DUNSTER PRIORY CHURCH. 3 
church,” and “the abbey ” or “ priory church.” There was 
often a complete barrier between the two, and the people 
had what may be called their own high altar, at the east 
end of the nave. Now at the dissolution of monasteries, 
the fate of these buildings was different from that of 
those churches which were wholly monastic. The latter, 
having been the exclusive property of the monks, became 
the exclusive property of the King and his grantees, and 
the entire building was preserved, destroyed, or dismantled 
at their pleasure. Such were Glastonbury, Tintern, Netley, 
Llanthony, and generally the famous ruined abbeys 
throughout the country. But when only part of a church 
belonged to the monks, and part to the parish, the Disso- 
lution in no way interfered with the latter. Hence it is 
that we find so many grand churches imperfect ; the nave, as 
being the parish church, was left standing, while the eastern 
portion, which belonged to the monks or canons, was 
alienated by the Dissolution, and was commonly pulled 
down or left ruinous. This we see at Malmesbury, 
Waltham, Leominster, Fotheringhay, Usk, Chepstow, 
Ruthin, Deerhurst, and many others.* In some instances 
the monastie portion has been added to the parish church, 
as at Tewkesbury, where it was originally destined to 
destruction, but was purchased of the King by the parish- 
ioners; and at Dorchester, where it was the gift of an 
* T could prolong this list indefinitely. But there is an exceptional 
class of half-preserved churches, for which I cannot so well account, where 
the choir is preserved as the paris church, the nave being destroyed. 
This is the case with Great St. Bartholomew’s in London, Pershore, Wor- 
cestershire, Boxgrove and New Shoreham, Sussex, and, I may add, Bristol 
Cathedral. In connexion with the two Sussex examples, it is worth noting 
that at Winchelsea the Friary has the nave totally destroyed, wlıile the 
choir exists, though in ruins, and that the old Guildhall at Chichester is a 
desecrated choir, whose nave is destroyed. Winchelsea parish church, and 
Merton Chapel, Oxford, are unfinished; at Hexham, I believe, the nave 
was destroyed in the Scottish wars, and never rebuilt. 
