The Architecture of Malmeshiry Abbey Church. 



93 



want of light. The great size of the piers and the unusually short 

 distances at which they stand from each other, must have rendered 

 the church singularly dark when it was entirely dependent for its 

 illumination on the original Norman lights. The common notion 

 is that these windows were inserted after the Dissolution, when it 

 is said that more light was needed in what now became the parish 

 church than had, I suppose, been necessary during the darkness of 

 monastic occupation. The only objection to this ingenious theory 

 is the unmistakable date of the windows. 1 



Other Decorated changes ; — Besides the windows, the general 

 appearance of the nave, within and without, was considerably 

 modified at this period. A new roof was almost necessitated by the 

 new clerestory, and the form it assumed was naturally that of " a 

 goodly vault of stone." The vaulting is quadripartite with some 

 additional lines ; the ke}^stones have rich bosses of foliage, but two 

 from some destroyed portion of the church, which are preserved in 

 the vestry, have one a female figure, the other the five wounds of 

 our Lord. 



The vault springs from the level of the string below the clerestory, 

 where the Norman shafts have been finished with new flowered 

 capitals. The whole height of the clerestory is therefore taken 

 into the vault, and its great height and narrowness, causes the 

 arches to be stilted in a very awkward manner. The same cleres- 

 tory and vault were also extended to the transepts. In the corner 

 of the north transept we see one of the Norman shafts, but here 

 single, and not clustered as in the nave, finished with a Decorated 

 floriated capital. In the south there is a clustered shaft with an 

 octagonal capital. 



The addition of the stone roof doubtless rendered necessary the 



1 This reminds me of a story I have somewhere heard of an ingenious speculator 

 into the history of architecture, who decided that the increase of the size of 

 windows during the Perpendicular sera was owing to the contemporary intro- 

 duction of printing. That is, I believe, that the congregation wanted more light 

 to enable them the better to read in their recently acquired Prayer Books. 

 Without starting any minor chronological difficulties, only just imagine a whole 

 parish trooping down to mass, each man with a new Caxton, either tucked 

 under his arm or carried after him by his running varlet, according to circum- 

 stances. 



