eastern gable of the chapel, with a circle over three lancets, which stood over the north end of the cellarage, is represented in one of Grimm's drawings: the staircase, near a pillar with beautiful foliage, remains; and at the south end of the cellarage are stone stairs which led to the upper storey; beyond them is a doorway with a shouldered arch and chamfered jambs.

The great Cloister Garth forms a square of 120 feet by 109 feet. On the west side is an arcade, upon a wall which formed the western side of the west alley of the cloisters, which was vaulted, the Early English springers and shafts still remaining. The arcade of nine bays has in the two southernmost panels beautiful groups of foliage in the tympanum of the arches, of transitional Early English date, the capital of opening roses is of peculiar beauty, crowning the shaft which divides the sub-arches in one of the bays; the rest are of the Perpendicular period, with blind tracery of four lights in each bay, there is a door to the cellarage at the north end, and near it what may have been a turn for giving an extra cup of wine to a weary monk.

The richly arcaded basement of the west wall of the Refectory, two niches for plate or lights, one trefoil headed, the other imperfect, with the side of a window above them in a fragment of the south wall' remain. The Decorated arcade is cinquefoiled, with trefoiled spandrils and a rich cornice. Its width was about 40 feet. In 1783, the basement of the north and south walls was standing. At the termination of the west wing of the cloister is a wall containing a newel staircase, and in front of the Abbot's parlour, now the dining room, is a projecting wall, with a passage hitherto designated the Abbot's oratory. On the west side are remains of a window. The string course has carved corble heads. The Kitchen, which was vaulted and polygonal, stood southward of the Hall. Stairs still communicate with large vaulted passages running parallel with the Refectory. In the south-east angle of the cloister may be seen the bases of Early English shafts, which formed one side of a doorway; and northward of it are the bases of two other shafts on the east wall of the cloister which was vaulted over. Adjoining this portion of the ruin, and between the transept of the Minster (or possibly, as was the ordinary arrangement, the slype or passage to the cemetery of the monks on the south side of the choir), and the Dormitory, stood the Chapter-house, the foundations of which were discovered in 1817 northward of the avenue of elm trees.

The Dormitory, 154 feet by 35 feet, Early English, presents a range of eight windows on the west, with a smaller one at the south end, and on the north a window and niche. There are ten windows on the east, with a doorway to stairs descending through a buttress; and another at the south-east angle, which communicated with the Gong, which ran eastward at right angles to the dormitory; some parts of its southern wall with two large arches remains. Each window of the dormitory has nook shafts, and was transomed in order to afford a smaller light for the accommodation of the cells of the monks, who occupied them at night and during the meridian, the midday sleep of one hour; each was divided from the central passage by a low parclose, and contained a bed and seat. In the south elevation are three lancets above, and two below them; the gable contains a single light. In 1811 the tiles of the floor were discovered. The roof was of Sussex oak, and shingled; part of it remained at that date. The walls were painted below, and in imitation of masonry above, in red colour. Below the dormitory are three chambers, with Purbeck shafts and vaulted. The northernmost, the Day-room, 55 feet by 35 feet, is in three alleys, divided by eight pillars, vaulted, and lighted by broad windows, and entered by a door in the south wall of a slype. It formed the ordinary sitting room of the monks when not in cloister, hall, or dormitory. The Regular Parlour on the south side of this slype is vaulted, and lighted by two lancets in the east and west, and forms two alleys divided longitudinally by two pillars. In it conversation was allowed at certain times. To the south is the Calefactory of four bays with three pillars, 58 feet by 35 feet, and 23 feet high; it retains traces of colour on the plaster of the vault, a large fireplace from which it derived its name, two deeply splayed windows on the south, a good south-west two

light window with a quatrefoil in the head; and in the west wall a lancet, and doorway with steps ascending outward. This room would be used by the monks to warm themselves, to light censers and dry parchment, and, perhaps, by the writers. In the south-east angle is a staircase to the gong. The southeast part of the exterior walls shows two large round headed arches, and the outer doorways of the two staircases to the upper and lower gongs or garderobes. In a map, dated 1722, there were eight arches remaining at the south-east end of the latter buildings. The stairs in the dormitory wall probably were used by the minuti, or monks, who had been bled, and returned from the infirmary at night. The walls of the infirmary may still be traced eastward of the dormitory, as it stood at Winchester, Westminster, Canterbury, Peterborough, Crowland, Ely, and other places.

The Abbey Church of St. Martin. The Abbey Seals represent the western front, with a large gable containing round windows and a niche; above a magnificent arch, like that of Tewkesbury, or more probably as at Marmantier, it was a rough representation of three large portals, such as may be seen at Lincoln or Peterborough. The central tower, which is crowned with a low spire, is of two storeys, with round windows under circles, and windows in the upper stage. The transept has a clerestory, and is terminated on each front like the choir by an arcaded tower higher than those of St. Stephen's, Caen, or Peterborough, and crowned with a low spirelet. The arrangement of the apse with three radiating chapels resembled that of Bury St. Edmund's, Norwich Cathedral, and the original plan of Gloucester, Pershore, and Worcester. On the seal of Abbot Odo, which appears to give a lateral view of the church, there are three eastern chapels, which tally with the existing eastern front. Vertue, in 1734, gave a ground plan in Rapin's History, which represents a cruciform church with a triapsidal eastern end. Gough mentions two western towers, but evidently in error; on the north side in the plantation there are foundations covered with trees, and doubtless there was also a north porch for the entrance of lay visitors and women into the nave. The fragment of the south west angle which remains, 6 feet thick and projecting nearly 4 feet, exhibits nook shafts; the interior of the Perpendicular south doorway of the nave, opening into the west alley of the cloister, is concealed by a modern building, but the lower part of the jambs are perfect, as well as the bases of the shafts on the outer or southern side. The basement of the south wall of the nave remains. Above, in the south west angle may be seen the side and half the arch of a round headed window which lighted the nave; possibly, from its height, the aisle roof, as at Rochester, was raised to the level of the nave triforum. Midway in its length is a stone grave, possibly the tomb of Abbot Odo, who died in 1200, and was buried, as Leland says, in the lower part of the nave, which measured about 130 feet in length, and was probably 60 feet in width. The transept and choir have wholly disappeared, the former was about 35 feet wide. In the north wing was the Altar of the Holy Apostles. The rood loft, surmounted by a large crucifix, with the Altar of the Holy Cross, stood at the entrance of the crossing. In 1445 Sir Thomas Hoo founded a chantry at "St. Benignus' altar." From the platform of the processional path, which terminated in a square end behind the high altar, standing on the spot where Harold's standard fell, stairs leading out of the aisles of the presbytery and once enclosed with circular buttresses (possibly forming turrets above, to flank the east gables of the aisle), communicate with a crypt, which consists of a transverse alley opening into three pentagonal apses of Early Decorated date, each of which has its altar. The eastern one in part remains, and was situated under the upper Lady Chapel; in the north chapel the caps of the vaulting shafts and a drain; and in the south chapel a trefoil headed niche with a drain are still to be seen. The vaulting

is gone. The crypt is 44 feet 6 inches in length by 79 feet in breadth, and the diameter of each chapel is 21 feet. Crypts were discontinued after the Norman period, but there is an Early English example at Hereford Cathedral under the Lady Chapel; another of the Decorated period under the choir of Wimborne Minster, and a third of Perpendicular date under the western Lady Chapel of Glastonbury Abbey. This crypt was not an addition, but a reconstruction of an earlier apsidal termination, in the last

part of the thirteenth century. The eastern arm, from the crossing to the end of the processional path, measured 107 feet, and including the eastern chapel of the crypt was 142 feet in length. The central alley was 37 feet broad internally, and each aisle about 14 feet. A curious tradition, preserved in the Eulogium Historiarum, gives us the actual dimensions of the church. According to the legend William L., after three days of fast and prayer, desired of God to know the duration of his dynasty in England, and was directed to lay out the plot of a church of as many feet as they should reign years. The next morning with stakes he marked out ground to a length of 500 feet, these boundaries three times were removed and fixed to 315 feet, which were recognised by him as the exact dimensions of the Minster which he built. It therefore exceeded the length of Rochester, Bath, Sherborne, Christchurch, Hants, Southwell, Ripon, Manchester, and Romsey. Outside the south-east angle of the south chapel is a large circle or polygon, 50 feet in diameter, marking the site of the bell tower which stood in a position almost corresponding to those at Worcester and Croyland. The crypt was first laid open in 1817. Eastward of these remains, among the cedar trees, may be traced the walls of some buildings of the Base court. The water was supplied from Feldresland and Loose Farm.

The Precinct wall is partly the original Norman enclosure, and in part of the date 1330; it retains considerable portions of the alura, and extends from the Court Gate along the road known from an early date as Santlache. The Church of St. Mary contains some brasses, stained glass, and a roodstair and bridge. The Nave, with its round and octagonal pillars, is Norman; the Clerestory and chancel, which is arcaded like Rochester, Brecon, and Merton, are Early English. The north aisle is Perpendicular, with the Lady Chapel at the east end. The Chapel of St. Katharine and the south aisle windows are Decorated; the former retains some canopied niches. The font is Transitional Norman; the tower Perpendicular, with the original Early English western doorway.*

In reply to inquiries by Mr. STREET and Mr. W. PAPWORTH, Mr. WALCOTT explained that his ground plan was only in part conjectural, portions of the church still standing, and others being indicated on the turf in hot weather, and by irregularities of the ground. Comparison with plans of the period facilitated such investigations. No excavations, unfortunately, are possible without the destruction of ornamental gardens and plantations, which would hardly be tolerated. The crypt he considered to be Early Decorated, of the close of the thirteenth century, and rather a reconstruction of earlier work than a positive addition to the east end, for the purpose of interment of abbots and persons of distinction. The earlier arrangement of the eastern end of the Minster, at latest in the twelfth century, is shown upon the conventual seal of that date in the British Museum, apparently a rude representation of three Chapels. There are many instances of three eastern chapels, as at Bury St. Edmunds, Pershore, Gloucester, Tewkesbury, and Norwich originally; here exceptionally they form a conjunctive group. The Pentagonal form of the apses shows that they are not of Norman date.

At the request of Professor KERR; Mr. WALCOTT explained the ground plans of Ely and Peterborough, which he exhibited. But as these form part of Mr. Walcott's Cathedral Cities of England and Wales, now in course of publication, it would be superfluous to print them in this place. A vote of thanks was carried by acclamation, and the meeting adjourned.

* A succinct history of the Abbey, drawn up from my own investigations and original documents, will shortly be published by Mr. Ticehurst, of Battle, with illustrations.

ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE CONVENTUAL ARRANGEMENTS

OF BENEDICTINE ABBEYS.

By MACKENZIE E. C. WALCOTT, B.D., F.R.S.L., F.S.A., &c.

Appendix to Paper read at the Ordinary General Meeting of the Royal Institute of British Architects, May 21st, 1866.

THE archeologist, in endeavouring to allot the various buildings of a monastery, in the case of Cistercian houses, has the Nomasticon to guide him, but for those of Benedictines he has had hitherto no more light than is afforded by Davies' Rites of Durham,' written in the sixteenth century, or the notes of Dr. Hopkins for Worcester; but I had the pleasure of shewing before the Royal Institute of British Architects some time since that Lanfranc's Constitutions,' by a special exception, perfectly illustrated the existing buildings of Canterbury, and I am now able to redeem the hope, which I then suggested, of one day using the Custumal of Westminster,' written after 1260, for a similar purpose. From it I shall select those portions which give positive information on the conventual arrangement, merely premising that it is a confused Medieval MS., full of repetition and ill-arranged, but still enlightening us on a subject very intricate and in many particulars involved in obscurity. In fact throughout it we have contrasts between "ancient usage" and "modern use," and in one place the author doubts whether "the Long Chamber" adjoined the Refectory or was the Prior's Chamber; it is no wonder, therefore, if the archæologist now experiences difficulties which are too often insuperable, except by means of comparison with other known buildings of a religious order. The style of Latin employed may be judged from the derivation of Capitulum as capud licium, "the conclusion of strifes."

First in order I take the Cloisters. The south alley was usually left free and unoccupied, it being passable only at certain times; in the west alley, in cloister time, the Master of Novices, junior monks under his charge, and novices sat; in the north alley, the Prior near the east church door, and the monks according to seniority, juniors being nearest to him and sitting sideways, with the face of one turned to the back of the other. At the upper end of the east alley sat the Abbot. The bench-tables were covered with matting, and the floor was strewn with hay or rushes, according to the season. At night, before Matins and until their close, five cressets in lanterns were lighted by the Sub-chamberlain, one at the dormitory door and the rest at the four corners. Three other cressets, in hanging lanterns, after dark were lighted, one in the north alley in the middle towards the church door, a second in the west alley near the aumbry of the Master of the Novices, and a third in the south alley next the Refectory. They were extinguished by the Sub-chamberlain when the "Rounds" had passed after Compline. The Prior, Sub-prior and Master of Novices preserved order. The Keeper of the Cloister Aumbry for the books had his own seat. At the Lavatory there were five towels, two used by the Cloister Prior and High Mass Priest, and three on perches for the use of the Convent and guests, all being changed on Sundays by the Chamberlain's servant. After meridian the monks washed their hands and combed their heads, and between supper and Beveres. Cloister time was after Prime; and after Tierce conversation was allowed, but those in conversation remained sitting, and spoke in French; Latin was used to a Prior or Master of the Novices; English was forbidden. In the Carols (which were proscribed to the Cellarer, Infirmarer and Chamberlain) illumination, writing, and noting

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music, for the good of the church, were allowed. As lay people much frequented the cloisters, signs of punishment were not to be visible when they were passing. In the cloister shaving took place once a fortnight, and feet-washing every Saturday. The monks shaved in gangs of three; during these operations all the doors into the cloister were rigorously closed by the servant of the inner hostry, the servant of the outer parlour, the doorkeeper of the cellarage, and the church servant. The inner hostry and outer parlour were on the west side, as the cellarage was also, opposite to the chapter house door. There were also a cella monachorum hospitum, a monks' spital, and a small chapter house for the use of obedientiaries.

The Outer and Inner Parlours. The outer parlour was only opened after Chapter, or for the reception of guests, persons desiring admission to the noviciate, or monks returning from a journey. In the outer parlour a fugitive monk, who returned, bared himself for discipline in chapter. It was under the charge of the Almoner and Sub-almoner. It was opened for the entertainment of a matron or monk's mother, after hall time and before supper. It was strewn with hay or rushes and furnished with mats. The inner or regular parlour was similarly supplied; in it was a long large mat, on which monks who had been bled sat; and here conversation, under certain restrictions, was permitted. There were also cells for the refractory, and a prison with low diet for the contumacious.

The Refectory. At the upper end was the high table, elevated on a step; at the north end sat the Abbot, with a skylla or bell on his right hand; at the south end the Prior sat. A Bishop, if present, sat in the middle under the "Majesty." Before the president was laid a great cup, knives and spoons, napkins for bread and cheese, silver salts, cups, bason, towel and ewer, and a wooden dish for the alms or fragments. At the lower end of the hall was the table of the Minuti, Monks who had been bled; each table was raised on a step, and the benches were matted; there was space sufficient to pass between the inner benches and the walls. Each monk had his own knife, and a smaller cnipulus, salts were laid out, and cups and spoons; two servitors attended at high table, and one on either side of the hall; with the reader they had "mixtum," a slight meal before the cymbalum sounded for dinner. Four guests were invited daily by the president, and five by the convent. No guests in boots or spurs were admissible. The president sat with them after hall; or, under particular circumstances, to hostry, the Long Chamber, or St. Dunstan's Chapel, (possibly that known as the chapel of the Pyx), for wine and dessert. But if a simple monk was president the additional fare was taken in silence behind the Refectory door. Mothers of monks were entertained in hall. The Refectory had a large aumbry for cups. Between the Refectory and the kitchen, at the south or south-west end, was a vaulted passage, and in the kitchen window a towel was hung. The dinner hour varied, being at 12 or 3 p.m. Two lamps burned at supper time. On festivals of St. Edward C. the nave was filled with 34 lamps, 13 tapers and 100 candles, and then 18 or 22 tapers were lighted, three on each of the four principal tables, and two on the rest. The hall was closed after Compline.

The Misericord adjoined the Refectory and kitchen; in it the monks dined on flesh days. It had its allowance of candles and tapers, and was strewn like the Refectory.

The Dormitory. On the third step, at the top of the stairs was a crucifix in the window. Each monk had a straw bed, with coverlet and under covering, with a bench for dressing at the foot, a round mat at the side, a perch an ell long over his head for his clothes, and an asser or partition, a palm high, to secure seclusion from his fellows. All slept in night clothes and caps. Snorers and talkers in their sleep were placed by themselves. No coverlet was to be scarlet, green, or of bright colours. The central alley was covered with soft mats, and the floor strewn on ten principal feasts with rushes or mats. There were several bells, one in the parlour, a skylla in the Dormitory, another in the Refectory, and a cymbalum rung at Hall time in the cloister. At night the Prior with a lantern visited the