this spot was the chosen site for the celebration of the sacrament of marriage, which every one knows was performed in the _porch_ of the church, and not in the church itself as now, but as this spot is a very considerable number of yards distant from either church or porch, some of those troublesome people who will be continually saying Why? and seeking for a Because, began to look for these _espousals_, and found only a _Temptation_. One of these individuals, of a peculiarly persevering nature, earnestly desirous of reconciling these strange discrepancies between the assertion of a respectable old historian, and his own eye-sight, set to work, and the following was the result. He found that much of this good historian’s description of the cloister was a tolerably free translation of an old Latin work by William of Worcester, the original manuscript of which exists in the library of Corpus Christi, at Cambridge. It was printed and edited, many years ago, by one Nasmith, and an extract is to be found in the last edition of the Monasticon, where the work of a bishop who built one side of the cloister is described as extending to the arches, “in quibus maritagia dependent,” which must be translated “in which the espousals or marriages hang.” Now it seemed to this inquisitive individual that a very trivial error of the transcriber might have entirely altered the sense of the passage; that if the word “maritagia” should turn out to be “manut’gia” for “manutergia,” all the mystery would be explained. Upon inquiry, and inspection of the original manuscript, this proved a correct surmise on the part of the ingenious as well as inquisitive individual, and the arches in which the (manutergia) _towels_ hang, _close by the lavatories_, turn out to be the substitute for the arches in which the _espousals hang_. Overlooking the single stroke of a pen, produced these queer misconceptions _for above a century_. The following is an epitaph composed for Jacob Freeman, who was buried in the cloister yard, where he used often to lie upon a hill and sleep, with his head upon a stone. The old man was very hardly used by the _committee_ for so doing, and for frequenting church porches, and repeating the _common_ prayer to the people, in spite of ill treatment, he being often sent to Bridewell, whipped and reproved for it. EPITAPH.