the rebuilding.

was.

There is nothing to show where it

Before leaving the church, it should be noticed that a large mass of masonry, apparently of the thirteenth century, has been added at the north-east angle of the presbytery. It may have served merely as a buttress, but its size rather indicates the base of a stair turret. The north-west corner of the transept has been also strengthened by an added buttress.

There can be little doubt that the building just described formed the ecclesia sanctimonialium of the Statutes. The main or northern division served as the nuns' church and had their quire under the crossing, with probably the quire of the sisters in the nave. The aisle or southern division served as the quire of the canons, probably with the quire of the conversi in its western half. Between the two presbyteries was (1) an archway for the passage of processions, etc. and (2) a turn through which the nuns could take holy water and receive the pax and be communicated. The north transept may have been the place provided in the church where the sick nuns could be anointed, and it no doubt contained a staircase from the nuns' dorter to enable them to come directly into church for the night offices.

Next to the transept, into which there was a doorway from it, was a chamber 12 feet wide and twice as long, with an entrance from the cloister, but the west wall has been destroyed. This was probably the auditorium or parlour, where such necessary conversation might be carried on as was forbidden in the cloister. It had no eastern door.

The capitulum or chapter-house, which adjoined the parlour, was 66 feet long and 23 feet wide. Its entrance from the cloister has been utterly destroyed, and just within it a lime-kiln measuring 12 feet by 10 feet has been made, no doubt soon after the Suppression, for converting into lime the chalk of which so much of the walls was built. The rest of the area is filled many feet deep with fallen rubbish, but we ascertained that it had a tiled floor and had been roofed in one span. At a distance of 5 feet from the east wall

was a raised daïs, 7 inches high, paved with tile. Along the south wall was a bench table, 18 inches high and the same in width, built of chalk; it had no step in front. Along the north wall a different arrangement prevailed. Here a step 13 inches high and 24 feet wide led up to a bench table 16 inches high and 18 inches wide, all built of chalk. How these differing levels were returned across the east end is doubtful, owing to the destruction of the wall there. The unusual variation in the treatment of the side benches is not easy to account for, unless the nuns during chapter sat on the north and the novices facing them on the south. The exterior of the south wall was built of brick with stone courses.

The remains of the north wall suggest that the chapter-house has been lengthened by about one-third, probably in the fourteenth century.

From the chapter-house there extended northward a vaulted undercroft of five bays, about 90 feet long and 23 feet wide, divided into two alleys by a central row of octagonal pillars. It had been so ruined that only the lower parts of its south end and east side and a fragment of the west side remained, and from these, and the bases of three of the pillars, the probable extent of the undercroft has been laid down on plan. The east wall had in the second bay from the chapter-house a recess like a fireplace, and there were doorways from without in the third and fifth bays. This last bay seems to have been cut off from the rest by a cross wall. There were also indications of a wall having extended westwards from the base of the second pillar, and round the base were some remains of brick paving. Both the doorways noted above had stepped sills. If there was an entrance from the cloister it must have been in the second bay.

The building just described probably served, at any rate as regards its southern end, as the calefactorium or warming-house, where the nuns might come and warm themselves in winter; and this is to some extent borne out by the discovery of pieces of coal and charcoal on the floor level. Owing to the complete destruction of the rest of the building there is nothing to show to

what use it was put, or whether and how it was further subdivided. There was probably a passage through the third bay.

Over all the buildings described above, from the church northwards, was the usual place of the dormitorium or dorter. It would thus have been nearly 120 feet long and have also extended over the chapterhouse.

Nothing whatever of it remains, nor is there anything to show how it was approached.

Some indications of a transverse building at the north end suggest that the reredorter, of which there are no other remains, occupied that position.

The whole of the north side of the cloister was covered by the refectorium or frater. Like the dorter it was on the first floor, but there is none of it left. Some idea of its plan and extent can be gained from the scanty remains of the undercroft or cellars upon which it stood. These remains consist of portions of four buttresses and as many doorways of the south wall, and some rough foundations of the north wall. When laid down on plan they show that the subvault was ten bays long, and divided into two alleys by a central row of pillars, some of the bases of which remained. The two end bays were narrower than the others and probably served as passages through the range, which was 90 feet long and 20 feet broad internally. Of the four remaining doorways, one opened out of the western passage into the cloister; the other three led from the cloister into the frater subvault. The doorway next to this western passage, from its position in the range, most likely opened upon a flight of steps leading up to the frater. The pillars of the subvault were octagonal with the angles indented, and rising directly from flat bases 201 inches square.

Immediately to the west of the frater, in the angle formed by it and the western range, was the kitchen. It was an oblong building about 30 feet long and 19 feet wide, standing detached from and not quite square with the main building. As in other cases, the extent and arrangements of the kitchen can only be recovered by laying down on plan its few remaining fragments.

These consisted of the foundation of part of the north wall, with the hearth of a fireplace, a length of west wall, and the south-east angle. The fireplace was about 7 feet wide, and immediately to the west of it were the remains of a stone bench, 13 inches wide, against the wall. There were some doubtful indications of another fireplace opposite. The west wall had a plinth along it, and as a short length of similar wall was found in place about 7 feet east of it, it seems as if a passage that width had been cut off from the kitchen proper. In the eastern end of the kitchen a space 4 feet wide seems also to have been partitioned off, probably to form a service department. The east wall is too far destroyed to retain any remains of a doorway, but as there was one opposite in the west wall' of the frater range, which was only a few feet distant, it is probable that meals were served into the entry there and conveyed thence up to the frater. The kitchen was most likely entered from the passage west of it, and this in turn no doubt extended southwards to the western block of buildings.

To the north of the passage were some offices with which it communicated, but of these only some scanty brick foundations remained.

From the kitchen to the church, and covering the west side of the cloister, was a range of buildings 112 feet long and about 24 feet wide, with a return westwards near its south end. Circumstances did not permit a complete excavation of this, and only the outer walls could be traced.

From variations in the thickness of these, it is clear that the range consisted of an L-shaped block which did not extend as far as the church, but was connected therewith by a building with thinner walls.

The entrance was in the north end of the west wall, through a porch about 13 feet wide, but of uncertain projection, in which would also be the door to the kitchen entry. The north side of this porch was represented by a foundation 8 feet wide in continuation. of the north end of the range, which was only 4 feet

This could not be fully opened out because of a tree.

C

thick, and probably contained the staircase to the upper

story.

There was no other doorway in the west wall of the

range.

On the cloister side there were certainly two doorways into the basement, and breaches in the wall may indicate two others. One of these openings is at the north end; the other is between the two doorways. The northern of the doorways has a much worn sill. These entrances show that the basement was divided into a series of chambers, but no traces of the partition walls were met with, nor anything to show that the bays were vaulted. The remains of the western extension of the range were too fragmentary to enable anything definite to be made out about it.

The

In default of other evidence as to the arrangements of a Gilbertine house it is uncertain to what use this western range was put. The basement was probably in part a storeplace, but it may also have included an outer parlour where the nuns could talk with their relations under the conditions already noticed. rest of it was most likely occupied by the lay sisters, who, it must be remembered, were secluded like the nuns; and as it was one of their duties to attend to guests, the upper story of the range probably served, at any rate in part, as the hospitium or guest-house,' as well as the dorter of the lay sisters.

The ground story or basement of the building between the western range and the church had a doorway from without in the west wall and another on the east into the cloister. Both doorways are placed as far north as possible, as if possible, as if opening into a narrow passage cut off from the rest of the room. This area south of the passage probably contained a staircase from the upper floor to give the lay sisters direct access to the church, but owing to the ruined condition of the south wall nothing definite can be said on this point. There are the remains, however, in the south-east corner, of a chalk foundation which may have served to support the

"Sorores tamen hospitibus serviant, et in hospitio ministrent; et res hospitii custodiant; et in hospicio jaceant cum

opas fuerit, non moniales." Institutiones ad moniales Ordinis pertinentes, Cap. xxxiv.