The real Abingdon shrine, however, is the resting-place, against the chancel, of John Roysse, who founded the Grammar School. This "pious ancestor" died in 1571, yet there is usually a wreath of flowers lying upon his breast. It is an altar-tomb, with a reclining full-length effigy and a partially-defaced inscription. Good Master Roysse was one of the many charitable benefactors who seem to have flourished in the genial soil of Abingdon. The Grammar School was founded in his lifetime; but in his will he left at least two other charities. He was clearly not the stamp of man who has a mind to be forgotten after death. The upper stone of his tomb, he ordained, was to be the "great stone" in the summer arbour of his garden in London, and the twelve old widows who were to receive each a loaf, "good, sweet, and seasonable," kneeling round his stone every Sunday, were to say, upon receiving their doles, "The blessed Trinity upon John Roysse's soul have mercy." This once picturesque ceremony, shorn of its olden formalities, has, since 1872, been performed in the hall of Christ's Hospital. To play upon numbers and words was one of the conceits of the time, and so it was ordered that, since the Grammar School was established at once in the 63rd year of its founder's age, and in the 63rd year of the century, the foundation should educate 63 boys "in sæcula sæculorum." A small room shut away from the church, and called the Exchequer Chamber, is used as the muniment room of the famous "Hospital of Christ," concerning which much hereafter. Yet another interesting tomb--interesting because it exhibits the monumental sculpture of a century ago in all the fulness of its bathos. Mrs. Elizabeth Hawkins, whom it commemorates, died in 1780, and ordered that a sum of £400 should be expended upon a fitting memorial. The money was duly laid out, the lucky recipient thereof being one Mr. Hickey; and now, after a hundred years, the only people who can look with satisfaction upon the transaction must be they to whom Hickey bequeathed his money. The sorrowing stone cherub in the foreground looks very much as though he had just undergone nursery correction. More attractive is a good and very curious bit of wood carving affixed to the front of the organ. The date is unknown, but its antiquity is probably not great. It obviously represents King David, who, with a gilded crown upon his head, plays upon a dazzlingly gilded harp. Near the door of the vestry hangs the elaborate genealogical tree of one W. Lee, who was five times Mayor of Abingdon, and lived to see 197 descendants. It is dated 1637. In the vestry is a copy of Foxe's "Book of Martyrs," together with a number of Bibles and books of homilies, all having still attached to them the ancient chains by which they were formerly secured. The church registers go back to an unusually early period.