§ 54.
In the monasteries of all orders, the
Cistercian order alone excepted, the range of buildings
opposite the church, uniting the eastern and western
cloister-buildings, had its major axis parallel with
that of the church, and was entered by a doorway
from the cloister near its west end. There was often
at its east end a vaulted passage through the range,
which continued the east walk of the cloister, and
led either, as at Durham, into the outer court, or,
as at Gloucester and Peterborough, to the infirmary
buildings, and from this passage or 'dark cloister'
at Westminster the common house beneath the dorter
was entered. The larger part of the range was
devoted to the frater or dining-hall of the monastery
(
refectorium). In several cases, the frater was raised
upon a cellar, which was in many such instances, as at
Gloucester, the great cellar and buttery of the house.
Where such cellars existed, a stair led up through the
frater doorway to the west end of the hall, which, as
in ordinary houses, was partitioned off from the rest
by screens. The screens, entered on the level where
there was no cellar, formed a passage to the kitchen at
the back of the range, and had a pantry on the west
side. This passage existed at Durham and St Agatha's,
where, above the pantry, the roof of which was of
course on a much lower level than that of the hall,
there was a loft, used in later days at Durham for
the daily meals of the monks, who used the frater
only on certain festivals, leaving it to the novices on
ordinary days. The frater itself was an aisleless hall
with a wooden roof. Across the east end was the
high table for the principal members of the convent:
the others sat at two or more tables set lengthways
in the body of the hall. Near the high table, in the
wall opposite the cloister, was the pulpit, from which
a portion of Scripture or of some homily in Latin
was read by one of the brethren during meals.
A window-recess was generally enlarged to form the
pulpit, the floor and parapet of which were corbelled
out towards the hall: it was entered by a stair, as at
Chester or in the beautiful Cistercian example at
Beaulieu, in the thickness of the wall, with an open
arcade in its inner face. There were also cupboards
and shelves in the frater for plate, linen and earthenware.
In the Cistercian abbey of Cleeve there
remains above the high table a mural painting of
the Crucifixion: a similar painting was made in 1518
at Durham upon the upper part of the west wall.
At Worcester a sculptured figure of our Lord in
majesty occupies the middle of the east wall.
