" During Lent, each
brother had eight shillings paid to him instead of commons, and on Palm
Sunday the Brethren had a "green fish, of the value of three shillings
and fourpence, and their pot of milk pottage with three pounds of rice
boiled in it, and three pies with twenty-four herrings baked in them,
and six quarts and one pint of beer extraordinary". On Good Fridays they
had at dinner "in their pot of beer a cast of bread sliced, and three
pounds of honey, boiled together, which they call honey sop". Beneath
the hall is a fine vaulted cellar, of ample proportions, a worthy
resting-place for the stock of St. Cross ale.
[Illustration: THE BRETHREN'S HALL, ST. CROSS]
But, interesting as are all these portions of the Hospital of St. Cross,
it is the church which has the greatest attraction for architect and
antiquary alike, for it contains good examples of every style. From
Romanesque, through Norman and Early English, to Later Decorated, and to
Transition Norman, the church is considered to be the best example in
existence. This building, unfinished after nearly two hundred years, was
roofed with lead, in place of the thatch which originally covered it, by
William of Edyndon, the famous Wiltshireman who became Master of St.
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