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Notes on Recent Discoveries at Lacock Abbey. 



which must have had a wooden lean-to roof, supported by corbels 

 in the walls, and by stonework, probably in the form of an open 

 arcade, 1 next the court. These early cloisters have, I believe, 

 generally disappeared, in the British Islands, but remain occasion- 

 ally on the Continent. The lines of the present cloister conflict, as 

 might be expected, with the lines of the Early English work. Two 

 bays, at the west end of the south walk of the cloister, are transitional 

 from Decorated to Perpendicular. The rest is fully-developed 

 Perpendicular, and probably of the time of Henry VI. "Where 

 this work crossed the front of the chapter-house, one of the piers 

 supporting the vaulting is carried back, from the vaulting shaft, 

 to meet the earlier work, the space between being filled with very 

 good panelling. The next pier, not being so conveniently situated, 

 is treated as a detached clustered column, of four shafts, and tied 

 to the earlier work. The chapter-house is a fine Early English 

 vaulted building, of three bays in length by two in width, except 

 that, at the west end, the vaulting is divided into three bays, in 

 order to admit of the central arch and side windows. The whole is 

 supported by two pillars. The easternmost one is a clustered pier, 



partly unblocked, some years ago, a square-headed mediaeval window, which may 

 be of the fourteenth century. Immediately under it are the remains of a string- 

 course, which must have been the weathering over the roof of the early cloister, 

 and two stones in the wall below probably are the remains of corbels. 



1 I formed the opinion that the first cloister would probably have a continuous 

 arcade with twin shafts, before I had any evidence on the subject. Having 

 occasion later to lower the ground, which had accumulated, and repair the footing 

 of the walls of the present cloister, I found some Purbeck marble fragments, 

 bases, caps, and an abacus, which had belonged to twin shafts. These were 

 mostly at the point which would be the north-west angle of the cloister, if it 

 were complete, in the foundation of the present cloister. One double base-stone 

 broke, iu the attempt to remove it, and part was left in the wall. There is not 

 much doubt that these are remains of the thirteenth century cloister. We also 

 found a fragment which seems to show that it had a trefoiled arcade of freestone, 

 which view is supported by the quite recent discovery, in the wall at the east 

 end of the north walk, of a walled-up trefoil-headed recess. There were originally 

 two, but one has been converted into a doorway opening into the day-room, 

 probably in the fourteenth century. The fragments are now placed in the 

 chapter-house. They lay for some time in the day-room, and some of the pieces 

 of Purbeck marble have become disintegrated, apparently owing to damp rising 

 from the ground and then frost acting on them. 



