826 Notes on Spye Park and Bromham. 
Baynton got some part of its estate; but it is hardly likely that he 
would have fetched his stone such a distance. Moreover he was 
possessor of Stanley Abbey, and could get stone from thence. When 
Aubrey wrote scarcely any part of Stanley Abbey remained ;! and, 
though I have not seen it stated, it seems likely that that Abbey was, 
at least partially, demolished by its purchaser. 
Viewing the gate-house from the high road, the ene 
must exercise a faculty which is often called upon, and imagine a 
restoration. The first thing to be ignored is the circular stone arch 
which has been erected, quite recently, beneath the old one, for the 
purpose of supporting the latter which had become dangerous. This, 
of course, interferes a good deal with the effect; but it will not do 
so to the same extent when the stone shall have weathered, and it is 
difficult to see what other expedient could have been adopted, as the 
old arch is much out of shape and cracked in one part, and it would 
have been very difficult to have rebuilt it. Restoring in imagina- 
tion the old level of the roadway, which was lowered when the new 
arch was inserted, it will be seen that certain features of the present 
building are not original, but are variations introduced into the 
design when it was rebuilt, comprising the angle buttresses, appa- 
rently—the ogee-headed niches on each side, and the windows in the 
north and south walls, certainly. With these exceptions, the two 
faces of the building seem to have been rebuilt very fairly as they 
originally stood. Their general design is the same. The arches 
are four-centred and very flat, a bad shape both constructionally and 
artistically. Their spandrels however are richly carved with foliage, 
there being a decidedly Cinque Cento and non-gothic element about 
them. In each, a dragon or griffin supports a shield of arms. 
Above these arches are large oriel windows, and the building is 
finished with a battlement above. On the west side, next the high 
road, which has been the front and is rather more ornamented than 
the other, there are fluted shafts at the angles of the lower part - 
of the oriel terminated with slight pendants, and other such shafts 
above, which must have been carried up as pinnacles above the 

1 Aubrey’s “ Wiltshire Collections,”’ by the Rey. Canon Jackson, p. 113. 

