18 NINTII ANNUAL MEETING. 



priors, as far as he had been able to ascertain thern, and 

 read a curious document relating to its suppression in the 

 time of Henry VIII, which had been furnished him by 

 Lord Talbot de Malahide, being a petition from Richard 

 Zouch, for a grant of the property, on the plea that it was 

 given by bis ancestors. 



The Rev. T. Hugo remarked, on the architectural 

 character of the existing remains, that these were entirely 

 of the later perpendicular period, with the exception of 

 portions of a south doorway, which probably belonged to 

 the former church. Little of the conventual buildings 

 remained, and these were changed so much as to be recog- 

 nised with difficulty. Mr. Hugo, however, drew particular 

 attention to whafc was originally a niost exquisite chapel 

 on the north side of the chancel, with a connecting arch 

 beautifully panelled, and a roof of fan tracery. It still 

 preserves much of its original beauty, but is divided into 

 several floors, each of which is used by the resident house- 

 hold. He strongly recommended that careful representa- 

 tions should be published of the brackets, &c, of this very 

 interesting roof, which he characterised as some of the 

 finest that he had ever seen. The only difficulty, and 

 that but an apparent one, was in the Avoodwork of the 

 secular dwelling-house, which divided the building into 

 several stories, and numerous apartments. This seemed 

 of an age coeval with the stone work of the sacred edifice 

 itself But the difficulty vanished when it was recollected 

 that the Zouch family obtained possession of the place, 

 and occupied it immediately after its surrender to the 

 king. From our knowledge of its construction, as arrived 

 at from the style of the architecture, we find that the 

 edifice was both erected as a church, and converted into 

 a private dAvelling within the space of a few years. 



