buttery proper and a pantry, occupying with a small entry connecting them 29 ft.;[1] then another stepped entry into the cloister serving afterwards as Cawarden's garden gate;[2] then probably more rooms under the two central upper rooms; then a staircase to Cobham's upper room;[3] and finally rooms belonging to the porter's lodge, which were 21 ft. in length. This lodge extended backwards towards Water Lane, and over and around it were other rooms of Cobham's and yet others forming the house of Sir George Harper.[4] Some or all of these had also probably been part of the guest-house. Together with a garden of Cobham's, they occupied rather less than half the space between the northern block and Water Lane. South of them, and included in Cawarden's grant, were the convent kitchen with a room over it, and the kitchen yard, forming a space 84 ft. wide, and in length 74 ft. at the buttery end and 68 ft. at the lane end.
The northern block, being 110 ft. long, extended right down to the southern line of the cloister, which was 110 ft. square. Here it abutted upon the southern block. This was 52 ft. wide. The length of the upper frater is given in the surveys as 107 ft., and in two of More's leases as 110 ft.[5] The latter figure is probably the right one.[6] The north end of this block contained a 'great stair', which gave access both to the frater and to the guest-house, and was itself convenient of approach both from the gate-house entry and from the lavabo at the south-west angle of the cloister. Probably this end was built in the form of a tower, as there were rooms on and over the staircase and over the adjoining Duchy Chamber, and garrets over those.[7] There was a garret also over the south end of the northern block.[8] It is doubtful whether anything stood over the main portion of the southern block.[9] This had a flat leaded roof, whereas the northern block, as its lead is not mentioned in the survey, probably had a gabled and tiled roof. Apart from the staircase tower,
- ↑ M. S. C. ii. 20.
- ↑ Ibid. 14 (cf. 116), 'vnius paris graduum ducentium a coquina predicta vsque magnum claustrum' (1546), 21, 'the waye ledinge from the house and garden of William More towards the Water Lane', 'one entrye ledinge vnder parcell of the premysses demysed from the garden of William More to the voide grounde' (1560), 119.
- ↑ Ibid. 16.
- ↑ Ibid. 115.
- ↑ Ibid. 27, 29.
- ↑ The whole length of the Neville-Farrant holding is given in 1560 (M. S. C. ii. 20) as 157-1/2 ft., and in 1576 (M. S. C. ii. 29) as 156-1/2 ft. As this included 37 ft. of the northern block, 119-1/2 ft. or 120-1/2 ft. seems to be left for the staircase and frater. The difference between inside and outside measurements often causes confusion in old surveys.
- ↑ M. S. C. ii. 62, 119; cf. p. 504.
- ↑ Ibid. 94.
- ↑ Cf. p. 513.
