At Ripon the stalls show Jonah being thrown to the whale, and the same Jonah being subsequently relinquished by the sea monster.  The whale is represented by a large bland smiling head, with gaping jaws, occurring in the midst of the water, and Jonah takes the usual “header” familiar in mediaeval art, wherever this episode is rendered.

A popular treatment of the stall was the foliate mask; stems issuing from the mouth of the mask and developing into leaves and vines.  This is an entirely foolish and unlovely design:  in most cases it is quite lacking in real humour, and makes one think more of the senseless Roman grotesques and those of the Renaissance.  The mediaeval quaintness is missing.

At Beverly a woman is represented beating a man, while a dog is helping himself out of the soup cauldron.  The misereres at Beverly date from about 1520.

Animals as musicians, too, were often introduced,—­pigs playing on viols, or pipes, an ass performing on the harp, and similar eccentricities may be found in numerous places, while Reynard the Fox in all his forms abounds.

The choir stalls at Lincoln exhibit beautiful carving and design:  they date from the fourteenth century, and were given by the treasurer, John de Welburne.  There are many delightful miserere seats, many of the selections in this case being from the legend of Reynard the Fox.

Abbot Islip of Westminster was a great personality, influencing his times and the place where his genius expressed itself.  He was very constant and thorough in repairing and restoring at the Abbey, and under his direction much fine painting and illuminating were accomplished.  The special periods of artistic activity in most of the cathedrals may be traced to the personal influence of some cultured ecclesiastic.

A very beautiful specimen of English carving is the curious oak chest at York Cathedral, on which St. George fighting the dragon is well rendered.  However, the termination of the story differs from that usually associated with this legend, for the lady leads off the subdued dragon in a leash, and the very abject crawl of the creature is depicted with much humour.

Mediaeval ivory carving practically commenced with the fourth century; in speaking of the tools employed, it is safe to say that they corresponded to those used by sculptors in wood.  It is generally believed by authorities that there was some method by which ivory could be taken from the whole rounded surface of the tusk, and then, by soaking, or other treatment, rendered sufficiently malleable to be bent out into a large flat sheet:  for some of the large mediaeval ivories are much wider than the diameter of any known possible tusk.  There are recipes in the early treatises which tell how to soften the ivory that it may be more easily sculptured:  in the Mappae Clavicula, in the twelfth century, directions are given for preparing a bath in which to steep ivory, in order to make it soft.  In the Sloane MS. occurs another recipe for the same purpose.