This obviously alludes to Bishop Stillington's Chapel, a fan-vaulted structure of rich sixteenth-century work, now destroyed.
SITTING XXV. 10th March, 1908.
F.B.B. obtained the appointment as representative of the Somerset Archæological Society, with licence to excavate, in the month of May, 1908.
SITTING XXVII. 17th March, 1908. At Bristol.
"The time is ripe for the stones to be studied. Go ye soone."
"The corbel-stones are full large." (This refers to a sketch reconstruction of the transept wall by F.B.B.) "Put ye ten between each buttress."
Q. "Is the parapet right?"
A. "The parapet is right."
Q. "What about the quire vaulting shown?"
A. "Ye volte is welnigh righte for what ye see, but over Arthur's tombe to the Est window it was fayrer and much ygilt soe that the lightes of the Altar shold shine thereon and make a glory."
"Looke for ye ribs of the choir, plain ones and carven, and ye bosses. Some be at the East End. Enow has been left from the destroyer, just enow and no more: it was so ordained lest they should destroy for ever. Make ye yourselves a scheme—enow left everywhere."
"Why destroyed they not the walls that came to hande? They cared not, but indeed they left it and digged deepe for stones.
"They could not an they would."
"Why left they the altar stones when they might have digged up? say, why?"
Q. "You say, 'Saxon, Norman, and Native, all strive together for the glory of Glaston.' Can you put us in touch with any of these early influences?"
A. "What wold they tell ye? Their works were rude, and have departed. The Abbey is not of them—nothing save certain books—and we wold that the books were againe, only the Church as it was wont to be. We who speke are of its different orders: Gulielmus of old tyme, and Johannes later, and he who builded last—our Abbot Beere. What more is needed? Wee point the way; to you it is to follow, and all that is needed is given you. Worke wyth brain and handes, and all is there. So it is ordained, for what ye desire, that is good that ye shall strive for. Wee worked in our day: ye must work in yours. Ne work, ne wages,—ne what you call honour."
Q. "It is St. Patrick's Day to-day. Can you tell us anything of his time and of his work, and St. Brigit's? No doubt there was much in the great Library of the Abbey."
A. "Olde legends, meet for the people—but what value? They were, and didde, much among the heathen. We know not more, save that their workes were old and very dry to rede." (This passage is signed with a cross in a circle, and a capital letter, not clearly identified.)
Q. "Please write your name."
A. "Reginaldus, qui obiit 1214—one thousand, two hundred and 14."
The identity of this Reginald is not clear. Bishop Reginald of Wells, who consecrated the Chapel of St. Mary at Glastonbury, died in 1191 according to the chronicles. The Chapel is said to have been completed in 1216.
The script has been retraced, as it was done in soft pencil and could not be preserved.
SITTING XXIX. 20th April, 1908.
"Gloria in excelsis tibi Deo. Pax vobiscum, filii.
"The time is near. Dig well and those things which ye seek shall be given you but serche carefully lest ye eradicate those things that be left for your guidance....
"... the est end will be the first, and then ye shall find proof of ye goodly towers at ye west end.[17] Serche the ruins for the way they were finished. There is much left to guide you...."
"... Influence man, and that which was before decreed shall aid you and they who are around you shall feel your influence and ours.
"In very truth it was a goodly church and it is said that ye of your time shall know what works we did pro gloria Dei.
"We were mistaken in some things—all men are—but the thought that made the great church of Glaston was not bounded by ye mind and that thought must live and prevail.
"Move, work, and unceasingly persist, and in time there will be a place for what once was and ye shall know its buildings yet again as they were wont to be. The lesser works first: and then cometh one who will build the great church—a son of Glaston from beyond the sea. Even now he waits and watches. We wait and watch and hope with the knowledge that comes to men on the other side. The church is always the church, and in the great schema of the world we come soon and our instrument Glaston shall find a mighty place.... Thus Johannes saith."
At this point the sequence of the writing is broken by the story of Johannes going a-fishing, and lingering in the lanes. This we give in Part II.