272 



on % site ^f cS^aftesferg ^Meg. 



By Mr. Edwaed Kite. 



SHAFTESBURY Abbey immediately after its dissolution in 

 ^^'(1539, appears to have been levelled with the ground. Leland 

 writing about 1540-42 has left no description of it/ and Dugdale, 

 a century later, says that " not the smallest vestige of the conventual 

 Church of Shaftesbury is now remaining." The visit of the Wiltshire 

 Archaeological Society to Shaftesbury during the past summer, has 

 been the means of bringing once more to light, after an interment of 

 more than three centuries, some portion of its foundations, which are 

 of considerable interest, as proving not only the date of the eastern 

 part of the Abbey Church, but giving also a fair idea of its pro- 

 portions when entire. The discovery will be best understood by 

 referring to the accompanying ground plan. In Julj', 1861, with 

 the kind permission of the Marquis of Westminster, the present 

 owner of the site, Mr. Batten, his Lordship's Agent, commenced 

 excavations in a garden to the South of the present Church of the 

 Holy Trinity, in which there were evident traces of foundations a 

 few feet beneath the surface. The first pit that was sunk brought 

 into view a wall more than 7 feet in thickness, with a pavement 

 of encaustic tiles on its North side. Near the wall at the point 

 marked (d) on the plan, was a grave 2 feet 3 inches deep, and 

 covered with 4 slabs of green sandstone, part of the pavement of 

 the Church. Two of the slabs, when fitted together, presented on the 

 under surface a plain incised cross having its four limbs of nearly 



. * At p. 257 above, it is supposed that Leland may have seen part of 

 the Chapter-House, but it seems very doubtful whether this was the case. The 

 words in the Itinerary appear rather to signify that the Abbey was even then a 

 thing past and gone. "The Abbey stood," &c. " There was an Inscription," &c. 



