ous townspeople. They talked from door to door, and in
clusters in the market-place, and on Merstow Green, from which the
precincts were entered. At last the blow fell! One by one the monks
filed out of their historic home in solemn procession, their heads
bent beneath a weight of misery they were hardly able to bear, though
not yet capable of realising the full meaning of the calamity which
had befallen them. It is true they were not sent into the world
entirely without means of subsistence; some who were in holy orders
had been appointed to livings by the Abbot and convent; to others
pensions were allowed, but what would this avail in their time of
sorrow!

Then the grand pile of Gothic buildings was resigned to the King's
agents, and a great cloud hung over the little town. In a short time
the gorgeous shrines and altars were plundered and desecrated; the
buildings were sold; and before the eyes of the astonished inhabitants
tower and pinnacle, church and chapter-house, gatehouse and cloister,
fell a prey to the hand of the destroyer!

CHAPTER IV

THE REMAINS OF THE ABBEY

"_... work, that stood inviolate_
_When axe and hammer battered down the state_
. . . . . . . .
_... the tall Belfry of the Abbey Gate_
_Yet stands majestic, pinnacled, elate,_
_And fills the Vale with music far and wide._"

--HERBERT NEW.

The earliest architectural remains are the work of Norman abbots. The
most perfect relic of this period is Abbot Reginald's Gateway, now
leading from the market-place into the churchyard, which consists of
side walls both decorated with round arches and shafts. The building
above has been much "restored." As there are no signs of stone
groining, the superstructure was, in all probability, always of
timber, but the design of the arcades, and certain moulded arch stones
found embedded in the soil below would seem to point to the existence
in former times of two stone arches, one at each end, which would add
much to the strength of the building. This gateway stood in a line of
wall enclosing the monastic precincts and the outer yard in which
stand the parish churches, and stretching to the river eastwards and
westwards. The lower portions of the walls have recently been cleared
of earth and exposed to view. It will be noticed that the soil has
risen by gradual accumulation to a height of several feet above its
original level in the seven hundred and fifty years which hav