It was dedicated to St Nicholas, and a rude effigy of the saint was
carved over the south porch of the chapel, with two or three naked
children at his feet. The building was not large, but the architecture
was chaste and beautiful, a noble specimen of the early Gothic, then
superseding the ponderous forms and proportions of the Norman, or rather
Saxon era. The arches were sharply pointed. The windows, narrow and
lancet-shaped, were deeply recessed; the slender shafts of the columns
were carried in clusters to a vast height, surmounted by pinnacles of
rich and elegant tracery; these gave a light and airy character to the
whole, highly significant of the buoyant feelings that accompanied so
wonderful an escape from the heavy trammels of their predecessors.
Craving shelter, De Poininges was admitted without any question, as all
travellers partook indiscriminately of the general bounty. The religious
houses in those days were the constituted almonries of the rich and
great; and through these overflowing channels, for the most part,
proceeded their liberality and beneficence.
He was ushered into one of the _locutories_, or parlours, where, his
business being with the prior, he was desired to wait until an audience
could be granted.
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