septs of York Minster,
and is adapted to the old roof-shafts, between which have been added
angel corbels of wood. As the ribs intersect near their springing, they
weave a network over the whole vault, and the carved bosses at the
intersections amount to 107. A passing notice is merited by the pulpit,
which is Jacobean.

[Illustration: THE NAVE, LOOKING WESTWARDS.]

East of the five Perpendicular bays remains the second fragment of the
old nave, namely, a portion of a broad bay, partly encased by the later
masonry, and one complete narrow bay. In the latter the tympanum on both
sides is relieved by a quatrefoil, which here is pierced and not
enclosed in a circle, and the last shaft eastwards (one of those of the
comprising arch) runs to the ground. Affixed to the north wall is an
eighteenth century monument to Hugh Ripley, last Wakeman and first Mayor
of Ripon (d. 1637). The original monument was destroyed during the Civil
War, but the altar-like erection below the present structure was
probably part of it. The roof-shaft west of this bay, for some unknown
reason, ends considerably short of the roof in a kind of corbel with
rude foliage upon it. In the south wall is a triangular piscina, which,
if it is of Roger's date, is among the oldest piscinae in the country.

[Illustration: PLAN OF THE SAXON CRYPT.
(From drawings by Mr. W. H. St. John Hope and Mr. T. Wall.)]

=The Saxon Crypt=, sometimes called =St. Wilfrid's Needle=.--From a
trap-door in the pavement below the piscina a flight of twelve steps
winds down into a flat-roofed and descending passage, 2-1/2 feet wide
and slightly over 6 feet high, which, running a few feet northwards and
bending at right angles round the south-west tower pier, extends
eastward for about 10 yards, with a descent of one step near the end,
and terminates in a blank wall. There is a square-headed niche at the
turn and a round-headed niche at the end, both meant, doubtless, to hold
lights. Three feet from the end a round-headed doorway, 2 feet wide and
over 6 feet high, opens northwards, with a descent of two more steps,
into a barrel-vaulted chamber, 11 feet 5 inches long from east to west,
7 feet 7 inches wide, and 9 feet 10 inches high. In the north wall of
this chamber, and approached by three rude steps, is the celebrated St.
Wilfrid's Needle, a round-headed aperture pierced through into a passage
that runs behind. This aperture was connected with one of those
superstitions