66 The New Forest : its History and its Scenery. 



saint, the Virgin, and above runs the string-course, supported 

 by its carved corbel-heads. But the whole building has been 

 unfortunately defaced by a moat and turretted wall, built as 

 a defence by one of the Montagues against French privateers, 

 as also by the modernized windows.* 



The entrance -hall, too, like all the other rooms, has been 

 sadly modernized, though its fine groined roof, springing from 

 four shafts on each side, and a lancet window in the east 

 wall, still remain. Upstairs, also, is left some oak panelling 

 of Henry VIII. 's time, of the linen pattern, but covered over 

 with paint. Eastward, in the meadow, stands the domus con- 

 versorura, better known in the village, from its former occu- 

 pants, as Burman's House. Passing through it, we suddenly 

 come upon the green quadrangle once surrounded with cloisters, 

 where the three arches leading into the chapter-house still 

 remain. The black Purbeck marble shafts, and bands, and 

 capitals, have, however, long since become weather-worn and 

 decayed, though the Binstead and Caen stone still stands, here 

 and there covered with ivy, crested with wall-flowers, and white 

 and crimson pinks, and rusted with lichens. 



In the chapter-house are strewed the broken pillars which 

 supported the groined roof, and the broken stone-seats which 

 ran round the inside, whilst on the floor lie a stone coffin 

 and gravestones. To the north of it stand the ruins of the 

 sacristy. 



Of the cloisters, the north alley is the most perfect, with 

 its seven carols, where the monks sat and talked ; whilst above 



* Accounts of this palace — probably, as Mr. Walcott says, the King's 

 hunting lodge — may be found in the Proceedings of the Archoeological 

 Instctute, 1846, p. 32, and the Rev. Maicenzie VV'alcott's Church and Con- 

 ventual Ari'angement, p. 115. 



