There is no archivolt
or moulding or ornament. Above these there is only one row of windows,
which, like all the rest, are semi-circular headed; but they have
neither angular pillars, nor mouldings, nor mullions. These windows are
rather narrow externally, but within the opening enlarges considerably.
The windows in the upper and lower tiers stand singly: in the
intermediate row they are disposed by threes, the central one separated
from the other two by a single column.--The inside of the nave is
striking from its simplicity: it is wholly of the eleventh century,
except the reparations already mentioned, which were made in 1688.--The
choir and Lady-Chapel are nearly demolished; and only some fragments of
them are now standing: they were of pointed architecture, and posterior
to the nave by at least two centuries.
A smaller church, dedicated to St. Peter, stood near the principal one,
with which it was connected by means of a corridor of pointed arches.
There are other instances of two churches being erected within the
precincts of one abbey, as at Bury St. Edmund's. St. Peter's was a
building at least of equal antiquity with the great church. But it had
undergone such alterations in the year 1334, during the prelacy of the
twenty-seventh abbot, William Gemblet, that little of the original
structure remained.
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