220 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. - 
building was designed with one. While in other places the architect 
. strove to give dignity and importance to the east end, by raising the 
chancel and making the altar conspicuous, in Devonshire he kept 
both low, frequently on a level with the nave, and generally but 
one step above it, but expended all the taste and skill of which he 
was possessed upon the chancel screen and the parcloses. Until St. 
Andrew’s again possesses a screen in the place of the one so bar- 
barously destroyed in 1826, it cannot be considered as properly 
restored. 7 
Before going further, I have to refer to two or three matters 
which connect the Church with the earlier building. During the 
destruction in 1825-26 several coins were found within the church; 
one of these was of the date of Edward I. 
In October, 1841, while making preparation for the new reredos, 
and for vaults, a small crypt was discovered below the altar, the 
entrance to which was on the north side in the floor. It was about 
19 feet long, 94 feet broad, and 7 feet high. There must have been 
about twelve or thirteen steps from the floor of the church to the 
floor of the crypt, but the greater part of them were gone. At the 
bottom of the steps a wall had been built up to prevent further 
access. The interior was filled with human bones, which, it is 
conjectured, were collected and placed there in 1826. On the 
east was a grating to give light, which had been blocked up; the 
opening had formerly an elliptic arch on the outside, on the inside 
the wall was supported by a lintel. In the north wall, 2 feet 6 
inches above the floor, was a niche, 1 foot 8 inches broad, by 1 
foot 2 inches deep, and 2 feet high. In the west wall were two 
other niches, one, the northernmost, was about the same size as that 
in the north wall, but 3 feet from the floor; the other, 3 feet 2 
inches from the floor, and about the same size, but of a rather 
different shape. These two niches have the appearance of Early 
English work, but I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the detail. 
The illustration is copied from a sketch made at the time of the dis- 
covery. The crypt was entirely destroyed in making vaults in its 
neighbourhood. It is impossible, without information which is 
not attainable now, to speak with certainty as to this most inter- 
esting little chamber. It seems to indicate a structure of very 
much greater antiquity than anything else we have in the Church. 
In all probability it was either the treasury of the Church or a 
place for depositing relics. As far as I can make out there is some- 
