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town is a Transition arch walled up, with some arcading over it, 

 which forms the end of one of the houses facing the street ; this is 

 said to be the remains of the Hosj^ice of St John of Jerusalem. At 

 the entrance to what is now the church-yard stands that " right 

 fair and costely peace of worke made al of stone and curiously 

 vaulted for poore market folkes to stand dry when rayne commeth," 

 in other words, the Market Cross, where the townsmen held " a 

 good quik market every Saturday," and which, Leland says, was 

 made by " men of the towne in hominum memoria," i.e., somewhere 

 about the time of Hem-y VII. Notwithstanding the mutilations 

 which the old Abbey has undergone at barbaric hands, it still 

 presents a very imposing and venerable aspect. A small portion, 

 however, only now remains, viz., the nave, which has been turned 

 into a parish church. The princijjal point of interest is, of course, 

 the magnificent and deeply recessed Norman porch on the south, 

 with the figures of the twelve Apostles in the interior, six on each 

 side, and the vesica ^nscis upborne by two winged angels containing 

 a figure of our Lord, in the tympanum of the doorway. The 

 peculiar feature of the interior is the massive Norman piers with 

 " scolloped" capitals, bearing pointed arches, bespeaking the 

 Transition period when the late Norman was passing into the Early 

 English style. A most peculiar stone box projects from the triforium 

 on the south wall, and is a puzzle to many ; various suggestions 

 have been made with the view of explaining its use — one of these 

 being that the Abbots of old used to view from thence the 

 monastic processions ; but perhaps the most likely explanation 

 after all of this excrescence is one which was worked out from the 

 internal consciousness of one of the members, viz., that worthy old 

 Stumpe, the clothier (temp. Henry VIII.), had it erected for the 

 purpose of overlooking his looms, which history credits him with 

 having placed within the walls. Whether this be accepted or not, 

 it is ingenious. There seems to be a little obscurity with regard to 

 the early history of the building. The first monastic institution in 

 the place appears to have been a house of British nuns, at some 

 little distance from the present Abbey. These said nuns having 

 misconducted themselves were suppressed, and one Maildulphus, a 

 Scottish monk, comes on the scene. Unable peacefully to pursue 



