was not the Church of the Priory. 13 
not return along the west wall of the transept, whereas the docu- 
ments, printed by Canon Jackson, show that the great cloister of 
the Priory, which of course would adj oin the Priory Church, was a 
Complete square of four equal sides, and had a low-pitched roof. 
This is in the survey of the leads:—‘a flat roof over the cloister 
covered with lead, containing 4 squares, every square in length 
104 foot and in depth 12 foot.” This being the measurement of 
the lead, the extent of the cloister, along the walls of the surrounding 
buildings, would be at least 104 feet and probably about 114 feet. 
It is curious to note how Canon Jackson quickly passes, from a 
supposition that the present Church may have been the Priory 
Church, to an assumption that it was that Church, presently stating 
it as a fact. In accordance with this assumption, he says :— 
“against the tower walls are still to be seen. dripstone lines which 
may represent the older roofs that were stripped of lead at the 
Dissolution.” This is anything but convincing. Nothing is 
commoner than to see the dripstones of high-pitched roofs remaining 
in Churches, where low-pitched roofs have succeeded them, and the 
change generally took place in the fifteenth century. 
Canon Jackson quotes a number of documents, relating to the 
demolition of the buildings of the Priory, which he has not arranged 
in order of time. The one which he prints first, from the original 
at Longleat, is signed “ Rychard Ryche,” and appears to emanate 
from the Augmentation Office. Richard, Lord Riche, was Chancellor 
of the Court of Augmentations, from 1536 to 1544. The date is 
28th January, 32nd of Henry VIII. (1541), and it appears to be 
the third in order of time of the documents quoted. I have reduced 
“all these dates to the year A.D., by the help of Nicolas’s “ Tables 
and Calendars.” This document relates to an exchange, between 
the Earl of Hertford and the King, and is of earlier date than the 
actual grant to the Harl of Hertford, which is dated 7th April, 
1541, and is by way of exchange of the lands granted for other 
lands in Middlesex. It may be well perhaps to point out that 
Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, was the brother-in-law of 
Henry VIII., better known, by his later title, as The Protector, 
Duke of Somerset. 
