of the original massive wall, which is supposed to have been faced with marble, have braved the ravages of time for nearly 300 years.

There appear to have been four grand gates of entrance to the abbey; and its lofty embattled walls enclosed, within a vast circumference, the body of the monastery, the abbot's palace, court yard, garden, offices, &c. the chapter house, towers, cloisters, ambulatories, infirmaries, and offices of all kinds; the splendid monasterial church, extensive cemetery, three smaller churches, and several chapels. Beyond the circuit of the walls were many hospitals, chapels, and other religious edifices, under the patronage and protection of the monks, and depending upon them for support.

The western gate, which formed the grand entrance to the abbey, is the only relic that attests the splendour of this truly magnificent establishment. Of this venerable structure, the materials and workmanship were so excellent, that, without the protection of a roof, and without the aid of repairs, it is yet in a state of preservation almost perfect.The original entrance to the abbey having been destroyed, in a violent assault, made in the year 1327, by the inhabitants of the town, the present gate, which opened into the great court yard, in front of the abbot's palace, was erected upon a plan combining utility with ornament, and elegance with defence. The architecture is of the best period of that style which is generally termed gothic. The

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composition is judicious and harmonious: in the western front, richness of design predominates; in the eastern, an elegant simplicity. The embellishments, arranged with taste, and executed with sharpness and precision, are much more numerous than those which appear in earlier specimens. They are not, however, in such extravagant profusion, as the later and more florid style which prevailed in the reigns of Henry VI. and VII. presented.

The height of this gate is about 62 feet, its length 50, and its breadth 41. The western front is divided into two horizontal compartments, by an elegant embattled ornamented band, and perpendicularly into three compartments, a centre, and two turriated projecting wings. The whole is superbly ornamented with carved devices and niches for statues; the centre containing five single and six double niches, with three small niches in the tympan of the undulated pediment; and in each of the wings are three large single niches. The heads, or groined work, forming the canopies of these niches, are elegant, and the pediments richly adorned with crockets and finials. The centre, and the two extreme, niches of the centre compartment, are also further enriched by the pilasters' terminating in well-wrought pinnacles. The spandirls of the arch are ornamented with two bosses or pateræ; and over them, near the top of the building, are two others. The pillars of the gate-way are composed of clustered cylinders; the capitals are simple, chiefly with the

gothic wreath. The counter arch of the entrance is surmounted by an undulated arch, or pediment, springing from the external capitals, and enriched with crockets similar to those of the niches, the finial of which reaches to the band in the centre of the building. In the tympan of this pediment is the above-mentioned compartment of three small niches.

-In the wall and arch is a grove six inches wide, for the reception of the portcullis. In the north-west and south-west angles were circular stair-cases. By that at the south-west, which is still remaining, though not entire, it is possible, with some care yet, to ascend to the platform and parapet. The terre-plaine of the wall constitutes a terrace, or platform, which affords a passage round the top of the building. There are five embrasures in each end; and in each side seven. Over each of the stair-cases was formerly an octagon tower, fourteen feet high. One of these having been blown down, at the commencement of the last century, the other was soon after taken down. Some parts of the battlements, at the north-west and south-west angles, were broken off, very probably when the towers were removed. The area is unequally divided, into two compartments, by a substantial stone partition, having gates of brass, the hinges of which remain. Over the arch is a gallery, running across, and communicating at each end, with the stair-cases. The entrances to these stair-cases, and from them to the gallery, is by a door and passage

placed on each side of the brazen gates, in the interior. or eastern division of the area; by which means, if an enemy had forced the portcullis, and obtained possession of the anti-gateway, the defendants within would have had access to the upper part of the fortress, whence the assailants might have been very much annoyed.-The eastern division forms a cube, of about twenty-eight feet, and, from the projecting remains of those parts of the groins, immediately above the springing still to be seen in the angles, appears to have been vaulted with stone. The internal walls, on both sides, are highly decorated with light and elegant tracery, of exquisite workmanship. Shields, containing the arms of King Edward the Confessor, Thomas de Brotherton,* and Holland Duke of Exeter, finely cut in stone,' form part of the ornaments. But that which attracts generally most attention, is the perfection and beauty of the arch in the East front; its symmetry and elegant proportions are equally gratifying to the eye of taste, and to the scientific observer. The stones which form the pillars and mouldings of this arch are of a nature so durable, that, though it has borne the revolution of four centuries, it retains the perfect appearance of work recently erected. Over this division, a space of nearly

*Thomas de Brotherton, second son to Edward I. and half brother to Edward II. was doubtlessly a benefactor and contributor towards the buildings. His armis, twice displayed in the most conspicuous part, are still in admirable preservation.

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equal dimensions, appears to have been a room, the entrance to which was from the gallery over the tition. The vestiges of a roof, and of a floor, are very evident; and on the north side are the remains of a fire-place. The north and south sides have each two small windows. The Portarius, or Janitor, had apartments, for himself and servants, in or near the gate, at which one of them was always to be in attendance.-In the east end is a grand window of three compartments, the upper one of which is splendidly adorned with tracery peculiarly rich and elegant. "This window," observes the Rev. Mr. Yates, from whose accurate and more extended description of this beautiful and interesting relic of the times of monachism, we present this sketch, “must have afforded a most enchanting and interesting view. In the fore-ground would appear the Court and Palace of the Abbot, with the magnificent and peaceful abodes of Religion, impressing the imagination with sensations awful and sublime: then the beautiful gardens and vineyards, between which, the Lark and Linnet, winding in highly-decorated banks through a fertile valley, unite their waters under the picturesque bridge at the extremity of the monastery: and beyond these, the extensive swelling fields of St. Edmund's Hill and Eldo Grange gradually melt into the horizon, and bound the prospect."

Within the abbey, in the days of its greatest prosperity, were 80 monks, 15 chaplains, and 111