24 Amesbury Church. Reasons for thinking that it 



might well be in the chapter-house. He says further that traces 

 of a fire and of molten lead and charred materials were met with. 

 These he attributes to the fire, which destroyed Lady Hungerford's 

 goods, and the part of the monastery in which she was lodged, in 

 the fifteenth century, but they were probably the traces of Lord 

 Hertford's lead-melting operations, after the Dissolution. 



Considering the opportunities that there have been, for ascer- 

 taining something about the monastic buildings, it is much to be 

 regretted that so little has been made of them. Mr. Kemm says 

 that " those friends who made a more minute record of the dis- 

 coveries above-mentioned " than himself, " would do well to give a 

 paper on them." I don't think the hint has yet been taken, but it 

 may perhaps still be not too late. 1 I was once, I believe, shown a 

 rough plan of this very find. 



It seems to be clear that, in the early part of the 17th century, 

 before 1620, other interments were found, adjoining the Abbey 

 House, though they were not properly noted, and fanciful theories 

 were founded on the discoveries, and, in. 1662, some of these are 

 again noticed. 



I said, above, that I thought, if the present Church is to be con- 

 sidered as, in any sense, monastic, some other explanation will have 

 to be found than to suppose it the principal Church of the Priory. 



A theory, very soon, occurred to me, founded on the peculiarity 

 of the order of Fontevraud, which might possibly afford a solution 

 of the difficulty, and I give it, for what it may be worth, without, 

 at all, assuming that it is the right solution. 



John Stevens, in his addition to Dugdale's Monasticon, quoting 

 apparently from a French History of monastic orders, says : — 2 



" The Order of Fontevraud is looked upon as a Singularity in 

 the Church, and some think it strange to see an Abbess exercising 

 equal Authority over Eeligious Men and Women ; but the same 



1 Since this paper was read, Mr. Edward Kite has published, in Wiltshire 

 Notes and Queries (No. 27, September, 1899, page 114) the first part of " Notes 

 on Amesbury Monastery, with an account of some discoveries on the site, in 

 1860." 



2 Edition of 1723, vol. 2, page 248. 



