hes has zigzag and billet mouldings and, within them, a row of a
diaper pattern. Passing on to the south the next arch also has zigzag
and circular mouldings, while its lunette is occupied by a relief, now
so worn that the subject is scarcely discernible. It represents
Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac. The father holds his son with his
outstretched left hand, and is about to slay him, when God's hand
appears in the clouds above. Behind Isaac is seen the ram that was
afterwards to be offered in his stead, and in the opposite corner,
behind Abraham, there seem to be traces of two small figures, probably
the two servants who had been left at a distance to await the
patriarch's return. This interpretation is confirmed by three words of
an inscription, which still remain round the inner part of the arch
(_Aries per cornua_). Beneath the lunette runs a fine band of foliated
ornament, including birds. The capitals are rich, and an angel and a
bird appear in those on the south side. Continuing southwards the still
remaining lower portion of the dormitory west wall has a blind arcade
with double intersecting heads, semicircular like all the other arches
here, but interrupted once or twice by an uncut arch.

[Illustration: NEW CHAPTER ROOM AND RUINS OF THE OLD
(FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY J. L. ALLEN).]

On the south side of the cloisters was the refectory; the lower part of
its massive north wall still remains, and in it a fine doorway, with a
groined lavatory and towel recess, the work of Prior Helias about 1215.
The great thickness of the wall is, as will be explained shortly,
probably due to the fact that it was originally a part of the old
fortifications of the city on this side. The cellarer's and other
storerooms were, apparently, on the west side, and there seems to have
been a smaller guesten-hall to the south-east. Some corbels that helped
to support the cloister roofs are still to be seen, projecting from the
south wall of the church, and from Ernulf's buildings. The doorway
opening from the church into the western range has been already
described. Of this range itself nothing remains, but at its southern end
there is yet to be seen, half buried, a late Perpendicular porch. This
stands beside the road between the north main transept and the Prior's
Gate, and opens towards the episcopal precinct.

[Illustration: RUINS OF CLOISTERS, EAST RANGE
(FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY H. DAN).]

Of the old #Episcopal Palace#, famous for having bee