Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/79

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THE LEGEND OF ST. WERSTAN.
63

transepts, and the sixth, in honour of the Blessed Virgin, and St. Anne, in the lady chapel, eastward, which is now totally destroyed, unless indeed that building was erected subsequently to the choir. The seventh, dedicated in honour of Jesus Christ, St. Ursula, and the eleven thousand virgins, was in the southern transept. It seems not improbable that some change in the appropriation of these altars might have been made at some later period, for whilst the northern transept has been always traditionally called the Jesus chapel, the southern transept, long since wholly demolished, has been termed the chapel of St. Ursula. The tomb of Walcherus, the second prior, discovered in 1711, on the site of the cloisters, not far from the spot formerly occupied by the southern transept, is described as having been found about twelve feet from the chapel of St. Ursula[1].

In the map of the chace and hills of Great Malvern, which was supplied by Joseph Dougharty, of Worcester, for the work compiled by William Thomas, and published in 1725, under the title, "Antiquitates Prioratus majoris Malverne," it is to be noticed, that above the Priory church, a little higher up the hill, towards the Worcestershire beacon, appears a little solitary building, marked "St. Michael's Chapel." The position of the chapel, as it appears in this map, corresponds with the description which is found in Habingdon's notes on the windows of the church, as given by Thomas. In the lower part of the western window of the northern transept, or Jesus chapel, it is stated that there were to be seen the town and church of Malvern, and the chapel of St. Michael, situated on the side of the hill; and in the southern corner an archer in the chace, about to let fly a shaft at a hind[2]. Not a trace of this interesting subject is now to be distinguished. It must be observed that, although the Priory church, according to the account commonly received, was dedicated in honour of the Blessed Virgin alone, it appears from a passage in the Chronicle of Gervase of Canterbury, that it was dedicated in honour of St. Michael also; and Richard, "filius Puncii," in his grant of the church of Leche to Malvern, expresses, that the donation was made "Deo, et Sancte Marie, et Sancto Michaeli Malvernie[3]." The high Altar of the new fabric,

  1. Nash, Hist. of Worcestershire, ii. 133.
  2. Antiqu. Prioratus majoris Malverne: descriptio ecclesiæ, p. 21.
  3. Carta Ant. L. F. C. xviii. 11, in the British Museum.