bey Church_. The Abbey, though somewhat hemmed in by meaner
buildings, stands in a commanding position in the centre of the city.
Without any claims to be regarded as an architectural gem, it has
sufficient merit to adorn its situation. Its career has been a series
of vicissitudes. Though Bath takes precedence of Wells in the official
title of the see, it has seldom been the predominant partner. John de
Villula, with the intention of making the city the bishop's seat, built
here a church so spacious that the nave alone would swallow up the
existing building. Of this Norm. church there still survive (1) bases
of clustered pillars under a grating in N. aisle of choir, (2) a single
pillar in same aisle, (3) round arch and pillar in vestry, S. of choir,
(4) bases of pillars at exterior of E. end. With his successors' change
of plans, Villula's church fell on evil days, and was allowed to decay.
In 1495 Bishop Oliver King beheld, like Jacob, the vision of a heavenly
stairway and climbing angels, and heard a voice saying, "Let an olive
establish the crown, and let a king restore the church." In consequence
he, in imitation of the patriarch, vowed a "God's house" upon the spot.
With the help of Prior Bird, he projected the present edifice, and the
west front still commemorates his dream. But whilst the building was in
course of construction the Reformation intervened and put a stop to the
work. The monastery was dissolved, and the Crown offered the church to
the townspeople for 500 marks. The citizens, however, declined the
bargain, and the building passed from the hammer of the auctioneer to
that of the house-breaker. Stripped of all that was saleable, the shell
passed into the possession of one Edmund Colthurst, who made a present
of it to the town. For forty years it remained practically a heap of
ruins. Episcopal attention was again drawn to its unseemliness, not
this time by ascending angels, but by the more prosaic instrumentality
of a descending shower. Bishop Montague, seeking shelter one day within
its roofless aisles from a passing thunderstorm, was moved by the
discomfort of the situation to undertake the completion of the fabric.
He finished the work in 1609, but on somewhat economical lines. He
vaulted the roof with plaster, and it has been left to the modern
restorer to make good his work in stone. Externally the church is a
cruciform building with a central tower, characterized by two tiers of
double windows and s