small but
very picturesque and beautiful rain mantled with ivy, which appears to
have been a chapel, and was probably the abbot's private oratory. But
the conventual church itself, which exceeded many cathedrals in extent,
has been levelled nearly to the foundation. This work of havoc was
probably an effect of that general panic which seized the lay-owners of
abbeys, on the attempt made by Queen Mary to restore the monks to their
cloisters.--'For now,' says Fuller, 'the edifices of abbeys, which were
still entire, looked lovingly again on their ancient owners; in
prevention whereof, such as possessed them for the present plucked out
their eyes by levelling them to the ground and shaving from them, as
much as they could, all abbey characters.'

"However, in the month of August 1798, permission having been obtained
from the guardian of the present owner to investigate the foundation by
digging, a very successful attempt was made to retrieve the whole
ichnography of the church, of which there were no remains above the
surface to assist conjecture, or to guide research, but one jamb of the
west window against the wall of the dormitory, a small portion of the
south wall of the nave, a fragment of the south transept, and another
jamb of one of the side chapels eastward from the last. An inequality in
the ground, eastward from the transept, in an adjoining orchard, showed
the half-pace into the choir, of which the outline to the north and east
was also defined in the same manner. Upon these slender data we
proceeded, first, to investigate the foundations of the columns towards
the west end; and having ascertained the distance of one from the south
wall, the width of the south aisle, and consequently of the north,
followed of course; another digging immediately to the north ascertained
the width of the middle aisle, and a third, from east to west, gave one
intercolumnation; the length of the nave being already given by the
remains of the transept, the number of columns was now proved. A right
line drawn along the remnant of the south wall, and continued to the
intersection of the nave and transept, proved the length of the latter
on the south side, and, consequently, also on the north. The choir
evidently appeared to have consisted of a presbytery, with two side
aisles, and four other chapels; two to the north, and as many to the
south.

"The site of the choir being determined, it remained to investigate its
contents beneath