| 1. South Transept. 2. North Transept. | 3. Nave. 4. Chapter House. | 5. Abp. Zouche’s Chapel. 6. Lady Chapel. |
| 7. Choir. | ||
THE ABBEY GROUNDS
The charming abbey grounds contain within their precincts historic monuments and relics of the greatest interest. An angle-tower, with a portion of the wall that surrounded Roman York, recalls the struggle of the Brigantes with the armour-clad legionaries. Tacitus recounts how Caractacus, the gallant Silurian chief, after his defeat, sought the protection of Cartismandua, the Queen of the Brigantes, and how basely she betrayed him. The Romans, after their conquest of York, garrisoned the city with the Ninth Legion, and subsequently built a walled-in rectangular fort with angle towers and central gateways. The Emperor Hadrian sent over the Sixth Legion to replace the Ninth at York, and afterwards he came over in person to superintend the building of a wall from the Tyne to the Solway Firth. Ninety years later the Emperor Septimius Severus, with his sons Caracalla and Geta, came to York on his way to repel the Caledonians, who had broken through the Wall. The campaign lasted two years, during which period the Imperial court was placed at York, where Papinianus the great jurist administered the Roman law. The Emperor died at York and his remains were cremated on a hill, thenceforth known as Severus Hill. His ashes were placed in an urn and conveyed by his sons to Rome. About a century later the Emperor Constantius Chlorus came over to quell a rising in the north. He died at York, and his son Constantine was proclaimed his successor. The latter soon afterwards left York to enter on that famous career which has earned him the title of the Great.
The wall enclosing the York fort, built by Roman masons, is four and a half feet thick, consisting of lime-concrete faced on both sides with narrow courses of small ashlar limestone, and having a band of red tiles about the middle of its height. The angle-tower is ten-sided and from the number of its angles is known as the Multangular Tower. The preservation of the wall and tower is owing to the fact that the mediaeval architects adopted the same line for their walls. On the northern side of the tower, however, the mediaeval wall is placed some five feet beyond the Roman one.
Within the Roman tower and wall are the remains of St. Leonard’s, formerly St. Peter’s, Hospital. The hospital was founded by King Athelstan on his return to York from the glorious victory he had achieved at Brunnanburh. He met in the Minster a number of religious people called Coli Dei or Culdees, devoted
