15G Field MeetiiKjis. 



the church. Passing in by the great west door, the nave was 

 entered, to tlie right and left of which were rows of clustered 

 pillars thirty feet high. The aisles or wings were outside of these, 

 and were covered by the "lean-to" roofs. The high-pitched roof 

 of the nave began from the top of the clerestory, forty-five feet 

 from tlie gi-ound. The nave was 130 feet long and, including the 

 aisles, 60 feet wide. Passing eastward from the nave, the 

 spectator came beneath the central tower, with the chancel in 

 front and the transepts to right and left, with wings extended 

 eastward. The style of architecture was late Norman or 

 Transition. The pointed arches, usually supposed to be Gothic 

 or early English, are found in pure Norman work, as in Fountain 

 Abbey and Kirkstale Abbey in Yorkshire. The presence of 

 both round and pointed arches in the ruins have led some to 

 conclude that the architecture belonged to the transitional period, 

 which would imply that the churcjh, although founded in 114:2, was 

 not built till after 1175 ; but the church, judging from the style of 

 workmanship, must have existed prior to the latter date. He 

 thought that the pointed arch with its clustereJ mouldings was 

 introduced as a symbol of the upward struggle of the Christian 

 life, furrowed with trials and sorrows, just as the form of tlie 

 cliurch was the symbol of Christ. On the south side of the 

 church there was the cloister court, an open space 104 ft. square, 

 the burying ground of the monks. The west side of the cloister 

 court was bounded by a series of cellars, still to be seen, pro- 

 bably used as cellars or storehouses, and over these was probably 

 the dormitoi'y of the monks. On the east side of the cloister 

 court was the chapter house, separated from the soutli transept by 

 a mortuary chamber, an open space called the slype. Over the 

 chapter house, the state room of the Abbey, stood the scriptorium^ 

 and to the south of the chapter house there was placed the 

 dining-room. In the south-west angle of the cloister court there 

 is a doorway with a pointed arch on the side next the cloisters, 

 and a rounded arch on the other. This door probably led into 

 the locutorlum or monks' parlour, and from the mouldings it seems 

 to be of a later date than the chapter house. The other buildings 

 arc said to have covered a space 300 feet square. Traces of the 

 kitchen and of another house, probably tlie abbot's lodging, are 

 to be seen ; but where the infirmary, the granaries, brew-house, 

 bakehouse, &c., tkc, were must be matter of conjecture. Captain 



