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set close together. Unhappily, only the eastern half of the western of these two coupled windows remains, and that in a very perilous condition, since it is kept in position solely by means of an iron bar, the constant strain upon which has long threatened ultimate destruction. The beautiful composition and details of these fine windows cannot fail to excite admiration, as being among the very best of their class to be seen anywhere. On both faces, inside and outside, they present the same appearance; the glass, which was not set in a groove, but, as sometimes happened in thirteenth century work, against a flat face worked in the outer chamfer of the jambs and mullions, occupying the central plane exactly. The restricted use of the dog-tooth in the outer enclosing arches, the varied and delicately-moulded caps of the graceful, banded nook-shafts, and the separate hood-moulds of the enclosed couplets, are all very noteworthy features, for they serve to accentuate a composition as rich and perfect, while seemingly simple, as can well be imagined.

Beyond a somewhat plain piscina, which still retains traces of red and buff colouring, and two or three square-headed aumbries, nothing else needing notice remains in what is left of the choir. Only, I may mention, the side walls show that the stalls, which here originally, as elsewhere, occupied the crossing, were at some later, but indefinite, period shifted eastwards; the Early English string-course beneath the windows having been cut down to the surface for that purpose.

IV.

THE TRANSEPT.

Most unhappily, what down to a few years ago might still be called the transept, has now all but utterly disappeared. This applies more particularly to the northern half of it, for the remains of the southern one continue as they were. And this is the more fortunate in that we have thus left to us clear evidence of the design and proportions of the crossing arches, their south-western supports, and by consequence, of the nature and bulk of the tower which they carried.1 Besides all which, we have proof of the existence at an early period of a very unusual appendage to the south transept westwards, but which was done away before even the thirteenth century rebuilding was complete.

1 From these remains we learn that the tower arches were lofty, pointed, and of three simply chamfered orders with hood-moulds. That the tower, if such it could be called, was little more than sufficient for the several high roofs to abut against, is shown by the responds

VOL. XVIII,

remaining in the nave and transept walls, which are of three slender redlike shafts carried on corbels, and quite incapable of bearing any heavy weight, all the more so since the angle is worked away to contain the newel staircase.

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As to the northern half, which also contained many very interesting features, the story of its wanton destruction well-nigh passes belief. Till quite recently, the west and north walls remained to their full height, the latter up even to the point of its gable. Very fortunately, I had previously not only measured, but caused photographs to be taken of much that has now utterly gone. In the west wall-which, in common with the greater part of that towards the north, was of the original twelfth century construction— had been inserted two simple, but very effective two-light windows above the line of the cloister roof'; while in the uppermost part of the north gable was a blocked single lancet light; and below, about halfway up, the round-headed doorway of the night-stairs. Eastwards were the northern respond and centre pillar of the two aisle-bays, or

1 These two small windows, which occupied the whole height between the cloister roof and corbel-table, were of singularly graceful and pleasing form. Their general design, which looked like simplicity itself, was of two plain bifurcated lights beneath a nearly equilateral arch and delicately proportioned hoodmould. The chief point, however, after their excellent proportion, was to be found in the management of their chamfers. Thus, while those of the inner, or tracery order, were slightly hollow, those of the outer, or main jamb order, were flat, but dying into arch chamfers which had broad hollows in the middle, with a flat fillet on each side. Plain and simple as they scemed, the effect of these windows - seldom or never achieved in modern work-was, especially as regarded light and shade, wonderfully beautiful and satisfactory, all the more so from the lovely tinting of golden lichen with which the grey stonework was so plentifully stained. They were, doubtless, inserted for the purpose of illuminating more efficiently the two altars of the north transept, and thus bringing them more into keeping with those which had the benefit of the two large traceried windows set opposite them on the south.

2 During the forties, and long within my own recollection, stone steps, partly original, probably led up from the floor of the church to this doorway and a low, but spacious dwelling-room within. It stood over what ordinarily would have been the slype, entrance to which was had from the cloisters by the southernmost of the three round-headed doorways shown on Plan, though whether there had ever been a corresponding one

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eastwards, as in such cases, there was nothing left to show. At the time referred to, the chamber, which was of no great depth, was closed in that direction by a solid wall, and covered by a semicircular waggon vault, composed almost entirely of ancient carved and moulded stones. That the doorway had always opened upon a chamber of some sort, and not a passage, would seem probable from the fact of the cemetery having always been, necessarily, towards the south, owing to the immediate and rapid falling away of the ground eastwards. But both the north and east walls, like the vault itself, were evidently post-suppression insertions, since inner face of the former cut into the ashlared jamb of the chief central doorway to the extent of a foot and a half, while the thickness of the wall blocked the doorway entirely. The line of the wall, however, continued right through the breadth of the eastern range, and in its northern face I discovered, about twenty years ago, the sharply pointed head of a lancet window, close to the angle and, apparently, in situ, for the eastern wall had been greatly tampered with and altered by, probably, the original grantee. What the primitive arrangements were is puzzling. That the southernmost of the three doorways could not have belonged to a sacristy, which sometimes occupied a similar position, seems clear from the fact of there never having been a second one opening from it into the church. Nor could it very well have belonged to a chapel, as at Westminster and Netley, since there were no bondings, as of a dividing wall, between it and the central doorway. This, too, was far from being

chapels, till lately standing to the height of four or five feet'; and close to the former, and inserted in the adjacent walling northwards, a little window of two lights, with its beautifully traceried head cut out of a single stone. There were also remaining one of the keystones of the quadripartite vaulting, showing broad, and finely chamfered ribs, as well as others of less conspicuous character. Of all these, as of very much more besides, in the adjoining domestic buildings, not a wrack remains to-day, the whole having been pulled down for the sake of the squared ashlar work, which was then carted away to pave the stable yard of Rokeby Hall. Shades of the late I. B. S. Morritt and Walter Scott! "O tempora, O mores," with a vengeance!

Of the south transept, or limb of the transept, all but the west wall, and south-west angle, had been destroyed long before; probably soon after its suppression, and in order to gain more light and air for the domestic buildings, which were then converted into a dwelling-house. What is left, however, is of the most excellent and beautiful character, and serves to make our regret for what has perished only the more poignant. Though but a few years, probably, had elapsed since the completion of the new choir, the change in style had become strongly marked. All traces of the distinctly Early English style had completely passed away, and we are here brought face to face with the perfectly developed characteristics of the Geometrical. Thus, the two remaining angle buttresses are no longer provided with the simply sloping summits of their Early English predecessors, but with gabled heads, richly crocketted in natural foliage; and the masonry, instead of being partly rubble, is now not only of very fine ashlar throughout, but the blocks are of larger and more imposing size. As to the eastern chapels, with their fenestra

exactly in the centre, between the two lateral ones, which, like itself, were distinctly doorways, and not symmetrically planned, perforated arcades such as are commonly met with in the vestibules of chapter-houses, so that their several uses, owing to the thorough gutting of the interior in the sixteenth century and its present annihilation, cannot now be very satisfactorily explained.

1 The northern half of the transept, as a reference to the plan will show, was considerably shorter than that towards the south, its extension, when the later enlargements of the church were effected, being limited in that direction by the existing claustral arrangements. The only available way, therefore, lay towards the east, and of this the builders availed themselves by setting the main wall

some six feet or more forward, and adding, probably for the first time, an aisle of two bays, or chapels, separated from it by a beautiful central column of octofoil section, and two arches, each of 9 ft. 2 in. span. Of their mouldings--for it is quite unlikely that they were simply chamfered- I have never met with so much as a fragment. The southern half of the transept, which, unlike that towards the north, was wholly rebuilt, and where no restrictions of length existed at all, was consequently enlarged in both directions, being made eight feet longer, as well as six broader. Besides being built in a later and richer style, its arcades and chapels would thus be each four feet wider than the northern ones, but not a vestige of them has existed for above a century.

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