Richard Poore, 121 7— 1229. 



249 



One event however was destined to throw a cloud over the joy 

 with which Richard Poore saw the great desire of his heart so far 

 Accomplished. Within a few days of the royal visit, of which we 

 have just spoken, there came another distinguished visitor. For on 

 the Sunday next after the Epiphany (January 10th, 1226) William 

 LongespeCj Earl of Sarum, the husband of the good Ela, the found- 

 ress in one and the same day of the abbeys of Lacock and H in ton 

 Charterhouse, himself a truly great and worthy man, having returned 

 from Gascony — where he had been residing with Richard, the King's 

 brother, for the defence of the city of Bordeaux — visited the cathe- 

 dral. He was received there with great joy, a large procession at- 

 tending him both on his arrival and his departure. Two months 

 afterwards he died very suddenly, not without suspicion of treachery 

 on the part of Hubert de Burgh the Justiciary. He was the first 

 that found his last resting-place within the new cathedral, having 

 been honorably interred there, in the presence of many Bishops, 

 Earls, and others, on March 8th, 1226. The epitaph placed over 

 him was as follows : — 



" Flos comitum Gulielmus abit, stirps regia ; longus 

 Ensis vaginam cepit habere brevem." * 



A few months after this, on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, 1226, 

 Bishop Richard Poore removed the bodies of three of his predecessors 

 — of Osmund, Roger, and Joceline — from the precincts of the castle, 

 in which they had been buried, to the new fabric. It is believed that 

 their memorials can still be identified. That of S. Osmund is a large 

 flat stone with the simple date MXCIX inscribed upon it, just now 



twenty-five years (p. 238), has been supposed by some to have been the architect 

 of the cathedral ; and also, though on what grounds the statement is made we 

 are not told, that he built the canonical house in the Close called " Ledenhall." 

 Thus much is certain, that Elias de Derham accompanied Bishop Richard Poore 

 to Durham ; and any one familiar with our cathedral must at once be impressed 

 with the striking similarity of the chapel of the "Nine Altars " at the east end 

 of Durham, to many portions of Salisbury. That addition was certainly in 

 progress, if not quite completed, during the time that Richard Poore held the 

 see of Durham. 



* This epitaph has been Englished thus :— 



" Long-sword, his feats of warlike prowess past, 

 Finds a short scabbard long enough at last." 



