Church of Coggeshall appears to have stood in the park, and very close to the present mansion or farmhouse, on the north side; but there now remains no trace of it, except in the unevenness of the ground.* Out of its ruins the mansion was erected; and other buildings on the opposite side were devoted to household or farm purposes. This house was probably built by Leonard Smith, who had a lease of the King for 80 years. The porch was built afterwards, and had this inscription inlaid in freestone:

R BA

1581

On the 9th December, 40 Eliz. (1598) a lease was granted by the Queen to Matthew Bacon, of "all that mansion-house which Sir John Sharpe, knt. late held, lying within the Monastery of Great Coggeshall, near the Firmary of the Monks, with divers other lands, to hold for 21 years, at the rent of £2. 2s. 2d.”

In the Ministers' Accounts of 4 Jas. I. relating to the Rectory of Coggeshall, Richard Benion being then farmer, is the following entry :

"And he renders an account of £10 for Farm of all those rectories of Great and Little Coggeshall, &c. And also the farm of a house and barn, one called the little barn, the other called situate near the King's high road leading from Great Coggeshall to Kelvedon; together with all Dovecotes, situate

It was planned in the usual form of a cross. "In the summer of 1851, a long-continued drought parched the grass over some of the foundations, which were very near the surface of the soil, and left a plan of these foundations so clearly defined on the field, that it was easy to draw a measured plan of them on paper."-Rev E. L. Cutts, Arch. Acc. of the Remains of Coggeshall Abbey.

near the site of the Holm Grange. And also all the Brewhouses, called the Malting houses, as they are now situated between the Bake house and Brewhouse of the said monastery, towards the north & east and the stone wall towards the garden of the convent on the south side, together with the Cistern hall and Kiln house, near the Brewhouses. And also one small curtilage, as is included with the said Brewhouses lying near to them, demised to one Leonard Smith by indenture, dated 28 March, in the year of Henry VIII., for the term of 80 years."

In an inquisition of what was paid for Abbey lands at Coggeshall, 13th Sept. 16 Charles II. (1665), is the following entry in Ralph Wooley and Thomas Dodd's grant* :—

"Thos. Bromfield, Esq., owner.-The Dairy House at the Holme Grange, together with the Sheepen House, nigh the Gate house on the north side of the King's highway. Rent, £24. 6s. 8d.”

"Water mill, with chambers to the same, and the garden called Love's garden, and the other garden called Sandford's garden, in the wast ground in the monastery, £5."

"The Mansion house within the monastery, £2. 2s. 2d." "John Wildbore, Carpenter.-The house called the Brewhouse with the pasturage of 2 cows in the old park. Rent, 8."

The site of the monastery, together with the whole Abbey Farm, was afterwards in the possession of Sir Mark Guyon, whose daughter was married to Mr. Bullock; and its present owner is the Rev. Walter Trevelyan Bullock, of Faulkbourne Hall.

In the existing remains of the Abbey there is comparatively little to interest the general reader. Within

* Other grants were to Geoffrey Morley, Edward Newport and John Crumpton, Lord Zouch and Edward Fulnetby, and Edward Phillipps and John Seward.

the farm-house, which was built out of the ruins of the church and chapter-house, there is a remarkable pointed arch, of plain unmoulded brick, springing on one side from a respond, and supported on the other by a circular brick pillar with a stone capital; built toward the close of the 12th century: there are also portions of two thick walls, which doubtless formed part of the Abbey. Several transition-Norman capitals lie scattered about the premises. The building nearest the farm-house is a covered ambulatory, with groined roof, formed of flint rubble with brick dressings, together with stone and Purbeck marble. Adjoining this at right angles is another building of two stories, the upper one of which is reached by means of a wooden stair. There are also indications that the open space between the latter and the little garden opposite was a large room of one story, with a row of stone pillars and arches down the centre. This last may have been the Abbot's hall; in such case, the lower story of the building on the south side may have been his kitchen and offices, and the upper story his great chamber. It has been conjectured that the room over the ambulatory was the dormitory, where the monks slept on rows of pallets down each side, in their full day costume. The detached building on the south is now known as the monk-house. It is a lofty room, with open timber roof, and lighted by four lancets on each side; and was probably the infirmary.

A flour mill doubtless existed on the site of the present Abbey Mill; and a little south of this are traces

of three stews, on a piece of ground called Pond Wick. The course of the river, as already observed, had been altered at a very early period, for the accommodation of the Abbey, which could not have been placed lower, on account of the frequent floods. Although no other traces remain of the church, chapter-house, and other principal buildings, there is sufficient to show with what exquisite taste the Abbey was originally constructed. The wisdom of the monks in selecting its site will be also very evident to any one who walks into the meadow where the old Church once stood, or lingers beside the stream that still continues to flow along its appointed course.

St. Nicholas' Chapel, and the Parish of Little Coggeshall.

At a little distance from the site of the Abbey stands a building which was a Church or Chapel previously to the Dissolution, and has since been used as a barn or hay-house. It is built of flint rubble and bricks, and has a thatched roof. It presents in appearance a pleasant picture to the artist; and the materials of which it is constructed exhibit one of the earliest instances of medieval brick-making in this country. In form it is a simple parallelogram, having a triplet of lancets under a containing arch at each end, four lancet windows on the north side, and on the south two similar ones, and the remaining jamb of a third, which together with the ancient doorway, were broken