as reserved for the monastic services, with a raised
presbytery for the high altar at its eastern end--a threefold division
providing for the ancient ritual arrangement.
In the ambulatory on the northern side of the choir there were
apparently three chapels, besides Bishop Walden's chantry, which was the
easternmost of the series, and is supposed to have had a semicircular
apse. There was a similar, but rather smaller, chapel opposite to it on
the south side, and between it and the south transept a sacristy,
erected about 1350.
Outside the Lady Chapel lay the cemetery of the Canons, on the favourite
(south) side for burials. The cloister formed a large quadrangle
attached to the south aisle. The Prior's residence was probably on the
western side of the quadrangle, and on the south there was a range of
buildings comprising the refectory, buttery, and kitchen, with the Close
beyond them.
Opening into the cloister on the east was the Chapter House, an oblong
structure, adjoining which, on the south, was the dormitory, overlooking
the Mulberry Gardens on the east, and the Close on its western side.[12]
[Illustration: PLAN, PARTLY CONJECTURAL, OF THE MONASTIC BUILDINGS AT
THE DISSOLUTION
A Lady Chapel.
B Founder's tomb.
C Bishop Walden's chantry.
D Pulpit (destroyed 1828).
EE Chapels (conjectural).
F Sacristy (c. 1350).
G North transept.
H Central tower and ritual choir.
I South transept.
K Parish altar.
L Nave (c. 1250) destroyed at the Dissolution.
M Chapter House (destroyed by fire 1830).
N Dormitory (undercroft destroyed about 1870).
O Parlour.
P Kitchen.
Q Buttery.
R Refectory.]
The work of demolition commenced immediately after the transfer of the
property to Henry VIII, when the nave was destroyed; and as soon as Sir
Richard Rich came into possession, he started pulling down the buildings
for the sake of the materials, which were used in the erection of new
houses where the old had formerly stood, as well as on the gardens and
orchards around them. By the time of Queen Elizabeth the district had
become a favourite residential quarter for great people, who gradually
disappeared with the growth of London, and the migration of gentry
westwards, when the houses vacated in Smithfield were let off in
tenements to the same sort of poor people who now share the
neighbourhood with merchants and shopkeepers.
During Elizab
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