DUNSTER PRIORY CHURCH. 9 
that subsequently introduced at Wymondham. The church 
is not cruciform, but the tower is interposed between the 
nave or parish church, and the collegiate choir to the 
east, since destroyed. This tower differs from that at 
Wymondham in not having a solid west wall, but an 
eastern and western arch ; but it was evidently intended to 
act as a barrier between the choir and the nave, and not 
to be itself a portion of either. A screen, with signs of an 
altar against it, runs across the western arch, so that it was 
no part of the nave, while external doorways and other 
features of its arrangement show that it was no part of 
the choir. It evidently remained an insulated portion 
between the two. 
Now it appears to me that the changes of 1499 intro- 
duced a similar arrangement into Dunster church. The 
old Norman tower-choir was taken down, the monks’ choir 
was removed into the eastern limb, and the present tower 
was erected between the monastic and parochial portions of 
the church. The high altar of the parish church was 
placed under the western arch, the roodscreen of the 
priory church under the eastern arch. The lantern itself, 
with the transepts, formed a noble vestibule to the church 
of the monks, who had a private entrance in the west wall 
of the south transept. Even the external character of 
the tower suggests something of this kind ; it is em- 
phatically a tower and not a lantern, being unusually 
lofty, and furnished with diagonal buttresses. Perhaps, 
however, I ought not to insist upon this last feature, which 
oceurs in other central towers in Somersetshire, where 
the same explanation cannot be given. The internal 
appearance of this tower and transepts is exceedingly 
noble. The lantern arches, though not very elaborate, 
are of excellent proportions, tall, bold, and somewhat 
voL. VI., 1855, PART II. B 
