Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/22

ground of the old north aisle. I had some of this opened, and other portions pricked with iron bars, but still equally without success, and I began to fear that the latter part of Throsby's expression, "that the effigies had been removed, or rather destroyed," meant that they had been broken up. I had not, however, examined under the pewing of the Church, and I therefore determined to take up some of the flooring. Four of the pews afforded nothing to encourage me; but on digging under the next, the workmen came upon some hard substance, which offered resistance. Upon descending into the hole they had made, I distinctly felt the beveled edge of a large stone slab, and I began to hope I had now discovered the long lost effigies. But upon clearing away the earth, instead of a figure, a large stone coffin was exposed, on the top of which was an extremely well preserved incised ornamented Cross, standing upon five steps. The coffin measured six feet seven inches in length, by two feet one inch in width at the head, and one foot four inches at the feet. The lid was nearly six inches thick. On raising this, an operation of some difficulty from its great weight, a curious appearance was, at first sight, presented. There was a male figure within, of which only the skeleton remained, but it was entirely and thickly covered with a substance of a dull red colour. This on examination turned out to be a coating of fine red mud, which had accumulated over the bones, and formed a bed in which the skeleton was lying. The figure had all the appearance of never having been disturbed. The head had fallen a little on one side. The hands had been placed on the breast, and the left arm was in its original position, excepting where the fingers had fallen in, with some of the bones of the ribs. The right arm had also fallen. The bones were hard and firm, and exhibited no signs of decay. The thick covering of mud had, no doubt, assisted in preserving them. With respect to this deposit, it may be mentioned, that Gonalston Church stands very low, and the mud was composed of the soil of the neighbourhood. As there were no indications of it in the upper part of the coffin, it had evidently penetrated upwards, through the aperture usually left in the bottom of stone coffins, and, in a long series of years, had left coating after coating upon the skeleton; the water afterwards subsiding, and being drained off by the way it had entered. This deposit was so deep at