But publication necessitated scrutiny of this statement, and, to assess the true length, reference was made to William Wyrcestre's Itinerary, wherein, speaking of Glastonbury Abbey (p. 292), he says:
"Longitudo navis ecclesiae monasterii continet 54 virgas vel 100 gressus"—making 54 yards = 100 steps.
If 100 steps= 54 yards, one step = 1·62 feet. So we have our material for calculation, as follows:
I. Length of church 311 × 1·62 = 503·82 feet
"et capella nova" (i.e., and the new chapel) (add) 90·00 "
———
593·82 "
—an amazing result! Elizabeth's commissioner, quoted on p. 12, says:
"The great Church in the Aby was ... 594 feet." And our own plan (Fig. 12), based on careful measurement, yields the total 592 feet! (The 580 feet measure discussed on p. 62 is an internal measure.)
[32] DCCXXXIII pedes circa (about 733 feet)—at first sight a hopelessly discordant measure, being 140 feet in excess of the first—yields on analysis an even more astonishing result. For 733 feet circa is 311 paces; but Romano-British paces—not mediæval! 311 paces of 2 feet 4-1/4 inches is 733 feet. The true Roman pace (single) is 2 feet 5 inches—occasionally less in Britain—so we see it in this case slightly shortened. And the qualification "circa" gives us the slight latitude which the computation requires.
It is as though our question, addressed to the previous informant, had been answered by another in a literal sense, according to his own knowledge of the measure, and without reference to the monkish standards. (See note in synopsis at end of vol., sub. "Ell" and "Passus.")
[33] This being a foot in excess of the measure first given and found correct, we have preferred the latter in the calculation given on the last page.
[34] This refers to a portion of the script not yet published.
[35] The remains lie on the line of the wall (now removed) which divided the Inner from the Outer Bailey.