DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61904#0017
BOLTON PRIORY.
5
which is the burial vault of the Claphams and Maulevers of
Beamfley. This is covered by eight large rough ftones, above
feven feet long, laid fide by fide, and rifing nearly two feet above
the floor. Thefe old fquires and knights are faid to have been
buried upright; and, if we were to believe Wordfworth, you
might (till fee them through the chinks of the floor (landing
grimly in that pofition. But this is at prefent a mere poetical
myth, founded, no doubt, on tradition.—
Pafs, pafs who will yon chantry door,
And through the chink in the fradtured floor
Look down and fee a grifly light,—
A vault where the bodies are buried upright !
There, face by face, and hand by hand,
The Claphams and Maulevers ftand ;
And in his place, among fon and fire,
Is John de Clapham, that fierce efquire,
A valiant man, and a man of dread
In the ruthlefs wars of the White and Red ;
Who dragged Earl Pembroke from Banbury church,
And fmote off his head on the ftones of the porch.
The Tudor fcreen feparating the nave from the tranfept
remains, and alfo the roof of the nave, painted with broad lines
of vermilion, and the beams refting on figures of angels, one of
which (lands on a crefcent moon,—an evident allufion to Prior
Moon. The choir, in the decorated ftyle, retains its fine lofty
windows, and fpecimens of tracery of uncommon beauty. On
the floor are vifible (labs covering the graves of different noble
benefactors and priors. Fragments of four of the fedilia re-
main, and of a pifcina of the early-Englifh ftyle, but greatly
mutilated. On the fouth fide of the choir are two chapels,
which are the refting-places of the lords of Skipton. In one
of them in 1670 was vifible the effigy of the lady Romeli or
Romille, the great patronefs of the houfe. It is fo no longer.
In the old quadrangle (lands a building appropriated as a fchool :
5
which is the burial vault of the Claphams and Maulevers of
Beamfley. This is covered by eight large rough ftones, above
feven feet long, laid fide by fide, and rifing nearly two feet above
the floor. Thefe old fquires and knights are faid to have been
buried upright; and, if we were to believe Wordfworth, you
might (till fee them through the chinks of the floor (landing
grimly in that pofition. But this is at prefent a mere poetical
myth, founded, no doubt, on tradition.—
Pafs, pafs who will yon chantry door,
And through the chink in the fradtured floor
Look down and fee a grifly light,—
A vault where the bodies are buried upright !
There, face by face, and hand by hand,
The Claphams and Maulevers ftand ;
And in his place, among fon and fire,
Is John de Clapham, that fierce efquire,
A valiant man, and a man of dread
In the ruthlefs wars of the White and Red ;
Who dragged Earl Pembroke from Banbury church,
And fmote off his head on the ftones of the porch.
The Tudor fcreen feparating the nave from the tranfept
remains, and alfo the roof of the nave, painted with broad lines
of vermilion, and the beams refting on figures of angels, one of
which (lands on a crefcent moon,—an evident allufion to Prior
Moon. The choir, in the decorated ftyle, retains its fine lofty
windows, and fpecimens of tracery of uncommon beauty. On
the floor are vifible (labs covering the graves of different noble
benefactors and priors. Fragments of four of the fedilia re-
main, and of a pifcina of the early-Englifh ftyle, but greatly
mutilated. On the fouth fide of the choir are two chapels,
which are the refting-places of the lords of Skipton. In one
of them in 1670 was vifible the effigy of the lady Romeli or
Romille, the great patronefs of the houfe. It is fo no longer.
In the old quadrangle (lands a building appropriated as a fchool :