Between these two windows has been made a new Canopy of Roche Abbey stone to receive the altar-tomb, which, before it was narrowed and removed to its present recess, stood over the remains of the late Walter Stanhope who died in 1821. An engraving of it is given in Hunter's Deanery, Vol. II., p. 237, as being "designed by Mr. Atkinson after the model of the tombs, of the early Tudor reigns." The word "altar-tomb" historically reminds us of the early Christians' persecutions, when the Catacombs of Rome were the only places where they could hold their religious services with comparative safety, and where the stone altar-tombs of those who suffered martyrdom offered the most convenient and fitting altars for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.
On the Walls of the Chapel are many memorial tablets. They record the memory of Hugh, son of John and Ann Spencer, 1694, 13 years; John, son of John and Ann Spencer, 1682, 1 year; Ann, wife of John Spencer, 1699, 40 years; John Spencer, 1729, 74 years; Benjamin Spencer, 1759; Catharine, daughter of Walter and Mary Radcliffe, 1765; John Radcliffe, Curate of this Chapelry 29 years, 1776.
On the North Wall: "Sacra (sic) sub altari requiescit Johannes Spencer, nuper de Cannon-Hall generosus: qui perspicacia singulari, cultu academico, moribusque notus: egenis munificum, suis benignum, bonis amicum, libenter se prasbuit. Huic liberos quinque, Hugonem, Johannem, Dorotheam, Gulielmum, et Edwardum peperit uxor Anna merito dilecta, (filia Johannis Wilson de Wortley gen.) in eodem tumulo sepulta. Hæc obiit Aprilis 19mo 1699, ætat, 40mo: Ille Aprilis 13, 1729, ætat. 74. Ad piam utriusque parentis memoriam hunc cippum posuit filius solus superstes Gulielmus Spencer, A.D. 1732."
Over the door into the Chapel is a Tablet with an inscription, which, as Hunter says, "betrays a superior hand to that which inscribed the other monuments, being written by the present Lord Stowell:" "Memoriæ sacrum Johannis Spencer, de Cannon-Hall, in agro Eboracensi, armigeri, qui in literis elegantioribus excolendis, in re rustica tum gnaviter tum scienter promovenda, et (quod adhuc magis ei in votis fuit) in omnium suorum animis ingenuo indolis
