area of its walls. Its outline was, in unison with the religious notions of the period, in form of a Roman cross. It extended from east to west about 300 feet, and consisted of a nave, transept and choir, held together, as it were, by a lofty central tower rising upon the intersection of those divisions. The choir, and chapel of the Virgin, stood in the meadow called the cross-churchyard; the transept or great cross aisle joined the former at north and south, in a line with the existing archway in the garden of the abbey-house ; and westward of the transept, the nave or body of the edifice, with its lateral aisles, extended along the ground now walled in and parcelled out, lying between the cloister-gardens and the bell-tower. The chapter-house was in the cross-churchyard, a little eastward of the existing archway there; the cloisters were adjacent to the same arch, but extended round the present plot of garden westward; and the arch of the chapter-room opened into the cloisters. The bell-tower at present remaining, adjoined the transept and stood parallel with it, toward the north.

The ground-plan formed by Mr. Rudge, while pursuing his researches, has recently been published by the Antiquarian Society, of which that gentleman is a member.71 By relying upon the most decisive portions of that survey, at the same time adopting the suggestions supplied from personal observation and an acquaintance with the ground-plans of similar structures-the present writer is enabled to complete such an outline of the fabric, as viewed in connection with the existing edifices included in the accompanying plan, will he trusts be found to convey a distinct and, as far as practicable, a correct idea of the form and situation of the abbey church and its appendages, now so entirely destroyed.

The foundations of the nave or body of the church-marked A in plan-appeared in situ, with the exception of the southern wall, upon removing the accumulated rubbish beneath the surface and reaching the original level of the soil. This portion, erected in the twelfth century, presented even in its ruined basement sufficient indications of the massive grandeur of the Anglo-norman style the bases of cylindrical columns of vast diameter being found in their original position next the aisles, upon a floor retaining vestiges of

71 In Vetusta Monumenta, vol. v.

the glazed or encaustic tiles that once formed the pavement. These bases with a portion of their shafts have been removed-with several other fragments, such as mullions, bosses, and architraves, together with three stone coffins also found-to a plantation adjoining the residence of Mr. Rudge, about a mile distant from the town. But

as the pillars of the nave, when found in their original situation stood within a walled enclosure, it is matter of deep regret that this portion of the foundations, at least, was not suffered to remain in its ancient position; as it would in that situation have been secured from injury, and might thus have displayed for many years the actual basis-a most interesting ground-plan-of the chief portion of the Great Church of Evesham, now utterly thrown down. The transept or great cross aisle-marked E, F in plan-erected in the same century, was doubtless of corresponding style; an opinion which the bases of its ponderous walls corroborated.

The choir and chancel, or portion peculiarly devoted to the performance of religious offices, having been rebuilt in the middle of the thirteenth century, when the lancet-arch style of architecture

was at its zenith, most probably displayed much of the general appearance still observable in Salisbury cathedral. Excepting that at a subsequent period it received additions of a later character from abbot Lichfield's hand. Of this important portion, however, no vestiges remained; for the choir being seated upon the Norman crypt or subterranean story-marked H in plan--the basement of the choir was wholly swept away in breaking up, after the Dissolution, the arched covering of the crypt or undercroft; which latter portion was also at the same time destroyed, except its basement represented in the plan. Here then we see the bases of the subterranean piers and bulky columns, on which were wrought the well-compacted vaults that sustained the pavement of the choir and chancel aisle, with all their weight of masonry-piers, arches, monuments, altars, screens, and shrines.

Between the pillars of the nave and crypt-marked D in planare shown the bases of the four piers that once sustained the central tower. That structure, as having fallen and been rebuilt during the fourteenth century, presented, we may consider, all that beauty of outline and richness of decoration which distinguish that period. From incidental notices in the conventual registers, we learn that this structure was distinctively termed "the great tower ;" and the distances from pier to pier, seen in the plan, prove that it far exceeded in diameter, as it doubtless did in height, the remaining and adjacent bell-tower.

The easternmost division of the crypt-marked I in plan-must have sustained a transverse aisle or lesser transept, immediately behind the choir. This aisle has by a recent writer been considered as having "probably formed the Lady Chapel ;" 72 which was that division of the church peculiarly appropriated to the worship of the Virgin Mary. But the limited width of this passage-only about sixteen feet across from east to west-forbids that supposition: more especially as intimations abound in the conventual registers of the importance of the Lady Chapel here and, by inference, of its extent. The aisle above adverted to, was most probably that restored

72 Memoir, by Edward John Rudge, esq. M. A., F. S. A., published by the Antiquarian Society, in Vetusta Monumenta, vol. v. page 4.