"At the north end of the east alley of the cloister, and almost concealed by the later panelling, is an Early English doorway opening into a vaulted passage or entry, chiefly of the thirteenth century. This entry passes between the east gable of the frater and what I have suggested may have been the common house-garden, and leads straight into the infirmary cloister. The passage is covered by a stone vault of four bays, supported by heavy moulded ribs springing from corbels. The south half of the passage is 6 feet 10 inches wide, but the northern half of the east wall is set back so as to increase the width to 7 1/2 feet. This passage was lighted in the first bay by a single light with trefoiled head, with very wide internal splay. In the wider end were two other openings now blocked. That to the north had a transom two-thirds of the height up, above which the rear-arch is moulded, while below it is plain. The other is not carried above the transom level, and the sill has been cut down and the opening made into a doorway into a house outside; in which state it remained until within the last forty years. That some thirteenth-century building stood here seems evident, and the upper half of the north opening was clearly a window above the roof to light that end of the entry. "The north end of the entry opens directly into the east alley of the infirmary or "farmery" cloister, which is built against the north side of the east end of the frater." (Hope.) [Illustration: CLOISTER GARTH FROM THE NORTH-WEST CORNER, SHOWING THE OLD DRAIN.] #North Alley# (east to west).--This "north alley" was closed at both ends by screens, and must therefore have had some special use. From analogy with the arrangements at Durham there can be little doubt that this alley was partly appropriated to the novices.... We have curious evidence that the north alley at Gloucester was so appropriated, in the traces of the games they played at in their idle moods. On the stone bench against the wall are scratched a number of diagrams of the forms here represented: [Illustration: 3 Game Diagrams] The first is for playing the game called "Nine men's morris," from each player having nine pieces or men. The other two are for playing varieties of the game of "Fox and Geese." "Traces of such games may generally be found on the bench tables of cloisters where they have not been _restored_, and excellent examples remain at Canterbury, Westminster, Salisbury, and elsewhere. At Gloucester they are almost exclusively confined to the novices' alley, the only others now to be seen in the cloister being an unfinished 'Nine men's morris' board in the south alley, and one or two crossed squares in the west alley." (Hope.)