The date of the Cavalier's death is 1637, and I think his
statue could not have been sculptured until after the Restoration, else
he and his dame would hardly have come through Cromwell's time unscathed.
Here, as in all the other churches in England, Cromwell is said to have
stabled his horses, and broken the windows, and belabored the old
monuments.
There is one large and beautiful chapel, styled the Lady's Chapel, which
is, indeed, a church by itself, being ninety feet long, and comprising
everything that appertains to a place of worship. Here, too, there are
monuments, and on the floor are many old bricks and tiles, with
inscriptions on them, or Gothic devices, and flat tombstones, with coats
of arms sculptured on them; as, indeed, there are everywhere else, except
in the nave, where the new pavement has obliterated them. After viewing
the choir and the chapels, the young woman led me down into the crypts
below, where the dead persons who are commemorated in the upper regions
were buried. The low ponderous pillars and arches of these crypts are
supposed to be older than the upper portions of the building. They are
about as perfect, I suppose, as when new, but very damp, dreary, and
darksome; and the arches intersect one another so intricately, that, if
the girl had deserted me, I might easily have got lost there. These are
chapels where masses used to be said for the souls of the deceased; and
my guide said that a great many skulls and bones had been dug up here.
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