XXXVI. MALMESBURY AND LACOCK. 



both of the transepts, have vanished, save two ruined arches 

 of the crossing and part of a transept wall. 



The cloisters and monastic buildings stood on the North 

 side, such fragments as have survived being now incorporated 

 with the Abbey House, an Elizabethan dwelling. 



The Norman porch on the South side, showing eight orders 

 on the outer arch and three on the inner, is the chief glory of 

 the Abbey. " We have," said Mr. Webb, " no other porch 

 equal to this in the whole country." 



The interior of the church retains the Norman vaulting 

 of the nave and aisles,which, with the other early work, enables 

 the stranger to form a conception of the beauty of the structure 

 in its entirety. An altar tomb bearing the recumbent effigy 

 of a king, reputed to be ^Ethelstan, lies near the South-east 

 corner. This king granted to the townsmen of Malmesbury 

 in A.D. 937 six hundred acres of land in the neighbourhood, 

 and the rights so conferred in Saxon times are enjoyed by 

 some 240 holders of allotments at the present day. 



After the Dissolution the Abbey was sold to one Master 

 Stumpe, a clothier, who set up his looms in the monastic 

 offices and even carried on his trade in parts of the church 

 itself. Nevertheless, it is to this Tudor clothier that we 

 mainly owe the preservation of the nave and its conversion 

 to the purposes of a parish church. The library of the monks 

 had contained manuscripts which would now be priceless, 

 but many of them, alas, were dipped in tallow and used by 

 Stumpe's weavers as a means of lighting them to and from 

 their work. 



THE TOWN. 



The belfry tower is the only surviving portion of the old 

 parish church of St. Paul, which was abandoned when the 

 Abbey was adapted to parochial uses ; this tower now serves 

 as a campanile for the monastic church. 



The octagonal market cross has its stone vaulting intact, 

 and is a fine example of the Perpendicular masonry of the 

 sixteenth century. 



I 



