The chapel or church claims greater antiquity
than any other in that part of the kingdom; but there is no appearance of
this in the external aspect of the present edifice, unless it be in the
two eastern windows, which remain unmodernized, and in the lower part of
the steeple. Inside, the character of the pillars shows that they were
constructed before the reign of Henry VII. It is probable that there
existed on this ground, a "field-kirk," or oratory, in the earliest
times; and, from the Archbishop's registry at York, it is ascertained
that there was a chapel at Haworth in 1317. The inhabitants refer
inquirers concerning the date to the following inscription on a stone in
the church tower:--
"Hic fecit Caenobium Monachorum Auteste fundator. A. D.
sexcentissimo."
That is to say, before the preaching of Christianity in Northumbria.
Whitaker says that this mistake originated in the illiterate copying out,
by some modern stone-cutter, of an inscription in the character of Henry
the Eighth's time on an adjoining stone:--
"Orate pro bono statu Eutest Tod."
"Now every antiquary knows that the formula of prayer 'bono statu'
always refers to the living. I suspect this singular Christian name
has been mistaken by the stone-cutter for Austet, a contraction of
Eustatius, but the word Tod, which has been mis-read for the Arabic
figures 600, is perfectly fair and legible.
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