30 On the Architecture of Malmesbury Ahbey. 



with the exception of the aisles, had a flat wooden ceiling such as 

 we may still see remaining in Peterborough Cathedral and elsewhere. 

 In the north transept the indications of this ceiling may still plainly 

 be seen. There is, at this point, a set-off in the wall of the tower, 

 which is thinner above, and the round-headed doorway remains 

 which led into the roof-space over the ceiling from a gallery in the 

 tower walls. Consequently, the doorway does not show on the south 

 side of the wall. Such a ceiling is much less pleasing to the eye 

 than a vault, but evidently the earlier builders did not venture to 

 vault these wide spaces. In the fourteenth century this was under- 

 taken and the builders may have been influenced by a desire to em- 

 bellish the church, and also to diminish the risk of its destruction by 

 fire. They aimed at the complete conversion of the clerestory into 

 the style of their own day, and in the western part, the Norman cleres- 

 tory has disappeared altogether, whereas, in the eastern part of the 

 nave, the flat Norman pilaster buttresses and indications of the 

 original windows remain. Flying buttresses were erected over the 

 aisle roofs, to support the vaulting of the nave, and the water, from 

 the roof of the nave, has been ingeniously conveyed down by means 

 of a gutter formed on the top of these buttresses. Something 

 similar may, I think, be seen at Exeter Cathedral. There is a 

 peculiarity in the tracery of the clerestory windows which is also 

 noticeable in the north aisle of Corsham Church, so much so as to 

 lead one to suppose that the same hand must have been employed on 

 both works. The same peculiarity occurs, if I am not mistaken, 

 also at Exeter. In the south aisle the windows and wall of two bays 

 have been converted in this fourteenth century work, the Norman 

 features being obliterated externally. It looks as if this was the first 

 instalment of an intended entire conversion of the aisle to correspond 

 with the clerestory externally. The tracery of the windows intro- 

 duced is peculiar, the form of the stone having evidently been 

 governed by the design of the glass and giving an awkward head 

 to the centre light. A little of the original glass remains in one of 

 these windows, but not, I think, as originally disposed. It is similar 

 to some in Poulshot Church, simply foliage on a white ground, and 

 it is evident that, if the greater part of these fourteenth century 



