It must not be overlooked that the shrine containing the bones of the Venerable Bede were ultimately placed in the Galilee in 1370, in front of his altar. The bones are now placed in a plain tomb, having upon it the well-known inscription, which, however, was only engraved on the covering slab in 1830: HAC SUNT IN FOSSA BEDÆ VENERABILIS OSSA. There are some beautiful and well-preserved fresco paintings on the east wall at its north end. They are contemporary with the building, and comprise a King and Bishop, probably St. Oswald and St. Cuthbert, and some tasteful decoration of conventional leaf forms, very characteristic of the art of the period. The lower part of the back of the recess, on the sides of which the figures occur, is filled with a representation of hangings, the middle of which is now defaced, but where, before the Dissolution, was a picture of our Lady with the dead Christ. It is not impossible that the principal altar of the Blessed Virgin originally stood there, and was transferred by Cardinal Langley to the position it afterwards occupied when he probably built up the great western doorway of the church. The site in question was, up to the time of the Reformation, devoted to the altar of Our Lady of Pity, or Piety, which may have been removed thither by Langley from the recess to the north of it, which is surmounted by an arch with the dentel moulding of a date apparently not later than the commencement of the thirteenth century--a removal necessitated by his making there one of the two new doorways into the Galilee. These paintings are not only of great interest in themselves, but they possess a further one of being the only specimens of fresco decoration in the cathedral which are now anything more than mere fragments. The arches and capitals in the Galilee have also been enriched by colour, among the designs being a zigzag and spiral pattern. It does not appear that this kind of decoration had ever been used to any great extent throughout the church, for very few remains of it were discovered when the modern whitewash was lately removed.