y alluded to, however,
needed but slight repair. Almost all the other marble-work required
renewal, and a special messenger was despatched to Purbeck to open the
ancient quarries.

Above the western doorway was discovered a beautiful Norman window,
composed of Caen stone. The porch before the western door of the Temple
Church, which formerly communicated with an ancient cloister leading to
the hall of the Knights Templars, had been filled up with rubbish to a
height of nearly two feet above the level of the ancient pavement, so
that all the bases of the magnificent Norman doorway were entirely
hidden from view.

Previous to the recent restoration the round tower was surmounted by a
wooden, flat, whitewashed ceiling, altogether different from the ancient
roof. This ceiling and the timber roof above it have been entirely
removed, and replaced by the present elegant and substantial roof, which
is composed of oak, protected externally by sheet copper, and has been
painted by Mr. Willement in accordance with an existing example of
decorative painting in an ancient church in Sicily. Many buildings were
also removed to give a clearer view of the fine old church.

"Among the many interesting objects," says Mr. Addison, "to be seen in
the ancient church of the Knights Templars is a _penitential cell_, a
dreary place of solitary confinement formed within the thick wall of the
building, only four feet six inches long and two feet six inches wide,
so narrow and small that a grown person cannot lie down within it. In
this narrow prison the disobedient brethren of the ancient Templars
were temporarily confined in chains and fetters, 'in order that their
souls might be saved from the eternal prison of hell.' The hinges and
catch of a door, firmly attached to the doorway of this dreary chamber,
still remain, and at the bottom of the staircase is a stone recess or
cupboard, where bread and water were placed for the prisoner. In this
cell Brother Walter le Bacheler, Knight, and Grand Preceptor of Ireland,
is said to have been starved to death for disobedience to his superior,
the Master of the Temple. His body was removed at daybreak and buried by
Brother John de Stoke and Brother Radulph de Barton in the middle of the
court between the church and the hall."

The Temple discipline in the early times was very severe: disobedient
brethren were scourged by the Master himself in the Temple Church, and
frequently whipped publicly on Frida