B i s h o p r i c k J
C o n v e n t ..
Egfrid zsdower on his queen, Ethelreda. Wilfrid* E L
5 ’ obtalned from the king a grant of i t and here prevailed ,
nd him to found a biihoprick, which faw but feven prelates beii
overthrown in the Dani/b wars, about the year 821. But the mat!
licence of the church and monaftery, founded here in 674,
frtd, is. fppken of m the higheft terms by antient writers. They d
febrate the variety of the buildings, the columns, the ornament!
carvings, the oratories, and the cryp ts ; they alfo relate the pains f
was at to obtain artifts of the greateft fkill from different pal
both at home and abroad. They mention the richnefs of cove*
for the altars, the gilding of the walls with gold and filvl
and the noble library, collected with amazing induftry; in ft*
words, fay they, there was not fuch. a church to be found J
this fide of the Alps. As this place fuffered greatly by the bal
bamy of the Danes, there is no- veftige of the antient churcl
The prefent building, which,, when- entire, was large and beal
tdul, is probably- the work of Thomas the fecond, arehbiihop J
Tork to which fee it had been given by Henry I. The prelatl
uck with the defolation of the place, eftabliihed here, in ml
a convent of canons regular of Auguftines. The architefture is
mixed; has much Gothic, and a little Saxon-, and in one parf
the narrow iharp. arched windows all which began to be in uij
about that reign. The tower is large, and in the centre ¡ J
church having been in.- form of a
O 7 ■*“ viiVA J !
Greek crofs ; but the well en
E d it V ita A Wilfridi, in Gale’s Colleflion, I ir . 62. See more in that mag
ni cent an accurate work, the Hiftory o f E l y , p. 2 1, 22, by the Rev. Mr
B b n th am , to Whom we are firit indebted for this notice from S iO tr io iS »
ham s account o f i t .