Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012
At the west end of the great abbey church of SS. Peter and Paul at Glastonbury are the ruins of a chapel of very remarkable character.
It was built on the site of a vetusta ecclesia dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of very great antiquity, which was consumed by fire, together with the great church and nearly all the abbey buildings, in 1184.
As the vetusta ecclesia, from its sanctity and the number of relics it contained, was a holy place much resorted to by pilgrims, its reconstruction was forthwith commenced, and carried out with such speed that “about 1186” it was ready for consecration by Reginald, bishop of Bath.
page 85 note a The Architectural History of Glastonbury Abbey. Cambridge, 1866.Google Scholar
page 85 note b An excellent drawing of the doorway is published in vol. IV. plate xxxiv. of Vetusta Monumentu, and by the kindness of our Fellow the Rev. J. A. Bennett, I am able to exhibit a careful drawing on a larger scale recently made for him by a friend.
page 88 note a Also figured in Vetusta Monumenta, v. plates vii. and viii.
page 88 note b Page 58.
page 88 note c Trans. Somerset Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. xxvi., pt. 2, p. 43Google Scholar.