sum
considering the area of the site and the extent of the buildings, which
included, among others, the prior's lodgings, styled "the Mansion,"
which had housed so great a man as Prior Bolton.

[Illustration: FIG. 6--PRIOR BOLTON'S WINDOW.]

In Queen Mary's reign the Church resumed possession of the conventual
buildings, and they were occupied by the Black Friars, who, it is said,
made some attempt to rebuild the nave; but beyond some slight works to
be seen in the east cloister, they left no traces of their occupation
behind, the sole relic remaining of them being the seal of their head,
Father Perryn, the matrix of which has already come into the possession
of the church authorities.

With the death of Mary the friars retired, and the choir became, once
more, the parish church, and for the next century neglect and decay
continued the ruin of the fabric. But with the advent of Laud to the See
of London, some attempts were made at reparation. It is said that the
steeple had become so ruinous that it had to be taken down, and in 1628
the present brick tower, which stands over what was the easternmost bay
of the south aisle of the nave, was erected. Where the ruined steeple
stood is not clear, but most probably over the crossing, and as towers
were unimportant features in the churches of the Austin Canons, it is
likely that it rose but little above the roofs. Another and remarkable
erection of this period was the charnel-house at the east end, known as
"Purgatory," which was constructed with some attempt to give it a Gothic
appearance, and was attached to the reredos wall. This is shown in fig.
7, which illustrates the eastern ambulatory, as it existed before the
restoration.

[Illustration: FIG. 7--EASTERN AMBULATORY AND PURGATORY BEFORE
RESTORATION.]

During the great Georgian period considerable work was done to the
church, not without some attempt at architectural improvements,
unappreciated, however, at a later date. The choir appears to have been
re-roofed, the old timbers being partly re-used, but shortened by
cutting off the rotten ends, with the result that the pitch of the roof
was considerably lowered. To this or to their own decay may be due the
destruction of the two great traceried windows at the east end, which
were replaced by two wide semi-circular headed windows, which their
designers, perhaps, fondly imagined to accord better with the Norman
arcades below. Whether the reredos screen had already b