was not the Church of the Priory. 19 
the roof of the high altar, 8°. 6%.” What is meant by the great 
choir? These points I have not been able to make out. 
Amongst the items, in 1541 or 1542, is the following :—“ To 
take down the great wall that was partition of the mid choir, to 
have out the lead that there was cast, and to break down one part 
of the great cloister. To have the lead out of the fratery and to 
ryde the same at both ends’’; also :—‘ Item—pair trace harness 
to draw the lead out of the Church and Fratery, to the beam and 
from the beam, 64.”; and:—‘ Item, William Welchmon, Harry 
Russall, John Sadlar, Thomas Hulle, at Alen’s being at Amesbury 
one day, to weigh certain sows [of lead] in the church, in the 
- fratery, a part of the sherts [or sheet] lead in the hall, a part of 
the small sows in the plombery, 64. a day, finding themselves, 2s.” 
As Canon Jackson says, the papers “‘certainly describe considerable 
havoc in stripping off lead, pulling down a spire, selling paving 
‘tiles, &c.,” and yet we are expected to believe that, after all this, the 
Church was re-roofed and used as before; that an oak screen of the 
Perpendicular period remained uninjured, to be removed by Mr. 
Butterfield and preserved by the late Mr. Edwards, and that a small 
brass, to the memory of Edith Matyn, of date 1470, escaped the 
spoilers of the 16th century, to be removed by Mr. Butterfield and 
buried, as I have been told, beneath the present floor of the 
Church. 
Document No. 5 deals with lead sold, in 1541 and 1542, and the 
last printed item is the interesting one :—‘ Over and above, John 
Howell, plumber, laid upon the chancel of the Parish Church and 
upon the gutter of the new convent kitchen 5 clothes [or sheets] 
weighing 11 cwt.” The new convent kitchen was therefore 
apparently reserved for the Earl of Hertford’s use, and may be the 
kitchen attached to the prioress’s lodging, as the convent kitchen 
was “deemed to be superfluous.” 
Whilst this work of demolition and melting was going on, the 
Earl of Hertford came down to Amesbury, as payment is made 
for cleaning the “hall chambers, the court, the convent chambers, 
_ and the filthy places there” [that is to say, the other places that 
_ required cleaning] “against my lord’s first coming to Amesbury, 
c 2 
