“all suche parcells of Implements or houshould stuffe, corne, catell, Ornamments of the Church & such other lyke found within the said late p^irory at the tyme of the dyssolucon therof sould by the Kyngs Commissioners to Thomas Thacker the xxvj day of October in the xxx yere of o^r sov’agn lorde Kyng henry the viij^{th}.” A memorandum added to the list recounts that— “(Thomas) Thacker was put in possession of the scite of the seid late priory & all the demaynes to y^t apperteynyng to o^r sov’aigne lorde the Kynges use.” Thomas Thacker died in 1548, leaving his property to his son Gilbert; the latter, according to Fuller, “being alarmed with the news that Queen Mary had set up the abbeys again (and fearing how large a reach such a precedent might have) upon a Sunday (belike the better day, the better deed) called together the carpenters and masons of that county, and plucked down in one day (church-work is a cripple in going up, but rides post in coming down) a most beautiful church belonging thereto, saying ‘he would destroy the nest, for fear the birds should build therein again.’” The Priory differed in no marked way from the usual plan of conventual building—a square cloister, surrounded on all its sides by buildings. Owing to the river being on the north, the cloister was on the north of its church, instead of the south; the Refectory, or Fratry, on the north side, the church on the south; the chapter house and calefactorium, with dormitory over them, on the east side; the kitchens, buttery, and cellars, with guest hall over them, on the west side. Admission to the Priory precincts, which were bounded by the existing walls, was obtained through a gate-house, the outer arch of which forms the present entrance. The Trent formed a boundary on the north. The stream which flows down the village entered the precincts at the south-eastern corner of the boundary wall through an arch, still _in situ_, and supplied the fish-ponds, mill, and Priory with water for domestic, sanitary, and other purposes. The Priory church consisted of nave, with north and south aisles, central tower, north and south transepts, choir, with aisles, a south chapel, and a presbytery to the east of the choir. In the inventory the following chapels are named: St. John, Our Lady of Pity, St. Thomas, St. Syth (St. Osyth), Our Lady, and St. Nicholas. Many beautiful fragments of painted canopies, tabernacle work, etc., were found among the débris when digging foundations for the Pears School in 1885; no doubt many of the shrines, such as those of SS. Guthlac and Wystan, had been robbed of their relics and ornaments long before the Priory was destroyed in the year 1553. [Illustration: Repton: The Priory Gateway and School.]