Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/248

-ZVZ TJIE SHKINE OF ST. ALBAN. to have belonged to the sluiue. niul Avere carerully ]Mescrvo(l, ill the hope that more wouhl be forthcoiiiing. They now prove to be a large part of the moulded plinth and of the side ]>anels of the niches, and a short length of the beautiful carved cornice. Nothing more was found until Februar}' in the present year, ^vhen, ^Sir Gilbert Scott having ordered the removal of a nodern wall-casing in the south aisle, there was discovered behind it a great number of fragments of chalk, elaborately worived and painted. These Avere carefully sorted out from the rubbish with which they were mixed, and in a short time Mr. Chap[»ie, the clerk of the works, re])orted that he liad '* discovered the shrine." This unfortunately happened at a time when, from a cause in which all must sympathise with him, Sir Gilbert Scott was unable personally to attend to the matter, and so it fell to my lot to represent him then, and now to write this account, of which no one can feel more than myself how inferior it is to what it would have been had it come from his pen. On going over to St. Albans, I found that there could be no doubt as to the newly found fragments belonging to the shrine. 'Mv. Jackson, the foreman of the works, who deserves to be named as one of the chief agents in the rccoveiy of the shrine, had, with infmitc patience, fitted together the .shatteie<l ])icces — nearly two hundred in number — and had made out the forms of the ten niches ; lie had, in fact, obtained the j^lan of the upper })art of the monument, thereby rendering the working out of the rest of the design, as the pieces came to hand, a comi)ara- tively ea.sy matter. In spite of the dilferenco of material, it appeared, on comparing them, that the new IVagments and Dr. Nicholson's belonged to the same wori<, and more were seen to 1h> l>uilt in the walls blocking uj) the two southern- most (jf the five arches. We began to cut some of these out, but in ib^iiig so c.|>o.seil others to view, and, therefore, stojtpetl until we could obtain leave to jmll down the whole walls. This being granted, we ojx'ued out tlx" northern of these two arches. The upper half contained nothing of value, but the lower proved extremely rich ; from it wo obtained almost the wlioU; of the b.a.sement of the shrine, and the* greater part of iho next stage up to the sj)ringing line of the arclie>,, .-md also some of the (•oi-iiie( The arch