276 Recent Excavations on the site of Shaftesbury Abbey. 



the semicircular base of a Norman pier, from whicli perhaps sprung 

 the rib of a groined roof. 



On the South side of the Presbytery was probably a similar aisle 

 as shown by a portion of another tile pavement at the point (e) 

 but this together with the whole of the western portion of the 

 Church, including choir, nave, aisles, and transepts, yet remains to 

 be uncovered. 



The chamber (f) is of a later date than the parts of the church 

 above described, and appears to have been used as a crypt. It is 

 24 feet from East to West, and has the remains of a massive 

 groined roof, of early pointed character, springing from corbels 

 projecting from the walls about 4 feet above the level of the floor. 

 The height of the chamber to the crown of the vaulting (now 

 broken in) was nearly 9 feet. The floor exhibits no traces of paving 

 of any kind, and is 6 feet below the level of that in the adjoining 

 aisle of the church, the communication between the two being a 

 narrow stone staircase leading to a small doorway in the "West wall 

 of the crypt. In clearing out the rubbish a quantity of human 

 bones ^ were found near the level of the floor, together with some 



with the management of their woods at Fernditch and Chettell, and an agree- 

 ment made between the Earl and the Abbess of Shaftesbury concerning her 

 woods at Foutmell, Iwerne, and Handley. co. Dorset. 



Gilbert de Clare, son of Richard, and the last male heir of the family, died in 

 1313. The arms on the tiles at Shaftesbury, doubtless denote a benefaction to 

 the Abbey from some member of the Clare family. 



' Among the skulls found during the excavations there was one (apparently 

 of an adult male) with a remarkable perforation on the upper part and left side 

 of the frontal bone. The rotundity of the aperture is remarkably clean as if 

 caused by a pistol ball, or the rounded point of an extremely sharp arrow. 

 "Whatever the projectile was, it must have gone directly through the brain, and 

 foramen magnum, to the spiral marrow, there being no corresponding fracture 

 at the base of the skull. The wound must therefore have been caused by some 

 missile, either shot from a height, or received whilst in a stooping posture. 

 There is also a portion of another skull with a somewhat similar aperture, on the 

 upper part of the right parietal bone, but in this instance the edges are more 

 jagged. To Henry Bennett, Esq., F.R.C.S., of St. John's Hill, Shaftesbury, 

 who has taken much interest in the excavations, and by whom the various bones 

 discovered during the progress of the work, have been carefully examined, the 

 writer is indebted for this, as well as for other similar information. A remark- 

 ably fine specimen of a portion of the skull of a horse was also found among the 

 rubbish near the floor of the crypt. 



I 



