CLXIV ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



As regards this gateway, it would to every stranger be a remark- 

 able fact, that by turning from this point either to the right or lelt hand 

 you may still follow the course of the greater part of the old wall. The 

 narrow lanes which represent the ancient footways within the walls, are 

 now overshadowed by tall warehouses ; nevertheless as they regularly 

 curve round, they follow the course of the vanished wall ; so hard is it for 

 long centuries of time to obliterate the vestiges of the past, even in the 

 centre of a busy city. The gateway still rejDresents in its depth the thick- 

 ness of the town wall, as also does the width of the church above, which 

 is a simple oblong building, and of course has no transept. On the northern 

 side of the gateway may still be observed the grooves in which the port- 

 cullis originally ran. The footways on either side are modern, and you 

 can imagine what a différent place Bristol must have been in the old 

 days, when all the traffic in this direction had to make its way through 

 this one ai'chway, to say nothing of the entrance to the church being 

 then in the archway itself.^ 



Temple, or Holy Cross church, claims to be included in our survey, 

 and if I am unable to attempt anything like a description here, i can at 

 least refer to the peculiarity of its famous tower. It is said that originally 

 the tower extended only to the trefoil band, upon which rested the battle- 

 ments ; and that about the middle of the fifteenth century the builders 

 cari'ied it up another stage to its present height. However that may be, 

 the completion of the tower was followed by a result that has caussd it 

 to be the wonder of every beholder since that distant time. In Camden's 

 " Britannia " there is a very graphic note upon the inclination of the 

 tower, which had then begun to manifest itself. He says : " The lanterne 

 or tower whereof (Temple church) when the bell rings shaketh to and fro 

 as it hath cloven, and divided itself from the rest of the building, and 

 made such a chink from the bottom to the top as that it gapeth the 

 breadth of three fingers, and both shutteth and openeth whenever the 

 bell is rung. " In one of the chronicles it is mentioned that in 1576 the 

 inclination of the tower was found to be three feet nine inches. 



In 158(J it is gravely recorded that, •' this yeare :he Ducke oi 

 Norffock came from Bath to Bristol the 23rd of Male ; the morrow after, 

 went to Eedclitfe and heard a sermon, and from there to Temple church 

 to hear the bells Rynge and see the shaking of the tower. " - 



The tower is now said to be five feet out of perpendicular, and 

 though to the eye of the observer it looks threatening to the last degree 

 as it inclines towards the neighbouring houses, the lapse of centuries has 

 created a confidence that is never questioned. 



1 The present church and gateway were erected on the foundations of the earlier 

 structures at quite the end of the fourteenth century, perhaps the beginning of the 

 fifteenth. Tliere is still an earlier crypt in existence. The original structure goes 

 back to the days of William, Earl of Gloucester— 1174. 

 '^ Bristol Museum Roll Calendar. 



