OLD CLEEVE ABBEY. 85 
there is no fire-place in these rooms, ‚the flue of the hall 
chimney rising from a bracket at some height above the 
ground. The staircase leading to the hall above seems to 
have been placed in the right-hand corner of this stable, 
but owing to the modern buttress, I have not been able 
quite to satisfy myself as to its construction. A similar 
buttress on the east side of the building fills up the space, 
upon which an arch, such as I have described, opens on 
that side of the passage ; but there is every reason to sup- 
pose that it led into another stable, though I doubt whether 
on this side there were any rooms above the ground floor. 
About half-way up the passage was a door, the jambs of 
which may still be seen, and immediately beyond it, on the 
left-hand, is a niche, which, from a slight colouring of 
smoke on the stones, I conjecture to have been used for a 
lamp ; then again is a small doorway, having a segmental 
arch with plain chamfer mouldings, which may be of any 
date, and now serves as a side entrance to the abbey yard, 
but probably led into the original porter’s lodge ; for the 
two buttresses on that side are not original, but built 
against the wall in the manner I have already described, 
while the decorative lines still remaining on the plaster 
give ample reason for supposing that the wall was not 
originally an external one. We now come to the very 
beautiful internal front of the gate-house, which consists 
of a very fine arch, corresponding to that at the other end, 
flanked by perpendicular buttresses, between which is a 
bold and well-cut string supporting a square medallion 
containing the name of the last abbot Dovell, combined 
with an elegant ornament of vine foliage ; over this is a 
square-headed window of three lights, and above this win- 
dow in the gable are three niches of exquisite tabernacle 
work, the centre one containing a very fine crucifix in par- 
