The human mind accords with momentous truths, though they are fad, and feeffi 5 
to rife indignity, as folemn reflection detaches it from the world. This fate oft ,ie 
human kind, which we deplore, leaves not the mind in irremediable deje£tion.-"^ n 
thefe mournful fhades, where the alhes of the pious fathers are repofed, the mouldering 
lines ftill. impart how far they had their confolation in retirement and in piety ; ar * 
tell, that “ Thefe are the only permanent fprings of joy, as the fafhion of this wot 
“ pafleth away. 
“ Decaying monuments of faints and heroes are the clouds of other times ; 
£c give a tranfient folemnity to the resolledtion of paft ages. The thought oi taC 
courts having often echoed with the glad Te Deums of thoufands, who, along 
with 
— o* v r 
“ their temple, are now mouldering into duft, deepens the veneration which- tn 
<c hallowed walls infpire 
The whole floor of the Abbey is crouded with tomb -{tones of various a 3 e 'j. 
many of them, in all probability, nearly coeval with itfelf. The molt ancient 
thefe, from feveral particulars of their form and conftruction, appear to have been 
lids of ftone coffins; on each is a large crofs, ornamented with various flowering 
and fymbols, fwords, animals, and other emblems, of which the import is not etdw 
defined. As there is not along with thefe any veltiges of letters, it is a tacit ackno' v 
ledgment, that writing was little pradtifed at the time when thefe monuments werS 
carved ; for, as many of them mull have been cut under the eye, and by the dir eC ^ 
tion of the clergy, and the Monasteries being in this country the firft fe ats ^ 
learning, they certainly would have ordered .fome written infcription along with r 
fymbols, had alphabetical writing been at that time generally underftood. 
The earlieft infcriptions are in Saxon charadlers, dated in the end of the fourteen ^ 
and beginning of the fifteenth centuries : and are round the margin, commonly ff ^ 
figure in bas-relief, fuppofed to refemble die deceafed. Thefe are alfo lids of 0 . 
coffins, taken up from the vaults of the Abbey, and are both defigned and fculp tur ^ _ 
in a ftyle which fhews that they were no mean artifts who had been employed on £ h e 
but thole more ancient ones on which the Cross is fo varioufiy figured, as the p rin ^ 
pal among many fymbols, become a very interefting and curious fubjedt of refle^ 1 - 1 ^ 
Before alphabetical writing was pradtifed, we muft fuppofe every fculptured fy iT1 
have had important allufions ; and they were generally of very {acred origin, as the ^ 
venerated memorials of thofe intellectual truths, which have ever been, at death; 
moft interefting concern of human life. 
Some fpecimens of thefe, with an attempt to difeover the channels by which 
original defign may be decyphered, their import recognized, and their derivation ^ 
primaeval archetypes traced — offering fome lources of contemplation not unavaifft; 
the pleafures of reflection, while ftriving to penetrate the myfteries of remote an tiff 11 ^ 
are annexed in the Effay accompanying the Plate of Ancient Monuments 
Number. 
* Antiquities and Scenery. Let. XI. to Mr. Pennant . 
