r saint. Speaking of these
chantries, which were endowed in such profusion in the later Middle
Ages, Canon Church (_Somerset Proceedings_, 1888, ii. 103) says: "The
belief in the communion of saints, living and dead, and the desire for
continued remembrance after death, and for the intercessions of the
living, led practically to the endowment of chantries and obits,
whereby not only was the church enriched, and the services of many
priests provided for, but also attachment to the church of their
fathers was greatly strengthened, as being the common home of the dead
and the living." That attachment, one would think, is hardly likely to
be revived by this beautiful chapel and its fellow being put to base
uses. At present it serves as a kind of booking-office, where visitors
deposit their sixpences and sign their names, while the other is
stored with hassocks, and becomes the resting-place of any brooms,
pails, and dustpans that are in use.

St. Edmund's (or Sugar's) chapel is hexagonal, like that of Bishop
Bubwith, but its tracery, frieze, and reredos are more elaborate. The
canopy over the altar is vaulted with lace-like fan-tracery. Five
niches, now empty of their figures, form the reredos; their sumptuous
pedestals and canopies are in excellent condition. Attached to the
frieze without, on either side, are six demi-angels, with delicate
wings and extremely curly hair, bearing shields, with representations
of the Five Wounds, the Lily of the Annunciation, between angels'
wings; the arms of the see (a plain saltire surmounting a pastoral
staff in pale between two keys addorsed, the bows interlaced on the
dexter, and a sword erect on the sinister); the arms of Glastonbury
Abbey (a cross flory, in dexter chief a demi-virgin with child
proper), the arms of the vicars (a saltire), the initials H.S., and
Sugar's arms, originally a "canting coat," three sugar-loaves, and in
chief a doctor's cap. Sugar's initials and arms also occur under the
canopy. It is the fashion to consider this chapel inferior to its
fellow, merely because it is later in date, but a little impartial
study will show that it is much the better of the two. The tracery,
though less uncommon, is more graceful, that over the doorway
especially being far better contrived; the cornice is better
proportioned, and is not spoilt by the untidy trail of foliage which
runs round that of Bubwith's chapel; the canopy, too, fits in with the
curve of the tracery, while t