82 PAPERS, ETC. 
original use and general plan as appear to me to be 
founded on the strongest probabilities. 
On the left side of the road leading from Watchet to 
Wiveliscombe, a few hundred yards beyond the Washford 
turnpike-gate, an ancient bridge crosses the rapid stream 
which on that side divides the road from a line of rich 
meadow land oceupying the space between it and the 
rising ground on the east. This bridge leads to a gate 
apparently and probably modern, though the remains 
of an ancient jamb on the left side would seem to in- 
dicate the contrary ; the wall, however, in which it stands 
is hardly thick enough for an outer boundary. -It is more 
likely that this is an ancient fragment worked imto a 
modern wall, than that a gate should have been originally 
placed so far without the porter’slodge. There is, however, 
an ancient pitched causeway on the right side of the way, 
leading to the great gate-house. From the north-eastern 
corner of this gate-house a wall of excellent masonry and 
considerable height and thickness extends for some distance 
until it reaches the extremity of a deep moat ; at this point 
there was a gate leading into the meadow, part of the left 
jamb of which, formed of good ashler work and ornamented 
on the outside with a trefoiled chamfer stop, still remains. 
From this gate the moat, which is of considerable breadth 
and depth, extends on the eastern and southern sides of the 
ruins, to within a short distance of the brook, enclosing an 
irregularly-shaped area of several acres. From the point 
where the moat ceases to the brook, the boundary appears 
to have been continued by a wall which may also be traced 
along the side of the brook to the north-west corner of the 
gate-house. This moat, with the brook and the walls con- 
necting it with the gate, constituted the outer boundary of 
the home farm of the Abbey, and contained, besides the 
