Party per pale AZURE and PURPURE, on a chevron ARGENT between three oak branches ARGENT, three marigolds PROPER. But Thomas Niblet, Esq., of Harefield Court, near Gloucester, has kindly communicated some drawings and remarks on this subject, from which it may be inferred that the correct blazon is thus, viz.: Per pale ARGENT and GULES, on a chevron ARGENT, between three oak branches PROPER fructed and stemmed OR, a rose between two pinks PROPER. The editors of Dugdale observe:

"An impression of the Common Seal of this House is in the Chapter House, Westminster; it is apparently from the identical matrix used by the Canons of Lanthonia Secunda, and is attached to the same kind of instrument, viz., the acknowledgment of supremacy, 1534."

V. ARCHITECTURE AND RUINS OF LLANTHONY.- Before attempting to describe the present architectural appearance of the building, we must draw attention to a singular passage in Giraldus Cambrensis, respecting the nature of the stone employed in facing the structure. He says:-"It is a remarkable circumstance, or rather a miracle, concerning Llanthoni, that although it is on every side surrounded by lofty mountains, not strong or rocky, but of a soft nature, and covered with grass, that Parian stones are frequently found there, and are called free-stones, from the facility with which they admit of being cut and polished; and with these the church is beautifully built. It is also wonderful, that when after a diligent search all the stones have been removed from the mountains, and no more can be found, upon another search, a few days afterwards, they reappear in greater quantities to those who seek them."

The geological science of the nineteenth century happily comes in aid of the credulity and ignorance of the twelfth. There are several beds of a conglomerate limestone, alternating with the regular measures of the old red sandstone, of which the Hatterell hills are formed. These beds are, in some places, of a bluish colour, and are very dense, and susceptable of a polish. They are irregular in their extension, thinning out considerably as they run along the hill face, and disappearing altogether at intervals. Some of the dense

portions will take a most exquisite polish; others are marlaceous, but all form lime of a greyish brown colour, possessing very little outcast.

The Priory is built of a pure siliceous gritstone, of a greyish tint, the beds of which are discovered in the old red sandstone. The quarries out of which the material was hewn, are said to be about two miles above the church, on the face of the hill. It is remarkable that the angles of the masonry are not rounded off, but remain as acute as at the very hour when they were cut out. The walls are grouted with mud and very little mortar; hence the mass of the building settled in the course of time, cracked, and fell into ruins; the outer courses, however, are cemented with excellent mortar, and the jointing is perfect.

Llanthony was built between 1108 and 1136, but much nearer the former date than the latter; for it was abandoned for Gloucester at the period last mentioned. We know it flourished in all its glory under Robert de Betun, and we may fairly, all circumstances considered, fix the date of its completion not later than the year 1115. The date of the cathedral of Llandaff is A.D. 1120. Sir R. C. Hoare observes: -"On a careful examination and comparison of this cathedral (Llandaff) with the abbey of Llanthony, in Monmouthshire, which was built about the same time, (and though richer in its ornaments bears a great resemblance to Llandaff, as to its general architecture,) we have evident proofs that the Saxon and Gothic orders, or the round and pointed arches, were adopted indiscriminately to doors and windows in the same buildings, about the beginning of the twelfth century." There is no doubt Llanthony is one of the first, if not the very first instance in this country, of the transition state of Norman into early English.

The principal remains belong to the conventual church; the offices have almost disappeared, although some traces may still be made out. The church was built in the form of a Roman cross, and, as far as can be ascertained, was of the following dimensions:—

EXTREME LENGTH OF CHURCH from E. to W., 212 feet. WIDTH OF NAVE, 28 feet.

TRANSEPTS. N. to S., 36 feet. E. to W., 24 feet each.

LENGTH OF CHURCH ACROSS THE TRANSEPTS, N. to S., 96 feet.
SIDE AISLES. Width, 10 feet.

CHOIR. E. to W., 72 feet. N. to S., 28 feet.

BELL TOWER. 24 feet square; interior height, 63 feet, at present. LADY CHAPEL. E. to W., 37 feet. N. to S., 25 feet, as far as can be traced.

ORATORY. E. to W., 24 feet. Height, 15 feet 8 inches. N. to S., 10 feet 10 inches.

CHAPTER HOUSE. E. to W., 64 feet. N. to S., 26 feet 5 inches.

DESCRIPTION OF THE STATE OF THE RUINS.

The west entrance is flanked by two low square massive towers; the one on the south was fitted up by Colonel Wood with apartments for the grousing season, and is covered in with a sloping roof; the abbot's lodging, which joins on to the south side, is also turned into a dwelling house for the steward of the estate. The stone staircase is perfect in the south tower, but broken in the north. The staircases were lighted by five chinks. Each tower, on the outward face, is divided into stages by bold string-courses; the base is beveled off, and the ground story is broad and plain. The second and third stages are ornamented, arcade fashion, on the side next to the west window; the arches are pointed. The central compartment in each successive stage recedes. In the lowest story, two pointed windows have been disfigured by modern innovation; in the centre of the second story a beautiful example of the round-headed Norman window remains perfect, the depth of the wall; the dripstone over it is plain in the north tower, but in the south is terminated by two corbel heads. The third story is ornamented with a double, long, lancet-shaped, blank window, of great elegance and design; the pointed heads spring from triple shafts with plain Norman capitals.

Between these towers, thus ornamented so as to correspond, stood the great west window, over the principal entrance. In the year 1800, Sir R. Colt Hoare remarks, "the western front still retained its exterior elegance; in 1801, one of the fine windows gave way, and in the year 1803, I was a mournful eye-witness, not only of the total downfall of the three windows which composed the principal ornament of this front, but of some modern architectural innovations, highly injurious to the picturesque appearance of this venerable structure." From a drawing in 1808, preserved by Coxe, it was a triple-pointed window. Now nothing remains but the lofty shafts against the towers, with the main capitals, out of which sprung the arches of the windows. All else is but a blank space; the door-way below is disfigured, as Sir R. C. Hoare hints, by a modern hand.

Joining on to the south tower there is a round-headed deep window with a broad trefoiled head, belonging to a plain vaulted chamber, called the Prior's lodgings. upon the church and commences the conven

chamber abuts

tual buildings.

This

Entering by the west, you see the interior of the whole church. The nave was separated from the two aisles on each side by eight obtusely pointed arches, supported upon massive pillars, square, without capitals, the bases ornamented with ogee mouldings; a round moulding, deeply let in, runs from the base entirely round the arch to the base on the opposite side.

The arches on the north side still stand perfect; on the south, four only remain, and these imperfect, two at each end of the nave; the central arches of the eight fell in the year 1837, on Ash-Wednesday, without any external notice; the family were at dinner; had they fallen a few minutes sooner some one must have been killed. The pressure of the clerestory windows, which on this side were destroyed, as upon the other, overweighted the arches beneath, and forced them in. The four remaining are in a very tottering condition, and would have fallen if Mr. Webb, the steward, to whom the building is much indebted for its preservation, had not built up some rude, but well-intentioned buttresses, which, however much they may disfigure, are essential to the strengthening of the remains. He also ingeniously hooped with iron two of the pillars, and by the application of the screw, has managed to bring them back into their former position. The side aisles are completely down; but the termination of the north aisle, with the only specimen of the roof remaining, is to be seen in the north tower of the west front. Here there is also a long, deep, roundheaded, Norman window, looking to the north. The arch at the end of the nave, next to the tower, springs from a corbel, consisting of three truncated pillars, with capitals. The bit of the roof of the aisle which remains is heavily groined, and formed by the intersection of round arches. The flat wall buttress, on either side of the tower, has at the top a square moulding, fluted, from which springs an arch, spanning the aisle, the only one of the series in existence; this is the most acutely pointed in the whole building, and gives us an idea of the character of the rest belonging to

the aisles. The arches are divided from what seems to have been a triforium, (for Coxe, who saw it when perfect, calls it, an "upper tier of Norman arches,") by a straight plain band. Between each arch is a corbel, formed of three clustered pillars, as before, with plain Norman capitals, and worked off to a point where the base should have been; six in number, and from these, evidently, the vaulted and groined roof sprung. Giraldus tells us, when he saw it, probably some fifty years after its completion, "the church was covered with lead, and had an arched roof of stone, and, considering the nature of the place, was not inelegantly constructed."

In the interior, above, nothing remains but a double window, pointed and elegant, which seems to have formed the lower portion of the deep Norman recessed arch, through which the passage ran along to the bell-tower. This may be clearly traced from the exterior of the building.

A low, round-headed, plain door connected each aisle with its contiguous transept. The square bell-tower was supported upon four large and noble pointed arches, of which the west and the south, together with the sides above them, are standing, although there is reason to fear for the latter, from the pressure of the superincumbent building, which has shattered and bowed it out. Sixty years ago, the bell-tower was thirty-seven feet higher than at present, viz. sixty-three feet, as taken by an instrument; whence the entire height was, at first, one hundred feet exactly. The ruin now reaches but a short way above the dripstone of the roof. The west arch springs from a corbel of three stunted pillars, clustered, and terminating in a flower, the corbel on the opposite terminating in a square moulding of the ogee description. The gable in the western arch is pierced by two small plain Norman windows, and has a third narrowpointed window in the apex. The staircase communicating with the belfry is lighted by a round-headed window. Mr. Wyndham, who was at Llanthony before the upper part of the towers fell down, tells us there was a tier of Norman arches above the dripstone, and a second of pointed arches again above these. He speaks of the tower as being beautifully lighted.

We conjecture there were several bells in this tower. As we have seen, they were carried away to Gloucester, when Roger de Norwich was Prior. Now in Walter de Froucestre's ARCHEOL. CAMB. VOL. I.]

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