Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/248

 to have belonged to the shrine. and were carefully preserved, in the hope that more would be forthcoming. They now prove to be a large part of the moulded plinth and of the side panels of the niches, and a short length of the beautiful carved cornice.

Nothing more was found until February in the present year, when, 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 worked and painted. These were carefully sorted out from the rubbish with which they were mixed, and in a short time Mr. Chapple, the clerk of the works, reported that he had "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. Mr. Jackson, the foreman of the works, who deserves to be named as one of the chief agents in the recovery of the shrine, had, with infinite patience, fitted together the shattered peices — nearly two hundred in number — and had made out the forms of the ten niches ; he had, in fact, obtained the plan of the upper part of the monument, thereby rendering the working out of the rest of the design, as the pieces came to hand, a comparatively easy matter. In spite of the difference of material, it appeared, on comparing them, that the new fragments and Dr. Nicholson's belonged to the same work, and more were seen to be built in the walls blocking up the two southernmost of the five arches. We began to cut some of these out, but in doing so exposed others to view, and, therefore, stopped until we could obtain leave to pull down the whole walls. This being granted, we opened out the northern of these two arches. The upper half contained nothing of value, but the lower proved extremely rich; from it we obtained almost the whole; of the basement of the shrine, and the greater part of the next stage up to the springing line of the arches, and also some of the cornice. The arch