“one of the most perfect of its date. It projects 8 feet into the garth, and is entered from the cloister alley by eight tall arches with glazed traceried openings above. Internally it is 47 feet long and 6½ feet wide, and is lighted by eight two-light windows towards the garth and by a similar window at each end. One light of the east window has a small square opening below, perhaps for the admission of the supply pipes, for which there seems to be no other entrance either in the fan vault or the side walls. Half the width of the lavatory is taken up by a broad, flat ledge or platform against the wall, on which stood a lead cistern or laver, with a row of taps, and in front a hollow trough, originally lined with lead, at which the monks washed their hands and faces. From this the waste water ran away into a recently discovered (1889) tank in the garth.”--(H.) From the =West Alley= the monks entered their great dining-hall; and at the south-west corner a vaulted passage called the =Slype= lies under part of the old lodging of the Abbots, now the Deanery. In this passage, a sort of outer parlour, the monks held conversation with strangers. In the =South Alley= the monks studied after dinner until evensong. It has ten windows of six lights and twenty recesses, or “carrels,” below the transoms. The roof of the =East Alley= is a perfectly plain barrel vault without ribs. In the south-west corner we find a hollowed bracket, or cresset stone, in which a wick, floating in tallow, was kept to light the passage. Opposite the fifth bay a doorway, containing some good Norman work, slightly restored, leads into the =Chapter-House=. Originally consisting of three Norman bays, it probably, like the chapter-houses at Norwich, Reading, and Durham, terminated in a semi-circular apse. The present east end is Late Perpendicular, and makes a fourth bay. The vaulting of the later part is well groined, and the window is good. The roof of the three Norman bays is a lofty barrel vault supported by three slightly pointed arches springing from the capitals of the columns, which are curiously set back, and separate the bays. Norman arcading of twelve arches--_i.e._ four to each bay--runs along the three westernmost bays on the north and south walls. “The west end is arranged in the usual Benedictine fashion, with a central door, flanked originally by two large unglazed window openings, with three large windows above. Only one of the windows flanking the doorway can now be seen, the other having been partly destroyed and covered by Perpendicular panelling when the new library stair was built in the south-west corner of the room.”--(H.) Of the four old gateways remaining the finest is =St. Mary’s Gate=, a typical specimen of Early English work. It leads into St. Mary’s Square. In the northwest corner of the Precincts the famous vineyard was situated.