Ivi. BRADFORD-ON-AVON AKD BATH MEETING. 



previous one of John de Villula. The monastic buildings were 

 on the south side of the abbey, but they had gone entirely. 

 After 1242 the Canons of Wells, whose church had begun to 

 rise, showed much jealousy of the eminence hitherto enjoyed by 

 Bath, and whenever the Bishopric became vacant there was a 

 strife between them who should appoint the Bishop. Some- 

 times he was appointed by Bath and sometimes by Wells. 

 There were appeals and much litigation, whereby the 40 monks 

 of Bath were reduced to a state of perpetual involuntary poverty, 

 and were not able to keep up their great cathedral church. 

 It, therefore, became an utter ruin, and so continued for 

 two hundred years. In 1499 the Bishop of Bath and 

 Wells, as the title had been since 1244, was Dr. Oliver 

 King, whose rebus, an olive tree springing out of a crown, 

 was to be seen on the abbey walls. Tradition had it 

 that he dreamed a dream, in which he saw a ladder set up to 

 heaven from earth, and angels ascending and descending it, and 

 was exhorted to restore the church. He acted upon the 

 suggestion of the dream, and the vision was commemorated in 

 the carving of the ladder and heavenly host on the west front. 

 The plan for the re-edification of that ancient church was 

 carried out mainly by William Bird, who also built the chantry, 

 quite the most interesting architectural feature of the church. 

 The delicate fan tracery and vaulting was similar to that of the 

 choir. The church had always been dedicated to SS. Peter and 

 Paul. It was reconsecrated about 1592. The beautiful vaulting 

 of the nave, to correspond with the chancel vaulting, which was 

 pre -Reformation, was carried out between the years 1864 and 

 1871 by Prebendary Kemble and Sir Gilbert Scott, replacing as 

 it did the waggon roof of plaster and wood. The length of the 

 abbey now was 225 feet. The numbers of weeks and months 

 of the year and days of the week were signified by the 52 

 windows, the 12 columns, and seven doors. The church was 

 of fine proportions. He pointed out, as worthy of the admira- 

 tion of the Club, the magnificent east and west windows, 

 and the clerestory windows, of great size and elegance. Canon 



