The Architecture of Malmesbury Abbey Church. 85 



Perpendicular changes though in detail. There was an eastern 

 chapel, but 1 believe nothing can be said of it, except that it was 

 standing in the days of William of Worcester, and that its length 

 was 36 " gressus suos," and its breadth only 9 ; a somewhat 

 strange proportion, and which may perhaps suggest a sort of square 

 eastern aisle, possibly round an apse, rather than a regular projecting 

 Lady Chapel. 1 



The Norman Church : Nave and Aisles. — The nave consists of 

 nine bays, six of which, from the east end, form the present parish 

 church, the extreme western portion being in ruins. All here is 

 Norman except the entire clerestory and some other insertions of 

 windows, and even in the clerestory the design can be made out 

 throughout ; as in the eastern portion of the nave, the present 

 clerestory windows have been simply inserted in the Norman walls, 

 while in the rest the re-construction has been more complete. 



In the interior the triple division of height is well maintained, 

 there being a triforium of noble porportions. The piers are of the 

 genuine English form, vast cylindrical masses, with round imposts, 

 hardly to be called capitals, though approaching the character of 

 capitals more than is done by some other examples. The arches 

 are just pointed, but they are so very obtuse as hardly to detract 

 from the purity of the Romanesque effect. They have somewhat 

 elaborate sectional mouldings. The triforium has a not very com- 

 mon arrangement, four small arches within a containing arch ; the 

 latter is enriched with a chevron, but the capitals are all quite 

 plain. Roof-shafts rise without bases from the imposts of the 

 pier. We may remark an increase of ornament towards the east ; 

 the two eastern bays on each side having much richer mouldings. 

 This excess of enrichment extends also to the string over the arcade 

 in the three eastern bays on the south side, and in the first, and 

 part of the second, (from the east,) on the north. The labels over 



1 "What are we to make of the " little church joining to the south side of the 

 transeptum of the Abby Cbirch," of which Leland speaks ? He can hardly 

 mean tbe little church standing on the south side of the churchyard. Are we 

 to infer that some building was attached to the transept, as the Lady Church 

 at Ely ? 



