222 
LIFE OF DEAN BUCKLAND . 
[CH. IX. 
The Abbot’s quarters were over the antechamber, and 
from them he had communication both with the Abbey 
and the Jerusalem Chamber. These rooms have of late 
years been repaired, and Dean Bradley now occupies the 
upper rooms. In Dr. Buckland’s occupation of the Deanery, 
the old wainscot was so dilapidated and the rooms so cold 
and dismal that his servants disliked sleeping in them, 
and complained of the queer noises and gusts of wind 
blowing their candles out. At length, one stormy night, 
a piece of the wainscot of the narrow passage leading into 
the Abbot’s gallery in the south-west end of the Abbey 
nave fell down with a crash, and discovered a well-like 
rooms that the eye of antiquarian ever looked upon. These were, 
and still are, the private apartments of the dignitaries of the Abbey, 
where all offices of buttery, kitchen, and laundry are performed under 
many a quaint gothic arch, in some places, even at present, rich with 
antique corbel and foliage. This range, so interesting as a specimen of 
the domestic usages of the middle ages, terminates in the Abbot’s own 
sanctum or private sitting-room, which still looks down on his lovely 
quiet flower garden. Nor must the passage be forgotten leading 
from this room to the corridor, furnished with lattices, now remaining, 
where the Abbot might, unseen, be witness of the conduct of his 
monks in the great hall below. Communicating with these are the 
State apartments of the Royal Abbey, larger in dimensions and more 
•costly in ornament, richly dight with painted glass and fluted oak 
panelling. Among these may be noted especially the organ-room, and 
the antechamber to the great Jerusalem Chamber—which last was the 
Abbot’s state reception-room, and retains to this day its gothic window 
of painted glass of exquisite workmanship, its curious tapestry and fine 
original oil portrait of Richard II.”— Agnes Strickland’s Queens of 
England , vol. iii., p. 409. 
Miss Strickland adds in a note that “the fireplace, before which 
Henry IV. expired, had been enriched by Henry VII. with elaborate 
wood entablatures, bearing his armorial devices; an addition which is 
the most modern part of this exquisite remnant of domestic antiquity.” 
