REPORT ON EXCAVATIONS, ETC. 
39 
to go down about seven feet below the ground floor level and 
to be evenly faced on the inside with chiselled stone, which 
would suggest that there has been a chamber or vault there. 
In this work the Council are carrying out the suggestions 
of the late Chancellor Raine, who in a short paper on the 
Abbey, read before the Society in 1880, said : “ Another 
“ desideratum is the proper exhibition of the remains of the 
“ Chancel. There has been too much of a tendency to sub- 
“ ordinate the ruins to the garden instead of subordinating the 
“ garden to the ruins. What I recommend, and what is 
“ adopted in other places, as for instance at Fountains Abbe}’, 
“ is this, to clear away the soil and debris to the old floor level 
“that we may see the old lines, and expose the bases of the 
“ pillars, the remains of the encaustic pavement, and such 
“ monuments as remain. The difficulty here is the presence 
“ of several large chestnut trees which must be allowed to fall 
“ into the decay which is so imminent, and which on no 
“ account must be renewed. All trees and earth must be 
“ removed from within the walls of the Abbey, and more than 
“ this, it is necessary that on the north side of the Chancel 
“ the buttresses and walls should be properly shown, and for 
“ this the earth between the church and the new garden, or 
“the greater part of it, ought properly to be taken away. 
“We shall never know the character of the architecture, or 
“ ascertain how the old church and the new are mutually 
“ connected unless this earth is removed.” 
The Council is desirous of carrying on these excavations, 
for even if no objects of striking interest are found in the 
course of excavation, the clearing of the ground will reveal the 
ground plan of the chancel, and enable the visitor to realize 
its extent and the magnitude of its enclosing walls. But 
unfortunately the income of the Society, hampered as it is by 
the repayment of a heavy debt, does not leave much margin 
for scientific work after payment of necessary expenses. It 
is to be feared that the work cannot be completed without 
outside pecuniary help. 
