has been laid down on the plan, but many points for the present must remain unsolved, since funds did not permit of so complete an excavation as was desirable.

THE NUNS' COURT.

As will be seen from the plan (Plate I.) the southwestern quarter of the site described above is practically cut off from the rest by ditches on all four sides, as if to form a precinct in itself. In the centre of this stood what was no doubt the house and court of the nuns. It consisted of a cloister, with the church on the south, the chapter-house and warming-house, etc. on the east, the frater on the north, and a western range with buildings extending from it westwards. The kitchen stood semi-detached on the north-west.

The claustrum or cloister was oblong in form, and measured 98 feet from east to west and 113 feet from north to south. The centre was a grass plat surrounded by covered alleys, but of these no remains were found to give any clue to a date. The east,

north, and west alleys were chiefly passages, with doorways opening from them into the various offices round the cloister. The south alley was practically the living room of the nuns, where they sat and read when not engaged in the church or elsewhere.

The church was 206 feet long, and consisted of a presbytery, central tower, and nave, a north transept with two eastern chapels, and a broad south aisle extending the length of the church, with a south transept, a south chapel, and another adjunct opening out of it. The arcade dividing the main part from the aisle seems to have stood upon a wall of some height, part of which remained towards the east, and thus formed a barrier between one half of the church and the other. Previous to the excavations nothing was visible above ground, and the eastern part was found to be ruined to its plinths. It was impossible on account of large trees to fully investigate the south transept. To the west of it the walls were standing to a height of over 6 feet as far as the west end, but the outer facing had been removed throughout, and the west wall had

In

been stripped within as well.' The chapels east of the north transept had been entirely destroyed, as had the corresponding work on the other side of the church. the face of such destruction it is difficult to make out the precise arrangements of so curious a plan.

The presbytery was 26 feet wide and of two bays, divided midway by four steps extending right across. These led up to the altar platform, which was paved with chalk blocks, but we did not find any traces of the altar. On the south was a wide opening into the aisle, where a similar chalk platform existed at the same level as the other, but of the steps up to it only the lowest was left. A few feet to the west of the opening there were the remains in the wall of a somewhat curious construction. On the north side it had been partly destroyed, but on the south a good deal was left. It consisted of two rebated apertures, one on each side of the wall, with gradually converging sides, opening into a central hexagonal recess. The bottom of this had been removed, and as only the lower portion of the construction was left it is not easy to see what it was for. Since its sill was nearly 3 feet above the floor, the recess was evidently made to put something into, and it not improbably formed a fenestra versatilis, and contained a turntable or wheel for passing things from the canons to the nuns on the other side of the wall. Through such a window the holy water and the pax, for instance, could easily be passed, and, as will be seen from the accompanying diagram, a turntable of the simplest form would effectually prevent anyone seeing through the contrivance.

Westwards of the lowest step in the presbytery, and level with it, were the remains of a floor of chalk blocks. The north wall contained a doorway into the transept chapels. Just to the east of this there had been inserted, about the middle of the fourteenth century, a most sumptuous canopied tomb. It had contained the effigy of a knight in armour, whose body had been laid to rest

The west wall was laid open on both sides, but of the western half of the south wall only sections were examined.

The chalk floor of the altar platform was continued through the opening, which bore no signs of a door or barrier of any kind.

in a walled grave beneath,' surmounted by an ogee canopy of the same character and workmanship as the beautiful monument of Lady Eleanor Percy in Beverley Minster. Many pieces of the canopy were found as they had been thrown down by the destroyers, but of the effigy such fragments only remained as had been roughly hacked off to make the stone more shapely

as spoil. Among these were shields charged with a bend and others with a cross.2

Of the crossing only the base of the north-east pier was left. This showed that the arches were of three orders, the innermost of which was carried by a broad semi-circular member and the others by semi-detached nook shafts.

1 The grave was 7 feet 3 inches long, 2 feet 2 inches wide at the head and 1 foot 10 inches at the foot, and 3 feet 3 inches deep to the top of a brick curb forming the south edge.

2 The fragments of the tomb and effigy are at present deposited in the parish church of Watton. From the arms, the tomb may be to one of the De Mauleys.

By his will dated April 10th, 1350,
Gilbert de Aton, knight, desires that

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if he die in Yorkshire he is to be buried entre les bones gentz de religion a Watton," and he leaves the sum of £100 to the priory. Richard, prior of Watton, was to be one of his executors. Testamenta Eboracensia (Surtees Society 4), i. 62, 63. So great a benefactor ought to have had a sumptuous tomb, but the one above described cannot be identified as his, unless the shields with the cross are his arms.

From the base a stone wall about 2 feet thick extended westwards across the transept arch, no doubt to place the quire stalls against. But owing to the complete destruction of the western bases and the nave walls immediately beyond them, it is not possible to fix the limits of the quire itself.

Of the north transept there remained the base of the west wall, and of part of the north with the jamb of a doorway from without; also one respond of the arches that opened into the chapels, and beside it the base of a vaulting shaft.

The nave has been so ruined that little else now exists than the lower part of the north wall towards the west, and the massive chalk core of the west wall. There was no western entrance, but in the north wall a doorway on the extreme west led into the buildings there abutting on the church, and there was certainly one and perhaps two entrances from the cloister into the nave. The wall on which the arcade stood was 4 feet 11 inches thick, but it had been destroyed almost from end to end, and only some remains of it existed here and there, together with sections of the piers and pieces of capitals. The piers were apparently clustered, with capitals carved with broad-leaved volutes. There were no signs of a western respond, nor of the wall having continued up to the west wall. Possibly, therefore, it stopped against some pier or other such abutment a little in advance of the wall, and belonging to a galilee or narthex in line with the internal projections shown on the plan.

The south aisle was 194 feet wide, and had a stair turret in its south-east angle projecting into the church. There are no traces of any doorways from without.

The chapel opening out of the aisle was 28 feet long and 14 feet wide, and entered by a wide archway of two orders carried by clustered columns. The arch was at some time closed by a wooden screen. The altar platform remained, with part of its step and a pavement of yellow and black tiles arranged checkerwise. The block of the altar was 6 feet long and 2 feet 11 inches wide. It stood against a chalk wall, 2 feet thick, which divided the chapel from another east of it. This was

entered from the aisle by an archway like the other, of which the western respond remained. A party wall crossing this second chapel 5 feet from its west end shows that the arrangements were different from that of the other, but all the stonework here was so shivered by the action of a strong fire and dislocated and shattered by some heavy fall that it was not possible to pursue the investigations.

The greater part of the church seems, from the architectural remains, to have been all of one date circa 1170, but there are also traces of an earlier building of the time of the foundation of the priory beneath the later east end. The western part of the nave was also perhaps of the earlier date.

For the explanation of this we are indebted to a casual entry in the chronicle of the neighbouring Cistercian abbey of Meaux, which tells how Adam, the first abbot there (1150-1160), resigned his office after ten years and retired to Watton, "then a new monastery of virgins,' intending henceforth to have leisure for God alone and choosing to lead an anker's life. "And there he remained for a long time shut up, until after a lapse of seven years, the church beneath which he dwelt was burnt, and he himself having been rescued from the fire returned to his monastery of Meaux," where he died thirteen years later and was buried in the chapter-house there.1

It is interesting to note that, as its remains show, the church burnt in 1167 was of the same plan and extent as its successor, but it is not clear why so complete a reconstruction was necessary. Possibly the large amount of chalk used in the walling, which would partly be converted into lime by fire, may account for the fact; but the scantiness of the remains, and our lack of information as to the cause and extent of the fire, effectually hinder fuller investigation. Adam's ankerhold, if it escaped the flames, was no doubt destroyed in

1 "Habita ergo deliberatione, decimo anno administrationis suæ cedens, apud Wattonam, novum tunc virginum monasterium, intendens deinceps soli Deo vacare ac anachoreticam vitam præeligens ducere, se conclusit. Ibique

tamdiu mansit inclusus, donec, post septem annorum curricula, ecclesia sub qua manebat combureretur, et ipse ab igne extractus ad monasterium suum de Melsa est reversus." Chronica de Melsa (Rolls Series 43), i. 107.