22 
THE CHARM OF ST. MARY'S ABBEY AND 
Blind, was converted into a residence for the Lords President of 
the North ; and the Royal residence for.Henry VIII. was erected 
to the rear and over the demolished Chapter House, vestibule, 
scriptorium and library, the monks’ dormitory and portion of the 
warming house, the front wall being in about the same position as 
front of the Museum, continuing across the south aisle of the nave 
of the Abbey Church, where, during the excavations made in 1827-8, 
eight of the large figures which adorn the pillars in the Architec¬ 
tural Museum were found, buried face downwards, some 8ft. below 
a mass of fragments of the tracery from the windows of south aisle 
of the Nave. When discovered, many of them were adorned with 
colour and gilded enrichments; very faint traces of this is yet 
noticeable. These figures of 13th century workmanship are worthy 
of attention ; in some instances the drapery is very gracefully 
sculptured and enriched with delicate ornament. The series 
appear to represent the old and the new Law, the figures of Moses 
and St. John the Evangelist being easily recognisable. Two addi¬ 
tional ones, undoubtedly of the same series, were rescued from the 
Church of St. Lawrence, where they rested on the churchyard wall. 
These are engraved in Drake’s k ‘ Eboracum,” and referred to as 
of Roman or Saxon work. It has been conjectured by Well- 
beloved and copied by subsequent writers, these figures adorned 
the Choir, probably supporting the vaulting shafts of the roof. On 
the back of the head of each figure is worked a circular shaft, and 
this probably gave the clue to that inference. It is not improbable, 
although from recent discoveries we can determine with absolute 
certainty, that the shafting was of a trefoil section and not a single 
round. However, as I mentioned previously, it is not improbable 
that these figures stood above the capitals of the Choir pillars, 
and divided the spandrels above the arcade. 
The reputation of the York glass painters was evidently kept up 
at St. Mary’s Abbey. A description of the subjects in 28 of the 
windows was copied by a monk of St. Albans in the 13th or 14th 
century, and preserved in the Heralds’ College, London. They 
are described in Latin verse, and form an interesting series. 
Although many fragments of glass have recently been found, all 
trace of drawing has disappeared. 
It seems to the lay mind however, incomprehensible, why the 
walls which, when cleared of the mounds of earth covering the 
site of the Scriptorium, Monks’ Dormitory and adjoining passages, 
and part of the Warming House, should have been demolished for 
