house.

The rest of the foundations of the church can be

traced, and show its dimensions to have been as follow:

The chapter-house is an oblong square of sixty-six feet by thirty-one feet. The entrance to it from the cloister was by a rich circular-headed doorway, on each side of which is a window; all are similarly ornamented with chevron, hatched and arched mouldings. Above were three tall circular-headed windows, represented in Buck's Views, but now entirely gone. On the spandrils have been figures of saints.

The north and south walls of the chapter-house are still tolerably perfect; at about three feet from the floor is a projection having a chevron moulding, from which rise two clusters of six small round shafts which divide the space into three compartments of fifteen feet. These columns are five feet high, and have capitals variously ornamented, from which issue a corresponding number of ribs which formed the groined roof. In the spaces between the clusters of columns are five small circular arches, resting on columns consisting of three shafts, above which, up to the groins of the roof, the space is covered by rows of intersecting arches, each springing from the intersecting point of the arches beneath them. This beautiful specimen of Norman architecture is probably the work of Roger de Montgomery; and, from the bases of six plain Norman pillars which a few years ago were to be seen in the choir, it is probable that it also was of the same date. The west front, nave and transepts were in the Early Pointed style. The great west window is gone, but from the remains of one of the imposts, its form is conjectured to have been a triple lancet. Beneath it appears to have

been a spacious doorway, but the mouldings are so destroyed that the form of the arch can scarcely be traced.

The west front belongs to the latter half of the thirteenth century, exhibiting in the only window that now remains, the elements of Geometrical tracery, that is, a single arch, enclosing two lancet lights, the head filled with an open circle, the jambs of the window furnished with slender columns, and the arch divided into mouldings.

Of the great west window, only one of the jambs and the springing of the arch remain, but it must have been of large dimensions; and, judging from the window already described, it was in all probability also filled with Geometrical tracery. The east window of Acton Burnell Church, in the immediate neighbourhood, and erected about the same period, will at once suggest the probable form and arrangement of the tracery.

The interval between these windows was occupied by tiers of trefoil-headed niches, each tier consisting of three niches, decorated with columns, capitals and moulded heads. Beneath the west window appears to have been a spacious doorway. Attached to the west end are the remains of the south side of the nave, consisting of three pointed arches, having a triforium above of lancet arches in couplets, each of these couplets being enclosed within the span of the large arch. Above them is a row of clerestory windows, much defaced.

The pillars of the nave are octagonal, and attached to three of them are massive columns, supporting a plain groined roof, above which, on a level with the triforium, is an apartment lighted by the window described in the west front, and two similar ones to the south, and a door, which is supposed to have communicated with the dormitories.

The south transept consists of three graceful arches springing from lofty clustered columns. Above these is a triforium of lancet arches, divided by the shafts which supported the ribs of the roof, between which are the clerestory windows.

The bases of the four large piers which supported the centre tower at the intersection of the nave and choir remain, as do some others in the nave.

No part of the cloisters now exist, but it is evident that the nave and chapter-house formed two of its sides, and it is probable that the domestic offices, such as the dormitory, refectory, &c. (now totally destroyed), formed the other two sides.

The prior's residence, which adjoins the south side of the chapter-house, is a most interesting specimen of the domestic architecture of the period, and from its arrangement appears to have occupied the sides of a quadrangular court, of which one side only now remains perfect. This consists of a building of two stories, surmounted by a very high roof, and contains some of the principal apartments. Its whole length is about 100 feet, and it has a light and elegant open cloister extending the whole length, and communicating with the rooms on either floor. The cloister is divided into compartments by large buttresses at regular intervals, and these again are subdivided into two compartments by smaller buttresses, the space between being filled in with two trefoil-headed lights and divided horizontally by a transom. The space below the transom is filled in solid, and is open above to give light to the cloister. The arrangement is the same for the lower story.

A similar cloister appears to have extended round the other side of the court, but to have been only one story high. Arched doorways open from the cloisters into the various apartments on both floors, and the communication from one cloister to the other is by a narrow stone staircase at the north end.

In a room on the ground floor, which is supposed to have been the private chapel of the prior, is a recess lighted by three trefoil-headed lights, and divided from the room by an arch of singular form.

In the upper story the apartment of most importance, and in the best state of preservation, is the banqueting hall. Its length is twenty-five feet, and its width nine

teen, its lofty roof rising to the full height of the building, and is divided in its length into three bays of unequal dimensions, and lighted by four windows of two lights each, these being again enclosed within a deeply recessed arched head, enriched with tracery. On each side of the window, and within the depth of the recess, is placed an octagonal pedestal, in the situation usually occupied by stone seats in the houses of the same date; but in this case they are too lofty to have been used with convenience for this purpose, and for what other they could have been intended it is difficult to guess.

The summit of the walls on which the roof rests is furnished with a moulded cornice enriched with flowers. The roof is of oak, and designed with extraordinary skill and beauty. As before stated, it is divided into three unequal bays by two principals, each principal consisting of a beautifully proportioned arch, enriched with welldesigned mouldings, and resting on slender stone columns attached to the walls, finished with capitals of varied design, and terminating half way down the wall on moulded brackets and intermediate bands. The apex between the top of the arch and the angle formed by the rafters is enriched with open trefoils, and the intervals between these arched principals are filled in with a series of plain arched ribs giving support to the rafters, attached to which, and extending the whole length of the roof on each side, is a broad band of open flowing trefoil work.

The wall opposite to the windows is plain, with the exception of the door of entrance from the cloister, the shafts supporting the roof already described, and an ornamented bracket intended probably to support a light. At the north end of the room is a large ugly fire-place of modern date, and a narrow stone staircase communicating with the kitchen beneath. To the south of this is another apartment of similar proportions, but in a very dilapidated state.

It is an extraordinary circumstance connected with this very interesting room, that the general form and

as far

detail of the roof indicate an age anterior to the date of the building of which it forms a part; belonging, as it is safe to judge by the analogy of style, to the middle of the fourteenth century, while the date of the latter is unquestionably a century later. There is a roof of somewhat the same kind in the church at Wigmore in Herefordshire, where the building itself is undoubtedly of the earlier date.

The notes from which the above description has been drawn up were made two years ago, on the occasion of a visit to Wenlock in company with Mr. Blore, who, with his usual kindness and readiness to give information, pointed out to the writer all that was most interesting in the architecture. Whatever may be valuable in this account is therefore derived from Mr. Blore, and the writer must be accountable for any inaccuracies that may have arisen from misconception of Mr. Blore's meaning.

He considered the prior's house to be a singularly interesting specimen; and, as it has been hitherto undescribed, the detail has been made as full as the notes would admit of.

The writer at the same time understood that Mr. Blore was disposed to assign the chapter-house and some other fragments to the date 1140; the transept, nave, &c., to the early part of the thirteenth century, when it appears that Lady Agnes Clifford was a contributor to the building; and that the west front might have been erected a little later, when a slight advance had been made to a change of style; and the prior's house in the middle of the fifteenth century.

February 28, 1853.

E. S. A.

Q

ARCH. CAMB., NEW SERIES, VOL. IV.