DALE ABBEY REPORT, lit 



Another portion is difficult to assign, it is of brass, or rather 

 la/ten, inlaid with white metal, and adorned with a kind of 

 twisted or plaited border. It is one of that class of memorials 

 known as " palimpsest," as it bears on the reverse part of 

 it the head of a lady, circa 1360, with wimple head-dress. 



In the north wall is a blocked-up doorway into the Sacristy, 

 with the iron hinge of the door still embedded in the masonry. 



The Chapter House was entered from the Cloisters by a 

 descent of two or three steps, through a magnificent doorway, 

 about six feet wide, of no less than five orders. The jamb 

 shafts had the dog-tooth ornament running up between them. 

 The five bases on each side, with portions of the dog-tooth 

 moulding still remain, but have only been sufficiently uncovered 

 to allow of measurements being taken. Surely if some of the 

 wealthier members of the Society would but make a pilgrimage 

 to Dale, and behold the tantalizing spectacle of this unexcavated 

 portion, they would loosen their purse-strings without delay. 



The doorway and outer walls are of the best period of the 

 Early English style, but the groining and vaulting shafts are 

 of a later date, perhaps the work of Abbot Simon, 1 264-1269. 



The slype adjoins the Chapter House on the south, and 

 shows abundant traces of whitewash. Beyond this is what 

 may be the Fratry or Calefactory, where the Canons greased 

 their shoes, warmed themselves, and let blood. Funds are 

 urgently needed to complete the excavations in this most 

 interesting portion of the Abbey. 



The remains of monuments found have been duly noticed 

 where they occur, but there remains one to be mentioned to 

 which no place can be assigned, inasmuch as its fragments were 

 found in different parts of the building. When complete, it was 

 a large slab of Purbeck marble, bearing an effigy in brass with" 

 marginal inscription in detached Lombardic letters of the same 

 metal between two narrow fillets. The brass insertions are 

 of course missing, except two or three of the letters. Only 

 some six or seven pieces of the slab have yet turned up, of 

 which five bear the following letters : — [") ^bll©" : I 



nef : ^oxiser yp%<&jLMWW-.> Mr. cox 



