Bij Harold Brakspcar, F.S.A. 567 



and have the gardrobes of the said chambers well furnished and at the other 

 sde of the gallery is a pretty garden for them to disport m, and the nver 

 passes betwefn tlJsaid lodgings and the garden for to empty the sa. g^^^^^^^^ 

 From thence the said lady was taken to the great mfirmary of the rehgiou . 

 As the dorter subvault at Clairvaulx was certainly used for the 

 novices, with their infirmary under the great reredorter of the 

 monks, it is only reasonable to suppose, considering the uniformity 

 of Cistercian planning and the similar character of these buildings 

 in all cases, that this was the general arrangement.^ 



The Dorter. 

 The great dorter (dormiforium) was the sleeping-place of the 

 convent. It usually extended from the transept of the church 

 over the whole of the buildings of the eastern range,^ and was 

 approached by a flight of steps from the cloister for use by day 

 and had another into the church for the use of those attending 



the night offices. 



At Stanley the dorter must have been no less than 240 feet m 

 lencrth and was paved with tiles down the middle, some of which 

 were found bedded on the top of the fallen vaulting of the buildings 

 beneath. No indications of either stairway were found ; but the 

 day stairs must have been against the west wall, starting from the 

 cloister in the north-east corner, as no break occurred in the sub- 

 vault as would have been the case if the older arrangement of 

 putting the stairs in the middle of the eastern range had been 



followed. . 



The dorter itself was divided into small chambers with a wide 



passage down the middle, and the chambers are described at 



Clairvaulx as "made of joiners' work only, from seven to eight 



■ feet in length and six feet wide, in all of which there is a bedstead, 



1 AtNetley, where more of this part of the buildings remain than elsewhere, 

 the novicie/y had a fireplace, and the infirmary, under the monks reredorter, 

 also had a fireplace, while the blank wall next the drain was recessed for 

 beds like the monks' infirmaries at Furness and Beauheu and that of the 

 lay brothers at Fountains. The reredorter subvaults at Fountams and Jervaulx 



also had fireplaces. , , . . r *i 



2 At Waverley the dorter was on the ground-floor and extended from the 

 parlour southward some 200 feet. 





