During the recent repairs it became necessary to make an extensive excavation in the Round, and beneath these monumental effigies were found two enormous stone coffins, together with five leaden coffins curiously and beautifully ornamented with a device resembling the one observable on the old tesselated pavement of the church; and an arched vault, which had been formed in the inner circular foundation, supporting the clustered columns and the round tower. The leaden coffins had been inclosed in small vaults, the walls of which had perished. The skeletons within them were entire and undisturbed; they were enveloped in coarse sackcloth, which crumbled to dust on being touched. One of these skeletons measured six feet four inches in length, and another six feet two inches! The large stone coffins were of immense thickness and weight; they had long previously been broken open and turned into charnel-houses. In the one nearest the south window were found three skulls, and a variety of bones, amongst which were those of some young person. Upon the lid, which was composed of Purbeck marble, was a large and elegantly-shaped cross, beautifully sculptured, and in an excellent state of preservation. The vault constructed in the solid foundations of the pillars of the round tower, on the north side of the church, contained the remains of a skeleton wrapped in sackcloth; the skull and the upper part of it were in a good state of preservation, but the lower extremities had crumbled to dust.
Neither the number nor the position of the coffins below corresponded with the figures above, and it is quite clear that these last have been removed from their original position.
In Camden's Britannia, the first edition of which was published in the 38th of Eliz., A. D. 1586, we are informed that many noblemen lie buried in the Temple Church, whose effigies are to be seen cross-legged, among whom were William the father, and William and Gilbert his sons, earls of Pembroke and marshals of England.[480] Stow, in his Survey of London, the first edition of which was published A. D. 1598, speaks of them as follows:
"In the round walk (which is the west part without the quire) there remain monuments of noblemen there buried, to the number of eleven. _Eight_ of them are images of armed knights; _five_ lying cross-legged, as men vowed to the Holy Land against the infidels and unbelieving Jews, the other three straight-legged. The rest are coped stones, all of gray marble."[481] A manuscript history of the Temple in the Inner Temple library, written at the commencement of the reign of Charles the First, tells us that "the crossed-legged images or portraitures remain in carved stone in _the middle of the round walke, environed with barres of iron_."[482] And Dugdale, in his Origines Juridiciales, published 1666, thus describes them: "Within a spacious _grate of iron in the midst of the round walk_ under the steeple, do lye _eight_ statues in military habits, each of them having large and deep shields on their left armes, of which _five_ are cross-legged. There are also three other gravestones lying about five inches above the level of the ground, on one of which is a large escocheon, with a lion rampant graven thereon."[483] Such is the ancient account of these monuments; now, however, _six_ instead of five cross-legged statues are to be seen, making _nine_ armed knights, whilst only _one_ coped gravestone remains. The effigies are no longer inclosed "within a spacious grate of iron," but are divided into two groups environed by iron railings, and are placed on either side of the entrance to the oblong portion of the church.