Page:Surrey Archaeological Collections Volume 1.djvu/197

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CHERTSEY ABBEY.
109

tain's Abbey, and Rivaulx's such was the case, as also at Durham, Hereford, and elsewhere. At Buildwas, in Shropshire, the cloister being on the north of the nave, the abbot's lodge is to the north-east, and still remains as a dwelling. At Canterbury, where also the cloister is to the north, there are remains of very extensive buildings in that direction, some of which actually adjoin the chapels annexed to the choir and presbytery.

In the position thus assumed for the abbot's lodgings, I am informed that the soil and its crops, or rather want of crops, indicate considerable remains at no great depth below the surface; and on the spot where, according to my supposition, the dormitory stood, Abbeyhouse was subsequently erected, but in what direction the front of it was I have never heard. Dr. Stukeley, who visited it in 1752, writes, "Of that noble and splendid pile [the Abbey], which took up four acres of ground, and looked like a town, nothing remains; scarcely a little of the outward wall of the precinctus." He then proceeds to describe the position of the church, though upon what authority he does not say. "The gardener carried me," says the doctor, "through a court on the right-hand side of the house, where, at the entrance to the kitchen-garden, stood the church of the Abbey—I doubt not, splendid enough. The west front and tower-steeple was by the door and outward wall, looking toward the town and entrance to the Abbey." These would lead to the conclusion of, the entrance being towards the south-west of the church, as I have supposed. He speaks of the terraces on the back-front of the house, and I conclude that the north wall of Mr. Grumbridge's garden formed the boundary of the terrace, and consequently, that the court he alludes to, was on the east of the house, possibly some remnants