accommodation for the novices, and probably cells for copyists, illuminators, and students engaged in the preparation and preservation of books for the library, many of the Cistercian monasteries being rich with the most valued learning of the time. The door which led from the ambulatory into this department remains (see 7 on Plate VII). The ambulatory had a lean-to roof, on the east side of the arched wall of which the weathermoulding remains, and over the south of the three arches abutted a gabled roof, which extended eastwards and covered the infirmary chapel, B B, Plate VII. The small quadrangle or court, which has the chapel on its south side, was probably completed at the erection of the abbey by the infirmary buildings, then most likely small in extent and accommodation. The east and north sides, however, gave place in the thirteenth century to new and more extensive buildings; of these the north part has been destroyed except one range of arches, and the remainder converted into a manor house. The description of the chapel will therefore complete our account of the buildings belonging to the twelfth century.

The chapel has until now escaped recognition in its true character. Of its original parts only the east and the south walls remain. The north and west walls are constructed of material in which many of the ornamental stones taken from the north side of this court are built in. It has, in fact, been in part reconstructed as a store for the malthouse built adjoining, and being concealed on the south and east outside with modern buildings, a close inspection inside could alone discover its real nature. In the east end there is a triplet of Norman windows walled up, and in the south wall a beautiful piscina in its original state (at 8 on Plate VII), its semicircular tympanum enriched with Norman carving. At 9 on Plate VII, a small window is blocked up by the building outside of it. The door close by in the same wall is a modern insertion, in which ancient material has been used. Of course the floor, which now divides the height into two stories, and the existing roof are modern. The side walls, which, continued up to the ambulatory, are broken down, but their ends remain at 10 and 11, Plate VII. The south side of the chapel was at first open to the gardens, though closed up by buildings at a later period.

It remains only to speak of the north and east sides of the small court. Their features are entirely of the First Pointed or Early English character, which prevailed in the first part of the thirteenth century; to this period belongs the only historical reference to the abbey buildings which has been discovered. Mr. Eyton finds that about 1220, or a little later, the monks of Buildwas had a grant from Philip de Brosely, to quarry stone throughout his wood of Brosely towards the construction of their buildings; and in 1235, from a survey of the Forest of Shirlot, he shews that the monks had been supplied with timber by order of the king for the repair of their buildings, as we may gather from the tenor of the survey, to a considerable amount. The architecture of the

parts now under consideration points them out as the buildings for which these supplies were procured.

On the north side is a row of five pointed arches; the columns which support them are buried to a depth of several feet by the accumulation of soil, and the levelling of the surface for the homestead. The arches formed the south side of a hall, having a lean-to roof outside, corresponding with that of the ambulatory to the west. The building on the east side, with a wing stretching still further eastward, is now occupied as a farmhouse; great alterations have been made to adapt it to this purpose, so that in the interior, concealed as the parts are by modern fittings, it is scarcely possible to identify the ancient features. The design of the eastern wing may, however, be discovered outside with but little difficulty, and is shewn in Plate IX divested of its modern wooden windows, which have been so numerously inserted that none of the ancient openings are now in use, and most of them are mutilated. This wing formed the abbot's dwelling. In the largest Cistercian houses this dignitary, from the foundation of the order, had a separate dwelling near the entrance gateway, but it was a mark of relaxation in the rule when he assumed the state of a separate establishment and withdrew into a private residence. The example at Buildwas affords an extremely interesting specimen of domestic architecture of the thirteenth century. The treatment of the five windows linked together by the label moulding is pleasing and uncommon. Each window has a square

formed light, four feet one inch high and two feet wide, with a bold bead worked on the jambs and head; and in the tympanum above a trefoil is pierced and chamfered round, the base being kept straight. Measured along the base the trefoil is six inches wider than the opening below. The rear of the abbot's house forming the east side of the small court, retains but few of its proper architectural features; but the remains of an arch at 12, and its connection with the abbot's house on the south and the large hall on the north, shew that it is of the same date. The openings towards the court appear to be all of them modern insertions, though old stones, apparently from the ruin of the hall, have been applied. On this side was a lean-to roof, corresponding with that on the north and east sides of the court. The wall which now closes the end at 13, 13, Plate VII, as well as the pier in the centre, built to carry fireplaces on the upper floor, belong to the period of its conversion into a manor house. The appearance of the ground shews that the building extended on the north to a line parallel with the north end of the chapter-house range. This portion, marked E on Plate VII, housed the abbot's personal retinue, and probably also contained the infirmary, in which not only the members of the brotherhood suffering from temporary sickness found relief, but the aged and infirm, who were too enfeebled to take part in the avocations of the monastery, enjoyed repose and exemption from some part of its discipline. The hall, F F, must have been designed for scholastic purposes, the

custom having obtained of assembling the learned of different monasteries for purposes of discussion and disputation. It seems to have been a dignified apartment, and ornamented with canopied niches upon the inside of the columns. A glimpse of the arches is obtained behind those of the ambulatory in the view given in Plate IX. In the court which lay to the rear or north of this hall, at the point marked 14, Plate VII, was discovered, by an excavation made during the past summer, a subterraneous passage, which served to confirm the local belief in an underground passage leading from Buildwas to Wenlock Priory. It was entered for a distance of some few yards, and is described as varying considerably in its dimensions; in some parts being narrowed to a width of three or four feet and not much more in height, whilst at other parts it may be ten feet wide and twelve or fourteen in height. It is sufficiently obvious that it was the sewer of the monastery. It probably commences with an overflow from the fishponds to the west of the kitchen court, and passing through that part of the offices and under the ends of the library and infirmary wings, discharged into the Severn to the eastward. At the present day much of the space between the abbey and the Severn is flooded in winter, and in former days was constantly under water, so that the abbey was on the edge of the river. All along the north side of the abbey is now a considerable terrace. Its original elevation was less, as we see by the manner in which the columns of the hall, FF, Plate VII, are now buried in their lower part.

With the small court devoted to intellectual pursuits and physical repose, we close our review of monastic life at Buildwas. For a time the devout zeal which inspired the founders followed their successors and supported their popularity. Benefactors continued to add to the domains of the abbey, and well directed industry to improve the gifts and increase the returns. The period and circumstances to which their nicely balanced laws were suited passed away. The wide wastes were now fruitful fields, and the wealth poured in at their gates made the anxious activity of the past to appear superfluous. Devotion rapidly cooled; in slothfulness were neglected, and in selfishness were squandered, the resources of the monastery, till, after an existence of four hundred and three years, the impoverished brotherhood, reduced to eight or nine monks, was extinguished, and its members driven from the home their degeneracy dishonoured.

It is to be feared that the loss we witness in the extent of the buildings is not wholly attributable to the period since the suppression. In the work which exists no mark is presented of any extension or renovation after the thirteenth century. Whilst to antiquaries the consequent purity of the architecture is interesting and valuable, it would nevertheless have been gratifying to discover in the later history of the monastery something of the excellent spirit which incited the founders to provide with such admirable durability for the wants and dignity of their successors. Seeing the final