216 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
and transept in Sedding’s map gives, where one would look for it; the 
staircase by which the monks passed from their dormitories to the 
church. Knowing that the south transept had been greatly altered in 
1831, when the old door, brought from the north side, was inserted in 
the middle of it, I looked for a trace of the monks’ door where it should 
be, and then found it plainly indicated by the built-in masonry to the 
left of the present doorway. Here were clues, absolutely determined, 
to point to the existence of cloisters on the south side. 
To the south of the chapter-house, in most monastic plans, one 
looks for the passage called the ‘“‘slype.” Here it is found clearly 
defined in the old plans, remembered by some still living citizens, and 
familiarly known by the more modern name of “Hell,” even so far 
away as to Robert Burns. The lines have been often quoted :— 
“¢ But this that I am gaun to tell, 
Which lately in a night befel, 
Is just as true as deil’s in hell 
Or Dublin city.”’ 
We know that next to the ‘‘slype’”? would come the kitchen, or 
‘‘calefactory’’, the day-room of the monks, its limits only wanting 
to be defined, and which Sedding’s map supplies when studied. 
This would have been all to be derived from Sedding’s plan, but 
for another thread of evidence. I had occasion, in 1881, to cut a 
deep drain across the cathedral precinct, on the south side, and I 
looked with interest for the uncovering of part of the walls of the 
old Four Courts.? I found the walls where I crossed them exactly as 
laid down in Sedding’s plan, but found a remarkable difference in the 
walls themselves. The east and west walls of the old Court of 
Common Pleas did not go down to a deep foundation, but were borne 
above the peat stratum on great beams or cradles of massive oak. The 
west wall of the King’s Bench, however, was different. It was carried 
down to a greater depth, to the solid foundation beneath the peat, and 
was an enormously solid mass ofancient masonry. Here I recognised 
an ancient wall of the monastery. I also laid bare and ascertained the 
ancient level of the cloister garth, finding it about nine feet below the 
church floor, and nearly on the level of the floor of the crypt. This 
solved several problems of built-up doorways, steps, and approaches, 
which had puzzled everyone. The existence of a cloister garth at 
such a level, levelled for and scooped out in the side of a steep declivity, 
was unexpected. 
A practical mind will at once infer the existence of a great re- 
taining wall somewhere that would be required to keep back the 
overhanging bank on the south side. Sedding’s map at once indicates 
it. A narrow yard, or area—say four or five feet wide—which may 
2 The Four Courts were built upon the site, and in part on the foundations of 
the monastic buildings and cloister garth by the Crown, in 1695; the Dean and 
Chapter receiving £10 per annum rent for the ground. The last remains of these 
were covered in about 1826. 
