Fountains Abbey: The story of a mediæval monasteryHodges, George
History
Fountains Abbey: The story of a mediæval monastery
Hodges, George
Fountains Abbey (North Yorkshire, England)
The two houses may have been for the use of different classes of
visitors, in a day when social distinctions were scrupulously drawn. In
that case, the better people were probably lodged in the eastern house.
There, entering the upper storey, they found their sleeping-rooms, with
deep-set windows looking to the north and east; and with two good
fire-places, one in the middle of the east wall, the other in the gable
end to the north. In these rooms was never a bed, a table, a stool or a
candlestick which had been made by a machine. All had come from the
hands of craftsmen who brought to their labour a determining quality of
personal interest. Descending into the courtyard, a door near the north
end brought the guest into the great hall--“a goodly brave place much
like unto a church”--where a central row of fair pillars upheld a
vaulted roof. This was for the ceremonies of the table. The arrangement
of the western guest-house was according to the same plan, with two
differences: it was =L=-shaped, the letter being turned about so that the
base lay by the river, while the shaft extended to the north; and the
hall, which was in the base of the =L=, was divided into two rooms. The
northern wing may have been the kitchen for both houses. A small
building by the river, where the two guest-houses met, may have been the
office of the hospitaller.
These houses were a hostelry, wherein decent wandering persons, “both
noble, and gentle, and what degree soever that came thither as
strangers,” were made welcome and given free entertainment. This was
the Abbey inn, known to all instructed wayfarers. In a day when towns
were far apart, and the roads bad and beset with peril, the sight of a
monastery tower in the late afternoon was pleasant to a traveller’s
eyes. In the guest-house hall he ate; in the guest-house chamber he
slept; and on the following morning, after mass, refreshed and blessed,
he went upon his way, thanking God for monks and monasteries.
II. THE CELLARIUM
The long range of building, extending from the church to the river, was
called the cellarium, because it was under the general charge of the
cellarer or steward of the monastery. It is likely that he had his
office in the room which stands out from this building at the middle of
its length. In this chamber, having a good window to the west, and a
fireplace between two narrow windows to the south, he kept his office
hours. St. Benedict himself, in his rule, had counselled all cellarers
to be punctual in this matter, that nobody be kept waiting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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