THE ARCHITECTURAL MUSEUM. 
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Tower, 194 yds. ; Record or St. Mary's Tower to the West Tower 
abutting upon the River Ouse, 420 yds. ; from the West Tower to 
Water house Tower on the South, 246 yds. ; from the Water- 
house Tower to Bootham Bar, 420 yds. 
From the MS. Chronicle of St. Mary's Abbey, preserved in the 
Bodleian Library, Oxford, we learn that in 1270 the Norman 
Choir was in a dangerous state, and it was found necessary to 
remove the high altar from the sanctuary, most probably into the 
nave. The Nave, or perhaps only the dangerous portion of the 
apsidal sanctuary and side chapels, would be walled up, and the 
work of demolition would commence. The work was so far ad¬ 
vanced, that on the 9th June, 1271, the foundation stone of the 
new Choir was laid by the great Abbot Simon de Warwick, who, 
seated in his official chair, superbly apparelled, and crozier in hand, 
surrounded by his monks and retinue, the mortar was laid for 
embedding the first stone at a depth of nine feet ; the position 
probably being in the centre of the East end. The new stone for 
the building was the gift of John de Vavasour, being brought from 
a quarry in Thevesdale on Bramham Moor. The stones from the 
demolished Norman Choir were also used in the building of the 
foundations of the new Choir, as may be seen in the fragments of 
the cushioned caps, mouldings with chevron and lozenge, wall 
diapering and string course. Who knows what may be embedded 
in the heart of these walls ? Only a few weeks ago, and quite by 
accident, a very fine fragment of a trifoliated head of window or 
door was discovered embedded face downward in the south wall ; 
an enriched label mould being broken away, but by a singular 
piece of luck fragments of the moulding were discovered a few days 
later, not far distant from the first portion. We are also told that 
the foundation was 24 to 26 feet deep. 
The pit dug out in the N.E. corner showed the foundation at 
that point to be 9ft. deep ; and also an interesting feature showing 
the mason's mistake in setting out the line of the north wall, the 
angle bond stones showing the wall had to be pushed back about 
a foot, thus proving the east wall to have been built first. No 
doubt the early builders met with the same difficulties which 
were experienced during the excavations for the Lecture Theatre, 
the unevenness of the underlying bed of clay on which the found¬ 
ations had to rest, and the presence of water ; and this may account 
for the enormous depth at which the foundations were laid, 24 to 
26 feet ; and I am rather inclined to think that this depth would 
