By C. H. Talbot, Esq. 



225 



the entrance ; but, in this instance, the central position of the 

 pillars prevents this arrangement, and it may have been in the 

 centre of the north side, where the wall shows signs of alteration, 

 and where a moulded string-course is omitted, which is continuous 

 on the south side. 



In this room are preserved two stone coffins, a stone slab with a 

 moulded edge and a peculiar ornament on its sides, which may 

 have formed part of an altar-tomb, and the monumental slab of 

 Ilbertus de Chaz, which was brought from Monkton Farley Priory 

 in the last century. 



Passage from the Cloisters to the East Terrace. 



This passage has a plain barrel vault of pointed section. 



The entrance from the cloisters is the only Early English door- 

 way of importance that the Perpendicular architects seem to have 

 spared. It has detached shafts, externally, the only examples 

 that remain " in situ." The capitals have no neck-moulds, and 

 no bases are visible, probably owing to a change in the level of 

 the cloister floor. 



The so-called " Nun's Kitchen." 



This is a fine room of four bays in length by two in breadth. 



There are remains of a large hooded fire-place. This may have 

 been shafted. On each side of it were two small stone brackets. 

 It is probably the existence of this fire-place that has caused this 

 room to be considered the abbey kitchen. I should rather suppose 

 it to have been a " Common House," as it seems that such rooms 

 were in use in abbeys, where the inmates might assemble when 

 they had not access to the refectory, and where a fire was main- 

 tained in cold weather. 1 



The windows may have been single lancets. In that on the 

 west side a recessed seat remains, which, till lately, was filled up, 

 almost entirely with pieces of encaustic tile. On the east side, 

 part of the rear-vaults and splays of the windows are left. 



Perpendicular vaulting-shafts have been inserted on this side, 

 and a very heavy flying buttress has been erected externally, 



1 Fosbroke, " British Monachism," 3rd edition, p. 274. 



