CITY OF DURHAM 



collection of crosses, grave-slabs and other work 

 of pre-Conquest date, and the rehcs from St. 

 Cuthbert's tomb. At the south end of the east 

 wall a modern doorway opens to the Librarian's 

 Room, in the position of the Loft, which formed 

 the dining room of one of the prebendal houses 

 constructed partly in the south end of the 

 dorter." 



The RERE-DORTER was a ' faire large 

 house and most decent place adjoining to the 

 west of the dorter towards the water . . . which 

 was made with two great pillars of stone that 

 did bear up the whole floore thereof, and every 

 seat and partition was of wainscot.''* Each 

 seat had a window, but these were afterwards 

 walled up ' to make the house more close,' and 

 in the west end were three glass windows and 

 on the south another, above the seats which 

 gave light to the whole.'* This building, lying 

 at right angles with the dorter, opposite the 

 sixth and seventh bays of the sub-vault (from 

 the north), is shown in part on Carter's plan ; 

 it appears to have been about 68 ft. long from 

 west to east internally by about 30 ft. wide, 

 with a ground floor passage between it and the 

 dorter. The pit remains, with an outlet west- 

 ward,*" and the south wall of the structure still 

 stands as high as the siUs of the little windows, 

 forming the north wall of the stables built over 

 the ' lyng house,' which adjoined the rere- 

 dorter on that side.** 



The ' lyng house ' was a strong prison for 

 great offenders, described in Rites as within 

 the INFIRMARY underneath the master's 

 chamber.*- The upper building is shown on 

 Carter's plan running east and west opposite 

 the passage through the sub-vault, but it had 

 been greatly altered after the Dissolution and 

 converted into stables. It was about 60 ft. 

 long by 40 ft. wide and the prison was in the 

 basement. In clearing this during 1890-95 the 

 floor was found to be 23 ft. below the present 

 ground level. The chamber is 24 ft. 3 in. long 

 and had a barrel vault supported by wall 

 arcades ' made up of older material, some of 



" ' Some wall-p.'iper purposely left on some of the 

 roof timbers shows where the garrets were ' ; Rites, 

 Fowler's notes, 296. 



">» Rites, 85. 



'9 Ibid. 85. 



** There was no watercourse, and some method of 

 flushing from the conduit must have been adopted ; 

 ibid. Fowler's notes, 266. 



** Ibid. 266 : ' The stables have a hay-loft over in 

 wliich the window sills are visible. In an oil painting 

 of the castle, probably of the i6th or 17th century, 

 the rere-dorter and a larger building to the south are 

 shown standing roofed and with windows of late 

 character as though they had been adapted to later 

 uses.' 



82 ' Within the fermery in ounder ncth the mr. of 

 ye fermery's chamber ' ; ibid. 89. 



the capitals of the shafts being of 12th-cen- 

 tury, and others of 13th-century date.'*^ The 

 entrance was by a round-headed doorway** 

 on the south leading into a vaulted passage 

 carried along that side of the building to the 

 west end ' where a newel staircase with a pro- 

 jecting turret ascends into an upper room on the 

 level of the stable floor,'*^ no doubt the master 

 of the infirmary's chamber. This room was 

 lighted by a round-headed window, now blocked, 

 in the west gable, but with this exception no 

 part of the infirmary remains. Its site was 

 south of the rere-dorter and south-west of the 

 dorter range. In it was a room know-n as the 

 Dead Man's chamber*" and adjoining it a chapel 

 dedicated to St. Andrew. 



Excavations in 1890 under the monk's garden 

 revealed a passage commencing at a depth of 

 about 30 ft. at the north-west corner of the 

 stables and rising with a gradual ascent to the 

 south wall of the Galilee, into which it formerly 

 had access. This passage has a barrel vault 

 and is lighted by three narrow sHts with sloped 

 sills in the west wall, which abuts upon the river 

 bank ; the east wall is blank.*' 



The GUEST HOUSE was within the abbey 

 garth ' on the west side towards the water,' 

 south of the infirmary and south-west of the 

 kitchen.** The hall is described as ' a goodly 

 brave place, much like unto the body of a 

 church, with very fair pillers supporting it on 

 ether syde and in the mydest of the haule a 

 most large raunge for the fyer.'** The cham- 

 bers and lodgings were ' swetly keapt and richly 

 furnyshed,' especially one chamber called the 

 King's Chamber ' deservinge that name in that 



*3 Greenwell, op. cit. loo. 



*^ The doorway, which opened outward, was closed 

 by a wooden bar, the hole for wliich in the jamb 

 remains ; ibid. loi. 



*5 Ibid. loi. 



*' The body of a deceased monk was taken first 

 to the Dead Man's Chamber, where it remained till 

 night, and was then removed to the chapel where it 

 lay till 8 o'clock the follov\ing morning, at which hour 

 the corpse was conveyed to the Chapter House and 

 from there through the parlour to the cemetery south- 

 east of the church ; Rites, 51. 



*' Greenwell, op. cit. 100. 



** ' The house now (1903) occupied by the Professor 

 of Divinity stands on the site with which it corresponds 

 very nearly in length and breadth. . . . The entry 

 by the Dark Passage to the Banks is along its north 

 side ' ; Rites, Fowler's notes, 272. This was the 

 third prebend's house. The date of its erection is 

 unknown, but it was improved by Dr. James Finney 

 (1694-1726), and rebuilt in its present form by Dr. 

 Prosser about 1 808 ; ibid. 159. In Bek's general 

 view of Durham (Bod. Lib.) it is shown as a lofty 

 mansion \nth a long row of dormer windows ; ibid. 

 296. 



«» Ibid. 90. 



131 



