CHAPTER I.--History of the See and City 3
CHAPTER III.--Description of the Exterior 47 The West Front 48 The North Transept 56 The Chapter-House 60 The Choir 61 The South Transept 63 The Central Tower 67
CHAPTER IV.--Description of the Interior 68 The Nave 68 The Transepts 80 The Chapter-House 93 The Choir 98 The Crypt 120 The Record Room 123 Monuments 125 Stained Glass 133
York Minster, the West Front and Nave _Frontispiece_ Arms of the See _Title Page_ The Minster and Bootham Bar, from Exhibition Square 2 St Mary's Abbey 9 Bootham Bar 15 Walmgate Bar 19, 24 Micklegate Bar 25 The Shambles 29 The Minster (from an Old Print) 35 The West Front (1810) 39 The East End (from Britton) 43 The West Front--Main Entrance 49 The Exterior, from the South-East 53 The Exterior, from the North 57 Bay of Choir--Exterior 62 South Transept--Porch 65 Seal of St Mary's Abbey 67 The Nave 69 The Nave--South Aisle 77 South Transept, Triforium, and Clerestory 91 Chapter-House--Entrance and Sedilia 97 The Choir Screen 100 The Choir, looking East 101 Bay of Choir--Interior 103 The Choir, looking West 107 Compartment of Ancient Choir Stalls 110 Compartment of Altar Screen 111 The Choir in 1810 115 The Virgin and Child (a Carving behind the Altar) 119 The Crypt 121 Capitals in Crypt 122, 123 Effigy of Manley 125 Effigy of Archbishop de Grey 128 Monument of William of Hatfield 129 Monument of Archbishop Bowet 132 The East Window 138 Effigy of Archbishop Savage 151 Tomb of Archbishop Savage 152
[Illustration: The Minster and Bootham Bar, from Exhibition Square]
At York the city did not grow up round the cathedral as at Ely or Lincoln, for York, like Rome or Athens, is an immemorial--a prehistoric--city; though like them it has legends of its foundation. Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose knowledge of Britain before the Roman occupation is not shared by our modern historians, gives the following account of its beginning:--"Ebraucus, son of Mempricius, the third king from Brute, did build a city north of Humber, which from his own name, he called Kaer Ebrauc--that is, the City of Ebraucus--about the time that David ruled in Judea." Thus, by tradition, as both Romulus and Ebraucus were descended from Priam, Rome and York are sister cities; and York is the older of the two. One can understand the eagerness of Drake, the historian of York, to believe the story. According to him the verity of Geoffrey's history has been excellently well vindicated, but in Drake's time romance was preferred to evidence almost as easily as in Geoffrey's, and he gives us no facts to support his belief, for the very good reason that he has none to give.