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names for this most interesting visit. Of those excursions which 
took place Mr. Scott favours me with the following account :— 
Malmesbury and Charlton Park, April 24th,1900. 19 Members 
of the Bath Field Club, with several visitors, left Bath for 
Malmesbury, by the 9.4 train. The morning, which was some- 
what dull, improved before long, and the day was everything that 
could be wished, except that the sunshine was somewhat too fitful 
to satisfy those members who had brought their cameras. Passing 
Somerford, whose little bridge looked very pretty in a gleam of 
sunlight, Malmesbury was reached at 10.30. Repairs to the 
Abbey have at last commenced, but the scaffolding does not 
as yet obstruct the view from the railway; and though it spoils 
the view from the south side, for artists, it is quite possible to 
make out the circular “‘ patera” on the clerestory, and note where 
the Decorated work has been added to the old Norman building. 
From almost any point one can understand Leland’s admira- 
tion of the Abbey, placed on a commanding height, with western 
tower and lofty central spire, the building itself being some 350 
feet in length. The church was cruciform, but the transepts, 
central tower and chancel are gone, and only the six eastern bays 
of the nave now remain, the rood screen, filled in, forming the 
east wall and reredos. The arcading of the nave, regarded as 
the earliest of the kind in England, dates from the middle of the 
12th century, and is low and massive. This and the triforium 
are Norman, the transition character of the architecture giving 
the arches that pointed form which seems to lead easily to the 
Decorated clerestory. The additions made during the Perpen- 
dicular period, though not harmonising with the rest of the 
building, are fairly well carried out, and the church as a whole 
is of considerable interest to antiquarians. The south porch is 
very Norman, strongly resembling that at Bayonne, as also that 
in St. Joseph’s Chapel at Glastonbury, being sculptured with 
scriptural scenes and foliage ; the interior walls of the porch are 
partly arcaded with arches springing from brackets. The tomb 
