By the Rev. J. E. Jaekson. 



47 



1170-8. (Hen. II.) A writer in the publication called "The Crypt," 

 (probably the late Rev. Peter Hall, author of the 

 " Picturesque Memorials of Salisbury/') is of opinion 

 that the present Church of Malmesbury is to be 

 referred to the middle of the reign of King Henry 

 II., about A.D. 1170-75. He is "disinclined to receive 

 the conjecture which ascribes it to Roger, Bishop of 

 Sarum who died in 1139. For of that conjecture the 

 foundation is very slight: being only that Bishop 

 Roger was a great builder, though chiefly of castles, 

 one of which he erected at Malmesbury." The writer 

 then enters into details justifying his refusal to attri- 

 bute the present edifice to the famous Roger of Sarum. 

 There are certain points, he says, in the architecture, 

 that cannot fail to suggest a remarkable resemblance 

 between this Abbey Church and that of Glastonbury : 

 both seeming to be, as it were upon the balance between 

 the Norman and the succeeding style. (The Crypt, 

 vol. iii., p. 13.) 

 One of the many difficulties in settling the exact history 

 of the building of the present church arises from 

 William of Malmesbury's statement that down to the 

 reign of King John, Bishop Roger's Castle was standing 

 "in the very churchyard." The site of the castle now 

 generally pointed out, is just outside the west side of 

 the church-yard. But if any part of the castle, when 

 entire, stood (as William says it did) within the church- 

 yard, (" in ipso ccemiterio") it is not easy to understand 

 how, before the castle was removed, the Nave could 

 have extended so far westward as the present one does. 



1216. (18 John.) Bishop Roger's Castle is taken down, and a 

 grant of the site is made to the monks (Tanner, p. 592) : 

 "in the time of Walter Loring, Abbot 1205-1222," 

 says an old chronicle seen at the Abbey by Leland : 

 "Joannes Rex concessit castrum Malmesbir: diruen- 



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