98 The Architecture of Malmesbury Abbey Church. 



Waltham, Crowland, Binham, consequently, as I said before, that 

 the nave was not originally parochial. But one is tempted to 

 think that the change which wanton destruction brought about at 

 Waltham and Crowland, was brought about at Malmesbury by the 

 accidental fall of the central tower. It would seem that the eastern 

 part of the church, destroyed by that fall, was never rebuilt, and 

 that the monks accommodated themselves as well as they could in 

 the western limb which alone was left them. Or indeed it is not 

 impossible that they migrated when the tower was found to be 

 dangerous, but before it actually fell, for just east of the rood-screen 

 the arch is built up as high as the impost with a solid wall, which 

 appears to be older than the destruction of the eastern part of the 

 church. I ground this belief chiefly on the fact that the masonry 

 up to that height is quite different, and of a much better character 

 than that which blocks the arch itself, which last exactly resembles 

 that with which the arches between the transepts and nave aisles 

 were clearly blocked at the time of the destruction. There are 

 also traces of a string along the eastern face of the wall. I infer 

 that the arch was built up as an attempt to prop up the tower when 

 its dangerous condition was observed. If the Perpendicular rood- 

 screen and Perpendicular vault of the lantern represent any im- 

 portant tampering with the central tower about the time of the erec- 

 tion of the western one, 1 we can better understand the story ; namely, 

 that the changes endangered the tower, and that they were reduced 

 to this expedient to stave off for a while the effects of their own work. 

 The western lantern-arch at St. David's was also blocked about the 

 end of the fifteenth century ; here also the masonry showed 2 that 

 the blocking of the arch itself was later than the portion below 

 the impost. But there was this difference between the two cases, 

 that at St. David's, as the choir still remained in use, the ordinary 

 passage under the loft was still left open, while at Malmesbury, as 

 the choir was forsaken, the arch was filled up by a dead wall 

 without a doorway. 



1 The Tudor badges on the screen fix its date to some time since 1485. 

 2 This portion has been re- opened. 



