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Oxoniana: or anecdotes relative to the university and city of Oxford (1806)
Oxoniana or anecdotes relative to the university and city of Oxford - 1806 Author:John Walker Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: all due reverence, they left him to his repose. III. OSNEY ABBEY. The following account of this magnificen t Abbey is extracted from Wood's MS. in the A... more »shmolean Mnseum. The entrance into the Abbey was through a great gate, which stood on the north side of the Abbey Church. This gate opened into a spacious quadrangle, built for the most part of free-stone, and from it you went through a spacious cloyster into the church, which stood on the left hand. This cloyster was decked and beautified with a boarded roof, having the arms of benefactors carved thereon, with several rebusses, and allusions to their names who contributed to the building: the- chiefest of them was Abbot John Leech, who built three parts of the cloysters, through which MS. in the Bodleian Library. you'went also another way to the refectory, which was on the south side of the quadrangle : this was a large curious building, and rebuilt about the year 1247, by the said Abbot Leech. About the middle of the court was a lavatory or conduit, from whence water was conveyed into the kitchen, which was ample and convenient, and adjoined to the refectory on the west side; and behind, more to the south, stood the infirmary, where was a neat chapel or oratory, for the sick monks to attend divine service as long as they were able. The next place observable was the dormitory, which was a long room divided into several partitions; but the most remarkable building of its kind was the Abbot's lodgings, which were without the common court or quadrangle, near the great gate. These were spacious, fair, and large, and had a hall more befitting a common society than a private man. The great stairs leading up into it were broad enough to contain five or six persons walking up.. a-breast. Between the two gates was a ro...« less