42 SHAFTESBURY. 



north side of the north aisle. There seems also to have been a 

 south aisle similar to the northern, hut the Avails were not fully 

 uncovered. About 60 feet of the eastern portion of the church 

 Avere exposed. The Avails were seven feet in thickness, and the 

 Avidtli of the Presbytery 28 feet, indicating, on comparison with S. 

 Alban's Abbey, a church of the presumptive length of some 350 — 

 400 feet from east to Avest. The seal of the Abbey, engraved in 

 Hidclnns iii. 1, represents thft Avest front of a church of cathedral 

 character, in the Early English style, Avith a spire shoAving above 

 the roof. I am not aAvare that there is any evidence that a spire 

 Avas subsequently added to the Xorman church (thougl} some have 

 strangely supposed that the shaft of the spire gave its name to 

 Shaftesbury), and I presume that a seal made in the 13th century 

 Avould represent a church in the reigning style, of Avhatever kind 

 the actual church might be. A detailed account of such altars, 

 tiles, interments, &c., as Avere discovered during the excavations, 

 may be read in Mr. Kite's paper in the Wilts Archceolo(/ical 

 Magazine for October, 1862. The Abbey Avas dissolved in 1539, 

 and it is marvellous that the church seems to have disappeared by 

 the time of Leland's visit a few years later. Speedy must have 

 been the Avork of destruction. Perhaps the grantee supposed that 

 if the buildings Avere gone the chance of restitution Avould become 

 more remote. The Abbey buildings stood to the Avest of the 

 church. There Avere chantries to S. jN^icholas, S. Cross, S. John 

 Baptist, S. Catherine, S. Edward, S. Mary, S. Leonard, S. Thomas, 

 and others. Beyond the court rolls already mentioned, and 

 certain rolls of accounts, the municipal documents do not concern 

 the history of the abbey. 



PAROCHIAL HISTOKY. 

 Shaftesbury contained anciently about 12 churches, exclusive of 

 the monastic church. These Avere S. Peter, now including the 

 parishes of S. Martin and S. AndrcAV ; Holy Trinit}^, including S. 

 Lawrence and the chapel of S. iNIichael ; S. James, including All 

 Saints, St. John Baptist, S. Mary (avIucIi Ilutchins states to be 



