CLXVI ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



and the rebuilding of the eastern end in the year 1500. It seems to 

 have been practicall}' an open house for the sick, sorrowful, and needy. 

 Everything has been swept away except the college chapel, which is, no 

 doubt, one of the most interesting and complete of the smaller mediaeval 

 structures now remaining. Its history, as revealed in its stones, shows 

 that from time to time additions and alterations were made, so that the 

 little church has become an epitome of all the three styles of pointed archi- 

 tecture. It is interesting to note that the tower was added in the fifteenth 

 century, the exact date being in this case curiously preserved. Many 

 years ago in the course of doing some repairs, a slate tablet was found 

 embedded in the wall of the tower, upon which the following inscription 

 was incised : " In the yere off our Lorde God mcccclxxxvij the iij day off 

 Novemb the masonry of thys Towr was fynyshyd." 



As part of the machinery which existed in the fifteenth century in 

 connection with the religious houses, for the alleviation of poverty and 

 suffering, long before the modern poor-house and hospital were known, 

 the old G-aunts' hospital occupied a distinct position, in that which be- 

 longs to all ages, the cause of Christian charity. 



In one of the lowest slums of Bristol, beyond a thoroughfare which, 

 by a humorous contradiction, is called •' Quakers' Friars,'' there may 

 be found, after a sufficient search, all that remains of an ancient Dominican 

 priory that was founded at the same time and by the same individual as 

 the Gaunts' hospital — Maurice Berkeley de Gaunt. Little now remains 

 of the priory buildings, but that little is deeply interesting. It includes 

 the dormitory 86 feet in length, with its open-timbered roof divided into 

 twelve bays, and its range of lancet windows still remaining. There are 

 also the remains of the cloister, and of another range of buildings, the 

 upper floor of which is supposed to have been the hall of the priory. 

 This also retains its original thirteenth-century roof. The curious name 

 " Quakers' Friars " is not without its justification, for about the year 

 1650 these premises, which had been so long the home of the Friars, 

 passed into the hands of the Quakers, the names of George Fox and 

 William Penn appearing in the records as having to do with them. 



The only other relic of these ancient religious houses that I need 

 refer to, is the gateway of St. Bartholomew's prior3^ This is still in ex- 

 istence, but, alas ! so neglected and mutilated as to be almost past recog- 

 nition. Few indeed know of its existence, although, it may be, they pass 

 it every day. The buildings into which the gateway once led have en- 

 tirely disappeared, and business premises now occupy their place. A 

 while ago I saw advertised upon the wooden doors which now fill the 

 archway the virtues of someone's nineteenth-century boots. Think of it ! 

 Nineteenth-century boots advertised on a thirteenth-century archway ! 

 On another occasion I peeped within the open door, and found the space 

 between the double arches filled with coke, which was piled against the 



