"Wysdom—it was best soe. The Land was ycovered with the houses of God, and the grass he could not grow, and it was in the providence of God that the houses were destroyed, for they held no life. Men desired fuller life in ye world, and to travel far; and the old faith[53] was no longer needed, for the minds of men were no longer as ye beasts that perish, but each man was a light unto himself and did need no father to control him—so it was best, though much loveliness was destroyed in the undoing. The Spirit liveth still, and what we lived for, in new guise we give to you. Grow in the Spirit. We are a symbol of great truths, and ye read the symbol aright. That which we did dream lives on, and in the Spirit we pass it on to you, from symbol to symbol—ever higher, ever wider.
"As great books were we, and our work was in stone—a language handed down for you to read, which we had forgotten, and so fell.
"What wold ye?"
At this point there was a pause in the writing. Neither F.B.B. nor J.A. were aware of anything that had been written. The sheets were replaced and laid aside as they were filled, and nothing was suggested during the writing by either sitter. There was a little conversation on other subjects. At this point it occurred to F.B.B. (though in ignorance of the question "What wold ye?") to ask the following, and he wrote it down on the paper.
Q. "Do you confirm all that was told us of the Italian design of the chapel of the Loretto? Please say what building in Italy was the model chosen by Abbot Richard Bere for this work."
A. "Francesco de Padua aedificavit. Two would speak of it—he who made it and I who moved for my fannes and English. We both made hym—I, and he, my friend."
"Capella di Marco[54] at Padua—hym by the Key.[55]
"Dominic di Vallera Castiglione[56] aedificavit anno 1497—via St. Ursula."
At this point the sitting was broken off and resumed on the evening following—17th August, 1917.
Q. by F.B.B. "Please tell us plainly, what was the building 22 feet long and 4 paces wide spoken of on 13th June, 1911? What was its use and what was its dedication? This is the building with the fan-vaulting. Tell us exactly where it stood."
"Vincula ecclesiae disrupta sunt. Claustra aperta sunt.
"Claustra quae vocantur, vento Boreali aperta est (sic)[57] in vestibulo sub turre—English volts—and Capella Lorettae (in) Ytaliano modo.
"Capella Loretta was on ye lower level, with four or six steppys up to the pavement. One steppe to hym from the way from John's Gate to the North Porche.
"Seek my chapple as I told ye in ye Banck. He was entered from ye West, and had a door into the littel cloister by ye transept of ye grete Church, and four stepps up to the pavement.
"Ye door was in ye transept wall at ye end thereof.
"Wold ye have many things? The Vineyard was by the Ponds behind the Priests' Houses that I ybuilded, over against the (road?), and beyond ye gallery at the Maudlin Gate by the water. On ye side of ye grete Courte was ye brick yarde—beyond ye fishponds. Seek ye foundations at ye east of ye great Court where ye pryor's chapel was, and I ybuilded in front of hym. Digge also near by the Kitchens, which were near together.
"That which the brethren of old handed down to us, we followed, ever building on their plann. As we have said, our Abbey was a message in ye stones. In ye foundations and ye distances be a mystery—the mystery of our Faith, which ye have forgotten and we also in ye latter days.
"All ye measures were marked plaine on ye slabbes in Mary's Chappel,[58] and ye have destroyed them. So it was recorded, as they who builded and they who came after knew aforehand where they should build. But these things are overpast and of no value now. The spirit was lost and with the loss of the spirit the body decayed and was of no further use to (us).
"There was the Body of Christ, and round him would have been the Four Ways. Two were ybuilded and no more. In ye floor of ye Mary Chappel was ye Zodiac, that all might see and understand the mystery. In ye midst of ye Chapel he was laid; and the Cross of Hym who was our Example and Exemplar.
"Braineton, he didde much, for he was Geomancer to ye Abbey of old tyme."
These curious statements appear to have a bearing on certain facts recorded of the Lady Chapel and upon others which have come to light as a result of the study of the whole plan of the Abbey Church and Monastic buildings. The latter were found to be laid out on a series of commensurate squares of 37 × 2 (or 74) feet, and it has been observed that there is no divergence from the symmetry of these squares in the works of the successive centuries right up to the time of the last Abbot, for the Edgar Chapel falls into line with the rest. Thus the outer measure of the total length of the Great Church with St. Mary's Chapel is 592 feet, or eight commensurate and consecutive squares of 74 feet each, and the width of the Nave and Quire are each one such square. The plan has been already most useful in locating the position of walls destroyed and lost. There is much yet to be done in order to complete the plan, but it is, in the main, recovered, and has been published in the Proceedings of the Somerset Archæological Society, from which it is here reproduced (Fig. 12).
As to the engraved geometric lines on the floor of St. Mary's Chapel, it may be well to quote William of Malmesbury, whose record of this dates from the twelfth century. This old chronicler says, speaking of this chapel, which was on the site of the oldest Christian church:
"This church, then, is certainly the oldest I know in England, and from this circumstance derives its name (vetusta ecclesia).... In the pavement may be seen on every side stones designedly inlaid in triangles and squares, and figured with lead, under which, if I believe some sacred enigma to be contained, I do no injustice to religion."
