building'. During the holy fervour of the crusades, the kings ol England and the haughty legates of the pope were wont to mix with the armed bands of the Templars in this their chief ecclesiastical edifice in Britain. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries some of the most remarkable characters of the age were buried in the Hound, and their mail-clad warble monumental effigies, reposing side by side on the cold pavement, still attract the wonder and admiration of the inquiring stranger. The solemn ceremonies attendant in days of yore upon the admission of a novice to the holy vows of the Temple, conducted with closed doors during the first watch of the night ; the severe religious exercises performed by the stern military friars; the vigils that were kept up at night in the church, and the reputed terrors of the penitential cell, all contributed in times past to throw an air of mystery and romance around the sacred building, and to create in the minds of the vulgar a feeling of awe and of superstitious terror, giving rise to those strange and horrible tnles of impiety and crime, of magic and sorcery, which led to the unjust and infamous execution at the stake of the Grand Master and many hundred Knights of the Temple, and to the suppression and annihilation of their proud and powerful order. The first and most interesting portion of the Temple Church, denominated by the old writers " T UE H OUND, " was consecrateil in the year 1185 by Heraclius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, on his arrival in England from Palestine, as before mentioned, to obtain succour from king llenry the 8econd against the formidable power of the famous Saladin.* The old inscription which formerly stood over the small door of the Hound leading into the cloisters, and which was broken and destroyed by the workmen whilst * Sat) ante, p. 80. On the t0th of March, before bis departure Gram this cauntrr, HeraclillJ consecrated the church of the Hospitaliers at Clerkenweli, and the altars of St .Tnhn and St, Mary. Ex registr. 8. John Jems, in Bib. CoMtm, fol. 1.