On the eastern face of the tower the stone weathering also shows the pitch of the roof, which was the same as that of the nave. Below it can likewise be plainly traced the curve of the pointed wagon ceiling of the quire. (Plate V.) In this face of the tower were also two openings: one into the space between the ceiling and the roof; the other below the ceiling, looking into the quire.

The north wall of the quire shows plain marks of the canopies of the monks' stalls. The extent of these can be traced on both sides towards the east through the gaps in the tile pavement, a good deal of which remains under the turf. Above the north stalls are two clerestory windows and part of a third, each of three plain uncusped lights. (Plates V. and IX.)

Just to the east of the end of the stalls was the step across the quire called the gradus chori. A chase cut for it in the south wall shows that the stone edging was 15 inches wide. The platform of it was tiled. Against the middle of the east wall is the lowest course of an altar' 13 feet long and 3 feet 5 inches wide, and immediately in front of and adjoining it the base of a later altar. This was 12 feet 9 inches long and 3 feet 2 inches wide, and from its peculiar construction seems to have had within it two cupboards, with doors in front, and a shallow locker in each of the solid ends. The pavement round the altar was originally of large black and yellow tiles. Not far from the south-west corner of the altar was found, lying loose, the bason of the wall drain.

At the south end of the gradus chori is a wide doorway into another chapel. It is of later date than the presbytery enlargement, and extends southwards for 29 feet; its width was 13 feet. It is now ruined to the plinths, but retains against the east wall the solid bases of two altars, each 5 feet long and a little over 2 feet wide. Between them is a stone curb 9 feet long and 4 feet 3 inches wide, with its end against the east wall, which evidently formed the base of a high tomb. Close by the south end of the northernmost altar was found a curious shaft, 22 inches high, of a pillar piscina, with a deep oblong drain on top, and beside it a projection to carry the cruets.

Opposite the doorway of this chapel is another opening into the chapter-house.

In line with the east wall of the presbytery is a short length of wall running southwards for 11 feet, and pierced by a wide doorway

1 The limewash on the east wall stops abruptly on reaching the altar ends, and is not carried across behind the altar.

2 In front of it lies a plain marble slab, 3 feet 8 inches long, 2 feet 1 inches wide, and 5 inches thick, and north of it part of a floor of pavers 4 inches square.

opening eastwards. From this wall there was also another running westwards. No more could be found than is shown on the plan, and it is difficult to see the use of it, unless it served as a base of a flying buttress to counteract some settlement or spreading of the eastern gable of the church.

Although in the foregoing account of the church it has been described as containing a nave and quire, the length of the church, like those of the Cistercians, really consisted of two quires: an eastern, for the use of the monks; and a western. in what is usually called the nave or body, for the lay brothers. Lay folk were not admitted to the church at all.

BUILDINGS NORTH OF THE CHURCH.

The building out of the north chapel was the cause of various changes on that side of the church, which are not at all easy to follow or unravel.

The area in the angle of the nave and chapel was originally an open court, but some rough foundations indicate the building of some structure, with a joisted floor, against its western side. After the building of the chapel a wall was carried northwards in line with the west wall of the chapel, and a cell constructed in the regular area thus formed. The floor of it was 7 feet above the first level, so as to enable the cell to be entered directly from the great cloister. On this side the wall has been mostly rebuilt, with a doorway, a fireplace, and a turn for passing in food, etc. In the untouched part of this wall, on the cloister side, was a lavatory, and behind this, on the cell side, was fashioned a recess for a water-tap for the use of the inmate. In the south wall of the new cell was formed a recess 4 feet wide and 18 inches deep, for a wooden seat, with a square-headed window 2 feet 6 inches wide in the back, looking into the church. In the east wall was another recess, of the same dimensions, also fitted with a wooden seat, with a window eighteen inches wide in the back, looking into the chapel, through whose west wall it is pierced. The inmate of the cell could thus hear mass being said in the chapel itself, and through the other window see the altar of the south chapel. Neither opening was glazed nor shuttered in any way, and as the cell had no windows in its west and north walls, and, as will be shown, only room for one window on the east, the monk who dwelt in it must have needed the light that came from the church through these openings.

1 The space underneath perhaps served afterwards as a cellar or store place

attached to the prior's cell, from which there was already a doorway into it.

The cell was covered by a steeply-pitched roof abuting on the south against the church, and on the north against a stone gable, most of which remains, surmounted by the chimney of the fireplace below. The roof was brought down sufficiently low at the sides to clear the western window of the chapel, and had a small transverse gable over the recessed window looking into it.

The space left eastwards of the cell, between the chapel and the cloister wall, was only 12 feet wide. It was, nevertheless, divided lengthwise by a cross wall, and another cell formed on the cloister side, leaving an area 5 feet wide between it and the chapel for purposes of light.

The cell itself was only 5 feet wide and 16 feet long, and had a door from the cloister with a turn in its western jamb. Door and turn are both inserted in the older wall. There are some traces of a fireplace just to the east of the entrance. This small cell belongs to one of the latest changes in point of date. west of it, its floor was on a level with the great cloister. The upper floor must have been reached by a wooden ladder.

Like that

The wall forming the east end of the cell was continued southwards for about a yard, and then canted eastwards, so as to avoid blocking part of the large north window of the chapel.

The space east of it, as described above, originally extended as far as the church southwards, and up to the pentise that connected the church with the great cloister, and was covered with a room with an upper storey, extending also over the pentise. But owing to the building of the chapel, this had to be taken down and remodelled. By the erection of the tower within the church, the doorway from the pentise was blocked, and a new one had to be made a little to the west. This also entailed the widening westward of the pentise itself. There was thus left on the west side of it (1) a space about 11 feet long and 3 feet wide against the chapel wall, and (2) an area about 12 feet by 7 feet between the pentise and the narrow cell. The former was closed in front by a wooden screen or partition, and probably formed a store cupboard. The latter was converted into a small room, in the south end of which was built a small round furnace; the object of this is not clear. The room may have formed the sacrist's checker.

As there is a difference of level of 7 feet between that of the great cloister and of that of the church, the pentise passage from the cloister had in its northern half a descending flight of many stone steps.