with a bell on the southwest near the top, the frame of which still remains, though the window, through which it might play, is stopped up. Here two mendicant friars asked alms for the benefit of the neighbouring Priory." The Chapel was at the town end of the bridge, and not on its West side, as stated in Herrick's conveyance.
The old bridge with its quondam chapel was taken down in the year 1841.
(12) THE CHURCH OF THE ABBEY OF ST. MARY
OF THE MEADOWS.
Little more than half-a-mile beyond the north walls of Leicester lay the Abbey of St. Mary of the Meadows, the church belonging to which, a massive edifice of the 12th century, stood on the north-western side of the monastic buildings. The cloisters were south of the church, and on the east of the cloisters stood the Chapterhouse. The Abbey church, according to the report of an eyewitness, was 140 feet in length and 30 feet wide, with a large cross aisle in the centre 100 feet long and 30 feet wide, and nearly as high as Westminster Abbey. It had a high square tower standing at the west end. The great western door, with a large window above it, opened on to Abbey Gate. The church and other buildings were all of stone, and roofed with lead.
The building of the church, commenced by the founder, Robert le Bossu, Earl of Leicester, was not completed in his lifetime, but was continued by his daughter-in-law, Petronilla, a daughter of Hugh de Grantmesnil, and wife of the next Earl, Robert Blanchmains. She is said to have built the nave at her own expense, and also to have given a rope, made of her own hair, by which a lamp was suspended from the roof of the choir. The solemn dedication of the church did not take place until the year 1279.
Although the Abbey was so magnificent and famous, "probably the wealthiest Augustinian house in England, with the exception of Cirencester Abbey," little has been recorded of its
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