92 PAPERS, ETC. 
sages into which these opened seems certain; but the 
purpose they were intended to answer is a point which I 
must leave to the decision of more learned archzologists. 
On the whole, I am inclined to believe that this was 
originually the refectory of the Abbey, and might have 
been altered to the Abbhot’s lodging, when the present 
glorious refectory was built in the 15th century; or it 
might have been the common room which we know existed 
in all monasteries of any importance. My idea that it was 
the original refectory seems to receive some corroboration 
from there being in the passage which leads to the oflices, 
and near the door of the hall, some curious shelves, which 
do not appear to have had doors, and which would certainly 
have been very convenient to the attendants. 
The dormitory, to which we ascend by a staircase from a 
fine Early English doorway with blue lias side shafts, in 
the eastern side of the quadrangle, appears to have extended 
the whole length of the building, the present partition, 
though old, being evidently an insertion. At the corners 
of the north end are two doors, before mentioned, one 
leading into the turret staircase, the other into the chapel, 
at some height from the ground, while the third seems to 
have led by a flight of steps into a room over the chapter- 
house. The mouldings of the staircase door are worthy of 
notice, as they appear to be of much later date than the 
rest of the arch; but on winutely examining the top of 
the capital of the shafts, I think I detected the marks of 
the original moulding, which seems to have been cut away 
in after days. 
We now come to what is, perhaps, the most interesting 
part of the Abbey, as it is certainly the most striking part 
of the building now in existence-—the south side of the 
quadrangle. On entering the cloisters by the door near 
