274 Recent Excavations on the site of Shaftesbury Abbey. 



in largo churches of early Norman date. 1 In this instance it is | f 

 likely that the gradual increase in the importance of the Abbey, j If 

 and the popularity which it had acquired by the translation thither beea 

 of the body of St. Edward the Martyr, in 982, demanded a larger lock, 

 Church than the one which had been erected by King Alfred. d 



All the walls hitherto discovered are at least 7 feet in thickness, I task 

 and the width of the Presbytery from the apse westward is 28 feet, 1 

 a measurement nearly equal to the corresponding portion of the ! tie; 

 Abbey Church of St. Alban (also erected during the Norman period) U 

 and indicating a church not less than 350 or 400 feet in length j m 

 from East to West. The tower (said to have been surmounted by t fit 

 a lofty spire) was in all probability central, as at St. Alban's, and tit 

 there is also another point of resemblance between the ancient ' 1 

 Norman plan of St. Alban's as engraved by Messrs. Buckler, 2 and I y 

 that of Shaftesbury so far as the examination hitherto permits. \ % 

 Each terminated in a semicircular apse, which was divided by a fti 

 solid wall from the aisle on either side. The floor of the Presbytery j ft 

 is paved throughout with encaustic tiles of various patterns, but [ i 

 very much worn, and rises gradually eastward, by a gentle slope \ \ 

 from (a) to (b); at which point is a single step. There were apparently ^ 

 three others at the entrance to the apse (c), and still further eastward ) R 

 were distinct traces of several more on which the Altar anciently s i, 

 stood. In a straight line and at a distance of nearly 40 feet west- g, 

 ward from the point A, the ground was opened, and a continuation p, 

 of the tile paving found at an additional depth of 17 inches, thus ^ 

 showing the height of the pavement of the apse, and the elevation u 

 of the Altar above the level of the western portion of the Church, f r 

 which yet remains to be uncovered. , 



The grave (e) formed of large stones, built in the solid wall, 3 was \ 



1 As in the Cathedrals of Norwich and Peterborough. In several instances 

 traces of the ancient semicircular apse may still be found, although the super- 

 structure has been altered, or rebuilt, at a later period ; as at Gloucester, s 

 Canterbury, and "Winchester, where the crypts still retain the semicircular form. t 



2 History of the Architecture of the Abbey Church of St. Alban, 1847, p. 9. 



3 The situation of this grave, on the North side of the High Altar, is probably j; , 

 not far from the spot in which the body of St. Edward the Martyr is said to | 

 have been interred. 



