~=— ee. 
11 
Aotes on Recent Discoveries at Lacock Abbey.’ 
By C. H. Taxzor. 
HE Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Society 
has, on several occasions, visited Lacock Abbey, so that 
the building, as a whole, must be pretty well known to many of the 
Members; but, during the past year (1894) considerable discoveries 
have been made, and works of the nature of restoration have been 
carried out, under the professional superintendence of Mr. Harold 
Brakspear, so that there is a good deal to be seen that will be new 
to them. 
One of the ill-advised and destructive alterations of the last 
century was the removal of the east walls and windows of the 
sacristy, chapter-house, and day-room, by which those buildings 
were thrown open to the terrace, the doors of communication with 
the adjacent buildings being, at the same time, walled up. In the 
ease of the chapter-house and sacristy, this alteration has now been 
reversed, and it is hoped that the day-room may soon be proceeded 
with in a similar manner. 
The most striking discovery that we have made is that of the 
original west front of the chapter-house, of the thirteenth century. 
We have opened out the arch of entrance and the two unglazed side 
windows.? This Early English front was respected by the builders 
of the Perpendicular cloister, who retained it and carried their own 
work across it, in a very remarkable manner. It must be understood 
that the present vaulted cloister has replaced an earlier cloister,’ 
1 Read before the Society, at Corsham, August Ist, 1895. 
2 It was obvious, from the treatment of the vaulting, as I noticed in my first 
archeological paper, (Wilts Arch. Mag., vol. xii., p. 224), that this, the typical 
arrangement, must once have existed, but we hardly expected to find it so well 
preserved. 
5 The four sides of this earlier cloister were probably complete, but the west 
walk of the later cloister, though intended, was never erected. In the west wall 
of the cloister court, at the back of the modern dining-room, I discovered and 
