Notices of St. Leonard* Hospital. By G. Skelly. 527 



and fitting person to the charge and revenues of the church of 

 St. Dunstan, in the west of London.* 



After the fourteenth ceutuiy, the page of history becomes 

 silent concerning the Chapel and Hospital of Eustace de Yescy; 

 and it is not improbable that it would be about this time when 

 the whole of the buildings would be allowed to become a ruin, 

 and this conjecture is the more feasible, when we consider that 

 no mention is made of it during the troubled times that preceded 

 the Reformation. 



For many years the precise site of the Chapel and Hospital 

 was not known. In the early part of this century they are 

 described as lying between the Abbey and Denwick; but in the 

 summer of 1845, all doubt upon this point was set at rest. In 

 this year the field, which had evidently been long laid down to 

 grass, was torn out ; and then was exposed a large quantity of 

 loose stones, graves, ornaments, etc. There was also found 

 under the turf, a fine ancient stone coffin, which contained the 

 skeleton form of a man, but which suddenly crumbled into dust 

 on being exposed to the air. 



Judging from the foundations that have been exposed, it may 

 safely be assumed that the whole of the buildings, which formed 

 a sort of quadrangle, was not large. On the north side was the 

 Chapel, and to the south of this was the Hospital ; whilst the 

 west part of the square was formed by a series of buildings, 

 which would be devoted to the use of patients, domestics, etc. 

 But perhaps the most notable of the discoveries was that of a 

 well which lay on the north side of the Chapel, and which is 

 undoubtedly " Malcolm's Well," and where, according to the 

 Chronicles of the Abbey, the wounded Monarch endeavoured to 

 quench his dying thirst. 



The Chapel, although small, would contain a fair amount of 

 good masonry, and this is fully borne out by the picturesque 

 ruin which was erected out of the remains in 1854, at the expense 

 of Algernon, Duke of Northumberland, and under the surveil- 

 lance of Mr F. R. Wilson. This ancient structure only 

 measured 37 feet in length. The length of nave was 22 feet, 

 and the breadth 27 feet ; whilst the length of the chancel was 

 1 5 feet, and the breadth 1 6 feet. At the west end of the Chapel 

 was a small apartment, which would be used by the officiating 



* Tate's Hist, of Ahiwiok, vol. n., p. 11. 



