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THE HAMPSHIRE ANTIQUARY & NATURALIST. 



associations \vith Margaret of Anjou and Perkin 

 Warbeck has been well told in the late Mr. J. R. 

 Wise's " New Forest," so that we need not detail it 

 here. All that is left of the ruins now is the cloister 

 court, and the surrounding domestic buildings, of 

 which the refectory (or dining hall) is now used as 

 the parish church. These domestic buildings are in 

 a good state of preservation, and if the church itself 

 was in the same condition it would have been one ot 

 the finest ruins in the country. It would have been 

 one of the largest, too, for the church was 404 feet 

 long. But of this scarce a vestige now remains. Its 

 extent was a few years ago indicated by a stone 

 course, with the positions ot the great pillars support- 

 ing the roof ; but this is now overgrown 

 by the grass, and nothing is to be seen save 

 the two little patches of tile pavement. It is to 

 be hoped that every effort will be made to save these, 

 though they have considerably deteriorated since 

 they were first discovered, and it would be well if the 

 stone course marking the outlines of the building 

 could be again brought into view. Lord Montagu 

 possesses a valuable historical heritage, and fortun- 

 ately takes a great interest in its intelligent preserva- 

 tion, and has already done much to ensure this. He 

 has it in contemplation to remove the great unsightly 

 buttress which mars the triplet window at the south 

 end of the present church, an improvement which 

 will be welcomed by antiquaries generally, regard of 

 course being had to the stability of the building. The 

 stone of which this church is built is (Mr. Shore 

 mentioned) mostly from Binstead, in the Isle of 

 Wight, with some Purbeck, and (inside) a little Port- 

 land. The vicar, the Rev. R. F. Powles, M.A., met 

 the party in the churchyard, and led the way into the 

 church, where great admiration was expressed for 

 the beautiful carved stone pulpit, formerly the 

 lectern or reading desk of the refectory, This is com- 

 posed of two, or three, kinds of stone Caen and Pur- 

 beck, the lower part being so covered with limewash 

 as to be uncertain. Here also Lord Montagu's anti- 

 quarian taste has been brought into requisition in re- 

 moving the high modern cills of the windows made 

 to be out of the way of the pews and exposing the 

 old sloping cills with their marble stringcourse, with f 

 in places, traces of the old wall colouring. Some of 

 these yet remain to be done. Mr. B. W. Greenfield, 

 F.S.A., gave an account of the carved heads and 

 armorial bearings on the woodwork of the roof, 

 among which are the heads of (possibly) King John 

 and his son Richard, King of the Romans, the arms 

 of the abbey, of William of Wykeham, of the 

 Wriothesley family, c. After a look at the clock-tower 

 or old water gate, Lord Montagu allowed his visitors 

 to inspect some of the antiquarian features of the in- 

 terior of the Palace House, where the fine groined 

 roof of what was formerly the entrance hall to the 

 monastic building was much admired. Around the 

 house a predecessor of Lord Montagu constructed a 

 defensive moat, spreading the soil removed from it 



over the lawn, which thus hid away two or three feet 

 of the wall of the house. This has now 

 been removed, so as to show this fine en- 

 trance in its entirety. It is now an integral 

 part of the dwelling house, windows having been put 

 in where formerly a porch was open to the weather, 

 and the doorway inside being now blocked up with 

 fireplaces. Ui*der the lawn, between the water-gate 

 and the house, Lord Montagu had exposed (but again 

 covered up) the foundations of the domestic buildings 

 of the monastery, with two perfect domed water chan- 

 nels, whilst beyond, to the eastward, had been dis- 

 covered remains of the old quay. That the roof of the 

 Palace House was formerty flat was shown by the old 

 corbel table along the upper part of its front, with 

 some curious gargo\ - les, of which the centre one 

 represents Adam and Eve with the tree between 

 them. In the cloister court Lord Montagu took leave 

 of his guests to meet another party of visitors, not, 

 however, before the President had expressed thanks 

 for the kindness he had shown. Sandwiches were then 

 dispatched, and a further examination made of the 

 ruins and the museum, which contains some interest- 

 ing antiquities, including some remains from tumuli 

 on the heath, elaborate!}- carved tombstones (some of 

 which had evidently possessed brasses) and orna- 

 mental tiles. Of these tiles several have been pre- 

 served in tablets on the wall by a former Vicar, Mr. 

 Baker, and here, by an old Purbeck marble table 

 (possibly an altar slab), Mr. Greenfield read 

 the following paper, illustrated with a number of 

 specimens and carefully coloured drawings of the 

 tiles : 



MONASTIC DECORATIVE TILES. 



Pavements formed of encaustic tiles did not come into 

 use until the end of the twelfth century ; and although 

 there appears to be no natural or necessary connection 

 between this kind of pavement and the Gothic style of 

 architecture, yet, as a matter of fact, they came in together 

 and went out together. This, not without reason, m <y be 

 attributable to the reformation of religion and the supres- 

 sion of the monasteries, for the regular clergy, that is the 

 monks and friars, were the conservators both of the style 

 of architecture and the internal decoration of their 

 monasteries ; and the demolition of the fabrics of their 

 establishments involved the destruction of both, and so led 

 to the introduction of that which was different and new. 



There are three kinds of encaustic tiles. The first and 

 most common is that in which the pattern is stamped in 

 and filled up level with a different coloured clay and var- 

 nished over with a transparent glaze. The second kind is 

 made in the same manner, but not glazed, and some- 

 times the pattern is not filled in, leaving the 

 surface, therefore, uneven. But this kind scarcely- belongs 

 to the monastic. The third is made like China ware, or 

 articles of Faience, and smeared with an opaque glaze that 

 conceals the colour and nature of the material of the tile. 

 The process of manufacture of the inlaid monastic tile was 

 as follows : Upon the quarry of red clay, hardened pro- 

 bably in part in the sun, the design was impressed by 

 means of a stamp cut in relief much resembling a wooden 

 butter-print. The cavities thus formed were usually filled 

 in with whitish coloured clay. The tile thus prepared was 

 then 'faced with a transparent metallic glaze. 



