2 Vide Capgrave's Chronicle.

3 Cf. Leland's Itinerary. Abbate Beere buildid Edgares Chapel at the Est End of the Chirch, but Abbate Whiting performed sum part of it.

4 See paper by James Parker, M.A., in 1880 volume of Som. Arch. Proc., p. 101, where he says, speaking of the Edgar Chapel: "The question is, What did Leland mean by the 'est end of the chirch'? Does he mean the choir? Of course, I cannot say that he does not. But there are two considerations. The first is the view preserved by Stukely, taken by his friend Mr. Strachey before the Abbot's House was pulled down, and, as I understand it, some few years before 1723. In this a larger portion of the second chapel in the south transept remains than now, and it is lettered 'Edgar Chapel.' He seems to have obtained his name from hearsay, and possibly no importance ought to be attached to the tradition by itself. The other consideration seems to me more worthy of attention, and may perhaps support the tradition, where it is said in the next paragraph which Leland gives in reference to Abbot Bere, that he 'arched' on both sides, the east part of the church."

Parker proceeds to argue that this arching probably refers to the east end of the nave, not of the choir, and that if so, then Edgar's Chapel belongs to the same work, and would thus be connected with the transept also. "And there," says Parker, "it is placed in the only engraving which gives the name." "On the whole," he concludes, "I think it must be left an open question as to what Abbot Bere built; at least, that the evidence is not sufficient to justify putting Edgar's Chapel at the east end of the choir."

5 See Fig. 1, p. 5.

6 See flyleaf.

7 At a later date the excavations revealed a small chantry adjoining the south side, as at Gloucester Cathedral (Lady Chapel). This extends the width to 48 or 49 feet. If a similar chantry were appended to the north side (again following Gloucester) the extreme width might be close on 60 feet ("viginti virgas"). But of this nothing is known. Colonel Long's MS. plan, found in 1910, gives the 49 feet width.

8 For "quomodo."

9 The ancient "Book of Melchin" (now lost), quoted by John of Glaston, says of Joseph of Arimathea: "Amongst them Joseph of Marmore, named of Arimathea, receives perpetual sleep; and he lies in linea bifurcata near the south corner of the Oratory which is built of hurdles." "Linea," according to Ducange, means "an under-garment," and "bifurcata" would denote one slit at the sides like a shirt or dalmatic. But our script seems to suggest rather "a fork in the paths" as the place where Joseph lay.

10 For mediÆval use of the masculine form "portus" for "porta" see Lobinell, Hist. Brit., ii. 872. "Ante suum introitum fecit idem novus dux primum juramentum in introitu variere portus illius urbis vocati vulgariter Portus de Morzellos." Also in O.E. (Anglo-Saxon Psalter) "on portum" = "in porta."

11 A doubtful measure (see pp. 27 and 63). The writing was very weak and unsatisfactory, as though the force were waning.

12 "Quinquaginta" is sheer nonsense, and moreover inconsistent with the measure already given. The writing was getting weaker and the difficulty increasing, and it seemed that the sitting had probably been unduly lengthened, to the physical exhaustion of the sitters.

13 I.e., in the reign of Henry VII.

14 It is most improbable that any are remaining at this day. The eighteenth century probably saw the last of them, but this may not be in the sphere of cognisance which we are here touching.

15 At this point the sitting was interrupted, and was not resumed until eight hours later, when the broken thread was immediately taken up.

16 I.e., the exterior width.

17 These were proved later.—F.B.B.

18 The sitting was interrupted here, and resumed later with a repetition of the words "as we saw it, but."

19 The work of the mere copyist is not inspired.

20 There is a sketch of this pillar given in the 1908 volume of the Proc. of the Somerset Arch. Soc.. It was found by F.B.B. in Kerrich's papers in the British Museum. Its position would fairly obviously correspond to that which the script suggests, and there is therefore nothing very remarkable about this.

21 The wall of the vestry was subsequently dug for and found outside the bay of the south quire wall third from the west, where there were indications of such an appendage in the grooving of the masonry for the flashings of a lead roof, and the plinth mould had been shorn off to get rid of an inconvenient projection. The trench showed a thin wall giving a vestry about 9 feet wide.

22 The great breadth of the footings of the rectangular part of Edgar's Chapel—about 6 feet 6 inches on the north and south walls—might easily have inspired a wrong opinion as to the substance of the walls themselves. But students of the work of this date are familiar with the fact that the flat and heavy fan-vaulted stone roofs of the Tudor period require, in addition to their external buttresses, a certain amount of interior support, which is given by building the walls as a series of hollow bays, the windows occupying the recesses, and the intermediate masses being brought out inwards, as piers or counterforts, the same being architecturally treated, so that the description elsewhere given of "piers as panellÆ" is quite probably accurate, as a description of such features.—F.B.B.

23 The local gardeners and workmen had a story of a large covered passage which was said to run from the house or from a point close to it, and towards the Abbey, and one workman, Thyer, now dead, told F.B.B. that he had assisted the late owner, Mr. Austin sen., to fill up a part of this and to remove the flat stone coverings which he needed for his building work.

24 I.e., the high altar of the later church.

25 Should be "Edmund."

26 William the monk who reposes in the quire.

27 A facsimile of this plan was published in the Treasury for Christmas, 1908.

28 Cf. p. 37, line 3.

29 Cf. p. 35, last line, "Portus introitus post reredos," etc.

30 'Them,'—i.e., the cellars.

31 The length of the mediÆval "pace" was unknown to us, and would have been inferred to be the natural length of a walking "step" (in F.B.B.'s case 22 inches).

But to reduce paces to feet, or vice versa, is not easy by mental arithmetic, and the calculation was not made. Hence this CCCXI conveyed nothing definite.

But publication necessitated scrutiny of this statement, and, to assess the true length, reference was made to William Wyrcestre's Itinerary, wherein, speaking of Glastonbury Abbey (p. 292), he says:

"Longitudo navis ecclesiae monasterii continet 54 virgas vel 100 gressus"—making 54 yards = 100 steps.

If 100 steps= 54 yards, one step = 1·62 feet. So we have our material for calculation, as follows:

I. Length of church 311 × 1·62 = 503·82 feet
"et capella nova" (i.e., and the new chapel) (add) 90·00 "
———
593·82 "
—an amazing result! Elizabeth's commissioner, quoted on p. 12, says:

"The great Church in the Aby was ... 594 feet." And our own plan (Fig. 12), based on careful measurement, yields the total 592 feet! (The 580 feet measure discussed on p. 62 is an internal measure.)

32 DCCXXXIII pedes circa (about 733 feet)—at first sight a hopelessly discordant measure, being 140 feet in excess of the first—yields on analysis an even more astonishing result. For 733 feet circa is 311 paces; but Romano-British paces—not mediÆval! 311 paces of 2 feet 4-1/4 inches is 733 feet. The true Roman pace (single) is 2 feet 5 inches—occasionally less in Britain—so we see it in this case slightly shortened. And the qualification "circa" gives us the slight latitude which the computation requires.

It is as though our question, addressed to the previous informant, had been answered by another in a literal sense, according to his own knowledge of the measure, and without reference to the monkish standards. (See note in synopsis at end of vol., sub. "Ell" and "Passus.")

33 This being a foot in excess of the measure first given and found correct, we have preferred the latter in the calculation given on the last page.

34 This refers to a portion of the script not yet published.

35 The remains lie on the line of the wall (now removed) which divided the Inner from the Outer Bailey.

36 A possible source of error in the communications, which may describe occasionally as still existing, things which have perhaps been rooted out by vandals of modern date.

37 I.e., the Abbot's "rebus" (F.B.B.). A rebus is the enigmatic equivalent of a name. Many of these are known to have been adopted by Bishops and other ecclesiastics of note. In the case of Bere, the significance is obvious. Where a name ended in "ton," as Morton, Pereton, etc., a "tun," or barrel, has been used to complete the rebus.

38 This seems written in defence of the feminine form "Phocis" used in the original. This is the right Greek form for the country, whereas "Phocas" would be the proper form in which to designate a man of Phocis. A correspondent had raised this point in a letter to F.B.B., but J.A. was totally unaware of it.

39 The right forearm was afterwards found to be fractured.

40 Radulphus Cancellarius. This we supposed, at first, to refer to the great Radulphus or Ralph (FitzStephen), who was responsible for the rebuilding of the Abbey Church after the great fire of 1184; but this would be eighty-three years after the time of Turstin, first Norman Abbot (1082-1101). Malmesbury tells us of the trouble that ensued from the tyrannical methods of Turstin, and the slaughter of the monks by hired soldiers. But the story of Eawulf is new.

41 Eawulf, Yarl of Edgarley. The name was quite unknown to us. Edgarley is about a mile out of Glastonbury on the south-east. There is an ancient chapelry there, dedicated to St. Dunstan. Subsequent reference to the old English Chronicles brought to light the following entry under date A.D. 885:

"Eanwulf, Earl of Somerton, buried in Glastonbury Abbey." Somerton is about six miles from Glastonbury on the same side as Edgarley—i.e., south. This is interesting, as suggesting a family name perpetuated for some six generations, or about 200 years, in the district.

42 Turstin, whose violence caused his dismissal by the King, and exile for a time to Normandy, was succeeded by Herlewin, whose Saxon name receives interesting corroboration by the script.

43 Written "Turstinus."

44 Which may be freely translated as: "Listen to me, you very dull barbarians!—to me, the Emperor, who have been trying to make these things clear to the minds of you islanders."

45 Itinerary, vol. iii., p. 103.

46 Undertaken in 1503, on the election of Pius III.

47 This must be a mistake. The south is the Nave side.—F.B.B.

48 This seems perfectly true. The great piers buckled under the weight of the tower, and bowed inwards, probably pushing the vault, and cracking it by compression.—F.B.B.

49 Gave in towards the crossing would be more expressive of the fact.—F.B.B.

50 Bere was the friend of Erasmus.

51 This appears to be in allusion to the note in the Cannon MS. which J.A. says he had not then noticed.

52 I.e., did not keep the canonical hours, etc.—F.B.B.

53 I.e., the old system.

54 Not mentioned in Cesare Foligno's Story of Padua, but there is a chapel of St. Mark figured in a mediÆval map of the town. The mention of this saint tends to explain the lions mentioned in the 1916 script, which had hitherto seemed an incongruous feature, if not quite out of place on a chapel of Our Lady.—F.B.B.

55 The Chapel of St. Mark occupies, in the map, a place not far from the river, and near the mediÆval bridge of St. Mathio. As the River Bacchiglione was navigable, it seems quite probable that there would be quays along its banks within the city.

56 This name is quite unknown to either of us.—F.B.B.

57 Evidently a play upon words, the first "Claustra" apparently signifying that the barred gates are opened; and the second, "that which we should describe as 'cloisters' were open at this point to the North Wind."

58 William of Malmesbury's Glastonbury, quoted below.

59 John Camel was "Purse-bearer" to Abbot Bere.

60 A name unknown to us in this connection.—F.B.B. A letter received by F.B.B. from an Englishman living in Venice (dated April 19) gives the following extract from the "Curiosita Veneziane" (Giuseppe Tassini, Venezia, 1887):

"Vecchia ... Stefano della Vecchia. Il cui padre Venturino era stato approvato cittadino originario il 29 Octobre 1629 apparteneva alla famiglia Della Vecchia, la quali venne dal territorio di Bergamo, ed era detto da principio, Cornovi.

"... Un Antonio di questa famiglia il cui figlio Zaccaria fu Vescovo di Torcello, comperi in 1565 un nobile palazzo sulla Fundamenta della Madonna dell'Orto."