6.66

always at hand; and if any of the monks were unable to perform their duty in this respect, they were admonished 'to ' revolve in their minds that saying of the Philosopher, "For learning what is needful no age seems to me too late." In the stern old days, before the time of Abbot Berking 'of 'happy memory,' these Claustral shavings took place once a fortnight in summer, and once in three weeks in winter,2 and also on Saturdays the heads and feet of the brethren were duly washed. An arcade in the South Cloister is conjectured to have been the Lavatory. Baths might be had for health, though not for pleasure. The arrangements for the cleanliness of the inmates form, in fact, there, as elsewhere in English monasteries, a curious contrast with the consecration of filth and discomfort in other parts of mediæval life, both sacred and secular.

It is difficult to imagine how these various occupations were carried on in the Cloisters. The upper tracery of the bays appears to have been glazed; but the lower part was open, then as now; and the wind, rain, and snow must have swept pitilessly alike over the brethren in the hands of the monastic barber, and the novices turning over their books or spelling out their manuscripts. The rough carpet of hay and straw in summer, and of rushes in winter, and the mats laid along the stone benches, must have given to the Cloisters a habitable aspect, unlike their present appearance, but could have been but a very inadequate protection against the inclemency of an English frost or storm.

If during any part of this conventual stir the Abbot appeared, every one rose and bowed, and kept silence till he had gone by. He passed on, and took his place in solitary grandeur in the Eastern Cloister.

1 Ware, pp. 291,292, 293–296.

2 Ibid. p. 290.

still visible.

4 Ware, pp. 278, 282.

Remains of the iron fittings are

FECTORY.

Along the whole length of the Southern Cloister extended the Refectory of the Convent, as distinguished from that of THE REthe Abbot's Hall in his own palace.' There were, here, as in the other great monasteries,' guest chambers. The rules for the admission of guests show how numerous they were. They were always to be hospitably received, mostly with a double portion of what the inmates had, and were to be shown over the monastery as soon as they arrived. All Benedictines had an absolute claim on their brother Benedictines, and it was a serious complaint that on one occasion a crowd of disorderly Cistercian guests led to the improper exclusion of the Abbots of Boxley and Bayham, and the Precentor of Canterbury. The Refectory was a magnificent chamber, of which the lower arcades were of the time of the Confessor, or of the first Norman Kings; the upper story, which contained the Hall itself, of the time of Edward III. It was approached by two doors, which still remain in the Cloister. The towels for wiping their hands hung over the Lavatory outside, between the doors, or at the table or window of the Kitchen, which, with the usual Buttery in front (still in part remaining), was at the west end of the Refectory. The regulations for the behaviour of the monks at dinner are very precise. No monk was to speak at all, no guest above a whisper. Laymen of low rank were not to dine in the Refectory, except on the great exceptional occasion when, as we have seen, the fisherman-the successor of Edric-came with his offering of the salmon to St. Peter.3 The Prior sate at the high table, with a small hand-bell (skylla) beside him, and near him sate the greater guests. No one but Abbots or Priors of the Benedictine order might take his place, especially no Abbot of the rival Cistercians, and no Bishop. Guests were in the habit

1 Remains exist of a chamber parallel to the Refectory, which probably served this purpose.

2 Ware, p. 263.

See Chapter I. p. 22.

THE DOR-
MITORY

OF THE

MONKS.

of purchasing annuities of provisions, not only for themselves,
but for their descendants. No one was to sit with his hand
on his chin, or his hand over his head, as if in pain, or to
lean on his elbows, or to stare, or to crack nuts with his teeth.'
The arrangements of the pots of beer were gratefully traced
to Abbot Crokesley, of blessed memory.'
2 The usual read-
ing of Scripture took place, closed by the usual formulary,
Tu autem, Domine, miserere nobis. The candles were to
be carefully lit at dusk. Two scandals connected with this
practice were preserved in the recollections of the monastery
-one of a wicked cook, who had concealed a woman in the
candle-cupboard; another of an irrational and impetuous
'sacrist,' who had carried off the candles from the Great
Refectory to the Lesser Dining-hall or Misericord.' 4 To
what secular uses the Refectory was turned will appear as
we proceed. The provisions were to be of the best kind, and
were under the charge of the Cellarer. The wheat was
brought up from the Thames to the Granary, which stood in
the open space now called Dean's Yard, and the keeper of
which was held to be 'the Cellarer's right hand.' 5

Over the East Cloister, approached by a stair which still in part remains, was the Dormitory. In the staircase window leading up to it was a crucifix. The floor was covered with matting. Each monk had his own chest of clothes, and the like, carefully limited, as in a school or ship-cabin." They were liable to be waked up by the sounding of the gong or bell, or horn, or knocking of a board, at an alarm of fire, or of

1 Ware, pp. 206, 207.
2 Ibid. p. 303.

Ibid. p.218.-Two particles of this
Benedictine service are still preserved
in the Hall of Christ Church, Oxford,
on days when the Dean and Chapter
dine. A single verse is recited, in
Greek, from the first chapter of St.
John's Gospel, which is cut short by
the Dean saying, ' Tu autem.'

Ibid. pp. 233, 235.

5 Ware, p. 171.

The Dormitory still exists, divided between the Chapter Library and the Great School. (See Chapter VI.) The stairs from the Cloisters were restored by Mr. Scott. (See Gleanings.) Another small stair, descending at the southern end, was discovered in 1869. Ware, pp. 48, 49, 253, 255, 257.

a sudden inundation of the Thames. A gallery still remains
opening on the South Transept, by which they descended
into the Church for their night services. They were per-
mitted to have fur caps, but made of the skins of wild cats
or foxes. At right angles to it, extending from the Cloister
to the College garden, was the building known in monasteries
as the lesser dormitory.'
92

We pass abruptly from this private and tranquil life of the monks in their Dormitory to three buildings which stand in close connexion with it, and which, by the inextricable union of the Abbey with the Crown and State of England, brings us into direct contact with the outer world -the Treasury, the Chapter House, and the Jewel House or Parliament Office. In the Eastern Cloister is an ancient THE TREASURY. double door, which can3 never be opened, except by the officers of the Government or their representatives-now the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury (till recently, with the Comptroller of the Exchequer), bearing seven keys, some of them of huge dimensions, that alone could admit to the chamber within. That chamber, which belongs to the Norman substructions underneath the Dormitory, is no less than the Treasury of England—a grand word, which, whilst it conveys us back to the most primitive times, is yet big with the destinies of the present and the future; that

'Ware, pp. 25, 241.-Such a flood took place in 1294. (Matt. West.)

2 The long subterranean drain, which indicates the course of the building, was found in 1868. See Archælogia Cantiana, vii. 82.

The Standard' Act of 1866 vested the sole custody in the Treasury. The transfer of the keys of the Exchequer took place on May 31, 1866. I owe the exact statement of the facts relating to the Treasury to Sir Charles Trevelyan and Mr. Chisholm. • Gleanings, pp. 9, 10.

In the seventeenth century there
were, properly speaking, four Trea-
suries the first, in the Court of
Receipt; the second, in the New
Palace of Westminster; the third, in
'the late dissolved Abbey of West-
'minster, in the old Chapter-house ;'
the fourth was in the Cloister of the
'said Abbey, locked with five locks
and keys, being within two strong
'double doors.' (Repertorie of Records,
printed 1631, p. 15-92.) But the
'three first' are, in order of time,
later than the fourth.

Tomb of
Hugolin.

sacred building, in which were hoarded the treasures of the nation, in the days when the public robbers were literally thieves or highwaymen; that institution, which is now the keystone of the Commonwealth, of which the Prime Minister is the First Lord,' the Chancellor of the Exchequer the administrator, and which represents the wealth of the wealthiest nation in the world. Here it was that, probably almost immediately after the Conquest, the Kings determined to lodge their treasure, under the guardianship of the inviolable Sanctuary which St. Peter had consecrated, and the bones of the Confessor had sanctified. So, in the cave hewn out of the rocky side of the Hill of Mycenæ, is still to be seen, in the same vault, at once the Tomb and the Treasury of the House of Atreus. So, underneath the cliff of the Capitoline Hill, the Treasury of the Roman Commonwealth was the shrine of the most venerable of the Italian gods-the Temple of Saturn. So, in this Chapel of the Pyx,' as it is now called, the remains of an altar seem to indicate its original sanctity; if it be not, as tradition loved to point out, the tomb of one who may well be called the genius of the place-the first predecessor of our careful Chancellors of the Exchequer-Hugolin, the chamberlain of the Confessor, whose strict guardianship of the royal treasure kept even his master in awe.1 Even if not there, he lies hard by, as we shall presently see. Hither were brought the most cherished possessions of the State: the Regalia of the Saxon monarchy; the Black Rood of. St. Margaret ('the Holy Cross of Holyrood') from Scotland; the Crocis Gneyth' (or Cross of St. Neot) from Wales, deposited here by Edward I.;2 the Sceptre or Rod of Moses; the Ampulla of Henry IV.; the sword with which King Athelstane cut through the rock at Dunbar; the sword

1 See Chapter II. p. 15.

2 Palgrave's Calendars, i. p. cxvi.

Malmesbury, p. 149.