254 



Notes on the History of Mere. 



proper remains structurally in its original condition, the walls, roof, 

 two square-headed windows on the north and a pointed one in the 

 east : the doorway opening into it from the hall (as well as the one 

 leading to the chapel) with its door and hinges and the piscina in the 

 south wall of the sacrarium, are all parts of the original building. 

 It has also a coeval outside built-up doorway in the north wall? 

 which could only have been approached by an external stairs, and 

 there are traces of a west window which was removed to make way 

 for the Elizabethan chimneypiece. The first alteration in the 

 building appears to have been the insertion of two windows and an 

 inside doorway in the walls of the apartment beneath the chapel : 

 this took place probably about 1530, when the north door of the 

 chapel was doubtless built up and the stairs removed. 



" About the year 1600 the chapel was converted into a living 

 room, and a chimney stack built against the outside of the wall (as 

 the construction of the masonry shows) . A chimney piece of rich 

 design was put at the west end of the chapel, and a similar one 

 bearing the arms of Dodington impaling Francis, 1 in the room 

 beneath, the latter also had the addition of an elaborate plaster 

 ceiling, part of which has been destroyed over the portion screened 

 off. But beyond these and some modern fittings to adapt the 

 chapel as a cheese-room and the space beneath as a sitting-room 

 and pantry, no alteration has been made in the building, and in it 

 is presented to us, up to the present time, one of the most complete 

 specimens of a domestic chapel of the middle ages that it is possible 

 to find. 



" The contemplated operations, as set forth in the specification of which I 

 received a copy February, 1888, would destroy features of the greatest possible 

 value here, and, in fact, well-nigh obliterate all the historical evidence the building 

 affords : they consist of : — 



"1. Kemoving the 'circular ceiling,' which is the original barrel vault of 

 the roof, and substituting a flat one (a portion of the hall roof has 

 already been hidden from view by similar means, though not 

 destroyed). 



1 Christopher Dodington, who died 1584, was a man of importance in his day, 

 and doubtless it was he who converted the chapel and the room beneath into 

 living rooms, made the rich plaster ceilings in the latter, and built the chimney. 

 This would thus appear to have been done a few years earlier than I supposed, 

 judging from the work only, or 1560 — 1570. C.E.P. 



