126 St. Nicholas’ Hospital, Salisbury. 
they are “the brethren and sisters serving God in that place, and 
to serve Him in future ;” and the most common description of them 
is this: “that they are serving God in this place ”—a description 
which, though it might be conceived to be that of pensioners, is at 
least more appropriate to ministering inmates. A still more con- 
vineing description of them is “ brethren and sisters and infirm 
people,” but to this we cannot assign any date. The “sisters” 
appear very rarely in dated deeds, and range from 1245 to 1361. 
The last record of them is in Phillips’ ‘ Wiltshire Institutions,” 
where in 1861 we find Laurentia Bonham instituted to the house 
of St. Nicholas by Bishop Wyvill, “as a sister of the said house, on 
the presentation of the warden and brethren of St. Nicholas’ house.” 
On the whole, therefore, it is probable that the “ fratres ” were 
ministering brethren, and the “ sorores”’ ministering sisters, at 
least down to the middle of the fourteenth century, after which we 
have no evidence on the point. I shall discuss later on the question 
at what precise date they were changed into pensioners. 
But now we must turn to a different question. It has hitherto 
been taken for granted that the arcade of eight arches, still partially 
visible in the chapel and wall of the master’s house, with all the large 
buildings once adjacent to it, was the work of Bishop Bingham. 
But this is a conclusion not to be assumed without reason given. 
The pillars and arches themselves, with an old doorway, and the 
chapel and kitchen (which was once another chapel) are the only 
remaining features of antiquity in the hospital. And it is disputed 
of what antiquity they are. Canon Jones thought them about 
1160.1 When the Archeological Institute visited Salisbury in 
1 Canon Jones was of opinion that this arcade of arches, built about 1160, had 
belonged to the old Church of St. Martin: and he referred (in a letter to me) to 
Leland, and his words “that, when standing on the bridge in 1540, he saw on 
the north side of St. Nicholas’s Hospital the remains of the old St. Martin’s 
Church im a barn.” It would solve many difficulties if we could believe this ; 
but Leland’s words actually are as follows :—‘‘ On the north side of this hospital 
is an old barn, where in times past was a parish Church of St. Martin. This 
Church was profaned, and another was made in Salisbury for it, bearing yet the 
name of St. Martin. The cause of the translation was because it stood exceedingly 
low and cold, and the river at rages came into it.” It is only fair to state that 
Canon Jones was on a holiday, away from books, when he wrote. Leland 
