is a remarkable jamb supporting a large sloping slab of stone, and which cuts through the plane of the gallery floor. A stair starting from the corridor floor and ascending directly through the opening represented by this jamb to the upper western chamber would form a convenient means of ascent; and, moreover, would explain away the difficulty raised by the presence of the jamb, and this is probably the true solution of the case. One reason for placing the stairs at the north end of the corridor is, that the south end of the gallery was partitioned off at about one-third of its length, so as to form a separate room with its own fireplace and garderobe, and having for its doorway that opening from the transept stair, thus affording direct access to the church at all times. The only officer of the monastery likely to need such an arrangement was the abbot, and very probably this was his chamber. The existence of the small window looking into the transept, is a strong proof of this conjecture.12 What purpose the rest of the gallery and its chambers served, is doubtful; but, perhaps, the gallery was the abbot's solar for study and recreation, and the small eastern chamber his oratory.

At the north end of the corridor a descent of two steps (parts of which remain) led to a door of some importance, flanked by jamb shafts, and 4 ft. 3 in. in the clear. This door was placed a little to the east to allow room for the stairs up to the gallery. It opened into a large hall 64 ft. long by about 27 ft. wide, running eastwards, whose west wall was in line with the west side of the corridor. This hall is now much ruined, but its arrangements can be partly made out from what is left. In the west end of the north wall, at about 10 ft. from the floor, is a row of joist holes, 13 extending as far as a large corbel 24 ft. from the west wall. This corbel marks the line of a partition across the hall, forming the space at its western end known as "the screens," above which was a wooden loft or gallery.14 The hall proper would be entered by two doors, one at each end of the screen. It was lighted by two two-light windows on the north, whose

12 A similar arrangement existed at the Charterhouse at Mount Grace, and Professor Willis has pointed out the curious "spying pipes" for the prior of Canterbury. (See his Architectural History of the Conventual Buildings of the Monas

tery of Christ Church in Canterbury, p. 69).

13 One of these still contains part of a wooden beam.

14 There are also some of an upper row of corbels to carry the roof.

sills remain, and probably by three on the south. At the upper end was a large fireplace, with a doorway on each side. The northern one opened into a set of apartments of two stories, probably those allotted to the infirmarer. Unfortunately the site of this portion of the buildings is encumbered by two huge trees and cut into by a modern shed; excavations were therefore impossible. The ground story seems to have consisted of low cellars or store-rooms, lighted on the east by narrow loops, and by a larger window on the north. The upper story was reached by a stair, probably placed in the small chamber on the south side of the hall fireplace. It was furnished with a garderobe on the north. Across the angle formed by the north side of the hall and the west side of the projection ending in the garderobe was an arch, the springers only of which remain. Clarkson, writing in 1821, thus describes an oriel window then existing here:"A beautiful little building at the north-east angle of the abbey, projecting from the wall and resting upon an arch, appears

REMAINS OF AN ORIEL WINDOW, ON THE NORTH-EAST OF THE INFIRMARY HALL, AS EXISTING IN 1821. (FROM CLARKSON.)

to have been a stone pulpit, [such as was common in monasteries, where a large concourse of people might attend in the

open air to the preaching of the monks on very particular occasions]. The plan is a kind of parallelogram rounded at the ends, twelve feet one way and nine the other, open at the front, which has evidently been glazed. It has had several seats in a solid blank wall at the back part of the building, under arches divided by pillars similar to the mullions of windows, which still support an intersecting arched roof, groined with stones richly carved. The beauty of this singular small fragment is very much increased by the luxuriant ivy which grows around it, but it is very much to be regretted that it is going very rapidly to decay, and in a little time every appearance of it will be obliterated." 15

Clarkson's prediction has already come to pass, for nothing now remains but the springers of the supporting arch. The "luxuriant ivy" certainly had as much to do with its disappearance as any other destroying agent.

Towards the west end of the hall, the side walls abut against the main buildings with straight joints (see plans). This points to a rebuilding. The thinness of the new walls is indicative of late date, and it is probable that the nova aula referred to in the Visitation of the abbey of 1482 is this identical building.

The space forming the screens at the west end of the great hall is much longer than that usually allotted to what was a mere passage. The object of this was to obtain light, for as the west end of the hall was entirely closed in by buildings, windows were there an impossibility. By setting the dividing partition more to the east, space was gained for a south window, which was made as wide as possible by cutting to a chamfer the corridor wall where it abutted on the hall outside. The chamfer is the only remaining evidence of this arrangement. Against the west wall, but not quite in the centre, is the base and part of the shaft of a small column, the object of which is not clear. There is nothing to show if the loft above was reached by a stair within the screens-for which there is room or whether, as is more probable, it had a door opening from the gallery; both the south and west walls of the hall being completely ruined.

At the north end of the screens is a rude doorway opening into the buttery, a small room 16 ft. long and 12 ft. wide.

15 Clarkson's History of Richmond, 371. The illustration on the preceding page is a reproduction of that given by Clarkson.

This entrance is not original; it partly fills up and takes the place of two older doors. In the north wall of the buttery were another pair of doors opening into a narrower but slightly longer room beyond, provided with a wide fireplace and covered with a low lean-to roof. This second room has a single north door leading into a large square kitchen, forming the northern end of the range. As these rooms did not themselves want double doors it is clear that the eastern pair and that leading into the kitchen were cut off by a partition running north and south across both rooms so as to form a narrow passage from the screens to the kitchen. The upper half of the partition must have been an open screen to admit light to the two small rooms, as the only windows were on the east.

The infirmary kitchen was 24 ft. square. The north, west, and south sides are fairly perfect for a considerable height, but the east wall is broken down. There is a large fireplace, with projecting chimney externally, in the north wall, with a large window-opening with segmental head on each side. There were two similar windows on the east. In the southwest angle and against the south wall was a second fireplace with a projecting hood, now destroyed. disposition of the angle buttresses shows that the kitchen was covered with a pyramidal roof, like the wellknown example at Stanton Harcourt, and terminating in a louvre.

The

Overlapping the west end of the hall and the two rooms between the screens and the kitchen was a low cellar, 57 ft. 6 in. long, by 16 ft. 6 in. wide, lighted by small narrow loops on the west, and a larger one on the north. It had a door opening out of the north-west corner of the screens, and communicated with the buttery and adjoining room by plain openings in their west walls. At its north end it opened into a narrow slip built against the kitchen, which appears to have had a door to enable stores to be brought in from the outside.

Over the cellar, at a height of only 5 ft. above the level of the hall floor, was an upper chamber of the same size. (See plan, p. 127.) It was lighted by a window on the north and perhaps by one or more on the east, but none on the west. There is no trace of a stair, but perhaps the door in the north-west corner of the screens opened on to a flight of wooden steps. This chamber was clearly allotted to sick and bedridden brethren,

whose beds may have been ranged against the west wall. On the east is a "turn" or hatch, opening into the small room next the kitchen at a height of 9 ft. from the floor. It would be reached by a few wooden steps, and was for passing warm food or drink through to the invalids in the sick-chamber.

Over the buttery is a chapel. This opened directly into the long room, so that the sick folk could hear mass while they lay in bed. The east window arch remains perfect, with sufficient of the tracery to show that it was of three lights of the same date and pattern as the inserted windows in the south transept aisle. Below the sills are the holes for the corbels that supported the altar stone. There is a small pointed piscina with projecting bowl in the south wall.

At the north-east corner of the long room a narrow passage led to a garderobe. The north wall of this is a continuation of that of the kitchen, and has two small windows, a square-headed loop to light the passage, and a short lancet further to the west, and 3 ft. higher up, to light the garderobe itself. The pit has a branch drain, probably leading from the infirmarer's garderobe, and passing through the kitchen down to the great drain forming the mill tail. This is not now visible, being choked with stones and the roots of a large tree.

The whole of the group forming the infirmary buildings must have been exceedingly picturesque in appearance when complete. Through some error, probably in the setting out, the main walls are not parallel with, or at right angles to the axis of the church, but deflect slightly towards the east.

From the north-east corner of the choir there is an old wall running to the corner of the infirmarer's chambers, and enclosing a piece of ground bounded on the north and west by the infirmary, and on the south by the church. This was probably the infirmary garden.

To the west of the infirmary are some fragments of walls not yet fully excavated, which belong to some outbuilding, perhaps the water conduit.

We will now return to the cloister and its surrounding buildings.

The cloister of a monastery is generally nearly square, or at least rectangular. Here it forms a trapezium whose sides measure respectively, the north, 98 ft.; the east, 63 ft. ; the south 82 ft.; and the west, 100 ft. The irregularity