46 ABBOTSBURY ABBEY. 



present roof, with its quasi hammer-beam, but not very old looking 

 framing, to be of the i;th century only, and ] robably always 

 thatched as now, whereas I cannot but believe that such grand 

 walls originally carried a noble massive roof, with most likely 

 stone tiles such a roof as that of the majestic Cerne Abbas 

 barn. Further, I venture to think that the barn was parapeted 

 all round, the parapet carried on corbels and with rain-holes 

 in the parapet. The south wall shows signs of this. Before 

 quitting the barn I may say that, while I think the roof only 200 

 to 300 years old, the beams upholding the upper floor in the north 

 porch may be original, and just possibly the two or three vastly 

 long ones reaching right across the barn. The north doors are by 

 no means new perhaps as old as the roof. On the oak door bar 

 there is a cutting of the date 1730. I cannot see how waggons 

 got easy exit or entrance at the south doors, the steep land rises 

 so close to them. I think, indeed, the disused mill race there to 

 be a modern intrusion, but even allowing for this there seems but 

 little room. 



As no remark seems called for respecting the all but demolished 

 gatehouse, the supposed scene of the starving to death of the last 

 Abbot, we now pass on to by many degrees the- most noteworthy 

 building belonging to Abbotsbury Abbey. This, of course, is St. 

 Catharine's Chapel, intended, it is believed, both as a seamark 

 and beacon tower, and as a chantry for sailors. Chapels with 

 this dedication to St. Catharine are often on hills for instance, 

 the little one at Milton Abbas. Why was this ? Mr. Hills, 

 secretary of the British Archaeological Association, when they met 

 here in 1871, threw out this suggestion. Catharine is from 

 Ka0ap6s, pure, as every one knows. Might the high situation for 

 her chapels be chosen with an idea of placing them in air of 

 congenial purity ? Again, another idea is that lofty sites were 

 chosen because of a mountain coming into the legend of St. 

 Catharine's death, when she was borne of angels to Mount Sinai. 

 But, for whatever reason so placed, here we have a grandly 

 situated St. Catharine's, and well worthy of its heavenward, airy 



