Beneath our feet lie buried all my predecessors--Abbots of Whalley.

Here lies John Eccles, for whom was carved the stall in which your lordship hath sat, and from which I have been dethroned.

Here rests the learned John Lyndelay, fifth abbot; and beside him his immediate predecessor, Robert de Topcliffe, who, two hundred and thirty years ago, on the festival of Saint Gregory, our canonised abbot, commenced the erection of the sacred edifice above us.
At that epoch were here enshrined the remains of the saintly Gregory, and here were also brought the bodies of Helias de Workesley and John de Belfield, both prelates of piety and wisdom.

You may read the names where you stand, my lord.

You may count the graves of all the abbots.
They are sixteen in number.