232 



Lacock Abbey. 



dais, upon which was the high table of the president, and along 

 the side walls would be seats and tables for the convent. 1 At 

 some 15 feet from the west wall would be the screens dividing off 

 the staircase of approach and the buttery, and above would be a 

 loft or gallery. Evidence of the existence of this gallery is yet 

 shown by the western part, above the subvault, being of two 

 stories and the eastern part only one. 



On the north side externally is a bold projection originally con- 

 taining the pulpit for the use of the reader at table — who during 

 dinner and supper, but not collation, read passages from the 

 Scriptures, in accordance with the rule of the order : — " Nec sole 

 vobis fauces sumant cibum sed et aures esuriant Dei verbum." 

 The archway of entrance to the pulpit still remains, and has 

 continuous moulded jambs and arch with a label over the latter. 

 Inside the west jamb are the remains of the niche for the books 

 for the use of the reader, and it was the duty of the librarian to 

 see it was supplied with the necessary books ordered to be read at 

 the different seasons of the year. 2 The steps and pulpit itself 

 were destroyed after the suppression by the insertion of a large 

 fireplace. 



Externally the whole of the north wall of the frater has been 

 re-cased, and all old features obliterated, but on the south side 

 over the cloister roof are some remains of mediaeval work. These 

 consist of part of the outer rings of two circular windows of 

 different sizes. The walls were raised in the 15th century, like those 

 of the dorter, when the small circular windows,which were apparently 

 the original ones, were superseded by the larger ones. Although 



1 " In the freytour at each end or els in the myddes of the hyghe table schal 

 hange a belle and the abbes sete shal be in the myddes honestly arrayed under 

 the ymage of our lady where she schal sytte alone so that none felyschop withe 

 her . . . other sustres schall sytte at the syde tables in ther order as 

 they be professyd, two and two togyder at oo messe, save the pryores schal 

 sytte in the left syde above alle, alone, at oo messe. . . . Also sytting at 

 the table al schal kepe hyghe sylence and ther syghte from wanderyng aboute, 

 and none schal stretche her handes to receyve any bodyly fode, tyl the soule 

 be refresched with spiritual fode." — Aungier's Hist, of Sion, p. 377, appendix. 

 2 J. W. Clark, The Observances in use at the Priory of Barnwell, p. 66. 



