he wall against which the westernmost of the pillars once stood was
removed, but the piers were allowed to remain, backed up by a new piece
of masonry built against them to support the new vaulting. The crypt
is lighted by four windows, equal-sided spherical triangles in shape;
two look out eastward, one northward beyond the chancel arch, one,
correspondingly placed, to the southward. The centre of the east end is
a blank wall. Against this the altar stood--a niche, probably a piscina,
still may be seen. On each side of the place where the altar stood there
are two openings into the choir aisles. The exteriors of these are of
the same form and size as the crypt windows, but they are deeply splayed
inside, and probably were used as hagioscopes or squints, to allow those
kneeling in the choir aisles to see the priest celebrating mass at the
crypt altar.

[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO CRYPT.]

[Illustration: THE LIBRARY.]

The #Vestry# stands in the south-east angle between the transept
and choir aisle; it is a vaulted building dating from the fourteenth
century, and is lighted by two windows, one looking to the east, the
other to the south. A small door at the south-west corner opens upon the
staircase leading to the #Library#--a chamber situated above the vestry.
The collection consists chiefly of books left to the minster by will
of the Rev. William Stone, Principal of New Inn Hall, Oxford, a native
of Wimborne. They were brought from Oxford in 1686, under the care of
the Rev. Richard Lloyd, at that time Master of the Grammar School at
Wimborne. The books are chiefly works on divinity; some additions were
subsequently and at various times made to the original collection. The
books were attached to the shelves for safety's sake by iron chains, the
upper end carrying rings which slid on rods fastened to the shelf above,
the other end to the edge of the binding of the books. Hence the volumes
had to be placed on the shelves with their backs to the walls. The room
in which the books were placed was formerly known as the Treasury; it
was refitted in 1857, but the old chains are still used. It would occupy
too much space were any attempt made to give a list of the books. The
oldest volume is a manuscript of 1343, "Regimen Animarum," written on
vellum, and containing a few illuminated initials. A "Breeches,"
Black-Letter Bible, dated 1595, is another book worth mentioning; also
a volume of Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the Wo