16 Notes on Recent Discoveries at Lacock Abbey. 



Renaissance 1 work, and, in the chapter-house, they were recessed, 

 but, though we found fragments that must have belonged to them, 

 they were utterly gone, so that there was no question of restoring 

 them, and we introduced windows of Early English character. There 

 was no evidence by which to recover the design of the original 

 windows of the thirteenth century. In the case of the sacristy we 

 simply had to unblock the original doorway 2 and replace the east 

 wall 3 and supply windows. The further restoration of that building 

 is, for the present, postponed. 



At the south end of the east walk of the cloister we have unblocked 

 a very elegant Early English doorway, 4 which led into the eastern 

 part of the Church, which appears to have been the nuns' choir, and 

 was probably divided by a screen, from the western part of the 

 Church. Just to the west of this doorway there is a recess in the 

 wall, which probably may mark the position of such screen. 



The door had two valves and was barred on the inside, there 

 being a deep socket, in the west jamb of the doorway, for the wooden 

 bar to run back. 



1 They appear in Buck's view, 1732. That was in Ivory Talbot's time, but 

 before his destructive alterations. 



2 There was apparently a vaulting shaft of the cloister in the way, but before 

 we commenced operations it was detected as an insertion of Ivory Talbot's. The 

 vaulting is finished with a drop, let into the Early English arch of the doorway, 

 and he appears to have sawn off a pendant and added the shaft, which was 

 therefore easily removed. The imitation, which was a very good one, was de- 

 tected owing to the proportions of the cap not agreeing with those of the true 

 vaulting shafts. 



3 There were some indications, in the sacristy, of the points of window arches, 

 inserted probably in the fifteenth century. 



4 We had to restore the rear-arch. I expected that we should find a doorway, 

 but not an Early English one {Wilts Arch. Mag., vol. xii., p. 228, and vol. xvi., 

 p. 354), on the evidence of Darley's drawing, which I, at first, attributed in error 

 to Harrison. Darley misled me, however, by showing a four-centred arch, 

 instead of the segmental rear-arch. The doorway was walled up by Sharington 

 with the debris of the Abbey Church. Most of these fragments are now in the 

 chapter-house. Among them are a springer and a capstone, apparently belonging 

 to the Church vaulting. The latter is triple in plan. There are arch stones of 

 the thirteenth century, retaining painting of the fourteenth century, and a 

 number of fourteenth century fragments, some of great delicacy, which may 

 have belonged to one or more monuments. 



