By Harold Brakspear, F.S8.A. 221 
"surrounded the room for the accommodation of the convent. The 
seat stood on a platform of one or two steps above the floor of the 
room. The blank wall between the east windows would be occupied 
by the president’s seat and the lectern would be immediately in 
_front.} 
The western central pier is similar to the corresponding one in 
} he sacristy—the vaulting in this case also being later than the 
walls. This column must at one time have shown signs of failure, 
as it has been underpinned, apparently in monastic times, and two 
large blocks of stone inserted in place of the moulded base, just 
Bbenesth the line of the present floor. 
_ The chapter-house was usually entered by the centre of three 
arches.? At Lacock these are of almost equal size and are formed 
towards the cloister of four series of members. The outer is hollow 
Bp seiered and the inner ones richly moulded, resting on three 
| detached columns in the jambs, with an attached triple shaft to 
earry the inner member. The side openings are stopped on a sill 
| 23 feet from the ground, and have in the centre of each a quadruple 
d Rstached column higher than those in the jambs, and from which 
‘spring small arches of shorter radius than the main arches, with 
which they intersect rather clumsily. All the columns have boldly 
moulded caps and bases. Towards the chapter-house is only one 
member, moulded and supported on attached jamb shafts. 
The side openings have had movable wooden shutters for about 
two-thirds of their height, which fitted into notches cut in the bases 
h 7 d secured at the top by bolts, the holes for which remain in the 
{ 
Ine 
M 
ls 
The centre archway seems to have been fitted in later times with 
a wooden door about 6 feet high. In the 15th century, after the 
‘ew cloister was built, a flat shelf 19 inches wide was inserted at 
1 At Waverley the stone pedestal on which the lectern stood is nearly 18 
feet from the east wall, and at Fountains 38 feet, but in these cases there 
vas no central column, the presence of which at Lacock must have ne- 
Cessitated it being placed further east. 
At Burnham, the chapter-house has only one archway at the west end. 
