148 The Pre- Reformation Churches of Berwickshire, 



head, over which is a label or dripstone, square-edged above, and 

 bevelled below. The apartment itself is 27 feet long, 12 feet 7 

 inches wide, and 15 feet 6 inches high, and is waggon- vaulted. 

 It is lighted by two narrow, round-headed windows in the E. 

 wall, with a vesica-shaped window or opening above ; the whole 

 forming a somewhat singular-looking arrangement when viewed 

 from the outside. In the interior, at the east end, is a stone 

 altar, raised on a foot-pace, or low platform, two steps above the 

 level of the floor. It is 5 feet long and 3 feet 4 inches high, and 

 projects 2 feet 3 inches from a stone shelf, 14 inches wide, which 

 extends along the whole length of the wall. Sunk in the foot- 

 pace — a most unusual position — a little to the south of the altar, 

 is a piscina-basin, 15 inches in diameter, and 3 J inches deep, 

 with an ornamental border round it. Another piscina, having 

 a shallow basin, 8^ inches in diameter, and wholly destitute 

 of ornament, is placed within a round-headed niche, 1 foot 8 

 inches by 1 foot 1 1 inches, in the S. wall. If these piscinas are 

 coeval with the fabric of the sacristry — and I see no reason to 

 doubt their being so — they are among the earliest examples to 

 be found in the country. 



The Passage or Slype, leading from the cloisters to the open 

 ground on the east, where the abbey cemetery was probably 

 situated, and separating the sacristy from the chapter-house, 

 is 10 feet 10 inches wide, and is waggon- vaulted. It contains 

 nothing of interest, except an aumbry in the S. wall, measuring 

 2 feet 10 inches by 1 foot 11^ inches at the opening, but within, 

 recessed laterally to a width of 5 feet 9 inches. The doorways 

 in the E. and W. walls have been plain semicircular-headed 

 openings, with labels above, similar to that over the west door- 

 way of the sacristy. Both have been partly built up. 



The Chapter House, also an oblong, waggon-vaulted chamber, 

 is 47 feet 2 inches long, 22 feet 8 inches wide, and 21 feet high. 

 Externally, as may be seen from the plan given in Mr Morton's 

 work, it projects towards the east 23 feet beyond the line of the 

 other buildings in the same range. Internally, the E. wall 

 retains its nine stone sedilia or stalls, forming an arcade of round, 

 interlacing arches, with transition mouldings, verging on almost 

 pure First-Pointed in the capitals and bases. Some of the cap- 

 itals and shafts are restorations, but a good deal of the old work 

 is left. A stone bench-table, mostly restored, is carried round the 

 walls about two feet above the level of the floor. The circle on the 



