“The New Building built beyond the apse is a very noble specimen of late Perpendicular work. It was begun by Abbot Richard Ashton (1438-1471) and completed by Abbot Robert Kirton (1496-1528): the works seem to have been suspended between these periods. The roof has the beautiful fan tracery, very similar on a small scale to that at King’s College Chapel at Cambridge. The building is of the width of the choir and aisles together. “The junction of this addition with the original Norman apse is admirable, and should be specially noticed. Parts of the original external string-course of the apse can be seen. The ornamentation on the bosses of the roof and in the cavetto below the windows, and round the great arches from the choir aisles, is very varied. “It must be sufficient here to indicate some of the designs. Most need little explanation, but a few are hard to understand. On the roof may be seen the three lions of England, a cross between four martlets, three crowns each pierced by an arrow, and another design. The smaller designs include four-leaved flowers, Tudor roses, fleur-de-lys, the portcullis, some undescribable creatures, crossed keys, crossed swords, crossed crosiers, crosses, crowns, crowns pierced with arrows, crowned female head, an eagle, the head of the Baptist in a charger, an angel, mitres, three feathers rising from a crown, St. Andrew’s cross, and perhaps others. There are also some rebuses and some lettering. On the north wall, in six several scrolls, the letters AR before a church and a bird on a tun occur more than once. This certainly refers to Abbot Robert Kirton; but what the bird means is not clear. In the moulding over the large arch to the south choir are four sets of letters. They form the last verse of the psalter. The words are contracted: they stand for _Omnis spiritus laudet Dominum_.”--(W. D. S.) The relic of greatest interest in the New Building is the famous =Monks’ Stone=, which, according to tradition, was constructed in commemoration of the massacre of Abbot Hedda and his monks by the Danes in 870. Critics are divided in opinion. Some think it Norman, but many accept the theory that it is Saxon work. In 1887 remains were found of the original Saxon church, which was sacked by the Danes, rebuilt and visited by King Edgar and Dunstan. Traces of the fire that destroyed it were also found. The east wall stood at the piers of the present south transept.