By Harold Brakspear, F.S.A. 491 



chapter-house." 1 Whether any work beyond a new. roof and 

 parapet was done at this period is not recorded. At the Suppression 

 the chapter-house was covered with lead. 2 



The Dorter. 



Owing to the fall of the ground some 40 ft. northward from the 

 chapter-house, the dorter could not have occupied its usual position 

 of a ■ range running north and south, but must have been placed 

 east and west parallel with the church, as at Gloucester and 

 Winchester. It had its roof removed and covered with stone and 

 new alures made by William of Colerne like the chapter-house. s 

 Nothing whatever remains of it. 



The Frater. 



The frater was on the north side of the cloister, and seems to 

 have had a subvault. A fragment of a foundation was found in 

 the bank at 20 ft. from the cloister wall, which if it was the main 

 north wall would cause the frater to be unusually narrow. The 

 roof was covered with lead. 4 



There was a meat frater or misericord 5 at Malmesbury, but 

 whether it was a distinct building as at Peterborough and West- 

 minster, or a loft over the west end of the frater itself as at 

 Worcester and Durham, it is impossible to say. 



The Kitchen. 



At the west end of the frater, as might be expected, was the 

 convent kitchen. It was standing in part at the end of the seven- 

 teenth century, and Aubrey remarks that "on the NWest side of 

 the Abbey Church stand the ruines of the kitchen on four strong 

 freestone pillars!" 6 From this it is reasonable to suppose that the 

 chimney stood in the middle of the room over fireplaces, supported 

 on four strong pillars, and that the room itself would be square or 

 octagonal, the surrounding walls having gone when Aubrey wrote, 



1 See Appendix I. 2 See Appendix II. 



4 See Appendix I. 3 See Appendix II. 



5 Reg. Malmes., ii. 382. 6 Wiltshire Collections, p. 260. 

 VOL. XXXVIII. — NO. CXXI. 2 K 



