90 PAPERS, ETC. 
a round window ornamented with the scroll moulding has 
been substituted for the narrow Early English window. 
This round window, which appears never to have been 
glazed, is seven feet in diameter, and at its base, only a few 
inches from the ground. It opened into an ancient building, 
formerly used as a malt-house. Though an after-thought, 
it is evidently in situ, and was originally open to its whole 
circumference ; the wall work with which it is now in part 
blocked up is evidently a Post-Reformation work. This 
is a feature which I have never observed anywhere else; 
and tbe only solution of the mystery which I can venture 
to suggest is this: from the arrangement of the room 
above, and particularly from the door opening from it into 
the chapel which I mentioned just now, it seems probable 
that the infirmary was immediately over this room : when 
a monk died, his body was removed from the infirmary to 
a room adjoining the chapel, where it was prepared for in- 
terment. Now, might not this vestry have been also used 
for this purpose, and might not this large eircular aperture 
have been constructed for the purpose of admitting the 
corpse to this apartment instead of carrying it through 
the chapel, which, before it was prepared for burial, might 
have been considered improper and indecent ? The ground- 
floor of the building at the eastern side of the quadrangle, 
as far as the passage at the south-eastern corner, is occupied 
by small vaulted rooms, with one window at the end, appar- 
ently of the 13th century, except in the centre of the 
building, which is occupied by the splendid entrance to the 
chapter-house, the foundations of which may be traced 
extending to the east of the present buildings. This en- 
trance communieated with the quadrangle by a beautiful 
Early English doorway, having plain chamfer mouldings 
placed between two double windows with chamfer mould- 
WET WER 
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