§ 54. In the monasteries of all orders, the Cistercian order alone excepted, the range of buildings opposite the church, uniting the eastern and western cloister-buildings, had its major axis parallel with that of the church, and was entered by a doorway from the cloister near its west end. There was often at its east end a vaulted passage through the range, which continued the east walk of the cloister, and led either, as at Durham, into the outer court, or, as at Gloucester and Peterborough, to the infirmary buildings, and from this passage or 'dark cloister' at Westminster the common house beneath the dorter was entered. The larger part of the range was devoted to the frater or dining-hall of the monastery (_refectorium_). In several cases, the frater was raised upon a cellar, which was in many such instances, as at Gloucester, the great cellar and buttery of the house. Where such cellars existed, a stair led up through the frater doorway to the west end of the hall, which, as in ordinary houses, was partitioned off from the rest by screens. The screens, entered on the level where there was no cellar, formed a passage to the kitchen at the back of the range, and had a pantry on the west side. This passage existed at Durham and St Agatha's, where, above the pantry, the roof of which was of course on a much lower level than that of the hall, there was a loft, used in later days at Durham for the daily meals of the monks, who used the frater only on certain festivals, leaving it to the novices on ordinary days. The frater itself was an aisleless hall with a wooden roof. Across the east end was the high table for the principal members of the convent: the others sat at two or more tables set lengthways in the body of the hall. Near the high table, in the wall opposite the cloister, was the pulpit, from which a portion of Scripture or of some homily in Latin was read by one of the brethren during meals. A window-recess was generally enlarged to form the pulpit, the floor and parapet of which were corbelled out towards the hall: it was entered by a stair, as at Chester or in the beautiful Cistercian example at Beaulieu, in the thickness of the wall, with an open arcade in its inner face. There were also cupboards and shelves in the frater for plate, linen and earthenware. In the Cistercian abbey of Cleeve there remains above the high table a mural painting of the Crucifixion: a similar painting was made in 1518 at Durham upon the upper part of the west wall. At Worcester a sculptured figure of our Lord in majesty occupies the middle of the east wall.