Page:St. Botolph's Priory, Colchester (1917).djvu/25

Rh masonry, and is not done for appearance sake, as it would have been hidden by the plaster. The arches are semicircular of two plain rings of brick, and the capitals are defined by simple projecting courses of brick, which served as a core for the plaster in which such detail as they may have had was executed. From above the capitals shallow pilasters run up to the wall tops, marking the divisions of the bays and the position of the tie-beams of the roof. The triforium is only 2 ft. 7 in. less in height than the main arcades, and its openings are of two plain orders with imposts of two projecting courses of brick. The openings were not subdivided in any way. Of the clearstory nothing can be said, as nothing is left of it but the entrance to its wall passage at the south-west angle of the nave, and there is no evidence as to the pitch of the original roof.

The three western bays of the main arcade and triforium remain on the south side of the nave; on the north side the western bay is missing, but the next six bays of the main arcade and triforium remain: in three of the bays, however, the arches of the main arcade have been cut away, so that only the triforium arches now span the openings between the piers. The piers themselves in several cases have been robbed of their original masonry, and during the recent repairs it was found that behind the facing which had been added in modern times to restore their outline there were hollows nearly two feet deep in some cases, partly void and partly filled with dry rubbish, so that practically half the substance of the pier at these points had been cut away and only the excellence of the twelfth-century mortar had kept the masonry above from collapsing. The spacing of the nave bays is fairly regular, averaging 8 ft. 6 in. between the piers but the two western bays are a foot narrower. It is possible that the thickening of the west wall, to give space for the wall-passage at triforium level, was an afterthought, obtained at the expense of these bays. It is worth noting that during the repair of the third bay from the west in the north arcade a hole 6 in. square and 7½ in. deep was found, sunk vertically in the masonry over the east spandrel of the main arcade, at the level of the triforium floor. It seems to be contemporary with the building, and was cleaned out and covered with a tile to protect it from the weather.

The aisles of the nave had single semicircular headed windows in each bay, two of which remain in the north aisle and one in the south, all in a fragmentary state, that at the east end of the north aisle being the best preserved. The window-opening was 2 ft. 3 in. wide by 5 ft. 9 in. high. The aisles