214 



Edington Church. 



use of an altar here. Traces of a screen wall or reredos, 5ft. high 

 and 9Jin. thick exist behind the site of this altar ; this was probably 

 erected when another chantry was formed farther eastward, where 

 a later piscina has been inserted. 



Although the entire floor of the transepts is now on one level, the 

 rough wall surface above it on the east side, and the higher position 

 of the bases of the tower piers here, afford ample evidence that the 

 spaces on each side of the projecting rood screen were raised to the 

 extent of a further thirteen inches or so ; this would point to there 

 having been another altar in the south transept. [It has since 

 been discovered that the lower step of this raised space returned 

 westwards across the south transept, sufficiently far in front of the 

 tomb to protect the grave of the ecclesiastic whom it commemo- 

 rates.] 



The large dimensions of the chancel would point to the conclusion 

 that the founder of the monastery contemplated a goodly number of 

 brethren, but Leland gives the number of priests in the college as 

 twelve, and the highest recorded number of inmates of the monas- 

 tery is that given in a petition to the diocesan to select a new rector 

 on the death of the first rector, John Ailesbury, in 1382, the words 

 " Co-rector and convent, eighteen in number," here occur ; but as 

 this was sixteen years after the death of William of Edington, it is 

 possible that this number was at one time exceeded. At the sur- 

 render of the monastery by Paul Bush, in 1539, the number had 

 become reduced again to twelve. 



The chancel is of three bays in length, and the side windows are, 

 in design and dimensions, like those in the transepts ; and the Per- 

 pendicularized form of reticulated tracery here is very characteristic. 

 The original chancel roof was an open timbered one, with circular 

 braces, the lines of which are traceable on the walls ; this has 

 disappeared, and a modern roof and plaster ceiling about a century 

 old have taken its place. But the corbels, which supported the roof 

 trusses, remain — two on each side — and are supported by beautiful 

 niches. These four niches probably contained figures of the 

 Evangelists, the headless remains of two of which still exist, and 

 their graceful drapery indicates a high order of art. The emblems 



