rious
evidence that the north alley at Gloucester was so appropriated, in the
traces of the games they played at in their idle moods. On the stone
bench against the wall are scratched a number of diagrams of the forms
here represented:

[Illustration: 3 Game Diagrams]

The first is for playing the game called "Nine men's morris," from each
player having nine pieces or men. The other two are for playing
varieties of the game of "Fox and Geese."

"Traces of such games may generally be found on the bench tables of
cloisters where they have not been _restored_, and excellent examples
remain at Canterbury, Westminster, Salisbury, and elsewhere. At
Gloucester they are almost exclusively confined to the novices' alley,
the only others now to be seen in the cloister being an unfinished 'Nine
men's morris' board in the south alley, and one or two crossed squares
in the west alley." (Hope.)

In the north alley wall some of the lower halves of the five easternmost
windows have been re-opened, and the bricks with which they were blocked
removed.

The next bay contains traces of a doorway into the cloister-garth that
has been blocked.

[Illustration: THE MONKS' LAVATORY.]

The #Monks' Lavatory# takes up the next four bays. As Mr Hope says, "it
is one of the most perfect of its date that have been preserved. It
projects 8 feet into the garth, and is entered from the cloister alley
by eight tall arches with glazed traceried openings above. Internally it
is 47 feet long and 6 1/2 feet wide, and is lighted by eight two-light
windows towards the garth and by a similar window at each end. One
light of the east window has a small square opening below, perhaps for
the admission of the supply pipes, for which there seems to be no other
entrance either in the fan vault or the side walls. Half the width of
the lavatory is taken up by a broad, flat ledge or platform against the
wall, on which stood a lead cistern or laver, with a row of taps, and in
front a hollow trough, originally lined with lead, at which the monks
washed their hands and faces. From this the waste water ran away into a
recently discovered (1889) tank in the garth." (Hope.)

A plan of this tank is here shown by permission of Mr Waller. It seems
to have had a sluice at the west end in order to dam up the water if
required in greater volume for flushing the drain.

Opposite the lavatory is a groined almery or recess in which the monks
kept their towels. The hooks an