6 PAPERS, ETC. 
tieularly good preservation, while the other two, which no 
doubt contained statues of the Blessed Virgin and the be- 
loved disciple St. John, are unfortunately vacant. At first 
sight I hastily concluded that this front was similar in con- 
struction to the other—that is to say, that it was an early 
building, probably of the 13th century, modernized and 
adorned in a later style. But my friend Mr. Giles, who 
has kindly assisted me in my investigation, and to whose 
professional acumen I am indebted for many valuable sug- 
gestions, pointed out that this arch, though apparently 
equilateral, was, in fact, four-centered ; and also that the 
flanking buttresses were not, as in the cases before men- 
tioned, built against the wall, but were actually parts of it; 
and that the whole front was really what it professes to be— 
a work of the latter part of the 15th or the beginning of 
the 16th century, beautifully adapted to the general effect 
of the gate-house modernized as I have described. 
The inferences which I draw from these facts are, that 
the gate-house is a fabrice of the 13th or 14th century, and 
was from the first used as the hostelry and guest-hall of 
the Abbey. That Abbot Dovell enlarged and raised the 
hall, built the internal front and the buttresses, filled up 
the arches leading to the stables on the ground floor (an 
arrangement which had in his days become antiquated,) 
added to the west side a porter’s lodge, the foundation of 
which may still be traced, pulled down the original lodge 
on the east side, and left the door by which it had origi- 
nally been entered as a side way to the gate for the use of 
foot passengers. 
Having passed the gate-house, we find ourselves in a 
scene of peculiar beauty—we are now within the enclo- 
sure of the Abbey, the boundary wall of which extends 
along the hedge on the left hand, in which there still re- 
