their origin and significance, my obligations to your valuable miscellany will be largely increased.”
There is more description in the paper, and, seeing that the woodwork in question has now disappeared, it has a considerable interest. A paragraph at the end is worth quoting:—
“Some late researches among the Chapter
accounts have shown me that the carving of
the stalls was not, as was very usually
reported, the work of Dutch artists, but was
executed by a native of this city or district
named Austin. The timber was procured
from an oak copse in the vicinity, the property
of the Dean and Chapter, known as Holywood.
Upon a recent visit to the parish within whose
boundaries it is situated, I learned from the
aged and truly respectable incumbent that
traditions still lingered amongst the inhabitants
of the great size and age of the oaks employed
to furnish the materials of the stately structure
which has been, however imperfectly, described
in the above lines. Of one in particular,
