146 Congress of British Arckaological Association at Devizes. 



a corner staircase. The buttresses of the west wall are connected by 

 a series of semi-circular voussoirs, with plain walling above, and at 

 15 feet or so from the ground, and quite IS inches from the wall. 

 These evidently Late Norman remains suggested a puzzle till it was 

 explained by Mr. Brock that the stones had been brought from another 

 portion of the site since 1732. On the hill-slope facing this front, Mr. 

 Brock read a paper on the Priory, in which he introduced his subject 

 by a glance at the distribution of the monastic orders in Wiltshire, 

 which was singularly varied. The Benedictines had but few houses in 

 the county, the Cistercians and Cluniacs but one each, and the obscure 

 Bonhommes and Gilbertines were represented by one and two 

 foundations. The friars of later origin, elsewhere so numerous, the 

 white and grey, bad but one each, and the black friars but twOj 

 while there were seven alien houses. In Wilts there were six houses 

 of Austin Canons, of whicb Lacack Nunnery was one, and Braden- 

 stoke the principal and most wealthy. The number of the occupants 

 of Bradenstoke at the Dissolution was the prior and twelve monks 

 (and these seem to have been chiefly aged men), the Abbey of Malmes- 

 bury having twenty-two, including the prior and the sub-prior. 

 Search through the old chronicles had given few other facts as to 

 the Priory, except its founding and dissolution. It was established 

 and endowed A. D. 1142, by Walter d' Eureux and de Saresbirie, to 

 the honour of the Blessed Virgin and for his soul^s health. After 

 the death of his lady, Walter took the religious habit (but did not 

 seem to have become prior), and at his death he was buried by her 

 side. Bradenstoke was the favorite burying place of the founder's 

 family until the establishment of Lacock Nunnery. The Church 

 was said to have stood to the south of the present remains, and in 

 1S51 a pavement of encaustic tiles was found on its site six feet 

 deep. Mr. Brock and Mr. Reynolds then described the archi- 

 tectural features of the building, all except the arcading now set 

 up on the west wall buttresses being ascribed by the former speaker 

 to between 1320 and 1330. The whole of the conventual buildings, 

 with the Church, were placed to the south of the guest-house. An 

 entrenched mound to the north of the house was regarded by some 

 as a barrow or encampment, but Mr. Keeslake and others suggested 



