three hundred and thirty-two feet, and the breadth, including the aisles, varies from 61 feet 3 inches in the nave to 62 feet 4 inches at the east end of the Choir. On the left there are the ruined bases of seven large pillars (forming eight bays) between the west wall with its respond and the great Tower-pier, one only rising some few feet higher than the others. These partake very much of the character of the great abbeys of Yorkshire, particularly of Roche Jervaulx and Guisborough. On the right we have, out of the seven corresponding piers, three in a state of nearly perfect preservation; these carry arches and tiers of other pillars and arches to nearly the full height of the former structure and we can form a very correct notion of the perfection and richness to which the building was brought. This portion, which is of massive Early English Architecture, is of the age of King John or the early part of Henry III, and probably in the priorship of Joybertus, who was a Norman abbot, presiding from about 1198 to 1216. The first three bays on the right hand (marked A on the plan Plate x) are arcaded in a different manner from the other parts, having inner arches, so as to give space for a room over the aisle and beneath the roof of the triforium.

These shafts2 are short and the aisle is vaulted, and constitute the only part of the vaulting remaining, except a small piece in the cloisters. The room above is shown in the view (Plate XI) and is one of exceeding beauty. The entrance was at the south-east corner, and there was a way out on the opposite side by a few steps into the gallery along the nave walls. The use of this room is doubtful. There are indications of places where presses were fixed, and of the position of stone benches, and I can arrive at no other conclusion than that it was a vestry, of which there were frequently several, this one being accessible from the dormitories; and that this was in use for the early morning services, the processions for which were to enter the south aisle. It may, however, have been the monks' parlour, as there was a distinct stair from the cloister, and stone

seats.

The strength of the construction of this part has secured its preservation to our day, while nearly all the other portions have been swept away. On the left hand, that is, the north side, of the nave, there is just enough visible of the foundation of a north porch (D, Plate x), to make us sure that there was such a feature at the fourth bay, beyond which the old aisle wall is in existence for a few feet above the present surface, which it may be proper to remark is not by any means so much raised above the former level as

feet.

1

Dugdale and his followers say 401 feet, which, allowing for walls included, is too much by forty

2 Mr. Blakeway and Mr. Owen, who wrote the account for Britton, erroneously state this to have been filled in subsequently. Britton's Architect. Antiq., iv, 59.

3 Mr. Mackenzie Walcot calls it a dormitory for the conversi. Building News, vi, p. 954.