§ 76.
The hospitality of the abbot or prior, however,
was accorded only to distinguished guests. For
the more ordinary type of guest a special hostry or
guest-house (
hospitium) was built in the outer court.
In the ninth-century plan of St Gall, there are two
hostries, one on each side of the main entrance, one
of which was the general guest-house, while the other
was the lodging for the poor. At Canterbury this
double division of guest-houses existed. On the west
side of the outer court, immediately to the left of
the main gatehouse, was the hall known as the north
hall, a long building with a sub-vault, entered by a
covered stair which is one of the most celebrated
examples of Anglo-Norman architecture. This, in
close connexion with the almonry, is generally recognised
to have been the casual ward, to borrow a
modern term, of the monastery. From the other side
of the gatehouse, a pentise along the west wall of the
court formed a covered way towards the north-west
angle of the cloister, where a small gatehouse gave
admission to a court between the kitchen on the east
and the cellarer's guest-hall on the west. About the
beginning of the fifteenth century, the accommodation
for guests under charge of the cellarer was enlarged
by the building of a range of guest-chambers on the
north side of the kitchen
[16]. In the
Rites of Durham
there is no mention of a special guest-house in connexion
with the almonry; but there is a description
of the guest-house on the east side of the
curia, with
its aisled hall and central fireplace, and its separate
chambers or lodgings. It was served from the prior's
kitchen and was conveniently situated with regard to
the cellarer's checker and the cellar. The guests,
however, were as a rule under charge, not of the
cellarer, but of a special guest-master or hosteller
(
hospitarius), who was known at Durham as the
terrer (
terrarius), a name implying other duties in
connexion with the lands of the monastery. The
office of the hosteller is minutely described in the
customs of the Augustinian priory of Barnwell: he
had complete supervision of the guest-house and its
furniture, and was in close communication with the
cellarer and kitchener, from whom he obtained
supplies for his guests. In Cistercian abbeys the usual
division between classes of guests appears to have
been observed: thus at Fountains and Kirkstall
there are remains of two guest-houses in the outer
court. A special infirmary for lay-folk was a feature
of Cistercian monasteries, and at Fountains there
seems also to have been an infirmary for the poor.
A Benedictine infirmary for lay-folk existed at
Durham, where it stood outside the monastery
gates.
