By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 



73 



as there is no trace or tradition of any other large one than the 

 present parish church which is of great antiquity : and as the 

 measurements of the monastic church corresponded very closely 

 (as the documents show) with those of the present church, it is 

 most likely that (as at Edington in Wilts), one and the same build- 

 ing served both for the monastery and the parish. This seems to 

 be confirmed by the fact that in the Episcopal Registry at Sarum 

 (as printed in the " Wilts Institutions ") there are no Presentations 

 of a clerk to Amesbury church before the Dissolution of monasteries. 

 The Abbess had been Rector and had supplied a chaplain for parish 

 work : and in the Earl of Hertford's " Exchange " (printed above) 

 it is particularly stated that on becoming owner the Earl was 

 charged with £8 a year " for the salary of a Priest to serve the Cure." 



The following papers show that before the Dissolution there was 

 upon the present square tower, a spire 61 feet in height. Also a 

 high altar and choir 51 feet long, a chapel of our Lady and a 

 chapel of St. John ; both of which may perhaps be identified by 

 the piscince remaining, two in the modern vestr} 7- , and one in the 

 S.E. angle of the present south aisle of the nave. Against the 

 tower walls are still to be seen dripstone lines which may represent 

 the older roofs that were stripped of lead at the Dissolution : 

 and upon the east side of the south transept there are also indica- 

 tions of a chapel or other addition. By the " South Aisle 39 feet 

 long" and the " North Aisle 40 feet long" mentioned in the fol- 

 lowing papers are perhaps meant the present transepts. 



The papers also give some idea of the extent of the monastic 

 buildings: viz., a cloister 104 feet long, a dorter (or dormitory) 

 200 feet long; a "Frater" (or refectory) 110 feet; a " Jessy," 1 



1 A " Jesse" in architectural language is generally understood to have been 

 a particular kind of window: in which the mullions appear to spring from a re- 

 cumbent figure of Jesse, the father of King David : the different compartments 

 of the window being so arranged as to contain his various descendants : the 

 whole being a representation of the genealogy of Christ. No account of any 

 building or part of a building so called having been met with, it may be con- 

 jectured, in default of better information, that there may have been at Amesbury 

 Monastery some gallery or large room, at the end of which may have been a Jesse 

 window : and the apartment being remarkable from that peculiarity, may have 

 been called " the Jesse." 



