222 



Lcicock Abbey. 



the springing of the arch, but what purpose it served it is impossible 

 to say. At the same time the whole front next the cloister was 

 decorated with colour. 



On account of the eastern part of the chapter-house being divided 

 into two aisles and the west end into three compartments by the 

 arches of entrance, an unusual treatment of the vaulting was 

 necessary. This is arranged by throwing a cross rib from the 

 centre column to each jamb of the centre opening and dividing the 

 irregular aieas thus formed by diagonal ribs meeting each other 

 in the centre. (See ground-plan and Plate 7) . 



Usually the chapter-house and the cloister walk outside were 

 favourite places of burial for the heads of the house. At Fountains 

 no less than eighteen out of the first twenty-six abbots who ruled 

 that house were buried in capitulo. At Lacock two coffins still 

 remain under the floor inside the building, and one just outside 

 the entrance, in the cloister walk. That in the centre was of later 

 date than the raising of the floor level, and is only just covered by 

 the present floor. They all contained a few bones, but had been 

 previously opened, and to whom they belonged it is impossible to 

 say, as no record is extant of the place of sepulture of any of the 

 abbesses except the foundress. 



As in the sacristy, the east windows are modern, but the seg- 

 mental containing arch on the exterior is old and apparently of 

 the original work. 



Next the chapter-house is a pointed wagon-vaulted passage, 

 with a continuous string-course at the springing. It is entered 

 from the cloister by a doorway of two members similar to that to 

 the sacristy. At the east end was another doorway apparently 

 similar to the western one ; but it has been almost entirely destroyed 

 by the insertion of a tall opening to match those into the warming- 

 house adjoining. The inner jamb on the south side is standing to 

 its full height, and the plinth of both jambs remains externally. 

 A portion of the south wall of the passage was removed in the 16th 

 century and re-built to accommodate the back of a fireplace in the 

 chapter-house. The string-course on the north side has been cut 

 away for 2 J feet from the west wall for some fitting to be fixed there. 



