GLASTONBURY ABBEY. 111 
and the abbey barn. Of the church, we can still 
trace the vestiges of St. Joseph’s chapel, the 
choir, transept and nave, and the curious building 
which connected St. Joseph’s chapel with the body 
of the church, commonly known as the ante-chapel ; 
of these the most ancient is St. Joseph’s chapel, 
and with the description of that building it will 
perhaps be best to begin.—This chapel, which is 
a beautiful specimen of very late Norman or tran- 
sition work, is a parallelogram, measuring from east 
to west about sixty six feet, and from north to 
south thirty six. Its north side is divided into 
four bays by buttresses without stages, projecting 
about two feet from the face of the wall, having 
shafts at the angles, with early English bases and 
capitals, but with the square abacus, rising from a 
base, consisting of a plain slope and late Norman or 
early English surbase, and finishing with a peculiarly 
elegant termination. The lower compartment of 
each bay, is enriched with an intersecting arcade, 
the shafts of which are divided at about half their 
height by a bead slightly undercut; the arches are 
enriched with a moulding in some degree approach- 
ing to the toothed ornament, perhaps a transition 
from the zig-zag. Above this arcade, is a very bold 
string course of transition character, which supports 
a window, the head of which is semicircular, deeply 
set in the wall, the arch being of two orders, with 
shafts in the angles, having transition capitals with 
the square abacus, supporting varied mouldings 
