(JERNE A&b MINTERNE MEETING, xli. 



Abbot Thomas in 1509, the building with a quaint oriel window 

 standing near it, reputed to be the Abbot's lodging, and the old 

 tithe barn, comprise the whole of the buildings of the Abbey 

 now remaining. 



To the writer one difficulty, in accepting the suggestion that 

 the building with the small oriel window was the Abbot's 

 lodging, is its position in relation to the Abbot's entrance 

 gateway, and he suggests that the old hypothesis, that the 

 building in question was a guest house, is correct. It seems 

 to him probable that it was built or restored by John 

 Vanne, who was appointed Abbot in 1458 and died in 

 1470, and whose monogram is upon a mantelpiece which 

 was removed from the upper storey of the building some 

 years ago, and now stands in the dining-room of the farm- 

 house ; the architectural details of the mantelpiece accord 

 with the date. He is informed by the Vicar that a somewhat 

 similar mantelpiece with the same monogram was found recently 

 in a cottage. 



Photographs of the Gateway, the building with oriel window, 

 and the Barn, have been reproduced for this volume. 



Some members expressed doubt as to the antiquity of the 

 tracery in the gateway windows. A close and critical examina- 

 tion may prove that this is modern, though, looking from the 

 ground, it is not clearly apparent that it is so ; nor is it easy to 

 point to a time when such a work would be likely to have been 

 undertaken. The building was restored by Lord Rivers in 1 840, 

 and, no doubt, the tracery was repaired then, but the work, 

 viewed from the ground, does not look as if it could have been 

 wholly executed at that date. That the tracery was perfect 

 33 years before we may infer from the fact that it is so 

 represented in the illustration of it given in the earlier edition of 

 Hutchins' History of Dorset. At what period then, before 1773, 

 was the tracery renewed, and with what object, or was it renewed 

 between 1773 and 1840? 



Two photographs of Abbey Street, in which street the church 

 stands, are also introduced that a pictorial record of its present 



