By C. E. Pouting, F.S.A. 



217 



so often advanced for openings in this position. Was the chamber 

 the kind of anchor-hold described by Mr. Mackenzie Walcott, — the 

 openings being to enable the recluse to see the mysteries ? Or was 

 it not , rather, a watching chamber ? The latter would seem to be 

 the more probable use. The fact of there being a doorway between 

 the chamber and the chancel, and that the outside wall of the latter, 

 under the window, bears marks of fire, might be of assistance in 

 forming an opinion. Certain it is, however, that all these features, 

 including the doorway, are coeval with the chancel, and that their 

 original use was abandoned at a very early period ; for the filling 

 up of the small openings has oyster-shells in the joints, and I have 

 never yet seen nor heard of these having been employed in Post- 

 Reformation work. 



In the westernmost bay of the chancel, on the north side, is what 

 Canon Jackson refers to, on the same authority, as a " blocked-up 

 door, which once led into the cloister." This doorway is only 2ft. 

 O^in. wide, but it is identical in its jamb and arch mouldings with 

 that on the south side, and there are mutilated remains of a similar 

 canopy over it. This opening has been built up so cleverly on the 

 outside as to entirely remove all traces of it there. I think it 

 probable that it opened into a sacristy, for the cloister could hardly 

 have extended so far eastward, and it is probable that the cemetery 

 of the monastery was on the north of the chancel. 



I may here mention that on the outside of the north wall of the 

 chancel, and in the next bay to the last named is another curious 

 niche. It is built up from the projecting plinth, and on rising 

 above it the sides are canted off to the wall face. The opening in 

 front has tracery of a very "Geometrical" type, the ceiling is 

 groined, and the whole is surmounted by an embattled cornice. 

 The masonry here has been much scraped away, but I can discern 

 three holes in the back of the niche (one of which has a metal rivet 

 left in it) in such a position as would seem to indicate that a crucifix 

 was fixed to it, facing the cemetery. That this, and also the features 

 on the south side are coeval with the original structure is proved, 

 not only by the unmistakeable manner in which the masonry of 

 the first is jointed, but also by the fact that in both cases the 



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