Fig. 4.—The Plan of the Abbey Church with the Edgar Chapel to the East (Left Hand).
Note.—The drawing has all the marks of a blindfold tracing. The line is continuous, commencing at A, and the north transept is first drawn, very small. Next the line runs east, and the north-east angle of the retro-quire is traced, and, following this, the Edgar Chapel, extending east for about half the length of the quire. Here the line is drawn three times over, as though to emphasise the feature, and it then returns over the old ground, the north transept being again drawn, but larger and further removed, and the whole outline of the church is completed, to the junction south-west of the Edgar Chapel, ending with the signature Gulielmus Monachus (William the Monk).
Q. (by F.B.B.). "What does this drawing represent?"
A. "Guest Hall ... St. Maria Capella ... Rolf monachus."
The first drawing was now examined, and both F.B.B. and J.A. expressed a view unfavourable to the possibility of so large a chapel at the east of the church. It was resolved to try again.
F.B.B. "Please give us a more careful drawing of the chapel sketched just now at the east end of the great church."
In reply, a new sketch of the rectangular chapel was given (see Fig. [5]), with an attempt to indicate the position of two smaller chapels on the north. Again the line was drawn double, and below was written the following, in cramped characters not easy to decipher:
"Capella St. Edgar. Abbas Beere fecit hanc capellam Beati Edgari ... martyri et hic edificavit vel fecit voltam ... fecit voltam petriam quod vocatur quadripartus sed Abbas Whitting ... destruxit ... et restoravit eam cum nov ... multipart ... nescimus eam quod vocatur.
"Portus[10] introitus post reredos post altarium quinque passuum et capella extensit 30 virgas ad orientem et (? viginti)[11] in latitudine cum fen (?) ... (?)."
F.B.B. "Please repeat; we cannot read this."
(Repeated.) "Quinquaginta[12] virgas et fenestrae transomatae."
Fig. 5.—Second Plan of the Edgar Chapel as built by Beere, showing its Relative Greatness as compared with the Little Chapels of the Retro-Quire.