96 The Architecture of Malmesbury Abbey Church. 



St. Cross, or Worcester Cathedral. But at Hereford and Shrewsbury 

 the tower was constructed within the nave, 1 and the like was the 

 case at Malmesbury also. The west front was not only a splendid 

 composition, which the designers of the tower might well be 

 unwilling to deface more than was necessary for their purpose, but 

 it was also of a form peculiarly ill adapted to harmonize with a 

 steeple built outside in the ordinary manner, while it was capable 

 of producing a facade of extreme grandeur in the way which was 

 actually adopted. A tower was accordingly constructed within the 

 nave, the west wall being carried up as the west wall of the tower. 

 So was the south wall also, and that with so little change that the 

 clerestory and cornice underneath it were not disturbed. But, 

 more than this, the way in which the tower was supported appears 

 to have been one of the most daring pieces of temerity on record. 

 At Shrewsbury, an ordinary belfry-arch, with responds of due 

 projection, was thrown across the nave ; but at Malmesbury, it 

 seems to have been determined in no wise to interfere with the 

 Decorated clerestory and vault. The square of the tower occupied 

 two bays, so that its eastern wall rose from the point marked by 

 the second pier from the west end. It seems actually to have been 

 supported by an arch thrown across the nave above the vault, 2 

 while sufficient abutment was sought for in strengthening the wall 

 and the pier. An extra flying-buttress was thrown outwards, and 

 another thrown eastward across the clerestory window ; the pier 

 and the arch immediately to the east were also propped by the 

 insertion of additional masonry and a new arch. The tower was 

 thus gained as an external object, without interfering with the 

 internal vista of the nave, or shortening its already not remarkable 

 length. 



A huge Perpendicular window was inserted in the west front. 

 It was crossed by transoms during its whole height, like that at 

 Winchester; but, unlike the latter, the arch must have been 

 extremely flat. At the same time, as has been already hinted, a 



1 As, to compare great things with small, at Wood Eaton, Oxon. 

 2 While the church had a high roof, this would of course not appear externally. 



