XXXI. 



the warrener, the fish steward, the vintager, the poulterer, the common 

 cellarer, the abbot's cellarer, the manciple, and the pantler were but a 

 few of the almost numberless officials that John Harding with his Dorset 

 shrewdness had instituted in his household, and thus knitted his society 

 skilfully together by giving to each member a share in its administration. 

 The chapter house was occasionally the scene of more important 

 conclaves when, for instance, the abbot took counsel with the whole 

 convent upon matters affecting the entire body. 



It is commonly supposed that the words convent and monastery denote 

 similar buildings used by different sexes, that convent signiiies a nunnery 

 and monastery an establishment for men. This, however, is not the 

 case, strictly speaking. " Monasterium " means" a religious house ; 

 Convent, on the other hand, means the collective body of either sex 

 inhabiting the building in question. 



Proceeding still southward along the east cloisters we come next to the 

 abbot's parlour, where he or his "vicegerent" supervised the accounts 

 and reports and considered the questions that might be too weighty for the 

 prior to handle, and here grave statements might be examined in camera. 

 Next comes the exchequer office, where the business of the steward lies 

 in seeing and noting the rude tallies on slips of wood or bark that 

 represented the account-books of the Middle Ages. Overhead was the 

 monks' dormitory, extending from the chapter house the whole length of 

 the east cloister, while below the southern part of it and in the corner of 

 the east cloister was the monks' lavatory, and near it the entrance to the 

 " calefactory " or convalescent ward, where each monk was expected to 

 rest and recover his strength after the periodical bleeding, which they 

 were each obliged to undergo. 



We now turn the corner and enter the south cloister ; this is occupied 

 by the refectory, almost exclusively, with the kitchen probably alongside 

 of it. 



The existing building stands almost unaltered, as it has stood for 

 six centuries, the desk of the reader forming the pulpit since the refectory 

 was taken into use as the parish church in Edward VI. 's reign. 



On the south also was probably the scriptorium and library, but the 

 ruins appear to have been altered, and identification is here very difficult. 



The west cloister is backed by a wall separating it from the ambula- 

 tory and from the house of the lay brothers, which forms the west side of 

 the quadrangle, and part of which was reserved as a guest house on the 

 upper floor, while below the guest's horses were probably stabled. 



We now arrive again at the south wall of the church, having completed 

 our circuit of the ** Cloister Garth*" 



