CITY OF DURHAM 



were introduced.'' The original windows were 

 destroyed in the i8th century, apparently 

 during the restoration of 1764-9, when the 

 present uninteresting mullions and uncusped 

 tracery were substituted. About one-third of 

 the east side of the cloister is overlapped by the 

 south transept of the church, beyond which are 

 the slype (or parlour), chapter house, and a 

 portion of the early building containing the 

 prison and the stairs to the first dorter. The 

 entrance from the outer court is at the end 

 of the east alley farthest from the church and 

 opposite the eastern processional doorway. 

 All the stone wall benches have disappeared, 

 but there is one along the garth wall in the 

 east alley. The roofs are flat and lead covered, 

 behind straight moulded parapets. The north 

 alley, between the processional doorways, was 

 probably screened off at both ends, and was 

 divided by short partition walls into a number 

 of studies or carrels," three to each window, 

 ' all fynely wainscotted and veri close, all but 

 the forepart which had carved wourke that gave 

 light in at ther carrell doures of wainscott,''^ 

 and over against the carrels against the church 

 wall were ranged ' great almeries,' or book 

 cupboards. The church wall has been refaced 

 in grey stone. 



The first doorway in the east alley beyond the 

 transept is that to the SLTPE, or passage 

 separating the chapter house from the church, 

 which gave access to the ' centory garth,' or 

 cemetery of the monks, and is said to have 

 been used in the later days as a parlour, to 

 which merchants were allowed to bring their 

 wares for sale.'^ It has a plain barrel vault and 

 intersecting wall arcades"" similar to those of 

 the chapter house, with which it is contem- 

 porary. The doorway has a semicircular arch 

 of two cheveron moulded orders with label, 

 the inner order continuous and the outer on 

 single jamb shafts with cushion capitals, but 

 the detail has suffered considerably at the 

 hands of restorers and the cheverons are almost 

 obliterated : the cheveron also occurs on the 

 inside of the doorway. The slype now serves 

 as an ante-room to the chapter house and place 

 of assembly for the choir on weekdays, and has 



1* ' In consequence of the mistake as to the source of 

 the arms engraved on the two armorial plates in 

 Surtees' History the whole work was carried out in a 

 very inaccurate and misleading way ' ; Boyle, Guide 

 to Diirh. 2H. 



1' Caroli-enclosed spaces. 



'^^ Rites of Durh. (Surtees See. 1902, no. 107), 83 — 

 i.e., the carrels were entered by doors, the tops of 

 which were pierced. Hereafter this edition of the 

 Rites of Durham will be quoted as Rites. 



"Ibid. 52. 



20 The arcades are much restored, but some of the 

 shafts are old. 



a modern doorway to the church cut through 

 the transept wall and another to the chapter 

 house.'"' The east wall is modern, with a single 

 round-headed window. A staircase, stiU partly 

 remaining in the south-west corner, led up to a 

 room above built in 1414-15 as a library, usually 

 known as Wessington's Library, though it 

 appears to have been completed before he 

 became prior in 1416. Some time between 

 that year and 1446 he repaired the roof and put 

 in a large five-light window at each end. Wes- 

 sington's flat-pitched roof of four bays remains, 

 but the windows have been whoUy renewed. 

 This upper room is now used as a song 

 school, access to it being by a modern wooden 

 staircase." 



The CHAPTER HOUSE is entered from the 

 cloister by a semicircular headed doorway of 

 three orders, the two outer on nook-shafts with 

 cushion capitals and the inner on cushion 

 capitals and moulded jambs. The two outer 

 orders-* have cheveron ornament, but the inner 

 is simply moulded ; internally there are also 

 three orders of the same type with nook-shafts 

 in each jamb, the capitals and abaci of which 

 are elaborately carved.-* On each side of the 

 doorway, and forming with it a single com- 

 position, is a window of two round-headed 

 Hghts with cylindrical mid- shaft and plain 

 tympanum enclosed by a semicircular cheveron 

 arch on nook-shafts with cushion capitals, the 

 whole set within a shallow moulded outer order. 

 These openings were originally unglazed, but 

 are now filled with fragments of painted glass 

 from the church.-^ Before the destruction of 

 its eastern portion in 1796 the chapter house 

 was 78 ft. 6 in. in length, with a breadth of 

 34 ft. 6 in. and an apsidal east end. In the apse 

 were five three-light windows with flowing 

 tracery inserted in the 14th century and at the 

 west end above the cloister roof a large 15th- 

 century pointed window of five lights, which 



-' The partitions which till lately divided it into 

 three have been removed. 



22 Carter's plan (1801) shows an earlier staircase 

 starting from within the west doorway. The present 

 staircase was erected between 1 897 and 1904, at 

 which latter date the slype was restored. 



23 The outermost is covered by a later segmental 

 arch with four-leaf flowers in the hollow moulding. 



-* Upon one of the capitals is a centaur shooting 

 with bow and arrow. 



25 The glass was for long in the staircase window 

 of the house formerly occupied by the prebendary 

 of the second stall and has only recently been placed 

 in the chapter house. It is described in Boyle, 

 Guide to Durh. 365. It includes a 14th-century 

 figure of St. Leonard, probably the one mentioned in 

 Rites as in the south transept ; but there was 

 another in the destroyed revestry south of the quire. 

 There are also 14th, 15th and l6th century quarrels 

 and fragments. 



125 



