Here was interred with
ceremony of waxen taper and mid-night requiem, the noble founder of this
dilapidated fane, Sir Walter L'Espec, beneath that wreck of pillar and
architrave and those carved remains of the chisel's achievement--he who
deemed that the sepulchre
"Should canopy his bones till doomsday;
But all things have their end."
The ruins of this religious house are more entire and superb than any
other in the kingdom. The nave of the church is wholly gone; but the
choir, one of its aisles, great part of the tower, and both the
transepts, still remain. The church, instead of being east and west,
approaches more to the direction of north and south; so that the choir
is at the south end, and the aisle which should have been north, is on
the east. Some have supposed this anomaly to be produced at the
rebuilding of the church; but Drake in his "Evenings in Autumn," thinks
it was in consequence of the disposition of the ground, which forms a
lofty mount on the east. Adjoining the ruins of the nave on the west,
are the remains of the cloisters, measuring one hundred feet each way.
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