By C. H. Talbot. 



13 



supporting transverse arches, which carried the east wall of the 

 dormitory. The hase of this pillar remains, in a mutilated state, 

 and under it is a portion of the original pavement, which shows 

 evidence of settlement. The western pillar is octagonal, 1 and has 

 lost its base, but was similar to one, in a corresponding position, in 

 the sacristy, which remains perfect. An examination of the bottom 

 of this pillar revealed the fact that two stones have been inserted 

 under it, no doubt to counteract a settlement ; at which time the 

 floor was raised and such of the base mouldings as remained were 

 removed. A stone coffin was found, in situ, immediately to the east 

 of this pillar, at a higher level than the original floor, which shows 

 this underpinning of the pillar and raising of the floor 2 to have 

 been done at a late date, probably in the fifteenth century ; at 

 which time the base of the other pillar must have been mutilated 

 and the floor carried over it. A stone coffin was found, at a low 

 level, in the south-east bay, and another, in the cloister, exactly 

 opposite the entrance to the chapter-house. All these had been 

 disturbed before ; but the two in the chapter-house, which were 

 examined, contained human bones, 3 which were not disturbed 

 further. There was nothing to show what persons had been buried 

 there. All these coffins have been left in position. The responds 

 and vaulting shafts, in the chapter-house, did not originally, as at 

 present, descend to the floor, but terminated on a stone seat which 



1 When the late Mr. J. H. Parker, C.B., was here he pronounced these 

 octagonal pillars of the chapter-house and sacristy to be insertions of the 

 fourteenth century, and suggested that the original pillars had probably been of 

 Purbeck marble, laid the wrong way of the bed, and had given way. I adopted 

 his view, at the time, but have since reverted to the opinion that they are 

 original, and are perhaps to be regarded as examples of transition from Early 

 English to Decorated. It is noticeable that the detached shafts, in the recently- 

 discovered west front of the chapter-house, are not of Purbeck marble, and there 

 is no evidence that that material was used in the chapter-house and sacristy at all. 



2 The fifteenth century level of the floor appears to have been maintained in 

 the sixteenth century. 



3 The bones in the coffin at the low level were in great disorder. That coffin 

 was simply covered down again. The coffin at the high level, in which the bones 

 were fairly in order, was filled with concrete, which was necessary for the new 

 tile pavement. The coffin in the cloister was not examined. 



