38 
been better to have adopted the Gothic for the Museum ? But 
his answer to a suggestion of the Building Committee will^ 
I think, approve itself to the taste of those who are not 
influenced by a first impression: You have such Gothic at 
York, that any design in the same style must appear trifling.” 
The front is an imposing example of the pure Doric architec¬ 
ture, which, by its very simplicit}^, affords an instructive con¬ 
trast to the elaborate ornament of the mediaeval remains near 
which it stands. 
The Manor Shore, when that portion of it to wdiich the 
Boyal Grant extended came into the Society’s possession, was 
in a most forlorn and desolate condition. It w^as occupied as a 
pasture; a haystack usually hid a part of the walls of the nave 
from view; cowsheds and pigsties had obtruded themselves into 
the area of the church, and, if I recollect rightly, the Hospi- 
tium was a carpenter’s w’^ood warehouse. No antiquary, how¬ 
ever, could pass over it without feeling a conviction that its 
uneven surface covered many remains of the ancient Bene¬ 
dictine Abbey of St. Mary’s, and forming the wish, that by some 
fortunate event its site might be uncovered and receive the 
same illustration which Whalley and Jervaulx had obtained. 
This wish was realized in the possession of the land by the 
Yorkshire Philosophical Society, and the erection of its 
Museum. The excavations necessary for laying the founda¬ 
tions disclosed the fact, that an important part of the old 
monastic buildings had once stood there; curiosity was 
awakened, and a subscription was entered into for extending 
the excavations over the whole surface of the ground included 
in the grant from the Crown. I w^ell remember how earnestly 
these excavations were watched, as by degrees the wdiole plan 
of the dependent buildings was developed. In constructing 
the gardens of the royal palace, terraces had been formed by 
laying down huge heaps of rubbish, beneath which very curious 
remains w^ere buried. One of these filled up the space between 
the S. Transept of the Church and the Museum, wdiere now 
Ave see the vestibule to the original Chapter House. On opening 
the ground, only the tops of the columns were visible, and as 
they gradually became detached, many Avere the speculations of 
