§ 60.
Lofty chapter-houses, like those of Gloucester
and Bristol, are not found in the Cistercian plan, in
which the dorter was almost invariably continued as
far as the church and was provided with an annexe
above the eastern projection of the chapter-house.
Furness is a case in which the chapter-house, as
already stated, had a vestibule; but here the vestibule
is not a passage through the whole width of the
eastern range, but a porch, above which a gallery
was carried from the dorter to the night-stair. The
roof of the chapter-house itself was somewhat higher,
but there was the usual room on the upper floor.
The chapter-house was usually an oblong, as at
Fountains, or, as at Furness, a nearly square building,
divided into alleys, generally three in number, by
rows of columns which supported vaulting. The
entrance, in most cases, followed the customary plan
of a central doorway with a window on either side.
Vaulted chapter-houses may still be seen at Buildwas,
Kirkstall and Valle Crucis. That at Buildwas is of
the normal plan, vaulted in three alleys. At Kirkstall
the western part is vaulted in four alleys and has two
wide archways from the cloister, while the eastern
part beyond the range, rebuilt at the close of the
thirteenth century, is vaulted in two alleys. The
Valle Crucis chapter-house is a fourteenth-century
rebuilding with the usual three alleys, but has a thick
west wall, in which, on the south side of the central
entrance, is the day-stair to the dorter, while on the
north side is a vaulted book-cupboard, entered from
the interior of the building. At Ford, where the
chapter-house is now used as a private chapel, it is
a vaulted building of the twelfth century, undivided
by columns.
