510 ANTIQUITIES 



the very foundations have been torn up for the repair of 

 the highways ; so that the site of this convent is now be- 

 come a rough, rugged pasture-field, full of hillocks and pits, 

 choked with nettles and dwarf-elder, and trampled by the 

 feet of the ox and the heifer. 1 



As the tenant at the Priory was lately digging among 

 the foundations, for materials to mend the highways, his 

 labourers discovered two large stones, with which the far- 

 mer was so pleased that he ordered them to be taken out 

 whole. One of these proved to be a large Doric capital, 

 worked in good taste ; and the other a base of a pillar ; 

 both formed out of the soft freestone of this district. 

 These ornaments, from their dimensions, seem to have be- 

 longed to massive columns ; and show that the church of 

 this convent was a large and costly edifice. They were 

 found in the space which has always been supposed to have 

 contained the south transept of the Priory church. Some 

 fragments of large pilasters were also found at the same 

 time. The diameter of the capital was two feet three inches 

 and a half; and of the column, where it had stood on the 

 bas.e, eighteen inches and three quarters. 



1 Mr. Bennett found in 1837 that the ground had been so effectually 

 cleared as almost to have become a smooth homestead. A few heaps of 

 stone derived, it was supposed, from the last remnants of the founda- 

 tions, and piled ready for use as materials, were all that remained in 

 the Priory field to evidence the former site of that important building. 

 Among the heaps were some fashioned stones which would not be broken 

 to pieces. Some fragments of columns and of a pediment, perhaps of 

 a monument of superior pretensions, were preserved. These were 

 placed, together with a stone coffin that had been dug up on the spot, 

 in the garden of the adjoining farm. A considerable number of orna- 

 mented tiles were also found ; some of which exhibited merely fancy 

 devices, some bore eagles displayed and other apparently armorial em- 

 blems, and one bore a shield of three fleurs de luces, supported by two 

 hawks. These tiles were used to form the pavement of a summer-house 

 in the garden of the Priory Farm. Some fragments of stained glass 

 were also found, together with portions of the ornamented leaden case- 

 ment including them; affording additional proofs of an important 

 building. 



The complete clearance, however, which has since taken place, renders 

 it improbable that any future discovery of interest will be made on the 

 spot. ED. 



