By Harold BraJcspear, F.S.A. 487 



King Athelstan's. This is now placed under the first arch of the 

 nave on the south side, and is a plain altar-tomb of the fifteenth 

 century, supporting an effigy which has a fine canopy at the head. 

 In the Eebellion the head of this figure was broken off by some 

 soldiers, but was quickly mended by the inhabitants of the borough ; 

 but the new head had grown a beard in accordance with the fashion 

 of the time. 1 



The Cloister. 



The cloister in the first place was most accurately set out, being 

 exactly 112 ft. in each direction. There would be pentises against 

 each wall, carried on open arches with coupled columns standing 

 on dwarf walls. The base of such a pair of columns was found 

 used up as old material in the north-west corner of the later work, 

 and dated from the latter part of the twelfth century. 



In the fifteenth century the cloister alleys were rebuilt and 

 ■covered with a fan vault after the fashion set at Gloucester. The 

 floors were paved with pattern tiles. Of this rebuilding a con- 

 siderable part of the pliuths of the walls next the garth remains, 

 together with the paving. These were exposed by excavation, and 

 at the same time such a quantity of fragments of the vaulted ceiling 

 was found that it is quite easy to recover the design of the alleys. 



Each alley was divided into eight clear bays, and was about 11 ft. 

 wide. The bays were separated externally by bold buttresses 

 formed of square piers, from which flyers would rise to take the 

 thrust of the vault, similar to those of the fourteenth century to 

 the south aisle of the nave at Gloucester. Internally there were 

 round columns, with moulded octagonal bases and capitals, to take 

 the vaulting, of which the spinging was 9£ ft. above the floor. 

 The windows had simple splayed mullions and jambs of one mem- 

 ber contained internally in a recess across which was a seat with 

 splayed nosing (fig. 5). 



Each bay was virtually square, and the vaulting was arranged 

 in cones having the ribs worked on. Eight ribs started from each 

 column and were doubled half-way up, and the heads of each panel 



1 Wilts Arch Mag., viii. 39. 



