n grating
which is the entrance to--

=The Clarence Vault.=--This vault [F] contains the remains of George,
Duke of Clarence, Earl of Warwick and Salisbury, and his wife
Isabelle, who was the eldest daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of
Warwick, commonly known as the "King-maker." The Duchess died at
Warwick in December, 1476, from the effects, it is said, of poison.
She was buried in the vault which, as the chronicle says, was made
_artificialiter_ behind the great altar, in front of the door of the
chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the opening of the tomb was
made opposite the entrance of the chapel of Saint Edmund the Martyr.
The young Countess, after lying in the choir in state for thirty-five
days, was laid in the vault on February 8th. Ten days later her
husband, who had been put to death in the Tower--it matters little
whether in the butt of Malmsey wine or not--was buried beside her.

Assuming that the tomb was desecrated and pillaged soon after the
Dissolution, and again later on in Commonwealth times, we find that in
1709 the royal remains were displaced to make room for the body of a
"periwig-pated alderman" by name Samuel Hawling; and later on, in 1729
and 1753, his wife and son were interred there. The site then was lost
till it was identified in 1826. In 1829 the Hawling remains were
removed, and since then it has remained the Clarence Vault. In 1876 it
was fitted with iron gates, and in the pavement over the vault a brass
has been inserted with the inscription, composed by Mr. J.T.D.
Niblett:--

"Dominus Georgius Plantagenet dux Clarencius et Domina Isabelle
Neville, uxor ejus qui obierunt haec 12 Decembris, A.D. 1476, ille 18
Feb., 1477.

"Macte veni sicut sol in splendore,
Mox subito mersus in cruore."

Or in English--

"Lord George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, and Lady Isabelle Neville,
his wife, who died, she on Dec. 12, 1476, he on Feb. 18, 1477.

"I came in my might like a sun in splendour,
Soon suddenly bathed in my own blood."

On the brass are engraved two suns in splendour, the badge of the
House of York.

The fourteenth century stone screen-work round the choir side of the
ambulatory, particularly at the back of the reredos and the north-east
portion adjacent to it, is very interesting work. The lower part is
panelled with tracery in low relief, with the arches springing from
diminutive heads. All the shafting is ornamented with a small
ball-like enrichment