hafts. One or both of these windows contained stained glass,
with the history of the life and miracles of S. Cuthbert. As seen at
present, they contain tracery of the Perpendicular period, a restoration
of that inserted by Prior Wessington. Each window is of two lights,
crossed by a transom. Entry to the nine altars was provided for, as well
as from the choir and aisles, by two doors on the western side of its
north and south walls. The northern doorway is now walled up. They enter
through the wall arcade. The writer of the "Rites of Durham" says the
north door was made in order to bring in the body of Bishop Anthony Bek,
who is buried in the chapel. The architectural features of the doorway
would, however, seem to contradict this theory, and there is little room
to doubt that both north and south doorways formed part of the original
design of the structure.

Before leaving this interesting portion of the building we must direct
our attention to its most important contents, the #Tomb of S.
Cuthbert#. This, as at present to be seen, is a great oblong
platform, thirty-seven feet long by twenty-three feet wide, and its
upper surface or floor six feet above the floor of the chapel. Beneath a
slab in the centre the bones of the patron saint rest. The shrine of S.
Cuthbert at one time stood upon this platform, but of that no vestige
remains.

The floor of the platform is reached by two doors through the Neville
screen in the choir, and by a small stairway from the south aisle. The
wanderings of the monks of Lindisfarne with the body of their saint,
their many difficulties and trials, and their ultimate settlement at
Dunholme or Durham, have already been described. The shrine was
eventually set up in its present position by Bishop Carileph, in 1104,
when he brought it from the cloister garth from the tomb he had there
set up for its temporary reception, until his church was sufficiently
advanced to permit of its removal thither. It was visited by large
numbers of pilgrims, and many important personages were among them. Of
these may be mentioned William the Conqueror, Henry III. (1255), Edward
II. (1322), and Henry VI. (1448). The shrine was destroyed soon after
the surrender of the monastery to the Crown, in 1540, when the body was
buried beneath the place where its former receptacle had stood. There
have since this time been traditions that the exact place of the burial
was secret, and known only, according to one account, t