manner, except the bases of two of them, which were cunningly turned into small square lights for the lower floor of the chapel thus divided. The two small ogee-headed single lights, so curiously below the level of the other windows, were also left to light the lower part of the building; while a new square mullioned opening was made on the same line as an existing double ogee-headed window, to furnish more light for the upper part.9

The story of Chibburn, then, is thus told by its stones. The hospital, situated a seven-miles' stage from Warkworth, on the road between Holy Island and Durham-a welcome sight, no doubt, to many a weary pilgrim-was in decay when the dwelling-house, now standing, was erected. But the remains of the chapel were in such preservation as permitted additional accommodation to be obtained by throwing a floor across it, and converting both stories into chambers. A fire-place above stairs, and another below stairs, were inserted for the convenience of this arrangement; and the original windows, now inconveniently situated, with regard to height, for both stories, were filled up for the sake of strength and snugness, and others made in more suitable positions.

The present state and prospects of the buildings are most lamentable, and needful of this learned Society's attention. A few years ago, they were used as a kind of farmstead; which occupancy, rough as it was, afforded some protection. But now, the farm buildings are removed to a great distance, and the sole occupant of the dwelling-house is a herd. The chapel, dismantled of its oak for the benefit of the new farm buildings, is floorless, roofless, and uncared for-save by the bats, jackdaws, and starlings. The ancient roads are obliterated; and there is every reason to fear that this quaint old place, which should be sacred to the memory of the Hospitallers, and subsequently to that of the dowager ladies of the house of Widdrington, who made it their pleasant home in Elizabethan times, will as completely disappear to meet the exigencies of additional cow-byre requirements. [Mr. Wilson adds the following note.—“Five months after the above paper was read, I again visited Chibburn; when I found that the projecting masonry over the corbels which marked the height of the upper windows of the dwelling house,

9 Have the various ogee-headed lights been abstracted from the principal windows? 66 Immediately over the arch of the south doorway are two escutcheons.-Traces of a cross patée, doubtless for the Knights of St. John, may be seen on one, and a quarterly coat on the other. It is not improbable that this may have been the coat of Widdrington, an ancient family in the neighbourhood. In Willement's Roll, temp. Ric. II., we find Monsr. Gerrard de Wythryngton bearing Quarterly, argent and gules, a bendlet sable. Considering the perished state of the escutcheon, the bendlet may very likely have disappeared." (Woodman.)

"The piscina remains in the south-east angle. There remains in the chapel a corbel or truss rudely carved in oak, which may have been intended to represent the mitred head of a bishop, or possibly an angel, with a fillet round the forehead ornamented in front with a cross. [St. Gabriel?] Of the roof, now wholly fallen, a few strong oak rafters remained in 1853, supporting thatch. The original roof may have been of higher pitch. Human bones have been occasionally found, and a grave-slab with a cross flory now forms the threshold of the door leading from the courtyard into a stable. In one of the windows the upper portion of a stone coffin may be seen, placed in a cavity in the wall." (Ibid.)