DR CLARKE ON HOLT ISLAND PRIORY. Il3 



remarkably so wlien we consider, that, in buildings of tliat period, 

 this part has generally imdergone a change, by the insertion of 

 windows of a later style, leaving only the Norman door below to point 

 to the real date of the structure. Here, we have a door of great depth 

 and richness of effect from the number and boldness of the ornaments. 

 On either side are plain semicircular blank arches — but not intersect- 

 ing — and the whole was flanked by towers, one of which still exists. 

 Of the nave, the southern portion as well as the south aisle is entirely 

 gone, but that on the north is tolerably complete. The piers, with 

 their capitals, which bore up the arches, are of various patterns, 

 channelled, lozenged, shafted, and shewing in their sculptured sur- 

 faces, and the various fretwork of the arches, that is, in the only 

 decoration which the style admitted — the germ of that inexhaustible 

 variety and miiltiplicity of ornament which was in the sequel to charac- 

 terize the Gothic. 



The nave as well as aisles, has been vaulted in stone, as is evidenced 

 from the vaulting shafts, and commencing springers still seen at the 

 junction of the nave and transepts, and from the curve of the vault 

 itself, yet traceable at the west end, but denuded of its ribs. This is 

 a remarkable and almost singular instance of the centre aisle of a 

 Norman building receiving a vault of stone. Both in England and on 

 the Continent, the nave was covered simply by a flat boarded roof, to 

 which were in a great degree owing the frequent and destructive fires 

 of our early churches. 



There are six arches in the nave, but the last is of smaller dimen- 

 sions than the rest. This peculiarity is not unfrequent in Norman 

 and Gothic churches, as if the architect had not previously calculated 

 the space to be occupied by his arcade. The effect here has been to 

 produce a horse-shoe instead of a semicircular arch, from its being of 

 the same height, but lesser span, than the others. This arch is very 

 rare, even in Norman buildings. 



Above the pier -arches there has existed a trif orium, of which the 

 only remains are a single shaft at either end of the nave, the beginning 

 and termination of the arcade. The Norman triforium is in England 

 simply a row of openings or pannels in the wall, to fill up, ornament- 

 ally, what would otherwise have been a blank space. In Germany it 

 is a real gallery, and appropriated to the young men, and called the 

 Manner-chor. 



Of the vaulting of the north aisle one arch still remains, but flattened 

 at top, and only retained in its position by the wedge-form of the 

 stones which compose it. This will soon fall, and yet might be easily 

 preserved. The vaulting was quadripartite — the piers, with their 

 cushioned capitals, and transverse ribs, are yet seen. In one or two 

 places, the vaulting from pier to pier yet remains, though the ribs 

 which woiild have appeared to support it are gone. This is a proof 

 that the ribs used in vaulting were introduced merely to satisfy the 



