024 ANTIQUITIES 



belonging to so large a foundation. The roofs neglected, 

 would soon become the possession of daws and owls ; 

 and, being rotted and decayed by the weather, would 

 fall in upon the floors; so that all parts must have 

 hastened to speedy dilapidation and a scene of broken 

 ruins. Three full centuries have now passed since the 

 dissolution; a series of years that would craze the 

 stoutest edifices. But, besides the slow hand of time, 

 many circumstances have contributed to level this vene- 

 rable structure with the ground ; of which nothing now 

 remains but one piece of a wall of about ten feet long, 

 and as many feet high, which probably was part of an 

 out-house. As early as the latter end of the reign of 

 Hen. VII. we find that a farm-house and two barns 

 were built to the south of the Priory, and undoubtedly 

 out of its materials. Avarice, again, has much contri- 

 buted to the overthrow of this stately pile, as long as 

 the tenants could make money of its stones or timbers. 

 Wantonness, no doubt, has had a share in the demoli- 

 tion ; for boys love to destroy what men venerate and 

 admire. A remarkable instance of this propensity the 

 writer can give from his own knowledge. When a 

 schoolboy, more than fifty years ago, he was eyewit- 

 ness, perhaps a party concerned, in the undermining a 

 portion of that fine old ruin at the north end of Basing- 

 stoke town, well known by the name of Holy Ghost 

 Chapel. Very providentially the vast fragment, which 

 these thoughtless little engineers endeavoured to sap, 

 did not give way so soon as might have been expected; 

 but it fell the night following, and with such violence 

 that it shook the very ground, and, awakening the inha- 

 bitants of the neighbouring cottages, made them start 

 up in their beds as if they had felt an earthquake. The 

 motive for this dangerous attempt does not so readily 

 appear: perhaps the more danger the more honour, 

 thought the boys ; and the notion of doing some mis- 

 chief gave a zest to the enterprise. As Dryden says 

 upon another occasion, 



" It look'd so like a sin it pleased the more-." 



