And now the guide led us into the vestry, where there was a good fire
burning in the grate, and it really thawed my heart, which was congealed
with the dismal chill of the cathedral. Here we saw a good many curious
things,--for instance, two wooden figures in knightly armor, which had
stood sentinels beside the ancient clock before it was replaced by a
modern one; and, opening a closet, the guide produced an old iron helmet,
which had been found in a tomb where a knight had been buried in his
armor; and three gold rings and one brass one, taken out of the graves,
and off the finger-bones of mediaeval archbishops,--one of them with a
ruby set in it; and two silver-gilt chalices, also treasures of the
tombs; and a wooden head, carved in human likeness, and painted to the
life, likewise taken from a grave where an archbishop was supposed to
have been buried. They found no veritable skull nor bones, but only this
block-head, as if Death had betrayed the secret of what the poor prelate
really was. We saw, too, a canopy of cloth, wrought with gold threads,
which had been borne over the head of King James I., when he came to
York, on his way to receive the English Crown. There were also some old
brass dishes, In which pence used to be collected in monkish times. Over
the door of this vestry were hung two banners of a Yorkshire regiment,
tattered in the Peninsular wars, and inscribed with the names of the
battles through which they had been borne triumphantly; and Waterloo was
among them.
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