he doorway is semicircular and of Norman
character. The floor of the chapter-house is several feet below the
level of the cloister walk; the ordinary central doorway and side
windows opening from the cloister are placed in their usual position
on the level of the cloister walk. The side openings were unglazed,
and were used for seeing and hearing what was proceeding in the
chapter-house below. The doorway is large and deeply recessed; the
outer arches of the windows on each side of the doorway are plain
semicircles, filled in with two pointed lights having a central
shaft.

The chapter-house retains its round barrel vault, and has three
pointed windows in the east end and two similar ones in the side
walls, where the chapter-house projects beyond the general line of
the buildings. In the interior a round arched arcade runs along the
east side, supported on single shafts, and there are traces of a
similar arcade running round the side walls. There is an entrance
doorway in the south wall; the east gable wall over the
chapter-house still exists, possessing flat buttresses of a Norman
type at the angles and between the windows, but the pointed arches
indicate Transition work. There is a lovely fragment of carved work
still preserved in the chapter-house, representing the pascal lamb
slain and surrounded by a wreath of foliage, above which are the
letters I.H.S. The vine leaves flowing from the lamb may symbolise
the branches springing from the true vine.

South of the chapter-house was probably the fratery or monks' day
room. It has been vaulted at a late period--probably third pointed.
There is a fire-place in the centre of the west wall, and an outer
doorway at the south end of the same wall. The apartment was lighted
by three plain round arched windows in the east wall, one of which
has had tracery inserted in after times. At the N.W. angle, opening
from the level of the cloister, is a round-headed doorway, and
traces of a staircase which served as the day access to the
dormitory. South of the fratery is the slype or passage, with arched
openings to the east and west. It has also a doorway to the fratery,
and another to the apartment on the south side, the latter of which
now only exists in part, the south end of the range having been
destroyed. The range of these buildings sti