Ivi. SHAFTESBURY MEETING. 



bottom of the graves, clay which did not belong to the neigh- 

 bourhood, had had the peculiar property of destroying every 

 vestige of the bodies deposited in them. Above the church 

 used to rise a most magnificent and lofty tower and spire, which 

 were said to rival those of Salisbury Cathedral in grandeur and 

 beauty. 



The party then proceeded, under the conduct of Mr. Doran 

 Webb, the IMayor of Shaston, and Mr. H. C. Forrester, to walk 

 over the excavations. While the party were inspecting the tiles 

 Mr. Doran Webb pointed out the winged griffin, which he 

 stated to be the earliest paving tile of that type made in 

 England at about the close of the 13th century. The party 

 descended into the thoroughly-excavated crypt, 16 feet below 

 the level of the ground, where, as he pointed out, there were 

 two bays and two windows on the north side to admit light. 

 The groyne springs are still picturesquely in siiu at the four 

 corners. Mr. Doran Webb here mentioned a remarkable find 

 that greatly strengthens his theory that a noble chapel to 

 St. Edward, King and Martyr, once stood over the crypt. A 

 twisted spiral Byzantine column was found in the floor of the 

 crypt — the rarest thing they had found, the counter part of 

 which could only be seen in Westminster Abbey or St. Alban's. 

 This column probably supported originally a similar column and 

 a baldachino in the chapel above, where was the tomb of the 

 murdered monarch. In the crypt were found a large number of 

 brachycephalous skulls, belonging to a race that inhabited the 

 country possibly 5,000 years ago. Most of the skulls showed the 

 indent of a fracture apparently made by some stone weapon. He 

 conjectured that these skulls belonged to bodies of neolithic 

 men, who were buried at the headland. Then, when during 

 the Civil War earthworks were thrown up upon the head- 

 land, probably the workers, finding these skulls and wishing 

 to deposit them in some convenient sacred place, carted them 

 away and threw them down the crypt windows into the crypt. 

 The plastering of the walls of the crypt indicated that it was 

 used as a chapel. The old abbey, Mr. Webb stated in answer 



