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round, I have at last formed an opinion which I put forward 

 with great diffidence ; for, though it may be satisfactory to my 

 own mind, it does not follow that it may be equally so to others. 

 I therefore give you full leave to criticise and pull it to pieces 

 as you please. 



I believe, then, that de Villula's Church had no transepts 

 proper, that it covered the same ground as at present up to the 

 existing east end ; that beyond this there was an apse, a procession 

 path, and circlet of chapels — the present east end marking the 

 chord of the apse. 



Further, I believe this building had no central tower, as at 

 present ; but, like Exeter Cathedral and Ottery St. Mary's, it had 

 two towers flanking the building on the site of the present 

 transepts, and marking the division between nave and choir. 

 We know that in the late Norman or Transitional choir, built 

 by Archbishop Eoger at York, there were two flanking towers, 

 which, when the choir and Lady Chapel were extended and 

 rebuilt in the late 14th century, were absorbed into the building 

 in the form of transeptal-bays, only projecting as far as the aisle 

 walls, but, in other respects, the counterparts of the transepts of 

 Bath, but with earlier details. 



The lower story of the southern tower I once thought had been 

 pierced for tlie Cloister Avalk to pass through, but I have had 

 reasons of late, as I shall presently show, to modify this opinion. 

 AVe know, however, that the south bay of this transept was not 

 built above the lower window sills till about 1610, when all 

 need for a Monastic Cloister had passed away, and by that time 

 the central tower had been erected. 



The common opinion that the existing building is merely the 

 nave of the earlier church, and that eastwards of it lay transepts^ 

 choir, &c., I cannot accept as possible, for the following reasons.* 



. * I am here speaking of de Villula's erection. There is reason to 

 believe that a considerable extension eastward was made before the 

 end of the 12th century. 



