136 PAPERS, ETC. 



worden in the year 1418, and John Morthfield in 1421 ; 

 and it follows, in consequence, that the re-structure of the 

 church must have been between those years, or, at least, 

 about that period. The sum expended also — a very large 

 one in those times — shows a work commensurate to the 

 re-edification of the church and aisles, the only parts spoken 

 of in the Compotus of Colebrooke. The tower, perhaps, had 

 been recently built, and did not therefore require renova- 

 tion. So that neither Abbot Beere's " head conceived or 

 hand prepared" aught towards the building of St. John's 

 church. Touching St. Benedict our historian says : " Its 

 style is that of the piain, solid, early Gothic ; its members, 

 a western tower, nave, north aisle and porch, chancel and 

 vestry. As the initials of Richard Beere, R. B., the 

 immediate successor of the last Abbot, Richard Wheting, 

 occur over the porch,* it seems to follow that the 

 church was indebted to him for considerable repairs or 

 additions. The stone pulpit, and octagonal fönt for total 

 immersion, within the church, those certain marks of 

 an early age, are proofs that the body of it was built 

 long anterior to the period in which Abbot Beere 

 lived," proving beyond a doubt that, as at the hospital 

 for lepers, at Monkton, near Taunton, the initials, 

 accompanied by the Abbot's mitre, here introduced, but 

 record a repair. As to bis skill in architecture — when I 

 read " that he built the new lodgings by the great Chamber, 

 called the King's lodgings, in the gallery, as also the new 

 lodo'mgs for secular priests and clerks of our lady ; that he 

 likewise built the greater part of Edgar's chapel, at the 

 east end of the church, at both sides ; strengthened the 

 steeple in the middle by a vault and two arches (othervvise 

 it had fallen) ; made a chapel of our Lady of Loretto,join- 

 * See Illustration, Plate XII. 



