Opening out of the dormitory to the east, at its south end, where a modern doorway has replaced the earlier one, is a room which was called by the monks "the loft," and which forms, in connection with the refectory, the south side of the cloister. It was the place where the monks, with the Subprior presiding, ordinarily dined, having beneath it what was once the cellar of the convent. Beyond this, to the east, was the refectory, or frater-house, standing above the early crypt which has already been described, where the Prior and monks dined together on March 20--St. Cuthbert’s Day. Whatever it was before then, though possibly the original building still remained, in part at least, unaltered, it was entirely reconstructed by Dean Sudbury (1662-84), who made it into the library, transferring the books from the old library adjoining to the chapter-house, and filling it with the handsome and commodious oak cases which now furnish it. Near to it, on the south-west, is the kitchen of the monastery, now attached to the deanery, an octagonal building which well deserves examination. Returning to the cloister, there may still be seen at the centre of the garth what is left above ground of the lavatory. It was originally an octagonal structure, the upper part being occupied as a dovecote. The basin was begun in 1432, and completed the next year. The marble stones of the basin, which still exists, were brought from Eggleston-on-the-Tees, of the Abbot of which monastery they were bought. The basin is not _in situ_, but has at some time been removed from its original situation, "over against the frater-house door," where the foundations of a circular, or octagonal, building were discovered in 1903, and with them those of an earlier building, square in form, with the substructure of an earlier basin. Before concluding the description of the church, it is necessary that a few words should be said about the exterior. It has charms of its own which, in spite of the disasters it has undergone in the shape of paring down and refacing, still makes it one of our noblest churches. It must be admitted that, on account of the removal of some inches from the surface of the stone,[10] and the consequent curtailment of mouldings in their projections and hollows, there is a want of light and shade which much detracts from its effect when seen near at hand. Indeed, the first impression made is perhaps one of disappointment. The east end is especially flat and bald, and with its ill-designed modern pinnacles forms but a poor clothing to the wondrous beauty which is to be seen within the Nine Altars. But with all these drawbacks, when viewed as a whole, and when distance has lent its compensating power, the cathedral, its lofty central tower rising in harmonious combination with the two western ones, stands sublime in its grand outline, and fitly crowns the hill of Durham. FINCHALE PRIORY BY J. TAVENOR-PERRY