88: REPYTON PRIORY. 
cellarer’s buildings for guests and stores. When the site per- 
mitted, the church occupied the north side of the cloister, so that 
the north walk of the latter, which formed the living room of the 
inmates, might have the benefit of the mid-day sun, and shelter 
from the north winds. If, however, the water supply lay to the 
north, the church formed the south range, and the fratry the 
north. Whatever be the origin of the monastic plan, it is cer- 
tainly a most admirably contrived one for its purpose, and that 
it perfectly answered the needs of the inmates is shown by its 
persistent adoption throughout the middle ages. The church was 
always cruciform, and the cloister square invariably joined the 
nave.* The cloister was an open court, enclosed round its four 
sides by covered alleys, which served different purposes. The 
alley next the nave was the living room of the brethren, and 
furnished with book-cases against the church wall, and reading 
desks or “carols” in the window recesses looking out on the 
central area. The western alley seems to have been used for the 
Novices, and the other two were passages. The eastern side of 
the cloister was bounded by one arm of the transept of the church, 
next to which was the chapter house, and beyond that the calefac- 
torium, ot common-house, as it was called at Durham—a long 
vaulted apartment with a fire-place. Between these three 
buildings were often placed other small apartments or pas- 
sages, such as the vestry and the regular parlour—the 
latter being a place where necessary conversation might be 
carried on, for the Statutes of most of the Orders for- 
bade speaking in the church, cloister, fratry, and dormitory. 
Over all these apartments was the dormitory. It usually had 
two staircases, one descending directly into the transept to 
enable the brethren to go to matins at midnight without going 
through the cold cloister, the other communicating with the 
cloister itself. At the end of the dormitory was the necessarium, a 
building always of considerable size, and most admirably contrived 
*The only exception at present known is Rochester Cathedral Priory, 
where it is on the south side of the choir, and even this is probably a 
later alteration. 
