By Harold jBrakspear, F.S.A. 



221 



surrounded the room for the accommodation of the convent. The 

 seat stood on a platform of one or two steps above the floor of the 

 room. The blank wall between the east windows would be occupied 

 by the president's seat and the lectern would be immediately in 

 front. 1 



The western central pier is similar to the corresponding one in 

 the sacristy — the vaulting in this case also being later than the 

 walls. This column must at one time have shown signs of failure, 

 as it has been underpinned, apparently in monastic times, and two 

 large blocks of stone inserted in place of the moulded base, just 

 beneath the line of the present floor. 



The chapter-house was usually entered by the centre of three 

 arches. 2 At Lacock these are of almost equal size and are formed 

 towards the cloister of four series of members. The outer is hollow 

 chamfered and the inner ones richly moulded, resting on three 

 detached columns in the jambs, with an attached triple shaft to 

 carry the inner member. The side openings are stopped on a sill 

 2 \ feet from the ground, and have in the centre of each a quadruple 

 detached column higher than those in the jambs, and from which 

 spring small arches of shorter radius than the main arches, with 

 which they intersect rather clumsily. All the columns have boldly 

 moulded caps and bases. Towards the ohapter-house is only one 

 member, moulded and supported on attached jamb shafts. 



The side openings have had movable wooden shutters for about 

 two-thirds of their height, which fitted into notches cut in the bases 

 and secured at the top by bolts, the holes for which remain in the 

 columns. 



The centre archway seems to have been fitted in later times with 

 a wooden door about 6 feet high. In the 15th century, after the 

 new cloister was built, a flat shelf 19 inches wide was inserted at 



1 At Waverley the stone pedestal on which the lectern stood is nearly 18 

 feet from the east wall, and at Fountains 33 feet, bnt in these cases there 

 was no central column, the presence of which at Lacock must have ne- 

 cessitated it being placed further east. 



2 At Burnham, the chapter-house has only one archway at the west end. 



