The Lee Warner account of recent archaeological discoveries 1854
his four illustrations are shown at the end of this page

The Archaeological Journal, June 1856.

WALSINGHAM PRIORY, A MEMOIR READ AT THE MEETING OF THE INSTITUTE IN CAMBRIDGE, JUNE, 1854: WITH AN ACCOUNT OF RECENT DISCOVERIES
BY THE REV. JAMES LEE WARNER [vicar of Walsingham 1834-59]

The connexion of the Priory of Walsingham with the University of Cambridge is at first sight far from obvious ; yet the tide of pilgrims who visited the far-famed shrine, would, doubtless, going or returning, halt at the seat of learning which graced the banks of Cam. That this was the case with some of them, we have sufficient evidence. The sceptical doctor, Erasmus, the eccentric chronicler, William of Worcester—and perhaps we may add also, the author of the anonymous legend, preserved amidst the quaint archives of the "Bibliotheca Pepysiana,"—these are within our reach, and have all contributed their share in illustration of the great monastery of our eastern counties, which they had in turn visited. And, as on a former visit to our Lady of Walsingham, the shades of her Augustine Canons seemed to rise before us, and impart a tone of freshness to the scene of their former glories, so let us now in imagination spend a half-hour in company with our three pilgrims, and hear what they can tell us in illustration of our monastery, whose records must be gleaned slowly, and recovered (if it may be) from obscurity, to be placed in the light of day.

The anonymous ballad of the Pepysian library, surviving in an unique copy from the press of Richard Pynson, bears internal evidence of having been composed about A.D. 1460. Its title runs thus :—"Of thys Chappel see here the foundatyon,
Builded the yere of Christ's incarnationA thousande complete sixty and one,The tyme of Saint Edwarde, Kinge of this region."

It relates how "the noble Wedowe," sometime Ladye of the town of Walsingham, named Rychold de Faverches, was favoured by the Virgin Mother with a view of the Santa Casa at Nazareth, and commissioned to build its counterpart at Walsingham, upon a site thereafter to be indicated. It relates very circumstantially the widow's perplexity :-1

" When it was all formed then had she great doute
Where it should be sette and in what manner place,
Inasmuch as tweyne places were fowne out
Tokened with meracles of our Laydie's grace."

The Wedowe thought it moste lykely of congruence
This house on the first soyle to build and arrere :
Of thys who lyste to have experience ;
A Chappel of Saynt Lawrence standyth now there,
Faste by tweyne wellys, experience do thus lore :
There she thought to have sette this Chappel,
Whych was begone by our Ladie's counsel."

We shall not quote specially the progress of the work according to the monkish chronicler, because it is nothing more than the oft repeated story of a building removed by miracle and set up in another place. We are only concerned here with the site, which the building, in after ages destined to be of such celebrity, actually occupied. And the legend thus proceeds :-

"All night the Wedowe permayneing in this prayer,
Our blessed Laydie with blessed minystrys,
Herself being here chief Artificer,
Arrered thys sayde house with Angells handys,
And not only rered it but sette it there it is,
That is tweyne hundrede foot and more in distaunce
From the first place fokes make remembraunce."

And much interest attaches to the site thus occupied; for however great the magnificence of the chief conventual buildings about to be described, it was to the Lady Chapel that they owed all their splendour. That in fact was the shrine which kings visited barefooted—the wonder-working spot, which rivalled Compostella or Loretto—the "counterfeit Ephesian Diana" of the 14th Homily; the Parathalassian temple, which the travelled Erasmus saw, and declared that its costly magnificence, its gems, and its relics, surpassed all that he had ever seen in his most distant wanderings." Divorum sedes! adeo gemmis, auro, argentoque nitent omnia!" Where was it? Archaeology enquires, and hitherto no solution has been given or attempted. And although our legend informs us that 200 feet from the wells will bring us to the spot where it stood, still, so changed is the surface of the soil, and so occupied at the same time by the gravel walks and shrubberies of an ornamental pleasure-ground (to say nothing of a large yew tree, which has probably grown and luxuriated for at least two centuries) that excavation with a hope of success is well nigh impracticable. Yet within recent times something has been accomplished,2 and the result has been the formation of a ground-plan, in which the disjecta membra are for the first time put together, so as to show their connexion and arrangement, as far as hitherto discovered.

The great feature of interest in these venerable ruins, in addition to the two wells already mentioned, is the great eastern window of the conventual church, despoiled of all its tracery, but flanked by staircase turrets, and surmounted by the peak of the gable, which rises, thus supported, about 70 feet. The buttresses are perfect specimens of the early Perpendicular period,3 divided into three stages of ogee-headed niches with pedestals, crockets, and canopies. Some arches of the Refectory, and the principal western gateway complete the picture ; and to these may perhaps be added the town pump, a construction used originally as a domed covering to a well, and roofed with ashlar, whose slope is broken at intervals by three mouldings (See woodcut, p. 121). This well is situated in the area called the ' Common Place,' a designation which has come down to us from remote antiquity. Thus we read in a document, temp. Henry VI., reciting various donations, int. al. as follows: "Afftyr him come Gylbertus de Clar, Erle of Glowceter & of Hertford, and he gaff thereto the ground withouth the west zate of the yerd of our Ladys Chapell which is now callyd the common place." And more remotely we have on a fly leaf inserted at p. 26 of the Registr. Wals. among the Cotton MSS.,4 the copy of an admission in the 10th of Richard II., which mentions " quendam fontem vocatum Cabbokeswell in communi villatura de Walsingham parva."5 In testing our ground-plan by the admeasurements of William of Worcester, which may be seen in the library of Corpus Christi College,6 it is satisfactory to be able to trace a sufficient coincidence. Some confusion may have arisen from his mentioning two churches: "Longitudo ecclesae Fratrum Walsyngham 54 gressus;" and again, "Longitudo totius ecclesiae de Walsingham 136 gressus." The smaller church doubtless was that of the Franciscans, or "Fratrum Minorum," and taking the gressus to be somewhat under two feet, the length corresponds with traces existing of that edifice. That William of Worcester's gressus averaged about two feet appears from his measurement of the cloister, which being 99 x 96 feet he puts at 54 gressus: or the chapter-house, which being 16 feet wide he puts at 10 gressus. This evidence to the chapter-house is conclusive and circumstantial, as coinciding with the large foundations now covered with the greensward. "Longitudo propria de le Chapiter-hous continet 20 gressus. Latitudo ejus continet 10 gressus. Sed longitudo introitus de le Chapiter-hous a claustro continet 10 gressus. Sic in toto continent 30 gressus."7

The chief point of interest in the recent excavations has been the discovery of portions of the two western piers with the corresponding abutments of the western wall, the jambs of the western doorway, and the exterior buttresses. (See woodcut.) The bases of these piers are of early decorated character.8 The pair nearest to the doorway are massive clustered columns; each being a combination of fifteen circular shafts separated by hollows, and disposed in three groups, from whence sprang originally the architraves of the nave and side arches; and each connected by a cross wall 5 feet thick with the north and south walls of the building respectively. These grand proportions indicate most distinctly the existence in the original construction of a western tower; but it is probable that this tower had been removed before William of Worcester's visit, as he speaks only of the "campanile in medio ecclesiae." This had been the case beyond all doubt with the smaller piers of the nave generally, which had been taken down nearly to the level of the pavement, and upon them may now be seen Perpendicular bases of inferior design and execution. Another peculiarity must also here be noticed, viz., that the south wall of the church, and the north wall of the adjacent dormitories, each several feet in thickness, run parallel for nine yards, separated only from each other by an interval of nine inches. A doorway through the walls, pierced at the same point, established a communication with a vestry, separated from the bay of the nave, by an ancient intrusive wall joining the large pier and its respond. This curious arrangement is exhibited at one view in the subjoined illustration, except that the interpolated wall between the pier and its respond has been removed since the discovery. The state of the smaller piers (from one of which the view here given is supposed to be taken) proves that, at some time during the Perpendicular Period, the nave was re-roofed, the piers taken down, and the pavement raised about six inches. If at that period the cloister and dormitory were added, and if in the prosecution of these extensive works a few feet additional were desired for the breadth of the aisle, no other method would so readily present itself, as to make the whole wall continuous for the church and dormitories, thus leaving untouched the western end of the church, which probably owed its preservation to the great western towers superimposed upon it.

Before dismissing the Itinerary of William of Worcester, we will simply quote his reference to two smaller buildings:—"Longitudo novi operis de Walsyngham continet in toto 16 virgas; latitudo continet infra aream 10 virgas;9 longitudo capelle Beata Mari continet 7 virgas 30 pollices ; latitudo continet 4 virgas 10 pollices." As to the precise locality of the buildings thus indicated, we must hope that the day will come when it may be no longer conjectural; for there can be no question but that one or other of them was the Chapel of the Annunciation, the house "arrered with angells handys," which has been already mentioned, and which formed the glory of Walsingham in its most palmy days. The writer of this memoir, having had the subject much forced on his attention, by living amidst the ruins for a series of years, may be permitted to avow his opinion, that of these two buildings one was a covering to the other, that of the interior being a wooden shrine, the " sacellum angustum" of Erasmus, that of the exterior being "novum opus" of William of Worcester, corresponding with the "opus inabsolutum" of Erasmus.

But in making this reference to the Colloquies of the great Erasmus, I feel that I am not (as previously) dealing with a legendary rhyme, or an obscure itinerary. In the case of a learned audience, I must presume a general acquaintance with the writings of the accomplished traveller, especially that the "Peregrinatio religionis ergo" is well known to those who hear me. Yet the world-wide reputation of that great man, contended for by so many universities (as the great bard of antiquity by the cities and islands of Greece) may well justify a regret in the hearing of his own Queen's, that the Cambridge of the XVIth century could not boast its Frobenius, as well as Canterbury its Warham.

The first connexion of Erasmus with the University of Cambridge was in 1509, a connexion but slightly interrupted for ten years subsequently. During this period he twice visited Walsingham. His first visit was productive of his elegant votive offering, so curiously mystified by the sub-Prior at his visit three years later (Peregr. relig. ergo), " Erasmi Roterodami carmen Iambicum ex voto dicatum virgini Vualsinghamicae." In his letter to Ammonius, afterwards Latin Secretary to Henry VIII., dated from Cambridge, 9 May, 1511, Erasmus mentions his visit to Walsingham, and his votive carmen. It commences thus, “O chair’ Iesou meter eulogemene;” and it was printed by Frobenius as early as 1518. The first edition of the Colloquies appeared but a few years later; and even had it been otherwise, no one could venture to gainsay the truth and freshness of the description. In that spirited dialogue," Peregrinatio religionis ergo," a quondam Augustine Canon is drawing a picture of his fraternity, and, after a lapse of more than 300 years, the numerous pilgrims to Walsingham can find no better handbook than that of the jesting Cantab, whilst enjoying his long vacation in 1514. It is hoped that a correct plan is now produced in illustration, and it is offered in confidence, that whatever additions may hereafter be made to it, its accuracy will be established, and its errors found insignificant.

ACCOUNT OF RECENT DISCOVERIES AT WALSINGHAM

Since the above was written, the hope that the lost foundations might gradually be recovered, has been fully realised. Such having been the case, the writer is now induced to relate the steps of his discovery, not only by way of marking the accuracy of his ground-plan, but also as a permanent record of many points of interest attaching to the celebrated locality, which it has been his lot to illustrate.

The first desideratum was to assign to the ground-plan of the choir its true form and dimensions. The title of Vandergucht's engraving of this part of the building, "Caenobii Walsinghamensis quod reliquum est, A.D. 1720," (published by the Society of Antiquaries in the " Vetusta Monumenta," vol. i.) compared with that of Buck, A.D. 1738, traces for us the progress of decay, or rather of ruin and spoliation. An examination of a few inches beneath the level turf revealed the hidden motive which prompted this destruction ; for there the last remnant still exists of a noble pair of stone buttresses, connected with each other at their intersection by a diagonal splay, which formed the main angle of the building. Each of these buttresses is 4 feet 4 inches across, and they project 4 feet 10 inches from the north and east walls respectively. Their position enables us to give 16 feet as the exterior face of the chancel wall, and 11 feet as that of the north aisle.. Following the external face of the north wall, three single buttresses of similar dimensions were successively developed, separated by irregular intervals, and of less careful construction than the pair first noticed. The intervals between them are as follow: from 1 to 2, 14 ft. 6 in. ; from 2 to 3, 10 ft. 3 in. ; from 3 to 4, 10 ft. The second and third buttresses, subsequently to their original construction, had been prolonged northwards, so as to form a porch or vestibule, in one corner of which there still exist in situ a red and a yellow glazed tile, a portion of its chequered pavement. The portion of church wall intervening between these last buttresses, is formed below the ground line with a massive arch, turned to a span of 6 feet, apparently the entrance to a vault or crypt beneath the original pavement of the church. It is filled with loose mould, and circumstances did not permit an exploration of its interior. The portion of wall connecting the buttresses hitherto described is about 5 feet in thickness, but on the other side of a gravel walk, which crosses it diagonally over the foundations of the fourth buttress, it is found to have increased in thickness to 12 feet. The additional 7 feet are gained externally, but the formation of the gravel walk has not only in part broken the junction, but prevents a proper examination of the precise point of increase.

Remarkable, however, for solidity as these foundations are, they are comparatively insignificant by the side of others connected with them, which are now about to be noticed. The 12-foot wall pursues its course westwards, and, at a distance of 78 feet from the north-east corner of the aisle, is found to abut upon a platform of solid grouted masonry, which measures from east to west 20 feet, and from north to south 40. It is now covered with garden mould to a depth of several inches, sufficing merely for the growth of shrubs and flowers, beneath which its surface is for the most part level; but attempts seem to have been made both at the sides and centre to break through its solid crust, as if with a view to discover the secrets of its interior. Neither has the hope peradventure been disappointed ; for nearly at the angle formed by it with the 12-foot wall (which passes beyond it), a stone coffin remains, which contained the larger portion of an undisturbed skeleton, interred in the south-east angle of the Lady Chapel, whose enclosure we have now entered. The measurements of this building coincide so exactly with the dimensions of the "novum opus," as already quoted from William of Worcester, that not a shadow of a doubt can exist as to their identity. The length, we may remember, is stated by him at 16 virgae; the breadth "infra aream" at 10. And he adds, (apparently as connected with this particular building) " Longitudo capelae Beane Maria; continet 7 virgas ; Latitudo continet 4 virgas, 10 pollices."

But what was the "infra aream?" Authority seems wanting for the use of the word ara, as equivalent to altare, or a mere slip of the pen would account for the ambiguity. But the area (whatever it was) seems to have been identical with the platform of solid masonry (see the Ground-plan) which forms the eastern end of the "novum. opus." The expression " infra aream " may imply that it was elevated ; but why William of Worcester excluded it from his internal measurement of the chapel, of which it formed the most honourable part, is not so apparent. Here, however, the description of Erasmus comes in very seasonably, and enables us to fill up the " lacuna," at all events conjecturally. "In eo templo," he says, "quod inabsolutum dixi, est sacellum angustum, ligneo tabulato constructum, ad utrumque latus per angustum ostiolum admittens salutatores." And speaking of it afterwards, he adds, "In intimo sacello, quod dixi conclave Divae Virginis, adstat altari Canonicus." It seems reasonable to suppose, that this wooden sacellum, in which the costly image was thus honourably enshrined, and thus carefully guarded by no inferior minister, must have occupied the east end of the chapel, and thus that it was superimposed upon the area, or platform, whose place and purpose we have thus minutely investigated. With respect to the chapel itself, its level was about 21 feet above that of the church ; its pavement was of Purbeck marble, bedded on solid mortar of 3 inches in thickness ; and it was entered by a doorway of three steps pierced in the 12-foot wall, which separated the church from it. This being the door of entrance, a corresponding door of egress was placed directly opposite, flanked by large buttresses; or possibly these foundations may have carried a shallow porch. Their position must have had reference to the streaming throng of pilgrims, who on all grand occasions would thus be enabled to obey the "Guarda e passa!" of the Mystagogus, without hindrance or confusion. Their situation explains also the "patentibus ostiis" of Erasmus, who, probably visiting the shrine on the 25th of March, would have ample reason for remarking in the person of his Ogygius, "Prope est Oceanus, Ventorum Pater!"

And now, quitting the building by its northern doorway, we find ourselves in the separate yard of our Lady's Chapel, and might have left the precincts of the abbey, either by the West gate opening on the Common Place, or by the "ostiolum perpusillum " of Erasmus, the memory of which is preserved in Knight Street. The foundations of these gates have yet to be discovered. Not so the foundations of the north and west walls of the chapel. The west, as well as the north, appears to have had its doorway; and the north wall, at its ground line, was bedded in flat masonry at two separate levels, as if it had been cased originally with squared blocks of stone of large dimensions. And it may be also noted, that small fragments of magnesian, or Roche-Abbey, limestone are found repeatedly around these foundations, although never wrought, as if they had been used in construction. And under the head of fragments, it may be added further, that amidst the copious wreck of rich mutilated carving which frequently comes to light in digging around the ruins, two unconnected portions of angels, each bearing part of the scroll, inscribed AVE MARIA—GRATIA PLENA, attest the exquisite finish and costliness of the decoration. I t will be seen by the Ground-plan, that the north façade of the chapel exhibited in this instance the rather unusual composition of a central doorway flanked by octagonal turrets, and that it occupied in external appearance the place of a north transept. Its general effect must have harmonised with the east window of the church, as now standing, which, combined with the ancient wells, the elegant pulpit of the Refectory,10 and the faithful restoration of its beautiful western window (due to the present proprietor, the Rev. D. H. Lee Warner, and of which a representation accompanies this memoir) forms a group of ruins, as grand in actual effect as it is rich in ancient reminiscences.

endnotes
1 The date of the erection of the Chapel of the Annunciation of Our Lady at Walsingham, by Richold de Faverches, has usually been assigned to the year 1061. Her son, "Sir Geffray Faverches, knyth, lord of Walsingham, foundyth the Chyrch of the seyd Priory; and he gaffe therto the Chapel of owr Lady with the, grownd with inne the syte of the seyd place, wyth the Chyrch off the seyd ton." Account of the Foundation of the Priory, Cott. MS. Nero, E. vii. New edit. Of Dugdale's Monast., vol. vi., p. 70. Blomefield has erroneously described the foundress as "the widow lady of Ricoldie de Faverches" (Hist. Norf., vol. ix., p. 274), but the charter of Roger, Earl of Clare, in the Cott. MS. expressly mentions, " Capellam quam Richeldis mater Galfr' de Favarches fundavit in Walsingham."
2 The first excavations, of which the results are here described, were carried out in the year 1853.
3 In his forthcoming work, on "The Castles and Convents of Norfolk," Mr. Harrod, the Secretary of the Norfolk Archaeological Society, has assigned the erection of this Eastern end to John Snoring, Prior, who died A.D. 1425. It is engraved in Britton's Arch. Ant., vol. iv.
4 Cott. MS. Nero, E. vii.
5 See the entire document in the Appendix.
6 Edited in 1778 by Nasmyth in the volume entitled, "Itineraria Symonis Simeonis et Will. de Worcestre." See p. 335.
7 It must be observed that a considerable discrepancy appears in William of Worcester's own estimate of his gressus. In one part of his Itinerary we find the statement, "Mem. quod 24 steppys sive gressus meas faciunt 12 virgas ; whilst in a later part he wrote, "item, 50 virgae faciunt 85 gradus sive steppys meos." Itin. ed. Nasmyth.
8 The Institute is indebted to the courteous liberality of the Rev. D. H. Lee Warner, the present possessor of the site, for the woodcut representing these re-mains of the fabric, which have been brought to light through the exertions of his nephew, the author of this memoir.—Ed.
9 In Browne Willis' "Mitred Abbeys," Addenda, vol. ii., p. 330, this passage in W. of Worcester's MS. is thus given, "Latitudo continet infra arcam 10 virgas," Supposed, probably, to signify the breadth
under the vaulting. By careful examination of the original MS. at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the word is certainly aream, as correctly printed by Nasmith, " tineraria," p. 335.
10 A representation of this pulpit is given in Mr. Parker’s Architectural Notes, Transactions of the Archaeol Institute at the Norwich Meeting, p. 188.