The martyrdom of St Edmund in the next spandrel is a most realistic picture.  The saint is tied to a tree and is pierced by fourteen arrows.  The black-letter inscriptions read “Edmund Prync and martyr.”

  “Heven blys to hes mede
  Hem sall have for hys gud ded”

Above this picture is the painting already mentioned of St Thomas a Becket being approached by the four knights who are about to murder him.

On the south side of the nave the chief part of the wall is given up to the legend of St Katherine of Alexandria.  She was said to be the daughter of Costus, King of Alexandria, and was married to a son of Constantine Chlorius, the Roman Governor of York.

The upper panel shows the temple of Serapis, and St Katherine endeavouring to convert the Emperor Maximin to Christianity.  Further to the right she is shown entering the prison into which she was cast.  The emperor, impressed both by her beauty and her arguments, endeavours with the help of several philosophers to persuade her to give up her belief in Christianity; they are, however, all converted by her, and soon after they are executed at the emperor’s command.  St Katherine is then stripped to the waist and beaten in the presence of the emperor, who is shown on the extreme right as well as the left of the second panel.  After further imprisonment the saint is joined by the Empress Faustina, a new convert, who comforts the prisoner, and is shown joining with her in prayer.

Further on, the emperor is shown testing the saint’s faith by the wheel, but two angels appear, and having broken the wheels the attendants are overthrown.  The last scene, in which St Katherine is kneeling, is so much “restored” that its interest is very much impaired.

[Illustration:  SOME OF THE WALL PAINTINGS ON THE NORTH WALL OF THE NAVE OF PICKERING CHURCH.

THE MARTYRDOM OF ST THOMAS A BECKET.

The Four Knights are seen approaching the “Turbulent Priest.”]

HEROD’S FEAST.

It is composed of three pictures.  On the right, Salome is performing a “Tumble” dance before Herod, his queen, and two guests, while St John the Baptist is holding up a warning hand:  In the centre, Salome has the head of St John in a charger, and on the left the execution is shown.

[The Copyright is reserved by Dr John L. Kirk.] ]

The long and narrow series of pictures over the arches represents the seven corporal acts of mercy, namely, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, compelling a stranger to come in, clothing the naked, visiting those in prison, visiting the sick, and burying the dead.  Continuing in the same line appear representations of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, healing the ear of Malchus, Christ before Pilate, the scourging of our Lord, and then follow scenes of the Crucifixion, followed by the burial and resurrection.  In the spandrel over the third pillar from the west the descent