BREADSALL PRIORY. I 29 



the central bay and the south-east tower. There is, of course, 

 the possibility, or perhaps, rather, probability, that the Priory 

 was not entirely pulled down, and that Sir John Bentley used 

 one of the domestic buildings to form the shell of his house, 

 raising it to the present height and adding the three projecting 

 bays or towers ; but it seems now impossible to find any evidence 

 upon which a definite opinion upon this point could be based. 

 - Sir Francis Darwin is said to have made excavations upon 

 the site, and to have laid bare the foundations of the Priory 

 Church, which were, most unfortunately, swept away or entirely 

 covered up when the additions to the house were ' made by 

 Mr. Morley, and, so far as can be ascertained, no record of 

 them is in existence. These excavations must, presumably, have 



part or a^cade. 



been on the north side of the eighteenth century wing shown 

 on the old drawings, and therefore somewhere about the posi- 

 tion where the gun room is marked on the accompanying plan. 

 In the garden are a few fragments of the monastic buildings 

 which were unearthed during Sir Francis Darwin's excavations. 

 The chief of these consists of a portion of a thirteenth century 

 arcade shown on the accompanying sketch. At first sight 

 this suggests the Sedilia, but the fact that there are four 

 complete springers to the arches, showing the former existence 

 of at least five openings, militates against- this theory*. It 

 might be a portion of a wall arcade running round the interior 

 of the church, a feature which was of very common occurrence 



* Sedilia of more than three stalls are not unknown : instance the five stalls 

 at Southwell Minster and Furness Abbey. 



9 



