ing friends to assist them, were never afterwards enabled to return.

In 1788 a commission was obtained by the master for pulling the buildings down, which was soon after accomplished, leaving only the naked pillars and arches. These have long since disappeared, and nothing now remains to mark the spot on which this charitable asylum stood; the only part, indeed, existing, to be recognised elsewhere, is the bold and well designed Saxon portal forming the entrance to the Roman Catholic chapel in St. Peter's Street. This was the western doorway of the venerable chapel, and removed piecemeal on its destruction in 1792.

The buildings originally consisted of a good residence for the master, and a separate house for each of the inmates. The chapel stood on the south of these, 77 feet long and 36 feet wide, with three aisles, the roof supported by five columns on each side. Here Dr. Ebden, a former

master and benefactor, was buried in 1614, aged 98, and a brass plate fixed in the south wall of the chancel, with the following inscription to his memory:

Corpus Johannis Ebden, sacræ Theologiæ Professoris pii, ecclesiæ cathedralis Winton. prebendarii docti, hujus Hospitii Magistri reverendi : qui inter alia dona in alios charitatis usus collata £200 in augmentationem stipendiorum ibidem liberē dedit; hoc tegitur tumulo. Obiit 16 Novembris 1614, ætatis suæ 98." Several acres of land, principally in gardens, were attached, and with a burial ground, surrounded by a wall. Without the wall were 16 acres more land, and pasturage for 126 sheep.

The present state of this once flourishing society is, the Bishop of Winchester appoints the master, usually the incumbent of one of the churches of the city, who nominates eight poor persons to share with him the small remaining funds. B.

MR. URBAN,

York, Aug. 26. THE sculptured stones which have given Mr. Robert Stothard the subjects of the sketches in the accompanying Plate are two in number. From one of them the female figure is taken, and the two smaller drawings from the other. They are portions of the shafts of oval clustered pillars, measuring 12 inches in the longer, and 6 inches in the shorter, diameter. On each of the narrower faces of the pillar is a niche containing a statue, ten inches high, standing under a canopy, with the feet resting on a bracket or pedestal. The canopy consists of an ogee arch terminating in corbeille heads, with pediment and finial, all richly decorated, and most elaborately and delicately carved. The back of the niche and the soffit of the canopy show traces of a reddish colour, and the hair of the female statue appears to have been gilded; and I believe that the drapery, and other parts of the figures, when they were first discovered, presented some remains of colour, of which they now

retain but little. All the four niches have been alike in form and decoration. The female figure, which is the most perfect of the statues, apparently represents Saint Margaret standing on the dragon; but her crosier, with her left hand and the head of the monster, are broken. The canopy above her head, except the corbeilles, is also entirely gone. The statue in the niche on the opposite side of the same stone is not included in Mr. Stothard's plate. It is headless, and otherwise much damaged; but the right hand, which grasps two arrows, is unin jured. From this symbol it is probable that the saint represented was Saint Edmund the King.

The canopies, and other decorations of the niches on the second stone, are entire, and in good preservation, though the statues are mutilated. That is the least damaged which represents St. Cuthbert holding in his hand the head of King Oswald. The other is too imperfect to allow me to offer any conjecture as to its meaning.

Accompanying these two stones is