Ancient_and_modern_York_a_guide

78 ANCIENT ANI>
is a representation of Nicholas Blackburne, Lord Mayor
of York, 1429, and his wife; both in the posture of prayer.
He is in armour, with a shield of arms upon his breast ;
and beneath is a latin inscription requesting the prayers of
the faithful for the repose of their souls. On the window
above the altar is painted the wise men offering gifts to the
infant Jesus, the salutation ofMary, the nativity, crucifixion,
and resurrection. The ceiling at the eastern end of the
church which is of fine old oak, adorned with a series of
antique sculptures, is very striking and unique. It is
supported on sculptured blocks of dark oak representing
angelic musicians : and in the centre of the pannelled roof
are curious grotesque heads. Church-room 350 ; Net
value £107.
i&t. Cutpert, 39ea3tIjoIm*grem.
We find on reference to Domesday-Book, that this
church existed at the conquest. "The church of St.
Cuthbert the same William (de Percy) also claims of Earl
Hugo, and seven small houses fifty feet in width." Sub
sequently it was appropriated to the prior and convent of
the Holy Trinity in the city of York. At the dissolution
the patronage came to the crown. In 1452, a commission
was issued to John, bishop of Phillipi to consecrate the
chapel of a guild of St. Mary and Martin the confessor,
and the altar in the same, erected within the church of
St. Cuthbert. At the union of some of the churches in
York in the year 1585, the churches of St. Mary extra
Layerthorpe, (which stood without the postern on the hill
on the right hand) All Hallows, Peaseholme-green, and
St. Helens-on-the-Walls, in Aldwark, were united to it.
In the latter church, the ashes of the Emperor Constantine*
are said to have been preserved ; and Camden
mentions a lighted lampf found in a vault, said to have
* Camden's Britannia, p. 569, ed. 1590.
+ A belief in the discovery of an ever-burning lamp appears to have been pre
valent in all ages; and tradition informs us that lamps have been found in tombs
where they have continued burning for upwards of 1,000 years, of which,
mention has been made in the works of St. Austin, Plutarch, Pliny, Ludovicu»
Vive», Baptista, Porta and Licetus.