At the foot of the stalls, a narrow rectilinear filleting of
the same material had bounded the whole. On some was inscribed the word
MARIE, in Longobardic characters.
"This pavement had been deeply bedded in mortar, but was altogether
displaced, and turned down from one to three feet beneath the surface,
where several skeletons were found very entire, and in their original
position, but without any remains of coffins, vestments, or other
ornaments, as appeared upon a most minute investigation. These, however,
were, beyond a doubt, the Abbots of Whalley. From the confused state of
the original pavement, the whole floor of the presbytery, from the foot
of the stalls, appeared to have been successively covered with
grave-stones, all of which, however, had been removed, excepting
fragments of two: one of these had a groove, once inlaid with a
filleting of brass, and the other, beneath which lay the skeleton of a
tall and robust man, had deeply cut upon it the stump of a tree reguled.
This I conjecture to have been a thorn, intended as a rebus upon the
name of Christopher Thornber, the fifteenth abbot, who died in 1486.
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