,'' is now completely defaced. This drapery, 

 which is of a pale yellow colour, is probably of 

 later date than the rest of the painting, but is 

 certainly not post-Reformation.* 



The grave of the Venerable Bede,* in front of 

 where his altar stood, is marked by a plain table 

 tomb of blue marble made in 1542, after the 

 shrine had been defaced.* The grave was opened 

 in 1831,' when the coffin and bones were found 

 3 ft. below the floor. The present inscription — 

 ' Hac sunt in fossa Basdas venerabilis ossa ' — 

 was afterwards cut upon the slab.* The words 



* Greenwell, op. cit. 61. An altar was re-erected 

 here in 1927 in memory of Canon Cruickshank. 



^ Rites of Durh. (Surtees Soc), 44. 



* It may date from Langley's time, when our Lady 

 of Pit)''s altar was transferred here. Prof. Hamilton 

 Thompson, however, considers that this picture was 

 later and that it is unlikely there was a dedication to 

 our Lady of Pity before Langley's time, as it 

 represents a late mediaeval devotion popular in the 

 15th century. He does not suppose the dedication of 

 the altar to Bede is earlier than 1370. 



* Bede's remains were removed from near St. Cuth- 

 bert's shrine to the Galilee in 1370. 



* Rites of Durh. (Surtees Soc), Fowler's notes, 235. 

 ' Examined to the level of the pavement in 1830. 



* Slab 8 ft. S in. by 3 ft. 10 in. with moulded edge. 



form the last line of the epitaph written by 

 Cosin and placed over the tomb about 1633, 

 and are derived from the first line of the older 

 inscription recorded in Rites? There is a 

 rectangular aumbry at the south end of the Bede 

 altar recess and a smaller one at the north end of 

 the altar of Our Lady of Pity. A pulley still in 

 the roof over where Bede's shrine stood was 

 probably used for suspending a lamp before his 

 altar. There is another in the same position 

 in front of Our Lady of Pity's altar. 



The side-walls of the chapel are almost wholly 

 restored or modern. The round-headed door- 

 way on the north side, after being long blocked, 

 was opened out in 1841, but the whole wall was 

 rebuilt in 1866, the original design of the door- 

 way being, however, reproduced. The opening 

 is below a gable and deeply recessed — the wall 

 being increased in thickness on both sides — and 

 is of three richly moulded orders, the two outer 

 decorated with cheverons, springing from shafts 

 with volute capitals. The doorway is in the 

 third bay from the east, the others being 

 occupied by windows of two, three, and two 

 lights respectively. Originally, the chapel was 

 lighted by round-headed windows placed high 

 in the walls above the arches of the outer 

 arcades, four on each side, the outlines of which 

 are visible. There were probably windows in 

 the west wall also. The present arrangement 

 dates from the end of the 13th century, when the 

 outside walls were increased in height and win- 

 dows placed on all three sides of the chapel. 

 There are stiU two openings of this date in the 

 west wall, one at each end, the others having 

 been replaced by windows of Langley's time. 

 The two 13th-century windows are of three- 

 pointed lights in a two-centred head with pierced 

 spandrels, and those in the south wall are of the 

 same design. The three 15th-century windows, 

 which are larger, are each of three lights with a 

 transom and have perpendicular tracery in high- 

 shouldered drop-centred heads, the middle 

 window being taller than the others. A few 

 fragments of ancient coloured glass remain in 

 the tracery, including part of a Flight into 

 Egypt and a Virgin and Child.*' 



Below the second window from the north is a 

 small doorway leading to a chamber built out 

 on the outer face of the west wall, on an arch 

 between two of the buttresses added in the 

 15th century by Langley to counteract the visible 

 tendency of the arcades to lean westward. This 

 chamber contains a well,** and south of it, 



• ' Condnet haec theca Baede venerabiUs ossa.' 

 *" This is the only ancient glass remaining in the 



church ; some other fragments are now in the Chapter 



House (q.v.). 



** The well was opened up in 1896. It could be used 



as a draw-well from the Galilee and as a drip-well by 



the townspeople at the bottom of the rock ; it is 



120 



