THE ARCHITECTURAL MUSEUM. 
J 5 
During the recent excavations of the Choir and around the great 
centra] Norman aspe, was discovered a mass of masonry jutting 
out eastward from the main wall and disconnected from it. Its 
position cannot be that of a buttress, and a glance at the plan will 
show that it is not on the axial line. May this be some fragment 
of an earlier edifice ? as at the present time it appears inconceiv¬ 
able what purpose a building in such close proximity to the Nor¬ 
man sanctuary could fulfil. May not the old chroniclers be right 
after all, that a monastery was in existence before the advent of 
Stephen, who it is more than likely found it in ruins and re¬ 
founded it, giving the honour of dedication to St. Mary instead of 
St. Olaf ? 
Canon Raine, in his notes on the founding of St. Mary’s Abbey, 
mentions that “ the suburb in which the Minster of St. Olaf stood 
was called Galman, and to the rising ground which some portion 
of the Philosophical Society's Gardens cover, the name Galman 
How was given. 
It was not long after the Abbey had been founded, when a 
number of cells or smaller monasteries were made dependent upon 
it—8 altogether are recorded ; but I think the two principal ones 
were Wetheral Priory and St. Bees. Wetheral Priory is about four 
miles from Carlisle, N.E.R., where now only the 14th century 
gatehouse remains. St. Bees, on the western coast of Cumberland, 
is a massive Norman Church, with a fine western doorway, 
some of the arch enrichments closely resembling the fragments of 
our own Abbey. 
From the disputed site of the first monastery we turn our 
attention to the important work begun and achieved by Abbot 
Stephen de Whitby, in the building of the Abbey. In 10S8, King 
William Rufus, when moving northwards, stayed in the Northern 
Capital, and seeing the inadequacy of the premises then occupied 
by the Benedictines, and their inability to proceed with the work 
they had begun, added liberally to the endowment, and gave them 
a considerable area of land adjacent to that which they already 
occupied. In the following year, 1089, Rufus with his own hand 
laid the foundation stone of a new and large church, dedicating it 
to St. Mary ; or perhaps it may have been a reversion to a former 
dedication ; however, St. Olaf was dropped. 
To give anything like a description of the Norman Abbey is 
impossible, but from the fragments remaining we know that it was 
