In the year 1290 and for some time before, the King’s master mason at Westminster was a certain Master Richard Crundale, or, as he was usually called in the Rolls containing the accounts of Queen Eleanor’s executors, “Magister Ricardus de Crundale, Cimentarius.” Richard Crundale was the direct successor of such great architects and builders as Master Henry of Westminster, Master John of Gloucester, and Master Robert of Beverley, who had been successively the King’s architects, and to whom we owe the beautiful designs and the excellent workmanship of Westminster Abbey. Crundale succeeded Robert of Beverley, and had apparently been in charge of the work at the Abbey for about ten years at this date. To him the King entrusted the building of the cross at Charing, and also the construction of the beautiful tomb in the Abbey Church, but it can hardly be doubted that it is to him we owe the suggestion of designs for many of the other crosses, and it is at any rate clear that the influence of the Westminster School is shown both in their planning and in the selection of the architects and builders who carried out the work. The accounts of the executors show that, in addition to the work for the cross at Charing and the tomb in the Abbey, the statues of the Queen which found places in all the crosses, and much of the decorative stone carving, were made at Westminster under the eye of Richard Crundale. In association with Crundale, there were at work in Westminster two sculptors (“Imaginatores”) of renown, namely—Alexander of Abingdon, and William of Ireland; these were the men who carved the statues. Ralph of Chichester carved much of the decorative stone work. The painter who decorated the tombs had also a high reputation in his time—Master Walter of Durham. Master William Torel, a citizen of London and goldsmith, had the good fortune to be chosen to mould and cast the metal effigies of the Queen, which found their places on the tombs at Westminster and Lincoln. His work was carried out in material of more durable character, and his reputation as an accomplished craftsman in metal rests firmly on the evidence of one of the most perfect remaining examples of mediæval art. Another worker in metal, Master Thomas de Leighton, has left evidence of his skill in the fine iron grille over the Queen’s tomb. The executry accounts tell us also of the men employed by Crundale to bring the stone and Purbeck marble from Corfe, Caen, and other places, and the names of others associated with the works at Westminster are still preserved.