Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/34

18  directs travellers to the gate of the monastery, reached by an avenue of trees. On one side of the gate-house (B) is a long building (C), probably the almonry, with a dormitory above for the lower class of guests. On the other side is a chapel (D). As soon as the porter heard a stranger knock at the gate, he rose, saying, Deo gratias, the opportunity for the exercise of hospitality being regarded as a cause for thankfulness. On opening the door he welcomed the new arrival with a blessing—Benedicite. He fell on his knees before him, and then went to inform the abbot. However important the abbot's occupations might be, he at once hastened to receive him whom heaven had sent. He also threw himself at his guest's feet, and conducted him to the chapel (D) purposely built close to the gate. After a short prayer, the abbot committed the guest to the care of the brother hospitaller, whose duty it was to provide for his wants, and conduct the beast on which he might be riding to the stable (F), built adjacent to the inner gate-house (E). This inner gate conducted into the base court (T), round which were placed the barns, stables, cow-sheds, &c. On the eastern side stood the dormitory of the lay brothers, fratres conversi (G), detached from the cloister, with cellars and storehouses below. At (H), also outside the monastic buildings proper, was the abbot's house, and annexed to it the guest-house. For these buildings there was a separate door of entrance into the church (S). The large cloister, with its surrounding arcades, is seen at V. On the south end projects the refectory (K), with its kitchen at (I), accessible from the base court. The long gabled building on the east side of the cloister contained on the ground floor the chapter house and calefactory, with the monks' dormitory above (M), communicating with the south transept of the church. At (L) was the staircase to the dormitory. The small cloister is at (W), where were the carols or cells of the scribes, with the library (P) over, reached by a turret staircase. At (R) we see a portion of the infirmary. The whole precinct is surrounded by a strong buttressed wall (XXX), pierced with arches, through which streams of water are introduced. It will be noticed that the choir of the church is short, and has a square end instead of the usual apse. The tower, in accordance with the Cistercian rule, is very low. The windows throughout accord with the studied simplicity of the order.

EB1911 - Volume 01 pg. 49 img 2.png Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire (Cistercian).

1. Church. 2. Chapels. 3. Sacristy. 4. Cloister. 5. Chapter-House. 6. Parlour. 7. Punishment Cell (?) 8. Cellars, with Dormitories for conversi over. 9. Guest-House.

10. Common Room. 11. Old Refectory. 12. New Refectory. 13. Kitchen Court. 14. Calefactory or Day-Room. 15. Kitchen and Offices. 16-19. Uncertain; perhaps Offices connected with the Infirmary. 20. Infirmary or Abbot's House.

The English Cistercian houses, of which there are such extensive and beautiful remains at Fountains, Rievaulx, Kirkstall, Tintern, Netley, &c., were mainly arranged after the same plan, with slight local variations. As an example, we give the ground-plan of Kirkstall Abbey, which is one of the best preserved and least altered. The church here is of the Cistercian type, with a short chancel of two squares, and transepts with three eastward chapels to each, divided by solid walls (222). The whole is of the most studied plainness. The windows are unornamented, and the nave has no triforium. The cloister to the south (4) occupies the whole length of the nave. On the east side stands the two-aisled chapter house (5), between which and the south transept is a small sacristy (3), and on the other side two small apartments, one of which was probably the parlour (6). Beyond this stretches southward the calefactory or day-room of the monks (14). Above this whole range of building runs the monks' dormitory, opening by stairs into the south transept of the church. At the other end were the necessaries. On the south side of the cloister we have the remains of the old refectory (11), running, as in Benedictine houses, from east to west, and the new refectory (12), which, with the increase of the inmates of the house, superseded it, stretching, as is usual in Cistercian houses, from north to south. Adjacent to this apartment are the remains of the kitchen, pantry, and buttery. The arches of the lavatory are to be seen near the refectory entrance. The western side of the cloister is, as usual, occupied by vaulted cellars, supporting on the upper story the dormitory of the lay brothers (8). Extending from the south-east angle of the main group of buildings are the walls and foundations of a secondary group of considerable extent. These have been identified either with the hospitium or with the abbot's house, but they occupy the position in which the infirmary is more usually found. The hall was a very spacious apartment, measuring 83 feet in length by 48 feet 9 inches in breadth, and was divided by two rows of columns. The fish-ponds lay between the monastery and the river to the south. The abbey mill was situated about 80 yards to the north-west. The mill-pool may be distinctly traced, together with the gowt or mill stream.

Fountains Abbey, first founded A.D. 1132, deserves special notice, as one of the largest and best preserved Cistercian houses in England. But the earlier buildings received considerable additions and alterations in the later period of the order, causing deviations from the strict Cistercian type. The church stands a short distance to the north of the river Skell, the buildings of the abbey stretching down to and even across the stream. We have the cloister (H) to the south, with the three-aisled chapter house (I) and calefactory (L) opening from its eastern walk, and the refectory (S), with the kitchen (Q) and buttery (T) attached, at right angles to its southern walk. Parallel with the western walk is an immense vaulted substructure (U), incorrectly styled the cloisters, serving as cellars and store-rooms, and supporting the dormitory of the conversi above. This building extended across the river. At its