the walls--which would indicate
that the masonry was very beautiful and delicate work.

Much uncertainty exists as to the size of the Lady Chapel, though
traces of the foundations have been found for some distance to the
eastward of the present building. Unfortunately the ground in which
the foundations are hidden is private property, and the chance of a
thorough investigation of the site very remote. Traditionally, the
Lady Chapel is said to have been 100 feet long, or about a third of
the length of the building. There is no documentary evidence to
support this tradition, and in the absence of such confirmation Mr.
Blunt supposes that there was no large Lady Chapel,[6] but that a
chapel somewhat similar to those still surviving, and specifically
referred to as "Capella Beatae Mariae Ecclesiae Conventualis," was
destroyed not long before the Dissolution for the purpose of making
room for a larger and more splendid chapel. This chapel, Mr. Blunt
adds, was never completed, the plans of the builders being upset by
the general dissolution of the monasteries.

The Capella Ecclesiae Conventualis above mentioned would rather imply
the existence of another Capella Mariae to which the parishioners had
ordinary access, and this reference to it tends to strengthen the
theory that on the north side of the north transept there was a
detached Lady Chapel as at Bristol.

On the other hand, the orders of Henry VIII.'s Commissioners expressly
mention the Lady Chapel as a part of the building to be pulled down,
as being superfluous. This is a matter of exact history, and we have
either to accept the conclusion that the Commissioners ordered the
chapel to be destroyed, and that it was done, or else that they
ordered the destruction of a building which did not exist. To support
the former alternative we have the tradition, and it is nothing more,
that the Lady Chapel was destroyed because of the delay of the good
people of Tewkesbury in buying the choir.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] Some of the stone in the tower is undoubtedly Caen stone, brought
from Normandy for the work.

[4] Mr. W. St. John Hope suggests that there was to be _one_ central
western tower, within which this arch would not look out of place.

[5] A good view of the north-east end at close quarters can be
obtained from the Abbey Tea Gardens.

[6] There are records of interments in the Lady Chapel: William Lord
de la Zouch of Mortimer in 1335, another Lord de la Zouch in 137