By H. J. MOULE, M.A. 



3 n HERE are many things which set us wondering 

 many things yet living on amid destruc- 

 tive improvement, which set us wondering 

 whether we quite know what manner of 

 men the mediaevals were. We hardly can, 

 to be sure. Who that is much with "the 

 working man " can say that he is able to 

 look into the very heart of him ? How, 

 then, can we really know our Englishmen 

 of the far away centuries ? There are many things which set 

 us thus pondering. And among them these monastery barns 

 are not a little noteworthy. They are so utterly different to all 

 and sundry barns of these times. So much so that many people 

 cannot believe that these huge majestic buildings were made 

 for barns. Yet nothing is more certain than that this was the 

 case. The great doorways, to name one proof, show this. 

 They are not church doorways ; they are not hall doorways ; 

 they are barn doorways, pure and simple. Look at them here, 

 look at them at the other great Dorset Abbey barn, that at 

 Abbotsbury. Once again, the lighting, or non-lighting rather, 

 is a proof. These long narrow loops are all right for a barn, but 



