OLD CLEEVE ABBEY. 91 
ings and blue lias shafts; those at the sides rising from 
worked brackets, each having a quatrefoil light above the 
central shaft. It oceupies the whole depth of the building, 
and it exhibits in its roof a very beautiful arrangement of 
Early English vaulting, the shafts springing from very 
elegant brackets, and being composed of blue lias. The 
remains of an ornament in fresco may still be seen on this 
roof. The chapter-house itself extended to the east of this 
entrance, and appears to have been in form a parallelogram, 
higher than the entrance, and vaulted in a similar style. 
Beyond the passage, in the south-eastern corner of the 
quadrangle, extends a very remarkable apartment; this 
is a hall 59ft. in length by 20ft. in breadth; at the south 
end are two very beautiful double Early English windows, 
now blocked up, divided in the centre of the rear arch by 
a shaft of blue lıas, with others at the sides springing from 
very well-moulded brackets, the space above the centre 
shafts being occupied by quatrefoil openings. This hall 
has three doors—one from the passage before mentioned, 
another froın the farın-yard, and another leading into the 
garden. It has been a low, heavily-vaulted rooın, the vaults 
springing from very massive brackets at the walls, and 
supported by a row of pillars up the centre of the hall. 
There was a large fire-place on the east side, and on the 
west a recess answering to it; altogether it is very similar 
in character, as it is nearly of the same date, as the hall in 
the Bishop’s palace at Wells. The most remarkable fea- 
ture in this hall, and one l am utterly unable to explain, 
consists of two low arched apertures opposite each other at 
the south end of the side walls. "These were certamly not 
windows, and they are too low for doors. They both 
passed quite through the wall: only one is now open, and 
it was evidently closed by a door. 'That there were pas- 
