Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/258

20S THE SHRINE OF ST. A1.13AX. indicate the i'orni of tl»e fcrctnon, uliicli appears simply to have stood upon the base, and been entirely independent of it. Nor is there any vei-y distinct indication of the means employeil for its covering or protection. At each corner of the top slab we find a hole, Avhich seems intended to receive an n])right rod three-(juarters of an inch in diameter, and there is one like hole in the middle of the south side, and six rather irregularly j)laced at the west end. The north side and east end are imperfect, so that it is not certain wht'ther they had similar holes. These holes mail ^^^'G held guide rods to keep a suspended cover in its place, but there is nothing to show how such a cover was suspended.'^ liosides the larger holes there are at regular intervals all round the upper slab, and close to its edge, small holes about a quarter of an inch in diameter. These holes are pierced with the same drill which is so much used in the cresting; the}' pass diagonally quite through the corner of the slab, and appear at its side immediatel}"^ above each of the smaller leaves. These piercings may have been intended simply to give so many points of shadow in the cresting; but if so, it seems strange that they should be directed upwards and quite through the corner, instead of being drilled horizontally into the marble, which would have been easier to do, and would have better served the purjiose. It is just i^ossible that they received the ends of a number of small iron rods forming a kind of cage or herso over iQ ferctnnu, but such a herse can- not have existed at the same time as a moveable cover sliding on rods in the larger holes. Perhai^s the cover of the fcrdruvi was in this case a pall of some rich material su])|)orted by the herse of iron wires. The state in which the fragments of the shrine were found seems to indicate that it was not destroyed at the surrender of the Abbey in ITjS!), but in 1553, when the Lady Chapel was cut oil' liom the rest of the church. And this would account for our having recovered so little of the buttresses ' In Uio ri<lf!o rib tlio wooden vmilt- tlw o iliiif*, to ntum to tlio floor of the jnj? tlun; JM a liolc exactly ovitIIh! cciilio rhiitcli tliroiit;h tlio wcoiid. I'.iif tliuliole^ of tbo xhriiic, mil aMiioil iliMtAiicc to tlio nro litllu iikuu tlinii nn inch in dianietor, Houth there in a Htcond hole in tho lioard- and it in Hcarcely likily an object bo large ing uf tho ceiling of tlin Ahl*i-y. TIh'mo njt lh<t cover niUHt havo been, would be holcfinroHO i.In<;e<l that it would!«• |k)m- r.ii»ie<l mid lowered by a chain nmall iiiblo for a cord or chain miHix-ndinK a moM^di to pasH throiijjli llieni. There cover over the ithrino to i>aju( through tho am many niniilar IioIl-h in diflerent parlt flrtt, and after going over a pulley above of the ceiling.