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. 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 reedlike 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.

J

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 seemed, 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.

the

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 east-
wards. 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 door-
way 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.
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.
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

That

Nor

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.