214 Edington Church. 
use of an altar here. Traces of a screen wall or reredos, 5ft. high 
and 94in. thick exist behind the site of this altar; this was probably 
erected when another chantry was formed farther eastward, where 
a later piscina has been inserted. 
Although the entire floor of the transepts is now on one level, the 
rough wall surface above it on the east side, and the higher position 
of the bases of the tower piers here, afford ample evidence that the 
spaces on each side of the projecting rood screen were raised to the 
extent of a further thirteen inches or so; this would point to there 
having been another altar in the south transept. [It has since 
been discovered that the lower step of this raised space returned 
westwards across the south transept, sufficiently far in front of the 
tomb to protect the grave of tke ecclesiastic whom it commemo- 
rates. | 
The large dimensions of the chancel would point to the conclusion 
that the founder of the monastery contemplated a goodly number of 
brethren, but Leland gives the number of priests in the college as 
twelve, and the highest recorded number of inmates of the monas- 
tery is that given in a petition to the diocesan to select a new rector 
on the death of the first rector, John Ailesbury, in 1382, the words 
* Co-rector and convent, eighteen in number,” here occur ; but as 
this was sixteen years after the death of William of Edington, it is 
possible that this number was at one time exceeded. At the sur-- 
render of the monastery by Paul Bush, in 1539, the number had 
become reduced again to twelve. 
The chancel is of three bays in length, and the side windows are, 
in design and dimensions, like those in the transepts; and the Per- 
pendicularized form of reticulated tracery here is very characteristic. 
The original ehancel roof was an open timbered one, with circular 
braces, the lines of which are traceable on the walls; this has 
disappeared, and a modern roof and plaster ceiling about a century 
old have taken its place. But the corbels, which supported the roof 
trusses, remain—two on each side—and are supported by beautiful 
niches. These four niches probably contained figures of the 
Evangelists, the headless remains of two of which still exist, and 
their graceful drapery indicates a high order of art. The emblems 
