SHERBORNE MEETING. xlix. 



Mr. Wildman, their local archaeologist, and Mr. Leach, of the 

 Endowed Schools Commission, both believed that it was an 

 episcopal school, since the master in 1430 was resident in the 

 town, and not in the Monastery. The old school-house was 

 pulled down in the i yth century and rebuilt as they now saw it. 

 Leading the way into the Court, he pointed out where used to 

 stand the conduit, built by Abbot Meere, which had been 

 removed, and now stood upon The Parade in the town. The 

 old conduit water still ran through the ground. The water was 

 pure, and said to be pleasanter than the town water; but the 

 pipes, being old, were under suspicion. The conduit, un- 

 doubtedly, was the property of the School Governors. Why 

 they allowed it to be removed he could not understand, and he 

 wished that they could get it back. He pointed to the slype, or 

 passage, of the i3th century, leading from the cloister garth into 

 the graveyard. The stairs beside them led up to the only 

 remaining fragment of the monastic dormitory. He next 

 showed the site of the Abbey Infirmary. The Abbot's Lodging 

 was now used as the school-house studies, while the chapel was 

 the Abbot's hall. He indicated where the monks' library used 

 to be and the dormitory. At this point Canon Westcott 

 exhibited a large plan made from a drawing by Mr. Wildman, 

 showing in red the surviving ancient buildings. On this the 

 plan of the dormitory was shown in blue. Underneath it was 

 the calefactory, or day room, and the monks' parlour. He 

 showed, too, where the Chapter House, supposed to have been 

 Norman, was thought to have stood. What the school library 

 originally was nobody knew ; but there were two theories that 

 it was the guest house of the monastery or else the domus 

 conversorum. Leading the way up into the school library, he 

 stated that the walls were ancient i5th century, if not earlier 

 but the windows were modern, put in by Mr. Carpenter, who 

 restored the Abbey Church. Until the year 1850 the library 

 was a silk factory, with square windows and plastered roof ! 

 Yet underneath all the time was the lofty and noble original 

 roof, since opened out to view again. Time failed to do 



