The Gate of Remembrance / The Story of the Psychological Experiment which Resulted in the Discovery of the Edgar Chapel at Glastonbury

by Frederick Bligh Bond

[TABLE OF THE VERIDICAL PASSAGES IN THE AUTOMATIC SCRIPT, SIXTEEN IN NUMBER, REFERRING TO THE EDGAR CHAPEL AND EAST END OF QUIRE]

I. AS TO A LARGE RECTANGULAR CHAPEL EAST OF THE RETRO-QUIRE.
Script.	Existing Data.	Result.
November 7, 1907. Plan ofAbbey, showing oblong chapel ateast end, of very large dimensions,and exterior to retro-quire, thewidth overlapping three of thefive chapels of same. The sketch would indicate awidth between 20 and 30 feet, anda length probably exceeding 70 feet.	Professor Willis's ArchitecturalHistory shows nearest parallel, buthis plan is only an eastward extensionof the central one of fivelittle chapels, and its total length wouldonly exceed the rest by about 12feet, and width would be a littleover 11 feet.	Proved by excavation assubstantially correct for theearlier or rectilinear portionof the chapel. The dimensions are shown inthe plan published in the Proc.Som. Arch. Soc. for 1908, andagain in 1909.

II. AS TO THE DEDICATION OF THE CHAPEL.
November 7, 1907. "CapellaSt. Edgar. Abbas Beere fecithanc capellam Beat(i) Edgar(i). "... et capella extensit 80 virgas... et fecit altarium ... ettumbam ante altarium gloriosamaedificavit ad memoriam Sanct(i)Edgar(i)." Q. "Which Abbot did this?" A. "Ricardus Whitting."	Leland says: "Abbat Beerebuilded Edgares Chapel at theeast end of the Church. ButAbbat Whitting performed sumpart of it." Willis thought that the EdgarChapel might have been at thispoint—i.e., where he shows hisprojecting central chapel.	Proved later to have beenthe edgar chapel by a plandiscovered in 1910 in a privatecollection. (See Som. Arch. Soc.Proc., 1916-17.) The 30-yard length is theresult of an addition to theoriginal plan.

III. AS TO A DOOR IN THE EXTREME EAST.
November 7, 1907. "Portusintroitus post reredos, post altariumquinque passuum" (Anentrance door five paces behindthe reredos). June 16, 1908. "There was apassage to the east doore in yewalle to the streete."	No record of such a feature,and no warrant for supposing it.Eastern doorways are very unusual. Nothing known of door or wallto the street from this part.	Proved by the gap found inthe footings at the easternextremity, where the twofoundations of the angularapse walls do not join. thedepth of the apse is aboutfive paces. The use of the word "portus,"meaning "door," is confirmed inthis sense by the allusion to the"east door." The angular southwall of the apse continues on, andwas perhaps a fence-wall to apathway, but it has not beenpossible to pursue this. Theditch or moat is believed to haverun on the south side of same.On the north, the footing of theangular wall stops short, leavinga gap in the foundations at theeast end, as though for a doorway.

IV. AS TO THE TOTAL LENGTH OF THE CHAPEL.
November 7, 1907. "Et capellaextensit 30 virgas ad orientem"(And the chapel extended 80 yardsto the east).	The Elizabethan Inventory, ina list of measures of the Church,says: "Chapter House, 90 feet."	Proved by measure. The internalmeasure is 87 feet, andthis, allowing 3 feet more forthickness of end wall andplinth gives the 30 yards forthe total length of the edgarchapel.

V. AS TO THE AZURE GLASS IN THE WINDOWS OF THE CHAPEL.
November, 7 1907. "Et vitreaazurea" (And window-glass ofazure).	Azure blue does not predominatein glass of the sixteenthcentury. The dominant tones are whiteand gold, the field often beingalmost entirely white. The subjectsare in glass of variouscolours. The blues tend to asteely grey.	Proved by the discovery offragments, relatively numerous,of blue glass in thetrenches. This glass wasprobably refitted from thewindows of the earlier workaltered or removed by successiveabbots, and appears to beof the thirteenth century.

VI. AS TO THE VAULTING OF "FANS."
November 7, 1907. "AbbasBeere ... fecit voltam petriamquod vocatur quadripartus, sedAbbas Whitting ... destruxit ...et restoravit eam cum nov ...multipart ... nescimus eamquod vocatur." November 13, 1907. "Weesaide that ye volte was multipartite,yt was fannes old-style in yeeste ende of ye choire, and ye newevolt in Edgare's chappel ...Glost'er fannes."	It is a fair inference that achapel of this nature and period(Henry VII. to Henry VIII.)would be vaulted in "fans," andwe should have thought AbbotBere's original scheme wouldhave provided for this. "Fannes old style" wouldapply to those built on a half-hexagonalsection. The realTudor fan has a circular sweep.	The edgar chapel had thelater (multipartite) form offan, as is proved by the natureof the fragments found. Oneof the main bosses is extant,and on its back has the direction(in scored lines) for thecorrect setting of the block,and this shows twelve ribs,implying a wheel of tracerybetween fans.

VII. AS TO THE POLYGONAL EAST END.
November 19, 1907. "Thedirection of the walls ... was atan angle." November 19, 1907. "Fortyand two feete was the hight of yenewe chapelle, and yt was ybuttressedwith faire buttresses, andwalls slantwise at ye cornere." November 26, 1907. "Theeast end. Seek for the pillars,and the walls at an angle." November 30, 1908. "Theending of the chappel was at anangle, the sides makyng as it werea baye in the east wall there."	No existing data from whichsuch might be inferred. Thenearest example of a polygonaleast end seems to be at Westbury-on-Trym,near Bristol, unless weregard the Lady Chapel at Wells asa parallel instance. This chapel,however, is in reality an elongatedoctagon, with a domical roof. Itwas erected A.D. 1326.	Proved by discovery in january,1909, after the tentativeplan of an angularapse had been in the pressfor publication by the somersetarchæological society;and after actual publicationin the christmas number ofthe Treasury FOR 1908.

VIII. AS TO THE DIFFERENCE IN THE FOUNDATIONS.
February 19, 1908. "Thinwalls and poore foundations in thenew work."	Nothing known.	Proved by excavation. thefooting walls of the apse werethin and poor, in marked contrastto those of the rectangularpart of the chapel,which were exceedingly broad.

IX. AS TO AN OLDER LADY CHAPEL BEFORE MONINGTON'S TIME WITH A POLYGONAL APSE.
April 20, 1908. "The oldechurch had a chapell going eastlike to Edgar's, and the cornerswere cut off most like. Thefoundations ye mean remain."	Nothing known, but there is apossible inference as regards aLady Chapel beyond the originalQuire before the Western LadyChapel was incorporated. Phelps has preserved a reminiscenceof this chapel, and he suggestsa semicircular end, whichmight mean a polygon. Theprojection beyond the retro-quirewould be about 12 feet, accordingto his diagram. Compare the Lady Chapel atWells.	In june, 1908, traces of aslant wall (footing trench)were found close inside theeast wall of the retro-quireand a little south of thecentre (recorded in a report fromRev. H. Barnwell, late Vicar ofGlastonbury written to F.B.B.shortly after the commencement ofexcavation.) About 12 feet beyond the retro-quire,the levels of the ground andfoundations rise considerably. Atthis point comes the west wall ofthe Edgar Chapel; and the samepoint probably marks the extremeeastward limit of the olderLady Chapel.
June 16, 1908. "There aretwo chapels, and ye must try tojudge old and new. The schemeof Abbot Monington gave one, andunder the church are remains yetolder."	Nothing known at the time. Phelps's plan of a Lady Chapel,copied by Warner, suggests twodifferent states of this building,the original extending under thequire, and afterwards absorbedin Monington's new work.	The existence of olderfootings under the quire floorwas proved later. they weretoo much pulled about andaltered to establish theiroriginal form.