REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1907 149 



flight of steps roughly cut out of the solid sandstone. On 

 entering, the unique character of the retreat at once presented 

 itself in the modelling of the walls, floor, and 

 Warkworth ceiling from the native rock, conflicting somewhat 

 Hermitage, with Solomon's conception of a place of worship, 

 wherein was "heard neither hammer, nor axe, 

 nor any tool of iron, while it was in building." Through 

 what seems to have been a porch or vestibule in the thickness 

 of the wall, entrance was obtained to an inner door, above 

 which is carved a rude representation of the crucifixion of 

 our Lord. Over a farther door, which leads into the inner 

 chapel, the emblems of the Passion are blazoned on a shield. 

 The chapel, which is divided into three bays, two of which 

 are regularly groined, and the inmost one only diagonally 

 ribbed, measures 18 feet in length, by 7 feet in width and 

 height, and bears traces of later workmanship, the ornament- 

 ation of the various columns indicating steady advancement 

 on the part of the artificer. At its East end the altar stands 

 intact with a niche in the rock immediately above, in all 

 probability for the accommodation of a crucifix. On the same 

 background appears the faint outline in fresco of a head 

 surrounded with an aureole. In a deep recess to the South 

 of it and near a columnar piscina are grouped a number of 

 sculptured figures which constitute the problem of the chapel. 

 These consist of a three-quarter length figure of a man kneeling 

 at the feet of a nimbed female figure reclining with her 

 head towards the East, and separated from him by a well- 

 nigh unrecognisable representation of the head of an ox. 

 On her left is stationed a cherub or child. Facing all these 

 is fixed in the North wall a traceried window of the 14th 

 century, which affords light and air to the inner apartment, 

 as does also the hagioscope further along the wall. Opposite 

 it, though not quite in the centre of the bay, is inserted a 

 flat, arched opening, in which is carved a simple quatrefoil 

 window ; while in the West wall are ranked four irregular 

 slits, which seem to have communicated with a dormitory 

 beyond. The inner chapel is nothing more than a tunnelled 

 chamber, at the East end of which steps lead up apparently 

 to an altar which has been demolished, probably in quest of 

 plunder. On its North wall is m aumbry, and at its Weit 

 V 



