150 Congress oj British Archaological Association at Devizes. 



clear evidence of the south walk of the cloisters. There were two 

 entrances into the nave, both of which are distinctly marked, 

 although now walled up. On the return east side next the north 

 transept was the chapter-house, and next to it the day-room, over- 

 head being the dormitory, which had a doorway into Church, for 

 the use of the monks who had the night services to perform. On 

 the north side was the refectory, and on the west a second day-room 

 for lay-brethren or students, but its exact use was disputed. The 

 archseologists were next conducted to Dr. Jennings' residence, 

 " Abbey House,''' built in the sixteenth century, on the site of some 

 of the conventual buildings. What are now the cellars are a series 

 of vaulted chambers, with Decorated window tracery and groining, 

 corresponding with the great works of re-building in the Abbey 

 Church. The windows are, as Mr. Christian showed, deeply splayed 

 inside on a curve, the surface being rendered to a true face in 

 cement. The columns are almost buried in debris, but excavations 

 show them to be nine feet from base to capital. A central range 

 has been destroyed. The similarity of the work to Bradenstoke is 

 very marked. Various opinions were given as to its object, but it 

 was generally thought to have formed the great hall of the abbot's 

 house, and at that time was, of course, above ground. In the upper 

 part of the house is much good seventeenth-century panelling and 

 carved oak furniture, including a large Jacobean four-post bedstead, 

 richly treated in Classic style, but having as a foot-board a pierced 

 under-cut panel, French Flamboyant in style, and bearing upon it 

 the arms of France impaling those of Brittany and the dolphin — 

 the well-known badge of the Dauphins — which (as Mr. Elliot 

 showed) indicated that this fragment of carving was originally 

 worked for Charles VII., of France, who married the heiress of the 

 Dukes of Brittany. The staircase to the upper part of the house 

 is of solid block oak*with solid oak newel. 



Dr. Jennings conducted the Members over the eastern limb of 

 the Abbey Church, which he has inclosed, and had excavated a few 

 years since, when he found nothing but the concrete foundations of 

 the choir and transepts, and the square flue, with soot still in it, 

 running along the north side, by which the building was warmed. 



