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THE STORY 
 
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THE STORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 DEANERY, DURHAM, 
 
 1070-1912, 
 
 BY 
 
 G. W. KITCHIN, D.D., F.S.A., 
 
 Dean. 
 
 DURHAM : 
 THOMAS CALDCLEUGH, 45, SADDLER STREET. 
 
 1912. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 South Front of Deanery Frontispiece. 
 
 Ground Plan of Deanery page 13 
 
 Norman Undercroft 17 
 
 Plan of First Floor of Deanery 21 
 
 Usher Gate and Entrance to Old Dormitory 25 
 
 North Side of Prior's Chapel, etc 29 
 
 Prior's Chapel from S.W 29 
 
 Chapel Undercroft 3° 
 
 Doorway to Spiral Staircase 35 
 
 Groining of the Kitchen 42 
 
 Roof of Monastic Kitchen 45 
 
 Restoration of Prior's Refectory (Monks' Dormitory ) 47 
 
 Two Photographs of the Refectory as at present 47 
 
 Windows on the West Side of the Refectory 48 
 
 Restoration of the Prior's Solarium (Drawing Room) 50 
 
 Two Photographs of present Drawing Room 51 
 
 Blocked-up Perpendicular Window 5 1 
 
 Coat of Arms of Dean Spencer Cowper 5 2 
 
 Restoration of the Prior's " Camera Minor " (now Library) 54 
 
 Two Photographs of the Dean's Library 54 
 
 East End of Deanery 54 
 
 Sketch of the East End of the Deanery (circ.) 1800 55 
 
 Remains of a Decorated Window 56 
 
 Bosses of the Ceiling of King James' Room 62 
 
 Plans of the large Norman Cesspool 68 
 
 Spring of Ceiling of Retainers' Hall 7° 
 
 Plan of Second Floor of the House 93 
 
 Corbel of Mr. Douglas as a boy 94 
 
 Spring of Ceiling of the " Camera Inferior " 97 
 
 A7A 
 7333 
 
 879 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 "\ \J HEN I look at this ancient Deanery, the beautiful roofs and ceilings, 
 the warm chambers, all long ago built on a noble scale, — I realise 
 that I am nothing more than a passing hermit-crab. This is my choice 
 shell, too large for me in truth, and needing constant loving care to 
 preserve the good looks of a life of centuries. We old people think there 
 is especial charm and nobleness in age. 
 
 Here then I have abode : — a poor unarmed creature, too feeble to drag 
 my house about with me ; too late to add to the growth of it ; only a 
 temporary holder of it in the great sea of the Church flood of to-day. Were 
 I a writer of fables, my hermit-crab should talk to an elegant artificer, the 
 snail. He would call his friend to make his eyes as large as he could on 
 their long necks, to mark with respect the convolute markings, and the 
 solidity of this fine abode. But the snail could reply with crushing coolness. 
 Your home cannot be contrasted with mine ; I made mine myself, I have 
 grown with it and in it, I can carry it with me whithersoever I care to 
 go ; and it is beautiful and light — whereas you, a poor limp being, only 
 found your home knocking about in the waves — you did but crawl in, 
 and can but make it your excuse for your own incompetence ; but my 
 home is a part of me ; I am proud of it ; "a poor thing, but all my own ;" 
 while you are but the sojourner of a moment, powerless, and soon gone. 
 Your successors may not even give you a kindly thought. 
 
io PREFACE. 
 
 This is why I have endeavoured to write this little book, to make clear 
 the true value of this fine home for future Deans. 
 
 Now-a-days there is a prejudice against Prefaces. Our dedications no 
 longer bid for patronage. We do not call on some friendly Muse to be inspired, 
 may be after dinner, to make some graceful sonnet on our literary venture. 
 In our days, with keen critics on the watch, a book must have an object 
 proper, and be fairly done ; then, and by no other means, may it find 
 acceptance. There is, however, one real use for prefaces. It gives the 
 author opportunity to let his readers know how much he owes to his friends. 
 In this case their kindest help and sympathy have been the making of it. 
 What could I have done without the help of Canon Fowler ? His Account 
 Rolls of Durham Abbey form a monumental work, whereon are engraved 
 ten thousand touches and lines of medieval life. 
 
 Nor was he a helper only by the Rolls : he is always the kindest of 
 critics, with a fresh sagacity of suggestion. I thank him with all my heart. 
 As also I do those friends who have suggested matters not noticed by me. 
 I have been also most fortunate in collecting illustrations : my son's 
 delightful restorations of the old prae-reformation condition of the house 
 breathe life into the ancient bones of the monastic home of five centuries. 
 And the pencil of Mr. Footitt, as graceful as it is unerring, ever helps the 
 interpretation of the true look of the house, so hard to be given by mere 
 word-painting. 
 
 Yet it may be that the Preface is most of all worthy of my gratitude 
 because in it I can try to express my own thankfulness for being permitted 
 to dwell in this shelter for an old man's last days. The record of the 
 
PREFACE. ii 
 
 ancient chambers makes the past live again, and will, I hope, be an 
 inspiration for all who may hereafter have the good fortune to live in this 
 Deanery. 
 
 For every hermit-crab must be ready, at his due hour, to give place to 
 another. May this home give strength and piety to my successors, that 
 they may be stronger in their own way, and less timid of action and work 
 than has been the habit of the present occupier of this ancient home. 
 
xavygn -ivyaaHivD wann xax^D 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM 
 
 A BOUT five years after the Conquest, William I had to name a 
 Bishop for Durham, and chose a man of Lorraine, no native of 
 the north, one Walcher, to undertake this dangerous task. The irritated 
 and turbulent men of his new northern March would give nothing but 
 a sullen obedience, if even that : for they looked back angrily at the 
 older times, the Anglian ways, the native clergy among whom they had 
 lived. They needed indeed a prudent and a sympathetic Bishop. This 
 Walcher failed to be ; a man from abroad, apparently quite unconscious 
 as to the dangers around him, he soon gathered round him the popular 
 ill-will. He ought to have shown patience with his diocese, with a quiet 
 firmness, as of one who felt something for the under-race ; he should 
 have been one to bring the goodwill of Christian life as the sunshine 
 in a dark place. On the contrary, he failed as bishop and ruler. Stern 
 without judgement, he insisted on a heavy taxation. The soreness grew ; 
 and in the end his rule was suddenly cut short in Gateshead Church 
 by his murder at the hands of his infuriate people. Yet there was good in 
 him. Symeon, who doubtless remembered him at Durham, describes him 
 as "a man of white locks, of a commanding reverence, one who by an 
 honourable course of life, and purity of manners was fully worthy of his 
 distinguished office at Durham." 1 It is also clear that he understood the 
 great importance of the site of Durham Church and Castle ; he saw that it 
 had the makings of a stout fortress, a height for strong walls and a firm 
 garrison. 
 
 1 Symeon, Book III, ch. 18. 
 
14 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 For Durham was the bulwark of the North ; a refuge against any 
 outburst of ill-will of the Picts from across the Tweed, or from the seething 
 Anglian folk betwixt Tyne and Tweed. There stood already the stone 
 church built by Bishop Aldhun, as a home for the " corpus incorruptum " 
 of much-wandering St. Cuthbert, and all the ancient buildings of the 
 Castle, on the edge of that sharp hill which looks down ever on Durham 
 city and river. Here too was that wonderful and ancient Chapel of the 
 Castle, probably the oldest Norman work in England, built no doubt by 
 those Norman artificers whom Ethelred the Unready had brought into the 
 north. 2 Beside this there was but little on the hill-top ; for Symeon 
 tells us 3 that " A place he there found fortified by nature ; and yet far 
 from easy to be made habitable ; a dense thicket of trees and brush-wood 
 filled the whole surface. Just in the middle of the hill-top was a small 
 level space, at that time used for ploughing and arable culture. To this 
 Aldhun summoned all his people, and, helped by the men of the Earl of 
 Northumbria, Uhtred, he cut down and rooted up all the trees and tangle, 
 so making the place habitable. And here in his new built church he- 
 reverently deposited the body of St. Cuthbert." 
 
 Walcher had not long been bishop when there appeared before him 
 a little band of Benedictines, who came to appeal to him for a home in 
 which they might settle down safely under the Norman protection. They 
 would thereby bring in the newer sense of order and protection ; conquest 
 brings slavery ; and they would, in the presence of their new lords, 
 a sterner form of religion, nearer to the Papacy ; so they might rival the 
 ancient glory of the Celtic church, as St. Aidan had laid it down ; they 
 would replace the earlier Churchmen, living there with their families around 
 them, and might even become a source of strength to their Norman friends. 
 They would also shew them the stricter way ; and exercise some of the 
 power wielded by the great rule of the Benedictine order. 
 
 2 The date of this Chapel is given as 1071. The learned Commendatore di Rivoira, who 
 knows more about the history of Norman work than does any architectural student, told me 
 that he considered the date of it to be " about the middle of the eleventh century," that is, 
 some fifteen or twenty years before the Norman conquest. 
 
 3 Symeon, III, 2. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 15 
 
 Walcher received the wanderers gladly ; for the time present he could 
 only set them in some ruinous and forsaken buildings on Tyne-side at 
 J arrow, or at the mouth of the Wear. These buildings had suffered much 
 from Scandinavian incursions ; the former Anglian monks had gone.4 Here 
 they might have some precarious quietude, " till under riper judgement the 
 proper place for them to live in might be found. "5 
 
 And these strangers seem to have given Walcher the hint that the 
 Benedictines were a handy and willing people for him, loyal towards the 
 un-English rule. Why should he not set them finally in a secure home, 
 on his strong hill-top of Durham ? " Meanwhile," says Symeon, " around 
 the walls of Durham Church good foundations were already being laid down 
 for a large and bold plan of " a safe house for his friends the Benedictines." 6 
 This was the last task of his life, before his murder in 1080. 
 
 In these five years, then, from 1075 to 1080, the ancient Undercroft 
 which still remains, and lies just outside the south wall of the present cloister 
 of Durham Cathedral, was planned out and built for these Benedictine 
 strangers. Even then the grand dimensions of the place were fixed. The 
 large and spacious size of the cloister, the general plan for the dignity 
 of a great Cathedral monastery was laid down at this early time ; for this 
 Undercroft was set out so as to secure the huge square of cloisters, from 
 Aldhun's church southwards. That church must have been intended to 
 form the outer edge of the north side of the present cloisters. 
 
 Here we have the beginning of the present Deanery. For the larger 
 part of this interesting Undercroft, which was not a crypt underground, 
 but the ground floor intended to bear buildings rising above it, was finished 
 at this time ; it was at once used as a shelter for the brethren themselves, 
 or for those who were working at the buildings. This was the western 
 part of it ; while the eastern part, divided from the rest by the passage 
 
 4 Hegge, ed. 1616, p. 22, says " Then were demolished the two monasteries of St. Peter 
 and St. Paul at Wermouth and Jarro, built by two Abbats, Celfride and Benedict." 
 s Symeon, Book II, Ch. 13. 6 Ibid. 
 
16 THE DEANERY, DURHAM 
 
 leading into the cloisters,7 became the under part of the present house . 
 it forms the cellarage of it on the ground level. Canon Greenwell describes 
 it well. The crypt on the eastern side of the cloister is beneath the entrance- 
 hall of the Deanery. Its length lies north and south. It is divided into two 
 aisles by one arcade of four arches now closed with masonry. This arcade 
 resembles that in the larger crypt ; but this crypt differs from the other by 
 being covered by two plain barrel vaults, each of which roofs in over one of 
 the aisles, and in having no wall arcades. 8 
 
 All this was certainly built in these five years, while the superstructures 
 over the Undercroft were added in 1088 or 1089. The part that runs east and 
 west (along the outside of the south aisle of the cloister) became the Monks' 
 Refectory, when they came there ; the other part (north and south) was 
 occupied as their Dormitory, and so continued to be used till the beginning 
 of the fifteenth century, when the monks began to sleep in the later 
 dormitory on the west side of the cloister, now the noble main room of 
 the Cathedral Library. 
 
 The building over the western Undercroft was erected in the days of 
 William the Conqueror ; while the western wall of the present Hall of the 
 Deanery was built in the reign of William Rufus. Anyone now going from 
 the Hall to the kitchen has the wall built by Walcher between 1070 and 1080 
 on his right hand all the way down ; and as one sits in the hall or the 
 dining-room of the Deanery, the high wall on the west side was certainly 
 made in the days of the Red William. It was finished in 1080. These two 
 walls are the oldest part of this ancient house. 
 
 Canon Greenwell has given much knowledge and thought to this part 
 of it. 9 " I think," he says, " it not improbable that in the wall on the 
 east side of the cloister, and to the south of the Chapter house there still 
 remain portions of the habitacula 10 begun by Bishop Walcher. The masonry 
 
 ' In this passage the original arches on both sides are still to be seen : a larger one in the 
 middle, and lesser on either side. 
 
 8 Canon Greenwell, " Durham Cathedral p, 22." 9 Ibid. p. 17 note. 
 
 '° Symeon III, 22: " Unde positis fundamentis Monachorum habitacula, ubi nunc 
 habentur, Dunelmi construere coepit." 
 
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THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 17 
 
 is of a kind different from any other used either in the Cathedral itself or 
 in the domestic buildings connected with it, being entirely of rubble stones, 
 without any squared ones. The walls are much thinner than those of the 
 later work of the Norman period. There is also a feature which is indicative 
 of early masonry on the inner side of the wall in question immediately to 
 the south of the wall of the Chapter house, a triangular-headed recess. Any 
 building erected in Bishop Walcher's time would almost certainly proceed 
 from the hands of native masons, and would naturally be of the same 
 kind as that to which they were accustomed. In this respect the wall 
 and the recess quite agree with the suggested time of their erection." 
 
 It seems, then, quite certain that the date of the building of this, the 
 western wall of the Deanery, can be fixed within a very narrow limit of 
 years. William of St. Carilef 11 was Walcher's successor in Durham in 
 1081. He too favoured the Benedictines, and so naturally saw that 
 he would enormously strengthen his hold on this Northern fortress 
 and outlook if he could establish there a strong Benedictine house. 
 It would both carry out his ambitious views as to the development 
 of the place, and also would make Durham the heart and soul of 
 that new type of Christianity that the Normans, the friends of the 
 Papacy, were determined to establish permanently in the North. 
 So in 1083 Bishop William Carilef, a man not of the fiercer Norman 
 kind, but rather a lover of things constructive and good for life, 
 set himself to make in Durham a safe home for his Benedictines. The 
 country all round the place had been most mercilessly ravaged by Bishop 
 Odo of Bayeux, who had set himself to avenge the death of Walcher by 
 a savage attack on the innocent and helpless people in the northern part 
 of the country. Carilef, on the contrary, looked round him from Durham 
 to see how he might even then bring back some peace and prosperity to 
 his afflicted diocese. He also hoped to strengthen the still hated Norman 
 rule by constructive work. Now the Evesham monks had been set by 
 Bishop Walcher at Jarrow and Weremouth, and they, men of peace and 
 
 11 The Monastery of St. Calais, near the Loire. 
 
18 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 goodwill, had already done not a little towards the restoration and well- 
 being of the two forlorn deserted houses. They had mended up St. 
 Peter's at Weremouth and St. Paul's at Jarrow. St. Peter's, a church 
 whose walls were half buried in a tangle of briars and thorn bushes, 
 standing then roofless, they had bravely rescued from imminent destruction. 
 They cut down the trees, rooted up the brambles, cleared the land, roofed 
 over the bare walls, and made the place once more fit for the worship of 
 God. 12 This done, there came to them a larger task. They were 
 called on to begin buildings of a far grander scale, which should be 
 the suitable accompaniments of a magnificent church ; a church destined 
 to be thenceforth a fine example of Norman boldness and skill in building. 
 The new bishop's mind clearly harboured an ambition to rival the splendid 
 edifices then rising all through western France. He doubtless deemed the 
 work of the despised Anglians, as it was seen in Bishop Aldhun's church, 
 to be unworthy to be preserved with his own projected monastic house. 
 He also saw, after the fashion of his day, as apparently all the Norman 
 builders saw, that a patron saint was necessary, and would also be lucrative 
 for his stately church, in which the " uncorrupted body " of St. Cuthbert 
 might be duly and magnificently housed. 
 
 It is pleasant to read how old Robert Hegge in 1625 describes the site of 
 this fine group of ancient buildings. " This reverend aged Abby, advanced 
 upon the shoulders of a mountanous atlas, is so envyroned again with hills, 
 that he that hath seen the situation of this city hath seen the Mapp of Sion, 
 and may save a journey to the Holy Land. She is girded almost about with 
 the renowned river of Weer, in which, as in a crystalline, she might once 
 have beheld her beautie, but now the ruines of her walls." — Hegge, Legend of 
 St. Cuthbert, p. 4 (ed. 1816). 
 
 Thus the work began again. Whether the brethren from Jarrow and 
 Weremouth themselves laboured with mallet and chisel can never be known ; 
 it is more than probable that they did work bravely, as they had 
 formerly done at their old homes ; they had lived in a tradition of sound 
 
 »» Symeon, III, 22. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 19 
 
 labour. The likelihood is that they were both capable and willing 
 to attack the new buildings of Durham. In those earlier days of the 
 Benedictine rule their noble principle of " Laborare est Orare " was far more 
 than a jingle of sounds, it meant diligence in manual labour for all. Yet 
 it may be that by this time the influence of Norman pride and mastery had 
 taught them to regard such wholesome and practical toil as beneath them. 
 Still, one wishes to think there was some warm enthusiasm left, and 
 that they seized again their working tools, and helped readily at erecting 
 the stately walls of Durham Abbey. It looks as if it might have been so, 
 for we see that the most ancient walls were almost entirely built without 
 any ashlar stones, the work of amateurs, not of skilled artisans. Let us 
 believe these good things of these earlier brethren, before prosperity had 
 spoilt them ; for afterwards they were but lordly fathers, gentlefolk of 
 tender hands, reckoned as among the great landed feudal aristocracy of 
 Durham Palatinate. 
 
 Thus then, in 1083, Bishop William of St. Carilef began his great work. 
 As Symeon tells us, and he was an eye-witness of all things in Durham, 
 Carilef had found the land all but desert, and St. Cuthbert's body lay in what 
 had become a commonplace and slovenly site, neglected by all. No one 
 seemed to care for it ; the regular Canons living there were too much 
 occupied with their wives and families *3 to be willing to help the energetic 
 bishop. He, bold yet cautious, undertook to take in hand the gigantic work 
 of a new and strong Durham, by erections to make the place the leader 
 and protector of the North. And this he planned out with great prudence 
 and boldest daring. He acted as one who thought about others as well as 
 about his own great schemes, " lest any one," says the Chronicler, " should 
 imagine that work, because it had been undertaken by him alone, should for 
 that reason be resisted and hindered." r 4 Thus it was that he looked round 
 for help. He approached, with his large plans, both King William and his 
 
 ■3 The remains of many women and children were found in the ancient burying-ground 
 of the Cathedral. 
 
 " Symeon, IV, 2. 
 
20 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 Queen Matilda. The King, we are told, was at once struck by Carilef's 
 proposals for giving help and quietude with safety to these troubled 
 northern counties. He gladly consented, and joined the bishop in his appeal 
 to the goodwill of the Pope. William Rufus was not unwilling thus to shew 
 in an open manner his reverence for the Papacy, so long as it did not interfere 
 with his authority over his people at home. He therefore approached Gregory 
 VII, and laid before him Carilef's large scheme for a central church and 
 fortress to be garrisoned by a strong Benedictine house. Gregory saw that 
 such an establishment would plant a combined spiritual and temporal power 
 in a difficult and dangerous country. He willingly sent letters of approval 
 to the King, and to Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury. Thus strengthened 
 from headquarters of Church and State, Carilef dislodged, with much other 
 rubbish, the old and ineffective rule of the Canons of St. Cuthbert's church. 
 He gave them the choice — which must to them have looked like a bad form 
 of irony ; he told them they must either give up their comfortable Canons' 
 homes and their families, by joining as brethren in the coming Benedictine 
 Convent, or, if they refused to do so, they must clear out of Durham, leaving 
 the place empty for the approaching reformers. They soon made their 
 choice. All of them packed up at once, and went away, with exception of 
 one, their Dean, who having a son already in the Benedictine order, thought 
 it well to acquiesce in these new-fangled notions, and alone of all the old 
 residents became a member of the new convent. '5 
 
 The ground being thus completely cleared, the message was quickly 
 sent to the brethren at Jarrow and Weremouth, bidding them, by an 
 invitation that could not be refused, to leave their exposed quarters, where 
 they had done the best they could for ten years or so, and to come back to 
 Durham to take possession of a new home, which they would have to make 
 for themselves, under the care and patronage of the Crown and the bishop. 
 Here they would be sheltered from all risks of pirates of the sea ; here they 
 could undertake the high duties of the custody of St. Cuthbert's shrine, 
 
 '= Symeon, IV, iii. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 21 
 
 with also the responsibility of becoming the central power and energy of the 
 growing force of the Norman rule in these turbulent counties of England. 
 The poor men must have thought the outlook cold and comfortless. They 
 had, in the past ten years, worked for their ruined homes, and made them 
 passable ; now they were called on to begin again on a larger scale. At 
 Durham, as it then was, there was but little shelter for them ; only the 
 Undercrofts were standing — shelter and nothing more. Here they were 
 called to come and help at erecting a large group of cathedral and conventual 
 buildings. Still, they were wanted there ; and so that they at once packed 
 up their poor possessions, and started on foot for Durham. 
 
 As the chronicler bluntly tells us, " the diocese was then too poor to 
 support more than one home in place of three. 16 It is not improbable 
 that Symeon travelled with them on this journey. For we see from a 
 passage in his Church History of Durham that he had lived in one of the 
 older houses. Speaking of the monastic chanting and singing, he says " that 
 Bishop Walcher had observed these matters in accordance with the tradition 
 of the fathers, just as we have often heard them singing." So that before 
 1080 Symeon had been a grown-up man dwelling among the brethren in one 
 of these two houses. It is plain throughout that he writes as an eyewitness. 
 He afterwards became the third Prior of the new House at J arrow, and 
 on the death of Turgot the second of the Priors, he was elected as Prior 
 of Durham. 
 
 Bishop William nominated Aldhun, who had been at the head of the 
 monks before, to be the first Prior of the new Convent ; and he agreed to 
 what was even at the beginning styled " the ancient custom of that Church," 
 the custom that those who had in charge the custody of the body of St. 
 Cuthbert should hold their lands independently, and not as a part of the 
 episcopal domain. At the outset these lands of theirs were small. Some 
 acres at Billingham, and a " little scrap of land that the Bishop gave them." 
 They also received promises from the King and Bishop of a coming good 
 
 16 Symeon, Book IV, Ch. 2: "Quia episcopatus parvitas ad tria monachorum coenobia 
 non sufficeret." 
 
22 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 endowment, which followed in due time. The death of the King stayed 
 these promises from immediate effect. 
 
 Thus it was that the Benedictines came to Durham. We have in 
 Symeon a good description of their coming in : " On the third day after their 
 arrival, that being Pentecost day, they were led into the Church of St. 
 Cuthbert ; then and there Bishop William declared to the assembled people 
 the good pleasure in this matter of Pope Gregory VII and of the King ; then 
 he commended them to St. Mary the Virgin, and to St. Cuthbert, and gave 
 over to them the care of the church. Finally, in the course of the Mass, he 
 blessed them in their profession, and promised them secure possession of 
 their new home, binding them thereby to the care of the uncorrupt body of 
 St. Cuthbert. Three days later the Bishop summoned them once more, 
 and appointed in their presence the chief officers in the monastery, and 
 secured to them the independent charge of their goods and lands, for the due 
 support of the house."' 6 * 
 
 Thus they began their new life, with a great feeling of responsibility 
 for their duties ; yet almost at once there fell on them a very serious check. 
 For in the next year it was found that Bishop William had been mixed up in 
 some way with " aliorum machinamenta," the plots, that is, and tricks of 
 men of the Court, and was working with those that wanted to set aside the 
 new King, William the Red, and to establish a fresh succession of Norman 
 princes. In consequence of this William Rufus banished the Bishop from 
 England, and Carilef crossed over in 1088 to Normandy, where he was 
 welcomed by the chief persons, and lived for three years. 
 
 He had to leave in charge of the young monastery the second 
 Prior, Turgot, whose position at Durham was far from easy ; for he was 
 face to face with the offended and irate King. It was an evil moment for 
 him, the bishop in disgrace and abroad, the King harsh of temper to 
 deal with. " Still, in spite of all this " (and in these words we hear the 
 eyewitness recording his impressions as to the straits in which his brethren 
 and he were now caught), " we found the King fairly humane towards us. "'7 
 
 '«• Bk. IV, Ch. 3. ■» Symeon, 226. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 23 
 
 Though the Red King had a heavy hand for others, yet he touched nothing 
 of theirs at Durham ; he even protected them, as his father had also 
 done ; nor would he listen to anyone who maligned them. And thus it 
 came about that when Turgot approached the King, he found a kindly 
 reception. William bade him to rule the young convent as best he could 
 during the Bishop's absence. It was after this interview that, under 
 Turgot's eye, " the Refectory as it now stands was built by the brethren." 
 
 The wall which formed the eastern side of that Refectory is also 
 the western wall of the Deanery Hall and dining-room. It has remained 
 unaltered from 1088 or 1090. In the northern part we find that curious 
 recess above a window or doorway below, which Canon Greenwell names as 
 a proof of very high antiquity. He also points out that the whole of this 
 lofty wall is comparatively thin ; and is built of rubble stones with little or 
 no ashlar work in it ; all showing the early constructive efforts of these 
 Benedictines. In the part of it that now forms the beginning of the eastern 
 side of the Cloister there still exist two Norman entrances or doorways, 
 the southern one being still styled the "Usher's Door," leading to the 
 Deanery ; the other is the entrance to the ancient Dormitory of the monks. 
 We can still see within it the broad and now ruinous flight of steps, about ten 
 feet across, which led to the north end of the Dormitory, and was used for 
 centuries by all the brethren going to the Cathedral for the night offices. 
 
 At this time the brethren worked hard at their new Refectory, a long 
 chamber running east and west over the ancient Undercroft, and parallel 
 with and just outside of the projected cloister. The earlier kitchen must 
 have been handy for this ; and the Norman archway and door at the west 
 end would be their way for carrying cooked food up for those who should 
 dine in the Refectory, while the higher obedientiaries had their dinner in the 
 room now called the Loft. 18 It is probable that this kitchen was near, or a 
 part of, the Covey underneath. It was certainly handy for this new Refectory. 
 
 ' 8 Dr. Fowler calls " the Loft" the misericorde , and suggests that the habit of dining in 
 it by men in good health was a late relaxation. " Rites," p. 268. 
 
24 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 Thus, before Bishop William de Carilef got leave from the King to 
 return to Durham, the Benedictines had settled down in fairly comfortable 
 quarters, using the large Undercroft as their somewhat dark chambers for 
 work and living. We have no evidence that the community had by this 
 time set apart or erected a special residence for their Prior ; though it is not 
 unlikely that some rooms may have been built for him east of the Dormitory. 
 In these busy days the Prior may have preferred to live in the midst of 
 the brethren ; for while the whole place was full of the noise of building 
 and of fitting up their new chambers, he would not care to add to their heavy 
 efforts in erecting at the same time both the great Cathedral and this larger 
 conventual group of buildings. For the time they, had, all of them, to 
 be content with the Norman Undercroft by day and night. One part of this 
 was styled the Covey, a kind of pair of transepts running north and south, 
 and approached on the same level as the Cloister, while it also had an 
 exit to the south. Here the children of the Almery used for generations to have 
 their meals ; for it was very handy for the kitchen. Canon Fowler, in his 
 careful and interesting edition of " The Rites of Durham," 10 thinks that what 
 is now the two-aisled Norman cellar under the Deanery Hall was the original 
 common room of the monastic brethren. This may well have been the case. 
 
 It is certain that the doorway still styled " the usher door " formed a 
 part of these earliest buildings. 20 For the passage it leads to has at the east 
 end a circular-headed window, which may have been the upper part of a 
 disused doorway out of the passage into the monks' cemetery, lying to 
 the east of the cloisters, and known by the name of the centory-garth. 
 It was the habit of the brethren, after their mid-day meal, daily " to goe 
 thorowghe the cloister in at the ushers dour, and so thorowghe the entrie 
 in under the Priors lodginge, and streight in to the centorie garth wher all 
 the mounckes was buried, and ther did stand all bair heade a certain longe 
 space, praieng amonges the toumbes and throwghes for there brethren 
 
 "9 " Rites of Durham," (Surtees Society), p. 265. 
 
 20 The Register-house was placed at this time on the right-hand side of the Usher-door 
 entry ; though now it cannot be identified, as Canon Fowler says. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM, 25 
 
 soules being buryed there : and when they hadd done there prayers then 
 they did returne to the cloyster, and there did studie there bookes untill iij 
 of the clocke, that they went to Evensong. This was there dalie exercise." 21 
 
 When Bishop William came back from his three years of exile, a new 
 period in the growth of the great group of buildings on Durham hill-top 
 began with vigour. It is plain from what had already been done that 
 Prior Turgot had fully carried out the agreed-on compact, that the Bishop's 
 property should be dedicated to the growth of the great church, while the 
 property of the monastic community should bear the costs of building the 
 corporate chambers for the monastery. This, however, could not well 
 continue. There was a call for a great general and united effort, to raise a 
 new and nobler Church, a Church finer than hitherto had been seen in the 
 north. And this second period of building followed at once after Bishop 
 William's return. 
 
 The work already done shews clearly that every thing had been planned 
 out in the minds of the two bishops as to the size and general dimensions of 
 the conventual buildings. The large square of the cloisters was obviously 
 arranged so that the older church of Aldhun might form the north side 
 of it. It has been vain to search for the foundations of this earlier church 
 inside the circuit of the cloisters ; the only building likely to be placed inside 
 the cloister-square was the lavatory, which stood inside, just opposite the 
 entrance to the loft and the refectory ; so that the brethren might have 
 their washing handy. And it also seems plain that even before the 
 foundations of the new Norman Cathedral were laid down the earlier church 
 was entirely cleared away. It is probable that for the protection and safety 
 of St. Cuthbert's body some temporary building was run up, probably inside 
 the cloister area ; but no traces of this have been found. So, in the 
 ninety-eighth year of Bishop Aldhun's Cathedral, it was levelled to the 
 ground in 1092. In the next year, in August, Bishop William laid the first 
 stone, and Prior Turgot followed with the second stone, of the present 
 
 21 " Rites of Durham," p. 87. 
 
26 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 church. Thus St. Carilef saw the beginning of this noble work, and 
 impressed on it his personal sense of power and greatness. He could have 
 seen but little more of it, for, being in the south at Windsor that winter, he 
 was seized with illness on Christmas Day, and after lingering some eight 
 days, he died on the New Year's day, 1095. They brought his body home, 
 and here he lies buried in the Chapter House, as Symeon tells us. 22 
 
 Bishop Ralph Flambard, King Henry's chaplain, who succeeded to the 
 bishopric, after a stormy time in the Tower of London and then in 
 Normandy, came to Durham, when peace for a while ensued between King 
 Henry and the Duke of Normandy. He began by putting an end to the old 
 compact between the bishopric and the convent ; for the pressure was great 
 to advance the huge fabric of the Cathedral Church ; consequently the 
 brethren gave up their own buildings, and threw all their strength into the 
 erection of the church. 2 3 
 
 Bishop Ralph at this time strengthened the whole hill-top of Durham. 
 In 1101 and 1102 he cleared off the huts on the Palace Green : " the piece 
 between the church and the castle, then covered by many little shanties 
 (' habitacula '), he converted into an open level field; and thus took from 
 the convent the risk of contagion likely to spring out of their sordid filth, 
 also of constant danger of fire." He also attended to the state of the 
 river banks, and built the Framwellgate bridge. For in his vigorous strength 
 Flambard " being driven by an impatient energy, passed rapidly from one 
 work to another." 2 4 
 
 Thus, for a considerable time, while the great church was growing, and 
 even reached the point of having a roof on the nave, the conventual buildings 
 were arrested. We have no evidence that any quarters for the Prior were at 
 
 ■ Symeon, Bk. IV, c. 10. "It was in King Stephen's day that the Chapter House was 
 completed : ipsius tempore capitulum monachorum consummatum est." Symeon. Contin., c. ii. 
 
 " Symeon, Continuatio, c. i. " Monachi enim, omissis officinarium aedificationibus, operi 
 ecclesiae insistunt, quam usque navem Rannulfus jam factum invenit." 
 
 24 Continuatio, c. i. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 27 
 
 this time erected, between the beginning of the century and the time, 
 more than a hundred and fifty years afterwards, when the Prior's Chapel was 
 undertaken. Yet there must have been some suitable chambers prepared 
 for him ; for the monks would never have begun by having his chapel 
 completed before due house-room was made for him. The earliest Rolls of 
 the convent do not begin till 1278, and there is no notice at all of any 
 buildings being undertaken in this long interval. Yet it is as good as certain 
 that even before this time the Prior had chambers of his own. Graystanes, 
 recording the affairs of 1258, tells us that the Commissioners of Bishop 
 Walter of Kirkham, coming to Durham on occasion of the request of the 
 Prior to be allowed to resign his office, entered into the Prior's Chamber, 
 and heard his reasons for it, and then and there consented to his resignation. 
 And the Account Rolls for 1278 show that there was glass in the windows 
 of his rooms. 2 5 Later on, in 1302, we are told how that during a quarrel 
 over the election of a Prior, Henry of Luceby, who had been nominated by 
 the King, and so had been forced on the monks, took possession of the 
 " Camera Prioris " for a time. Here, however, the opposite faction rushed 
 in on him, and drove him out ; and he fled, managing to carry with him, as 
 goodly spoil, all he could lay his hands on, cups and spoons, and other 
 vessels of silver, belonging to the Prior's estate. 
 
 Hence it is quite clear that the Prior, by the middle of the thirteenth 
 century was established in sufficient quarters, in which he might live 
 comfortably. It is not known whether or not he slept in the Dormitory 
 with his brethren. Such in early days had been the use ; as we learn from 
 the admirable monograph on Gilbert Crispin, which has been published by 
 the late Dean of Westminster, Dr. Armitage Robinson. 26 We learn from this 
 that in earlier days that great churchman, the Abbot of Bee, was in the 
 habit of always sleeping in the Dormitory of his convent with the brethren. 
 As the customs of the great monastery of Bee ruled also the Durham house, 
 it is likely enough that the Prior had here also his bed in the general 
 
 2 = "Account Rolls," p. 485. 
 
 - 6 Dean Armitage Robinson, D.D., " Gilbert Crispin, p. 6. 
 
28 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 Dormitory, and went duly at the proper hours with his brethren to the 
 Church. 
 
 These matters do not give us any knowledge of the growth of the Prior's 
 house ; we must pass from all speculation to the first fact we possess, namely 
 that about this time (the middle, let us say, of the thirteenth century) 
 the Prior's chapel was built, to flank the eastern end of the group of con- 
 ventual chambers. As to the date of it, all we can say is that it must have 
 been before the existing rolls, that is, before 1278. We must be content 
 with the present evidence of the style and manner of the building. 
 
 This chapel shows no ornament on the outside. It is built in the 
 early pointed style, which is usually called, with English presumption, 
 " the Early English period." It has been said that it was erected by Prior 
 Melsanby, whose priorate ran from 1233 to 1244. Of this there seems to be 
 no proof ; indeed, the probabilities are rather against it. For while 
 Melsanby, with his two clever master-masons, was engaged on the splendidly 
 ornate Nine Altars, that second and eastern pair of transepts for the 
 Cathedral Church, he would scarcely have consented to leave his own chapel 
 totally devoid of all ornament ; yet this chapel is simple and uninteresting 
 in plan and details, lacking entirely those special gifts which form the glory 
 of the Nine Altars. 
 
 Two things seem to be clear — that this was quite an early example of 
 the first pointed style ; and secondly that the priors of the first half of the 
 thirteenth century were not people who could expend either time or money 
 on such a task. In the days of Bishop Geoffrey Rufus (1133-1140) the 
 efforts of the convent were concentrated on building the Chapter House ; 
 somewhat later the Galilee had to be built, occupying much of the attention 
 of Bishop Pudsey ; here too, everything was still late Norman, giving little 
 hint of a coming change. In the days of Philip of Poiteux (1 197-1208) there 
 was a continual and somewhat violent quarrel between Bishop and Convent, 
 and a similar trouble reigned through the days of Richard de Marisco 
 (1217-1226) with a scandal even greater. It was not till Richard Poore 
 
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THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 29 
 
 succeeded (1229-1237) that these sore disputes came to an end, by the 
 agreement called " le convenit," a document often quoted in later days; it 
 was the ground of a better friendship, and the close of a long unseemly tussle. 
 Some time after this period, in which the Chapel could not well have been 
 built, came Prior Hugh whose heart was set on building, and more specially 
 on building chapels. He was Prior from 1258 to 1272 ; and in that period he 
 is recorded having spent " much for the preservation of his neighbourhood." 
 He has the credit of building the great central tower of the Cathedral, pre- 
 decessor of the present tower ; he also built the manor houses at Ketton and 
 at Wardeley, with a chapel to each of them. This tempts us to assume 
 that a man so handy at erecting chapels on his estates might have been 
 the actual creator of our Prior's Chapel at Durham. Unfortunately the 
 Scots destroyed these manor houses and their chapels, so that there is now 
 nothing there to be compared with the workmanship of our Durham Chapel. 
 Still it seems more than probable that this chapel was built by Prior Hugh, 
 and that the date of it would then be between 1260 and 1270. 2 ? The cause of 
 building such a chapel when the Cathedral was hard at hand may have been 
 partly Prior Hugh's fancy for creating these appendages to a noble house, 
 and partly that the prior, a wealthy and powerful dignitary, wished to have 
 his many retainers and dependents meeting him quietly for the worship of 
 God. The Cathedral was closed against all women and lay folk — it was the 
 monk's church — jealously guarded against all outsiders, lay -folk were never 
 welcomed into it. 
 
 This chapel is oblong in form, sixty feet longways and twenty-two feet 
 broad. It stands a little forward towards the south, at the east end of 
 the Prior's chambers. Built on a " camera voltis arcuata," a groined 
 undercroft still remaining untouched, the Chapel rose only to the level of 
 the other buildings. The crypt underneath was at first on the ground level, 
 
 2 ? It is worth noting that in 1353 the Prior had his own private chaplain, an officer, no 
 doubt, created for this chapel. ( "Tres Scriptores," p. xlvii). In 1510 there is an entry to the 
 effect that the Convent paid 2s. 8d. pro uno le surplece ex novo empto pro clerico capellae 
 domini Prioris." "Account Rolls," 661. 
 
3 o THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 though the earth has now accumulated in the usual way along the sides of it. 
 This crypt had originally two entrances, one in the west front under the main 
 doorway of the Chapel, the other corresponding to the Prior's door above, 
 close to the north-west corner of the building. It is in four bays of well- 
 struck groining, rising to a height of about eleven feet at the highest. For 
 the engaged columns on both sides are four feet eight inches long, with a 
 base underneath that is rather more than a foot deep, and a capital above 
 of about ten inches. So that from the floor level to the point from 
 which the groining springs is a height of a little over six feet. This 
 chamber was originally lighted on the south side by four well-marked arched 
 windows. These, however, after the reformation time, were altered into 
 square-headed windows, as if the incoming Deans had thought it desirable 
 that this should be used by their servants as a kind of sitting room. There 
 is still a small rectangular window in the eastern wall. There are no signs 
 of any kind of ornamentation about this crypt-like chamber. The groinings 
 of it support the floor of what was the Chapel itself. No trace of the 
 original chapel is now to be seen inside. It has been turned into two 
 storeys of pleasant rooms, three below, two being sitting rooms, and between 
 them a narrow place with a heavy seventeenth-century cornice and finish ; 
 while above there are two bedrooms and two dressing rooms. 
 
 Into the Chapel were two entrances. One from the south-east end of 
 the Prior's solarium, which is still of use for the westernmost sitting-room, 
 and the other entrance is a fine Early English archway in good condition 
 blocked up ; the sill of it is quite eight feet above the ground below. There 
 seem to be no features by which we can learn how worshippers entered into 
 the chapel. There is, indeed, a narrow cut which passes horizontally through 
 the two plain capitals of the pillars which support the arch above. Yet this 
 has no clear interpretation : for if any bar of wood or iron crossed the door- 
 way, it would make it only about four feet six inches high. The cut may 
 have been used to secure the railings of a wooden staircase by which the 
 servants and retainers could enter the Chapel. Still, there is no valid know- 
 ledge as to^the way by which this entrance was originally reached. The 
 
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THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 31 
 
 door exactly below it makes it all but impossible that there was a stone- 
 built approach ; nor are there any signs of a stone staircase left where it 
 would have joined the main building. 
 
 In the restoration of the conventual buildings, worked out some years 
 ago, and made into a very interesting picture by Canon Farrar and Mr. 
 Holt, an architect, this Chapel is drawn with a high-pitched roof. What 
 were the grounds on which this was done ? It certainly breaks the 
 uniformity of the rest of the roof-work ; for they all are flat, and no real 
 roof appears in sight at all. Still, it is hard to believe that this Chapel had 
 a pointed roof, for except at the two corners, there is no strong supporting 
 buttress on the south side ; and the weight of such a high pitched roof must 
 have pushed the wall out of the perpendicular. This wall for the first ten 
 feet, is the old wall unspoilt ; for traces of the ancient windows can be seen 
 in it. Above ten feet, when the Dean was making the rooms fit for family 
 use, he put in plain sash windows, and probably rebuilt the whole wall ; 
 though in truth there is no sign of any change of work visible. In the 
 original chapel there were many lancet windows of the " Early English " 
 make ; two on the west front, where curiously one is about a foot longer 
 than the other ; nor can any satisfactory reason for this variation be given, 
 unless, indeed, it was that the western doorway is not placed in the middle 
 of the front, but lies a good bit nearer the north wall (in which the shorter 
 window stands) than the south. There also still remain two lancets on the 
 north side towards the east end of the chapel : they are in that part of the 
 building that was not covered in the fourteenth century by the " camera 
 Prioris minor," the room formerly the Prior's " justice room," now the 
 Dean's library. This couple of windows show that originally the 
 lancets may have been in pairs on either side. At the eastern end we 
 can still see the remains of two tall lancets ; there is no indication that 
 there was ever a central lancet window. We now see there the insertion 
 of a square Tudor window near the top, together with some seventeenth- 
 century brickwork of a chimney, and other changes in that part of the wall 
 
32 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 by which formerly the altar stood. It is said that this Chapel was 
 dedicated to St. Nicholas. 
 
 The services said in this chapel were usually taken by that important 
 monk, the Prior's chaplain, who is shown by the Account Rolls of the house 
 to have been one of the abler and more trustworthy members of the 
 conventual body. The author of the " Rites of Durham " describes him 
 thus : " Dane William Watson, the Priors Chaplaine. The chaplaynes 
 checker was over the staires, as yow goe up to the Deanes haule. His offis 
 was to receave at the Bowcers (Bursar's) handes all such sumes of money as 
 was dewe for the bowcer to paie unto the Lord Priors use for the 
 maintenance of himselfe and expends of his whole howshold, and for 
 his other necessaries. The said chaplen was to provide for the Lord 
 Priors apparell, and to se all thinges in good order in the hall, and his 
 furniture for his table to be swete and cleane, and to se that every 
 man applied his office deligentlie, as it owghte to be done, to se that 
 no debaite nor strife to be within the house. He had in his charge 
 and keapinge all the Lord Priors plaite and treasure, as well in 
 delyveringe therof as receiving yt in againe. And also he was to 
 discharge and paie all gentlemen, yeomen, and all other servauntes and 
 officers of the Lord Priors house there wages, and to paie all other 
 rackninges of his house what so ever. His chamber where he did lye 
 was next unto the Priors chamber." 28 We find that in 1438 Dominus 
 John Oil, the then chaplain, received the money needed for the Prior's 
 holiday at Beaurepaire. 2 9 
 
 This passage from the " Rites " shows us that the approach to the first 
 floor of the Deanery, on which all the living rooms are situate, was the site 
 in the sixteenth century of the Chequer of the Chaplain, who was a kind of 
 secretary to the Prior. This room was over the stairs leading up to the 
 house. It is not possible now to identify this chamber. It might have 
 
 28 "Rites of Durham," Fowler's Ed., p. 101. 
 
 29 "Account Rolls," p. 71. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 33 
 
 been over either the stairs which led formerly to the Dormitory, or over 
 other private stairs near the present front door staircase leading to the 
 outer hall. Unfortunately, the statement that his bedroom was next to 
 that of the Prior gives us no hint as to whereabouts these two chambers 
 were. 
 
 We possess in the colossal Appendix to the Surtees edition of the 
 "Tres Scriptores."3o the following detailed catalogue of the furniture of 
 the Prior's Chapel , as it was in 1446 : 
 
 Two " cistulae," chests to carry vestments. 
 One cup, silver-gilt. 
 
 One " casula " or chasuble, in red velvet, broidered with many 
 crowned M's with a white velvet alb embroidered with I.H.S. 
 
 One vestment of gold cloth, with a stole maniple and corporal. 
 Two good vestments, one red, in gold cloth, the other in white 
 velvet, with gold stars and an orphray with figures ; with stoles, maniples, 
 linen palls, for carrying the elements, and frontals and corporals of the 
 same stuff. 
 
 Two cloths scevynde (should be steyvende), for the altar. 
 Two white cloths painted with symbols, for the altar. 
 Two white cloths for Lent, with red crosses sewn on. 
 Two towels hanging ready for the washing. 
 One Missal, which was formerly at St. Cuthbert's altar. 
 One pax-board, silver-gilt. 
 One bell, silver-gilt. 
 
 One " diurnale," probably a book for the day hours. 
 One breviary, to be carried about (portable). 
 
 One large breviary, formerly belonging to Prior John Fossor, with 
 silver clasps gilt. 
 
 One Psalter, with the story of Christ painted as a frontispiece. 
 
 3° "Tres Scriptores," p. cclxxxv, and No. (of Documents), ccxxxiij. 
 
34 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 A cloth in green, for a carpet before the altar, and coverings for the 
 footstools. 
 
 One cloth in blue, as an altar-carpet. 
 
 Four cushions in blue of Norwich-work. 
 
 Four striped coverings, green and red. 
 
 One new cupboard for books. 
 
 Two surplices for the Clerk of the Chapel. 
 
 One great chest with the royal arms, to carry things. 
 
 Four candelabra of latten. 
 
 We also find in scattered notices of the Account Rolls a few names 
 of things used for furnishing this Chapel. Thus in 1358 we have " paid to 
 J. Goldsmyth, for making a pair of cruets for the Prior's Chapel, with 
 silver work to complete them, and gold for their gilding, 17s. 8d." 
 In 1400 were bought four " bancours," or cloths of green, to cover the 
 benches of the chapel. In 1415, 1416, there is a payment of 4s. id. 
 for a picture of St. John the Baptist, and also 15s. for divers cloths 
 painted for the ornamenting of the altar ; in 1444 were paid 4s. for 
 two candelabra of brass, bought at York. In 1433 R. Wryght built a 
 large cupboard " almoriolorum " (no doubt the one mentioned above) on 
 which he appears to have been working " for sixteen weeks at 2od. a week 
 less a penny," and this, the account says, amounted to 26s. yd. : Medieval 
 arithmetic is always puzzling.3 1 This large bit of furniture was perhaps 
 adorned with what is called " poker work ;" the next entry on this 
 Computus is " pro duobus birnyng yrons, 2s." In 1418 a brass " situla pro 
 aqua benedicta " was bought for 5s. ; and at the same time a quantity of 
 blue cloth, no doubt for hangings, for 17s. 
 
 After the Reformation the Chapel probably remained untouched for 
 some time ; the first change in it being the square-headed Tudor window in 
 the east end. Presently (probably in the eighteenth century) the whole was 
 transformed into rooms. A floor divided it horizontally into two stories : 
 and these stories were made into habitable rooms, with ordinary and 
 
 81 Account Rolls, 711. R. Wright perhaps made The " Almery " for the Prior's Buttery 
 "infra capellam " (i.e., in the Chapel Crypt). 
 
aiiiigiiii 
 
 Dooruuay to Spiral Staircase in 
 Camera Inferior. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 35 
 
 convenient sash windows. In the lower floor there were two bright sitting- 
 rooms with a narrow closet between them ; and the upper floor became two 
 bedrooms with one dressing room, and a pleasant sitting room. In the rooms 
 below there are two interesting fireplaces with carved Italian mantels. 
 These indicate that these chambers underwent improvements in the 
 eighteenth century — when (probably under Dean Cowper) Italian workmen 
 were had in to ornament them with fine work. We know that more than 
 one gentleman's house in this neighbourhood was beautified with such 
 work at this time, specially in the ceilings. 32 Dean Cowper made very 
 considerable changes in the Deanery. 
 
 After the building of the Chapel we come on a time in which much 
 has to be left to conjecture. We can only say, as a certainty, that 
 the Prior's house must have been, in the main, the next work undertaken. 
 It must have been about this period that the rooms between the 
 Norman Undercroft and the Chapel were built. For the fine doorway 
 entrance into the ground floor has a very interesting and well-struck 
 arch of the early fourteenth century, while the flat-headed doorway 
 out of these sub-structures into the Centory garth is also of the 
 same period. The ground falls about three feet towards the east ; 
 then it seems to have been all in the form of a single chamber, 
 with a wooden roof, for the chief part of the surface. There runs 
 a broad wall from the Norman building eastwards, in which, on the 
 higher (or general living) story, a narrow passage has been cut out. The 
 main room on this ground floor was the living room of the Prior's servants, 
 corresponding with the Solarium above. And in the south east corner 
 of this room is the ancient doorway to a spiral staircase, which 
 communicates first with the Solar and then runs up to the roof ; the 
 entry to the Solar is still visible on the inside. The entrance to it is 
 a fine flat-headed doorway, with a bold rib running round it. It seems 
 likely that this was all built before the middle of the fourteenth century. 
 It was through this doorway that the Prior's servants used to come 
 
 3» As were Elemore House, Mrs. Wood's house at Coxhoe, and The Ford at Lanchester. 
 
36 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 up into the Solar on their master's bidding. Beyond this lower hall 
 there is a small dark room, probably cut off from the hall at some 
 unknown time, and beyond this a narrow passage which leads from the large 
 open space behind to the Chapel Crypt. Eastward of this again is a fair- 
 sized room, now fitted up as a laundry, and looking out with two windows 
 towards the east. Northward of this lie the remains of an ancient latrine, 
 probably specially attached to the Prior's use and chambers — and in the 
 north east corner is a large chamber lighted with a fourteenth-century 
 window — and now used as a coal-house. It has also an entry to the 
 latrine mentioned above. We know that the Prior had his own chambers 
 in the fourteenth century ; but as to the time when the solid part of 
 the residence of the head of the house was built our documents give 
 us no information. It is clear that both " the camera superior " and the 
 " camera inferior " were standing early in the fourteenth century. The 
 Rolls of the Bursar in 1412 onwards contain a number of items of work 
 done for the Camera Prioris ; and, earlier than this, we find in a roll 
 of 1407/8 that the Prior's " solarium," his sunny chamber, was already 
 in full use ; the only place in which a room entitled to this southern 
 description of a "room of the sun" could have been built, must have 
 been between the ancient dormitory and the chapel. In this roll there 
 are two items which bear on this point. " In solario Domini Prioris 6 pp. 
 (pipae) vini pretio 20/2, et pro 18 ollis diversarum mensurarum in eodem 
 solario pro vino imponendo, 24s." Then immediately after this entry 
 comes " Item in uno dorsol 33 et duobus costeris (hangings) in Aula Prioris 
 superiore et tribus costeris in Camera Prioris inferiore de Worsted paled (i.e., 
 striped worsted) pretio 100s." ; and in the same roll also this, " quatuor 
 boltes (i.e., rolls) de worsted pro costeris in studio Domini Prioris, 28s." ; 
 which must mean the present library of the Deanery. Thus it becomes plain 
 that at the beginning of Prior Wessington's active rule the present large 
 chambers above and below — now the Deanery drawing-room above, and 
 the now disused servants' hall below — were in use ; though there is no trace 
 
 33 Dorsorium : an ornamental cloth, hanging at the back of a seat, or in a chamber 
 or hall. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 37 
 
 as to the time when they were built. It is probable that Prior Fossor helped 
 to make them what they were before he died in 1374.- It may however be 
 that they were left by Fossor for his successor to complete. 
 
 We come next to study a building of great general interest, of which the 
 history is excellently provided for us by the Rolls. This is that remarkable 
 structure of a monastic kitchen undertaken by the Convent, under the 
 guidance of the most vigorous hand of Prior John Fossor. This is I believe 
 quite unique in two ways ; first because of the excellence of the design, and 
 secondly because it is the only early monastic kitchen in England still in 
 regular use. Yet before entering on this in detail we must record a strange 
 incident that occurred during the priorate of William Cowton in the Prior's 
 lodgings. We do not know where the Refectory of this house then stood, 
 unless we guess that part of the dormitory was used for the purpose — perhaps 
 what were then the southern bays of the great north and south building 
 which is still used as a dining-room. Anyhow, in 1333 Edward III, 
 being naturally very anxious about the threatenings and hostility of his 
 Scottish neighbours, came up north as far as to Durham, and as 
 his Queen's cousin, Bishop Beaumont, was then in a failing condition of 
 health, and may be was not a favourite with the King, Edward became 
 the guest of the Prior, and was lodged in his chambers. Graystanes, 
 who was then living in the monastery, was ever watchful for events 
 which he might place on record in his Chronicle of local things ; he 
 was therefore an eye-witness of whatever in those days occurred in the 
 convent. He gives us, in a separate little chapter of his book 34 a 
 brief account of a singular incident. On the Friday in Easter week, 
 1333, Edward III was taking his supper in the Prior's Chamber (it 
 may have been the Camera Superior, or some other room used by 
 the Prior for the purpose), when Queen Philippa suddenly appeared. 
 She had ridden over from Knaresborough (the Chronicler says " in one 
 day"), and being, as he adds, ignorant of St. Cuthbert's objection to 
 women, came in and joined the King at his evening meal. This done, 
 
 M " Scriptores Tres." p. 117. cap. xlvij of Graystanes' Chronicle. 
 
38 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 she being wearied by the long ride rose up, and told King Edward she would 
 at once go to bed to sleep off her fatigue ; and so she went to one of the 
 chambers, and was soon asleep, enjoying a well-earned rest. Before long the 
 King was told that one of the monks was desirous of addressing him, and he 
 being admitted assured King Edward, who appears to have been also 
 unconscious of St. Cuthbert's peculiarities, that if any woman were to sleep 
 within the precincts of the Convent, some dire plague or other mishap would 
 surely befall them all. And the King, either contemptuous or alarmed, at 
 once bade his servants to let the Queen know the risk she ran. So 
 they went, and found her peacefully enjoying her sleep. She, on being 
 aroused, seemed to be really frightened ; she jumped out of bed at 
 once, and throwing a cloak round her shoulders, fled from such a 
 dangerous couch. She passed through the college, and out at the 
 great gate, and so down the Bailey, till she came to the Castle entrance. 
 There she begged for a night's rest, and obtained from her kinsman > 
 the Bishop, such shelter as she needed. The offended Saint was satisfied, 
 no distress fell on the alarmed monastery or on her. The fact that 
 there were quarters in the Prior's house available for the use of the 
 King and Queen shows that the main part of the present Deanery had 
 already been built ; though it would be an idle conjecture were we to give 
 to any one of the chambers the name of Queen Philippa. 
 
 Prior Fossor had been a man of note for some time before he succeeded 
 in 1341 to the Priorate. In 1333 he had been summoned from the Priory of 
 St. Leonard's by Stamford, (one of the cells of the Durham monastery), to 
 Durham, in order to join in an election of a Bishop after the death of Bishop 
 Beaumont, that unworthiest of all those who have sat in the episcopal throne 
 of Durham. This election was an unfortunate affair ; for it was the cause of 
 a double appointment to the Episcopate. Two bishops of Durham lived 
 here for a couple of years. For this was the time of the election of that 
 most excellent man Robert of Graystanes, then sub-prior, a man loved for 
 many virtues, and of a humble friendliness with all. No one was ever 
 so much wronged, certainly no one ever bore injustice so well. Even 
 after Graystanes was consecrated and installed, the Pope and Edward III 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 39 
 
 insisted on thrusting into the episcopal throne their friend Richard of Bury, 
 who had no connexion of any kind with Durham. Bury had been very useful 
 to the King, and Graystanes in a meek and lowly spirit, though he had 
 been duly elected and consecrated, was fain to stand aside, although his 
 position was legally every way right, except that the King threatened 
 to refuse him his territorial rights. 
 
 Soon after this, in 1341, on the death of William Cowton, Fossor was 
 elected to be Prior, and ruled over the Convent with great success for thirty 
 years, beginning at the age of sixty and being ninety at his death time. He 
 had been the head of two of the cells ; and there was great pleasure when he 
 *was appointed. " A man of wisdom and of ready speech " he was styled 
 by the Chronicler of the time. We are told that during his rule he spent 
 £492, 7s. yd. on buildings ; a sum (if we would understand the meaning of 
 it) must be multiplied by about twelve times — so that it answers to something 
 like £6,000 in money of our day. We also learn that he constructed two 
 separate chambers, and had them both fitted with glazed windows. 
 One of the special marks of his zeal is to be found in the introduction 
 of fine glass-work. 35 Before the building of the great kitchen we find an 
 interesting item, it tells us that in 1340 or perhaps 1341, there was built 
 a new " Pentice," an open roofed way between the Prior's chamber and 
 the kitchen, which cost £6, 5s. 4d. This pentice probably ran on the 
 lines now followed by the closed-up passage which passes from the kitchen 
 to the Deanery hall. 
 
 Fossor was in his day a brilliant leader of his house. As a poet says 
 
 of him : 
 
 " Fuerat lux vera Sophiae," 
 
 he adds that he ruled " over the whole church with highest wisdom, being a 
 
 man of economy even in his huge expenditure in building." It is also 
 
 recorded of him, that he " was the first that ever attempted to be buried in 
 
 the church of Durham," though both Antony Bek and Beaumont lie buried 
 
 there : it must mean the first of the priors. One of the finest memorials of 
 
 35 Chambre, " Tres Scriptores," p. 132, puts his expenditure much higher: he gives as 
 the figure at £2076, 8s. lOJd., and that without counting in the cost of the kitchen. 
 
40 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 Fossor is the kitchen, which for five hundred and forty years has been in 
 continual unbroken use : in the earlier time it fed for the whole Convent, 
 from the Prior down to the youngest of the singing boys, and since 
 the Reformation, the Dean for the time being. It shows so much 
 compact firmness that it may last for centuries, as an example of the 
 structural skill and honest handiwork of our forefathers. We are fortunate 
 in possessing in the Account Rolls a fairly complete account of the progress 
 and cost of this edifice. For we have the reckoning of the whole account 
 between the years 1366 and 1371 ; for this period the Bursar's Rolls are 
 fairly complete. In the Roll for 1366, 1367, we see that the work was 
 advancing towards completion ; for in it we are told that the Bursar spent 
 eightpence (say eight shillings now) for a cord of twelve fathoms long, 
 " pro luminari novae coquinae." The same account gives us the sum then 
 expended. It runs thus : " In the costs of making the new kitchen 
 from St. Martin's day in 1366 to the close of the account, which in this 
 case was a year and a half, for labourers and quarry-men, for masons 
 and others, and other details of outgoing for this work, as is seen in 
 the Roll containing the conventual expenditure, £180, 18s. 7d., (that is, 
 in our reckoning, a good bit over £2,000). There must also have been 
 for it other considerable outgoings in addition. 
 
 This interesting roll is headed thus : " The account of John Beryngdon 
 of the moneys received by him and the outgoings for the building of the new 
 
 kitchen, from St. Martin's Day, 1367, to " (date left blank). It 
 
 probably means till the Account Roll of 1370, 1371, in which the last 
 item is, " For the cost of the making of the new kitchen from the 
 Feast of SS. Nereus and Achilles, 1370, to the same day, 1371, £198, 12s." 
 
 In these rolls the names and businesses of the men are given week by 
 week ; the master's name, we learn, was John Lewine, who, for a quarter of 
 a year, had a stipend of £3, 6s. 8d. — which seems to answer to £70 a year or 
 rather more. 36 We may obtain some notion of the importance of the work 
 
 36 In Canon Fowler's most careful and accurate Edition of the " Account Rolls 
 of Durham" (Vol. II, pp. 569-574) stands the account of this work, money paid out and a 
 few details, for a year and a half. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 41 
 
 by transcribing here the entry as to the implements that were bought or made 
 for the men. At that time they do not seem to have brought their own 
 tools. The Convent apparently provided them, and it is probable that when 
 they had used them, and worn them down, they were allowed to carry them 
 away as their own. The masons, bricklayers, and hodmen now have their 
 own special tools : long may they all keep them : for the ownership of tools 
 is the last personal element for our men in the workmanship of production. 
 
 The tool-entry runs as follows : " Minute Outgoings for Masons and 
 Quarrymen. For working 30 stone of iron into 23 axes for masons, and 
 25 puncheons, or punches, with chisels, 4 hacks {i.e., pickaxes), 2 picks, and 
 19 wedges, taking the stone to be at 4d., comes to 10s. ; and in the working 
 of 4! stone into steel for repairs and patching up of axes, punches, chisels, 
 picks, hacks, and large hammers, and for four stone worked into one crow- 
 bar, with 22 punches with chisels, four at id., with 4 ' hacks ' with steel at 
 different times, and for mending 25 wedges each at |d., and for two 
 crowbars at 2d., 5s. 4d. Then for sharpening 1800 masons' axes at 
 nd. a hundred, 16s. 6d. ; and for carrying sand for the pavement 
 outside the south door, I2d. ; with one lock for the door of the mason's 
 house, 2d., and for two carters of my lord the Prior for gloves and for 
 reward, i2d." 
 
 This entry is only for the quarter of a year : it gives us the impression of 
 a rapid piece of labour. We find, too, that some of the workmen, probably 
 men belonging to villages some miles away, had their food in Durham ; so 
 we find an entry, " in meat bought from the Cellarer for workmen having 
 their meals in the small house of the Bursar, and in the neighbourhood, 
 4s. iod." The total given for this year and a half is, £180, 18s. yd. The 
 total outgoing will be considerably larger than this, or than the amount 
 previously noted, £198, 12s. od. 
 
 The fine structure of this kitchen is due to the fact that it was not 
 meant to be a private building, but was intended for the whole community, 
 for the Prior, his visitors and officers, for the whole Convent body, and also 
 for the Guest-house. There must have been times when the cooks prepared 
 
 6 
 
42 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 food for from two hundred to three hundred persons ; it probably never 
 dropped much below two hundred mouths. For the Convent, as we see by 
 an enumeration made in 1510, had a body of officers and servants running 
 up to quite 90 or more ; to these should be added the Prior's suite, which 
 probably counted another score. Then of monks themselves, the roll runs 
 up sometimes to sixty-two, not counting in those in the different cells 37 ; and 
 finally an uncertain crowd of guest-house visitors, and others ; for every man 
 of note rested there for a few days, and brought with him such a suite of 
 men as made the travelling, through Robin Hood's wood-world, safe for them. 
 
 Such was the work expected from the new kitchen ; let us describe 
 the place carefully, for, as has been said, it is quite unique. It is an 
 octagonal building. 3 8 At the top of each of these eight walls, at the angle 
 of their junction, was placed a plain corbel, from which spring two groining 
 arches, segments of a circle, descending each on the fourth corbel from the one 
 from which it started. Thus from each corbel two groinings go quite round 
 the building. These of course intersected the other groinings ; and so create 
 eight beautiful arches, sharp pointed, while at the top an open space is left, 
 which forms a louvre, with open windows for smoke to wander out, and for 
 fresh air to force a way in. It seems to suggest the use of a central fire ; 
 though there is no sign of any such wasteful way of expending fuel. The 
 openings of this louvre were not filled with glass till 1507.39 For there was 
 plentiful ventilation without these openings ; for each of six of these eight 
 sides has a chimney ; the easternmost side is the entrance from the yard, 
 leading to the College, and the westernmost side was formerly an entry, 
 handy more especially for the Guest-house, and for the chamber and 
 exchequer of the Cellarer, who lived just outside the kitchen. Of these six 
 
 37 In 1448 the numbers are given : There were, in the House at Durham, 33 monks and 
 two novices, 35 ; in Finchal, 9 ; in Jarrow, 2 ; in Weremouth, 2 ; in Holy Island, 3 ; 
 Lytham, 2 ; St. Leonard's, 2 (and Stamford also), making, in all, 55. 
 
 * To this it should be added that in these days of the fourteenth century the 
 lavatory of the brethren was a similar octagon, rising just inside the cloisters at the 
 corresponding place ; so that these two buildings seem to have been meant to flank the 
 buildings and the refectory. 
 
 39 "In factura novarum fenestrarum in summitate coquinae." "Durham Account 
 Rolls," p. 105 ; Cellarer's Roll, 1507-8. 
 
Groining of the Kitchen 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 43 
 
 chimneys one was used as a close-room for curing hams and bacon ; one has 
 now the Deanery cooking-stove, over which formerly was placed the fan of a 
 smoke-jack. Part of this apparatus for cooking whole animals, or at any 
 rate huge masses of beef and mutton, still remains. The other sides show 
 remains of fireplaces of different kinds ; on the south front there is still the 
 oblong iron pot or receptacle for boiling whole fishes, with a small fireplace 
 under it ; this can still be used. The edifice is striking in the novelty and 
 boldness of the treatment. It has also a most picturesque set of roofs, as 
 is seen by the accompanying sketch by Mr. Footitt. 
 
 We are also very fortunate in having in the Rolls a minute account of 
 the equipment of this important side of monastic life, as well as an enumeration 
 of the food to be supplied for cooking. 
 
 The Cellarer's Roll here used is dated 1481, and is called a " status 
 officii, " a summary of implements, food in hand, etc. 
 
 For the kitchen, it says, " 51 platters, 36 dishes, 38 salt-cellars, nine 
 chargers or large dishes, made of electrum, (a sort of brass-stuff) ; 34 platters, 
 36 dishes, 24 salt-cellars of electrum ; 260 platters in wood, 218 dishes in 
 wood, one brazen mortar with two iron pestles, wherewith to " bray the 
 spices," 2 stone mortars with 3 wood pestles, one great " brandreth " 
 {i.e., a tripod set on the hearth to carry a pot or frying pan) ; one small 
 brandreth, 3 pair of racks, two pairs of cob-irons, two roast irons, 
 8 long iron-spits, 3 smaller spits, 13 big brass plates, 2 brass chafing 
 dishes, 2 large jars fixed in the fire, 2 large jars for the cooking of 
 meat, 8 brass jars, 5 iron pots to boil things in, 3 vessels of auricalc, 
 {i.e., brass of some kind), to draw wine with ; 2 iron frying plates, 
 2 pot-clips (said to be instruments for lifting pots off the fire), one 
 flesh hook, one coal-rake, one wooden shovel (such as are still used 
 by bakers), one common shovel, one wheel-barrow, 3 cressets, (being 
 stones with holes in them to burn fat in), one ' sae ' or ' soe,' a two-eared 
 tub (to be carried on a pole), two cans for milk, one scoop (a basin 
 with a handle to lade out water), two meat tubs, one pipe, and one 
 tub in the pastry-house (there being a room for this purpose hard 
 
44 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 by the kitchen), one bolt-cloth (for sifting), 9 tables, or boards, for 
 dressing meat ; two strainers, one iron tripod for frying, 7 iron bars for 
 the big tripod, one gallon measure made of wood, for measuring honey." 
 
 "In the Flesh Larder: 2 leaden cisterns, 9 steeping tubs, one flesh-axe, 
 two dressing knives, two chopping knives, one slicing knife, one salt box, 
 23 dressing boards, 24 carcases of oxen salted, one ox carcase powdered 
 (with salt, no doubt), one sheep powdered ; 6 wooden chargers." 
 
 " In the Fish Larder : 5 steeping tubs, 3 other tubs, 2 steeping barrels, 
 one barrel with fat, two barrels for keeping the fat, one barrel of salted 
 salmon, one barrel of oil, one dressing knife, two chopping knives, one 
 strainer or colander, one pair or ' weez ' {i.e., weights, or wooden scales), 
 with their weights, two dressing boards, two stockfish hammers, one great 
 wooden charger, two wooden bowls." 
 
 " In the Store House : 1500 red herrings, 60 stock-fish, 330 dog-draves 
 (apparently cod-fish)." 
 
 " In the Slaughter House : six fed oxen, one flesh-axe, one dressing-knife, 
 3 head-stalls, 5 stands (?), two cradles or crates, one pipe with a 
 lock to keep fat in, two ' saes,' one leaden vessel, one tub, one hollow 
 vessel, two iron-forks, and two flaying-knives." 
 
 In a Roll of 1477, 1478, we find payment of i6d. for " uno molitorio 
 pro coquina," a quern or handmill. 
 
 These then are the properties with which the Convent kept their large 
 company supplied with food. It was rough and plentiful. There are also 
 entries as to the buying of delicacies, got in for some prince or notable 
 person who condescended to become a guest of the House. Entries also as 
 to presents, often in the form of 4d. or 2d. " for the bearer." The staple 
 food was salted and kept ; the entry of beating hammers to soften the 
 tough stock-fish tells us how the cooks tried to make this hard stuff 
 eatable for the brethren. We do not find in this northern house so 
 frequent a purchase of mustard and other spices, as we find in some 
 southern houses. The monks had somehow to make their hard food 
 palatable. 
 
55 
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 M 
 
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 55 
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 K 
 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 45 
 
 One more point of detail : in about a.d. 1752 Dean Cowper, who was 
 adventurous in changes " put in two handsome Gothick windows into the old 
 octagonal kitchen on the south side facing the college." These windows are 
 still the chief source of light for the servants working in this ancient 
 building.-* 
 
 The fine architectural book published near the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century by Mr. Billings'* 1 gives an architect's drawing of the 
 groining of the roof of this great kitchen ; Mr. Carter also does the same. 
 
 This remarkable octagonal chamber is between 36 and 37 feet of 
 diameter ; the lantern above is fourteen feet across. It had also considerable 
 flanking structures on the east and west sides, these were rooms 
 connected with the different offices of the convent. Some of them on the 
 east side have been altered, and adapted for use, with a larder below and 
 two little bedrooms above ; these are comparatively modern ; we can trace 
 on the wall above the place where a larger building was joined to the 
 outer wall of the kitchen. The adjuncts on the west side were absorbed 
 into Canon Wellesley's house, which was half in and half out of the ancient 
 Dormitory running from the kitchen of the west end of the church. 
 
 Mr. Billings has given us a good account of the kitchen ; I quote it 
 here in full. " The Dean's kitchen was erected by Prior Fossor. Its singular 
 and unique groining is illustrated here (Plate 74), where, for the sake of 
 showing its form, the vertical vanishing-point is used. The frame-work 
 consists of eight half-circular ribs, each extending over four sides of the 
 octavo ; the space left within their intersections being converted into a 
 lantern, most probably for ventilation, as all the food of the Convent was 
 cooked here. It is lighted by two long windows on the south side, and 
 excepting the blocking up of its fireplaces, and the erection of modern 
 fittings, it has not otherwise been altered. "42 
 
 40 Probably Dean Cowper, endeavouring to make a better approach to the Deanery, pulled 
 down the large porch erected (Rolls, p. 711), for the considerable cost of ^8.0.0. 
 
 41 Billings' "Durham Cathedral," p. 50, and plate 74. 
 
 42 Carter, p. 42 and plate 55. 
 
46 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 The Treasurer's Exchequer was " a little stone building " between the 
 kitchen and the Deanery : there was also, besides this exchequer-room, a 
 new larder ; as we may see from the entry in the Rolls43 " In expensis circa 
 novum Scaccarium et lardarium juxta novam Coquinam, xiij/z 3d." These 
 were built, as the Roll tells us, before 1371. On the West side of the kitchen 
 were two considerable chambers, which were given up to the uses of the 
 cellarer and his exchequer. These occupied the position afterwards held by 
 Canon Wellesley's house. 
 
 This was by no means all the work undertaken and carried out by Prior 
 Fossor in his own house. It was at this time that a noble room was either 
 built or rearranged for him, when the earlier dormitory of the monks was 
 abandoned for the new building parallel with the west side of the cloisters. 
 The Account Rolls keep us well acquainted with the building of this new 
 dormitory, which is now the finest room of the Cathedral Library. The 
 earlier dormitory was inconvenient in position ; it was too near to the 
 Chapter House, not near enough to the Cathedral, for men who had to 
 attend the services twice or thrice each night ; it also hindered the 
 convenient expansion of the house of that great territorial magnate the 
 Prior. So that by day the Prior, and by night the Convent, both wanted 
 a change. 
 
 Consequently, at the close of the fourteenth century, when Prior 
 Hemingburg was in command, a new task was undertaken by all the 
 wealth of the Convent. There are many items in the Rolls of different 
 Obedientiaries which show how every part of the House contributed to this 
 part of their buildings. The inventory of it is dated 1398 44 ; this was 
 followed by a second inventory in 1401.4s The work went on during these 
 four years ; and on the west side of the cloister, just outside of it, rose 
 now over the " Early English " Undercroft a magnificent chamber about 
 180 feet long, with a splendid roof still perfectly sound, which, more than 
 a hundred years ago, the ill-omened Wyatt had all but persuaded the 
 Dean and Chapter to pull down as barbarous and unsafe. 
 
 « Fowler, "Account Rolls," p. 577. 
 
 « This is printed in the Appendix to the " Tres Scriptores," No. clxxx. 
 
 1 " Tres Scriptores," Appendix, p. clxxxvij. 
 

 r 
 
 y 
 
 iUJtms ^<i£^*./f«t«fyShf£>**- - *&* &J~ 
 
 
Present Hall. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 47 
 
 The whole of the building of this new dormitory was completed in 1404 ; 
 and the brethren then migrated with great satisfaction from their old quarters. 
 Their new sleeping chamber had the advantage of the western sun, to warm 
 it from end to end, and it had also an entrance, broken through the 
 Cathedral wall, from which a wooden staircase led the monks into the south- 
 west corner of the Church ; they had now no need to pass through the wintry 
 air on their way to service. The abandoned dormitory was passed over 
 to the Prior, who made it a very fine hall and refectory with a fine oak roof 
 throughout. It was lengthened to the north, by taking in the older 
 entrance chamber above the stairs out of the cloister, and these steps now 
 fell into disuse and ruin. 
 
 The two main rooms of the Prior's house were now in full use, as 
 the Camerae superior et inferior, before the large dormitory was added. 
 Since the days of Deans, this dormitory has been divided in two ways, 
 longitudinally and horizontally ; for it is now made into two rooms, the 
 inner hall to the south ; and the dining-room to the north. And this part 
 of it, thanks to the need for servants' rooms in a Dean's family instead of a 
 celibate Priors, has had a ceiling introduced, with a fine oaken work, made of 
 plaster, which still deceives the unwary. The original oaken roof, which 
 shews in the Hall, is hidden away under flat plastering in the bedrooms 
 above. The original height of this hall or dormitory was at the south end 
 forty feet ; and after about ten feet of floor there come five steps, which 
 raise the rest of the floor about three feet and a half. This is due to the 
 fact that the hall is built on the ancient Undercroft, the Norman arches 
 of which require the flooring to be nearly four feet higher than the rest 
 of this first-floor part of the house. On the east side of the hall there shows 
 the outline of an ancient window. It was square at the top, and had two 
 mullions supporting some simple perpendicular tracery, much the same as 
 that which shows in the great South Window. Under this window is the 
 doorway, still in use, which by four steps leads down to the passage 
 towards the eastern rooms. In convent days it was the way to the latrines. 
 These windows of the Priors' Refectory are high up in the wall, being 
 about thirteen feet from the floor. 
 
48 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 The western wall of these two rooms was built in the days of 
 William Rufus. It contains the much later perpendicular window, blocked 
 up, but plainly to be seen from the cloisters, with two mullions and a 
 transom across the window ; there is also an early (blocked up) round- 
 headed window of the Norman period. This western wall forms the 
 support of both the roof of the Hall and Dining Room on the eastern 
 side, on the western side it forms the eastern wall of the ancient 
 Monastic Refectory, now part of the Cathedral Library. This Chamber, 
 left to itself after the dissolution of 1541, 1542, was rebuilt by the care 
 of Dean Sudbury late in the seventeenth century. It is probable, almost 
 certain, that Sudbury placed in the present hall that beautiful specimen 
 of fifteenth century panelling, which forms the main glory of the 
 Hall. It is fine work throughout, varied in character, wit!) many lovely 
 specimens of late perpendicular tracery. It shews much ingenuity in the 
 adaptation of it. On the north wall of the present Hall three tiers of 
 carved work are placed, one over the other, so as to reach a considerable 
 height ; it thus enables the making of a tall door-way into the modern 
 dining-room. This carved work was from time to time clumsily 
 replaced by sham shiny work in painted putty or plaster. This is 
 now all gone ; for our skilful Cathedral carver, Mr. Joblin, has 
 replaced all the old carving, with oak-work so well fashioned and carved 
 that no one can detect any difference between the old and the new. Two 
 at least of the older carved heads of panels had to be redone entirely ; and 
 Mr. Joblin has well reproduced the old traceries. 
 
 There is a doorway between this hall and the ancient Refectory of the 
 monks, so that the Prior could join them, if he thought well, at their meals. 
 My predecessor, Dean Lake, having Dean Stanley with him as a visitor, 
 asked him to go and see the Cathedral Library through this hidden door ; 
 and the story runs that when Stanley with astonishment saw this entrance 
 to the library opened before him, he caught at the Dean's arm, exclaiming, 
 " Oh ! Lake, if I had known of this, I would not have said No." It seems 
 frcm this tale that Queen Victoria had been desirous of conferring the 
 Deanery of Durham on the man whom she, and all who knew him, esteemed 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 49 
 
 and loved for his infinite goodness and brightness and affectionate character. 
 This must have happened not long after Dean Lake's appointment to the 
 Deanery, vacant by the death of Dean Waddington in 1869. 
 
 That these halls were all in full use in the fifteenth century is made clear 
 by the Bursar's Rolls of 1417-1419. In these he tells us that the Prior's 
 " Solarium," his sunny room, was then inhabited. In fact the only place 
 on the site of the present house which could have been so named, by reason 
 of the south aspect of it, must have been the chamber between the ancient 
 dormitory, which we have but now described, on the one side, and the Prior's 
 Chapel on the other side. 
 
 In the Rolls just mentioned we find two items bearing on the early 
 existence of these rooms. " In Solario Domini Prioris 6 pp. 4 5 vini pretio 
 xxli ; et pro 18 ollis diversarum mensurarum in eodem Solario pro vino 
 imponendo, xxivs." and then, later on, " Item, in uno dorsol^ et duobus 
 costeris47 in Aula Prioris superiore, et tribus costeris in Camera Prioris 
 inferiore de Worsted paled-t 8 pretio 100s. ;" and again we have " Quatuor 
 boltes 4 9 de Worsted pro costeris in studio Domini Prioris, 28s." This 
 Studium D. Prioris was in all probability the room which is now the 
 Dean's Library and study. so 
 
 Thus it seems quite clear that at the beginning of Prior Wessington's 
 active rule the two large rooms, above and below, for the Prior and his 
 friends on the upper story, and for his retainers on the lower, were already 
 in full use, though the Rolls do not enable us to give the date of their 
 building. We may assume that John Fossor saw them completed before 
 his death in 1374, though it is quite possible that they were left for his 
 
 45 i.e. Pipes. 
 
 46 Dorsol or Dorsorium is an ornamental cloth hung at the back (dorsum) of 
 a seat or of the wall of a Hall. 
 
 4 ? Costera is simply a hanging drapery of a wall. 
 
 48 Worsted paled is striped worsted, so named from a village in Norfolk. 
 
 49 Boltes seem to be rolls of stuff. 
 
 50 The Roll of 1432, 1433, contains several acknowledgements of work done for 
 the Camera Prioris. 
 
50 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 old friend and comrade, Robert of Berrington, who succeeded him as 
 Prior, and ruled from 1374 to 1391. Throughout all Fossor's time 
 Bennington had been engaged on the improvements carried out by that 
 great Prior. 
 
 These rooms were, at a later time, altered by introducing larger 
 windows, having perpendicular tracery and square heads. Of this tracery 
 there still remains an example in the building, though it is all but hidden 
 from sight, in the west wall of the Solarium, just above the now existing 
 outside hall. Having been concealed by the more modern work, it has 
 happily escaped the murderous eye of the eighteenth century. It remains 
 untouched by the " restorer," and shows us how the large room was 
 lighted, when it was still a superb Hall. A restoration of it, as it was 
 before plaster roof and sash-windows, is placed opposite this page. 
 
 This upper chamber is really roofed by a magnificent ceiling 
 of carved oak unfortunately hidden. Of this fine work one bay, the 
 easternmost, is still visible in the passage-way to the smaller rooms 
 in the ancient Chapel. This portion of the Solarium was cut off from 
 the rest in order to make a comfortable access to the eastern chambers 
 without passing through the large drawing-room. And this high roof 
 still exists unspoilt, over the whole of the large Solarium. This 
 was unfortunately "modified," they all thought it greatly improved " for 
 living purposes " in the course of the eighteenth century. For at 
 the west-end of the room, just below the oak-ceiling, and above the 
 modern plaster, there still remains the painting of a coat-of-arms, which 
 identifies itself as the work of Dean Spencer Cowper (whose wife was Lady 
 Dorothy Townshend ; her arms are duly impaled on it) . Now Cowper 
 was Dean from 1746 to 1774 ; and these dates shew that the plaster above 
 was after 1746, and probably before 1774. He may have done it. To a 
 gentleman of that period the carved roof was uncomfortable and out of date . 
 genteel taste condemned it, and the inexorable law of fashion, which did us 
 so much havoc in the Cathedral and elsewhere at the close of the century, 
 led here to the concealment of the fine roof by an alcove of whitewashed 
 
Drawing Room. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 5i 
 
 plaster. The windows also were modernised, and became self-respecting 
 sashes. It must be granted that the smooth roof helps towards warmth ; 
 it is also good for sound ; and the new windows, being placed some two to 
 three feet lower down, enable us to look out into the garden: The original 
 windows were flat-headed, their labels can still be traced on the outside. 
 They were early Tudor work, probably with two mullions ; the heads of 
 them were ornamented by late perpendicular tracery, just indicated on 
 the restoration drawing given above. There are now no traces left in 
 sight of the doorway by which the retainers came up into the Solarium 
 
52 
 
 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 from the room below ; it is however still seen plainly on the inside of 
 the spiral staircase. 
 
 There is one entry in the Rolls bearing on this fine Hall.5 1 I give it 
 here as a puzzle. " Etiam solutum pro lxx Tyldestone pro le hurdesse in 
 magna camera Domini Prioris, i6d." Now tyldestones are certainly stones 
 of thill, that is, " bottom-stones of a coal seam," a hard clayey sandstone, 
 very suitable for paving purposes, and as they run to a considerable size, 
 these seventy stones may have been meant for a new floor for some 
 part, or for the whole, of the hall. This does not explain what is meant 
 by la hurdesse, which is translated to be " the enclosure of some sort ;" 
 as if it was the marking off by hurdles of some division of the hall. 
 It seems a hopeless explanation. 
 
 The " Camera inferior, " which was directly under the upper Hall, 
 was a dining-room and living-room for the Prior's domestics. Here, too, the 
 windows have been changed, enlarged, and fitted with sash-frames ; 
 movable, and convenient for light and air. In the south-east corner of it 
 is the door that leads to the spiral staircase, now no longer useful for the 
 drawing-room, but very convenient as an easy way of getting out upon the 
 leaden roofs of all these chambers. The doorway is interesting ; it has a 
 
 * "Account Rolls," p. 657. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 53 
 
 well-worked moulding all around it, giving it a character of finish not enjoyed 
 by the other doors of the same type. I am told that this flat-headed and 
 shouldered doorway may be as old as the thirteenth century ; though in 
 this particular case the moulding tells us (so architects say) that it was done 
 much later than that period. There are in the house two other flat-headed 
 doors, both in this lower storey ; and there is also one beautifully struck 
 archway there also, as one passes from the Norman Undercroft to the later 
 rooms on a lower level. This archway is probably of the fourteenth 
 century, and belongs apparently to the time when these rooms were built. 
 
 This room, about 1899, ran a formidable risk of ruin. At that time the 
 choir-boys, during repairs, &c, going on in their school-room in the College, 
 were having their lessons daily in the "Camera inferior," going to and fro 
 to the house in which some of them lived. One day in going to or returning 
 from their playing-field one of the lads, probably to get hold of a ball which 
 had run into one of the gullies which empty the rain water off the Prebends' 
 Bridge into the Weir, thrust his hand and arm into the gully, and drew out 
 not his ball but a handful of dynamite cartridges. No one knows how they 
 came there ; perhaps left there by some miner and forgotten. These 
 cartridges the boy gave to his friends among the school-fellows ; and the 
 Headmaster, hearing of them, told the lads that they were too dangerous 
 to be a plaything, and made them give them up. One boy, however, kept 
 one in his pocket, till it became at last uninteresting to him. Then as he 
 went out from the Camera he pitched it into a heap of coal and coke kept 
 there for heating the furnace by which the Deanery is warmed. In due 
 time the old man who had charge of the fires unconsciously shovelled the 
 cartridge with a lot of coals into the hot fire, of which he had at once 
 closed the iron door. Most fortunately he moved away at once to get more 
 coal ; for the dynamite quickly exploded with a great noise, and blew out 
 the door of the furnace with such force that it smashed the doorway in 
 the outer wall of the house leading into the garden. The cistern of hot 
 water was ruined, the solid walls cracked. No one was hurt, the old man 
 badly scared ; and the whole place somewhat wrecked. It did not seem to 
 
54 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 do any mischief to the room above ; though the noise of the explosion 
 resounded all through the house. 
 
 In the one important chamber yet to be described, the Dean's library 
 and study, we have an interesting proof of the existence of this part of the 
 house at an early time. One day as I was copying out a legal document 
 of the year 1343, to be incorporated in the " Remains of Bishop Bury " 
 to be published by the Surtees Society, I became aware that I was 
 actually writing in the very room in which the legal case had been tried 
 at that date. For the document carefully describes the chamber in 
 which the matter was being heard as " Prioris minor camera," and adds 
 that it was built up against the Chapel. Now, this is the only chamber 
 in the house that is built having the north wall of the chapel as one of 
 the walls of it. This same room is mentioned in two documents of the 
 fourteenth century now preserved in the Cathedral Treasury. 
 
 In the earlier of these two documents (dated nth March, 1343) the 
 Prior, sitting in judgement in this " lesser chamber," heard the inhabitants 
 of the ancient burgh of Durham, as to their use of St. Margaret's chapel ; 
 and granted them leave to have their services there, to bring thither 
 their babes for baptism, and to have their marriages solemnised therein ; 
 and he adds that, this chapel being only an annex of the mother-church 
 of St. Oswald, this privilege should not be taken to grant anything that 
 might prejudice the rights of the Vicar of the mother-church. 5 2 In the other 
 document the Prior gives his judgment in the private chapel itself ; it 
 is interesting, as it provides us with a description of this eastern 
 chamber. The document speaks of the chapel as "juxta et prope minorem 
 Cameram Prioris. "53 The Prior was then granting leave for the foundation 
 of a new religious house, at Laysingby, by John of Lytlegraynes and 
 Alicia his wife. 
 
 s 2 "Richard of Bury," (Surtees' Society), cxix, p. 167. 
 
 5! Given in " Richard Daungerville of Bury," (Surtees Society), cxix, p. 173. 
 
Dean's Library. 
 
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THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 55 
 
 This " minor camera," the present Deanery library, was lighted by two 
 fifteenth-century windows, flat-headed ; this is to be seen from the accom- 
 panying drawing made by Mr. Surtees of Mainsforth. This sketch, so kindly 
 lent to me, was taken from the garden of what was then a Canon's house.54 
 The eastern front of the Library was rebuilt, from the point of junction with 
 the ancient chapel to the old buttress which supports the wall and roof, 
 a distance of eighteen feet, with new windows and, beyond the buttress, a 
 new doorway in the window, with a stone staircase leading down into the 
 garden. This is well shown on Mr. Footitt's admirable sketch of the north- 
 east corner of the house. This new work is in nineteenth-century gothic, 
 very hard and sound and plain, giving good light into a working-room. 
 It also appears from Colonel Surtees' sketch, made apparently by his 
 grandfather the author of the great History of Durham County, that in 
 the beginning of the nineteenth century there was an entrance into the 
 lower storey on this east front, as well as a low arch, connecting the 
 entrance with a considerable modern room shewing a gable and window 
 towards the east. 
 
 In the north wall of this " lesser chamber " there was formerly a doorway 
 leading into the room at the North-east angle of the house, which is 
 now styled " King James' room." One may fairly guess that this corner 
 room was the sleeping room of the Prior, or possibly some smaller chamber 
 in which he held conversations, &c, with visitors. 
 
 We may feel sure, as this eastern chamber was then in full use, 
 as well as the two main rooms, the Solarium, and the servants' hall 
 under it, that a great amount of work would have to be done in 
 all of them from time to time. Thus, in 1414, the Bursar enters a 
 charge of us. 2d. for a thousand " spones," or shingles, for the roof 
 of the Prior's chamber, and in Wessington's days (1416-1446) a large 
 sum had to be spent, as is recorded, on repairs. The entry in the 
 
 54 This sketch was found in a MS. volume at Mainsforth, and is given here by the kind 
 permission of Colonel H. Conyers Surtees. 
 
56 
 
 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 Rolls is as follows : " For the construction and repairs of various 
 chambers belonging to the Prior with their appurtenances, 419/1, 
 10s. 3d. ob. This is one of the heaviest payments in all the Rolls ; it 
 seems to prove that some of the rooms of the Prior's house were being 
 
 Sketch of TrActrf 
 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 57 
 
 built ; perhaps it may be that the rooms on the north side of the house, 
 between the " King James' " room and the great hall, or Refectory of the 
 Prior, and behind the latrines, were then constructed. 
 
 On Wessington's death in 1446 we find an interesting summary of the 
 rooms, etc., of the Prior's house in the Account Rolls. From this we can 
 see how complete it had become. The catalogue of them runs thus : — The 
 Chapel, the Wine Cellar (no doubt, as now, part of the Norman Undercroft), 
 the Upper Chamber or Solarium, the Lower Chamber under it, the Hall, 
 the Promptuarium or Storeroom, the Chamber under the vault (that is the 
 crypt or Undercroft under the Chapel), the Wardrobe, the Refectory, the 
 Kitchen, the Granary, and the Bursary, together with certain stables. The 
 four rooms mentioned last were no doubt rooms common between Prior and 
 Convent. It will be seen that the rooms at the back, the " King James' 
 room," and that which is now a visitor's sitting room, are not noticed. Now 
 the easternmost of these was certainly in being before Prior Wessington's 
 time ; for there is on the north wall of it the remains of an interesting 
 window in the " first decorated " period — that is, of the fourteenth century. 
 A sketch of this window, with a restoration of it, accompanies this page. 
 It gives light still to the Undercroft under King James' room, under 
 which is the great cesspool or receptacle for all the ancient latrines now 
 closed up ; it is described later on. 55 
 
 Prior Wessington in his long rule over the Convent was a very vigorous 
 head. He has left behind him a remarkable MS., working out the legal 
 rights and privileges of the Prior of Durham. In this, among other things, 
 he appears to have given to that chief officer of the house the right and duties 
 of an archdeacon, at any rate over a limited portion of the Palatinate Diocese. 
 He writes, " Jura et privilegia Archidiaconatus Prioris in ecclesiis suis," 
 as if he meant thereby to secure to the Prior the Archdeacon's authority 
 and position over the Convent livings in his charge. 
 
 55 p. 68. 
 
58 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 We find in the Cathedral Rolls for 1379, I 38o,5 6 that £4, 17s. iod. were 
 spent by the Convent " circa ordinationem Novae Aulae pro Camera Prioris ;" 
 so that it is plain that the Prior succeeded at once to the enjoyment of the 
 ancient Dormitory, now that the brethren had shifted their lodgings to the 
 new building on the west side of the Cloisters. Later on, in 1431, 1432,57 
 there is an entry, " super facturam novarum camerarum Domini Prioris ; 
 et in stipendio Johannis Power, Kervour, operantis ibidem per xix septi- 
 manas ad diversa pretia super le Sylyng de le Parlours 8 et Camerae Domini 
 Prioris." 
 
 This gives us, finally, all the knowledge we get from the documents as to 
 the construction and keeping of the Prior's House ; by this time he had 
 annexed all the chambers his dignity might seem to need. We also have in 
 the Rolls some account of the payment by the Prior, (or, more probably, 
 by the Convent, for they, not he, paid the bills), for furnishing these fine 
 rooms. In the general inventory of 1446, at a time when (as the document 
 tells us) there were 49 monks, " expectantes Monachi moram trahentes,' 
 as it says with a half-mournful recognition of the slow waiting for death ; 
 these forty-nine were all residentiary in the Convent, while there were above 
 thirty more settled in the cells attached to this great house. The occasion is 
 taken to give a full description of the furnishing of all the chambers, from 
 the Prior's Chapel downwards. The Chapel furniture we have already given, 
 nor need we here delay over the interesting account of the jewels possessed 
 by the House, with their silver vessels and implements. 59 Let us pass on at 
 once to the description of the furniture of the " Camera Superior." First, 
 a bed with hanging curtains, rugs, canopies, and two counterpanes, of blue 
 say (or serge) all of one colour ; there were striped hangings, covering the 
 walls, the stripes being dark blue and light ; then one canopy, one dormond 
 
 s 6 Fowler's " Account Rolls," p. 589. 
 
 57 Fowler's "Account Rolls," p. 710. 
 
 58 It is probable that this work on the ceiling gives us the date of that most beautiful work 
 in the ceiling of King James' room, which may have been the parlour or Locutorium. 
 
 59 These are given in full in the " Tres Scriptores," pp. cclxxxvi, cclxxxvij. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 59 
 
 (the meaning of this unknown, it may be the frame-work of a bed, from L. 
 dormire) the upper part being blue, with roses in the corners ; a pair of new 
 blankets, a pair of linen sheets, one cushion or pillow, with the four 
 Evangelists in the corners, one blue bed with a rug, on which leopards, 
 pelicans, and trees were woven ; also two pieces in blue, for a seat or a 
 " cancellus," two pieces of cloth, to be laid on benches, striped dark and 
 light blue ; ten cushions of blue say ; one pair of large knives, containing 
 each four pieces, with silver-gilt handles ; also, one pair of three knives, the 
 handles whereof are of ivory, and in part silver-gilt. 
 
 For the Camera Inferior there is an echo of the above. First a similar 
 bed, with curtains of blue in two shades ; one canopy, one large " dormond " 
 with IHC carved in the corners ; this shows that a " dormond " was made of 
 wood. A pair of new fustian blankets, and another pair of blankets ; one 
 pair .of linen sheets, a pillow of which the upper part is in greenish-gray ; 
 another pillow with a two-headed eagle ; also, a good bed with a rug, with 
 trees and pelicans inwoven in divers colours ; also, five cushions of blue 
 say ; one blue piece for the " cuppborde of say " ; also a table of spruce 
 wood with leaves ; also, for another bed there a feather-bed, a "dormond," 
 a pair of blankets, a pair of linen sheets ; one bed in white with a rug 
 showing trees and wreaths inwoven. 
 
 In the Chamber under the vault, one canopy, one dormond, one pair of 
 blankets, one pair of linen sheets, one pillow, one bed with butterflies 
 inwoven ; also, a piece of blue-stuff to cover the seat ; a pair of hand 
 irons, or fire-dogs ; also a poker and an iron shovel. 
 
 To these the Inventory adds — for the Hall, one dorsal or hanging 
 cloth, in six pieces, with St. Cuthbert's birds on it and the Arms of the 
 Church ; two pieces of blue stuff embroidered with wreaths with the words 
 " Deo Gratias," with two pieces of blue stuff without embroidery. Six 
 cushions with crowned lions and an inscription " De le Roi " ; seven 
 cushions, four of one set three of another, and three platters of auricalc 
 (brass, that is, of some kind), and three basons for washing; two of these 
 are at Bearpark, the Prior's favourite country-house. 
 
60 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 In the Prior's Refectory we find, first, thirteen gilt cups ; twelve of these 
 have covers, one not ; then two cups ungilt, with one cover ; a piece on a 
 foot, having a cover with an eagle atop, a piece with a cover standing on 
 four gilt angels ; also four plain pieces which formerly belonged to Richard 
 Hesswell, 60 having each a cover with a broad knob on it, engraved with his 
 name ; two plain pieces with two covers ; six plain pieces, formerly belonging 
 to John Fisheburn ; eight plain pieces of different makes ; also six beaks of 
 different patterns, also thirteen beaks with two lids, also one large deep 
 piece which formerly belonged to Thomas Gretham ; also twelve antique 
 beaks, in the charge of John Dale ; also three cocoa-nuts with three silver- 
 gilt stems, of these one has a lid. Also 211 silver spoons of diverse work and 
 weight ; also two silver vessels, each holding one pottle (or four pints) ; two 
 silver viols gilt, and three salt-cellars of one pattern, four silver salt-cellars 
 of divers patterns ; twelve silver dishes with the letters Re.F. along 
 the border ; five silver doblers 6l ; eleven salt-cellars of divers fashions ; 
 twelve platters and two chargers in silver, with a crowned R. on them, 
 with the arms of Walter Skirlaw, a gift from Richard Hessewell ; one 
 mazer with a gilt foot, called " Herdwyke," having d lid ; another 
 mazer for the High Table in the Refectory, with a lid ; a cup called 
 " Beda " ; thirteen great and broad mazers, with one lid, three of them 
 mounted on stems and feet ; thirty-three common mazers, and one cocoa- 
 nut, with two coverings or lids. 
 
 For the kitchen this is the enumeration : — Two salted carcases of oxen, 
 worth each 6s. 8d. ; at Beaurepair 115 oxen and cows, worth each 6s. 8^. ; 
 at Rilley 22 cows and one bull, 314 sheep of different ages, worth 14^. each ; 
 two sows and a boar. In store of fish, 36 dogdraves (cod), worth 12s. ; 
 and 1200 salt herrings. In spices, seven dozen of pepper, three dozen of 
 almonds, one ' copil ' (couple of baskets) of figs and raisins, two dozen of 
 rice, two pounds of dates, one quarter of ' saundres ' (of red-sandal wood for 
 
 60 This is the fifteenth century monk, the great slab over whose body was transferred in 
 1543 to the Church, and still lies over the bones of St. Cuthbert and St. Oswald's head. 
 
 61 " Doblers " or dishes in silver are probably the L. Lat. Duplarium, given by 
 Dnncange as a " mensura liquidorum," and used for wine-measures. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 61 
 
 colouring purposes), one quarter of saffron, two dozen of raisins of Corinth 
 (the genuine Currants), and two pounds of cloves. 
 
 This is the furniture of the usual round of life of the Prior. His 
 Refectory, which at last became a stately chamber for his use, furnished to 
 give hospitality to all his guests, large and small, lies north and south, from 
 the Chapter House out buildings to the open south. In the fifteenth century 
 it appears that the windows of it were enlarged or remade. The south 
 window was rebuilt in 1476, as we learn from an entry in the Bursar's roll of 
 that date. 62 " Solutum Thomae Shawden pro nova factura duodecim pedum 
 et dimidii in magna fenestra Aulae Domini Prioris, ad 2d." The breadth 
 of this window is now eleven feet six, or rather more ; the three mullions of 
 it count for about a foot and a half, or nearly so, so that Shawden's 12J feet 
 will have been ample for the glass of the whole window which is somewhat 
 higher than it is broad. And the Bursar in his Roll for 1482, 1483, enters 
 yet another charge, for " divers windows," so that it seems that not only 
 the large south window, but the other perpendicular windows were now 
 refitted, so as to carry throughout the Hall the taste of the fifteenth 
 century. " Solutum Thomae Shawden pro operatione 34 pedum diversarum 
 fenestrarum vitrearum, viz., Aulae Domini Prioris, Refectorii, Dormitorii." 
 The roll does not state the cost of this, still the items show that the whole 
 house was protected with glass at this time. 
 
 It is interesting to note the fact that the usual flooring of rushes also 
 went on : " pro Aula, Camera, et Capella Domini Prioris, et pro Refectorio " 
 (i.e., of the Monks) in 1419, 14s. gd. Thus, then, the lordly house was 
 complete, in buildings and furniture, early in the fifteenth century. 
 
 After it came into the hand of Deans, who had to arrange for children 
 and servants, these chambers suffered loss. For the convenience of modern 
 life this fine Hall was sub-divided ; a thin partition turned it into two 
 chambers, a hall and a large dining-room ; while the latter lying towards 
 the north had a floor thrown over it, and three bedrooms for servants 
 were created above it. Over this room there is a handsome looking 
 ceiling, imitating worked oak ; it is naught but plaster. The dining- 
 
 62 "Durham Account Rolls," Vol. Ill, p. 646. 
 
62 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 room has four modern windows. In older days, when it was the 
 dormitory of the Convent, there used to be an entrance on the north-side of 
 the chamber, just above where come the outside steps, communicating with 
 the cloister. The staircase and landing must have made the room shorter 
 than it is now. This staircase, ten or eleven feet wide, runs under the north 
 end of the present dining room ; and no doubt led up to a platform, as the 
 doorway must have been at right angles to the steps. This large doorway 
 has left no trace ; the present room runs to the wall of the southern 
 premises of the Chapter House. 
 
 The dates of the ceilings of these rooms, three of them being of the 
 fifteenth century or earlier, cannot accurately be ascertained. John Power, 
 " Kervour," was certainly the carver who did much of this woodwork ; he 
 was at work on it from 1431 to 1433. In the Roll which gives us this fact, 
 there is also a reference to the roof of the present library. For it reads, 
 " In stipendio R. Wryght et aliorum operantium super dolatione meremii pro 
 parva camera Domini Prioris, 10s. 2d." It is not known, unfortunately, 
 when the ceiling of the King James' room was put up : it shews signs of a 
 juncture across the middle of it ; so that it has been suggested that it was 
 originally the roofing of two rooms, transferred thither at some later time. 
 Still, no other rooms in the house are of dimensions that would take the two 
 parts of this ceiling. It is now certainly the most remarkable work of art 
 possessed by the Deanery. It is religious in tone throughout, as will be 
 seen by the carved bosses. There we find the i b C on one ; on another 
 the Lamb and Flag ; on another the cognisance of the Prior and Chapter, 
 on another a chained hart ; then a most interesting boss, with three 
 rabbits nibbling at fruit ; another has a heart at the crossing of the St. 
 Andrew's cross ; the crown of thorns ; the fieur-de-lys ; and the flag of 
 our dear Lord's resurrection. On one there is the Tudor rose, which seems 
 to indicate the date of the work. There runs round the chamber a most 
 exquisite brattishing. Everywhere there shines conspicuous the taste, 
 reserve, and skill of an artist. The whole is in beautiful condition, 
 excepting some part of the delicate brattishing, which has suffered. There 
 is no weakness in it ; the main circular bosses shew great ingenuity and 
 freshness ; there are exquisite floral designs, deep cut and varied. The 
 
Bosses of the Ceiling of King James* Room. 
 
Arms of the Bishopric 
 (or See of Durham). 
 
 Prior Castel's Badge 
 
 I^^RtfHMItM^H^MMl f 
 
 VM 
 
 %v 
 
 
 i 
 
 mat 
 
 Ef 
 £ 2 
 
 Cornice (or brattishing). 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 63 
 
 repetition of the roses shows that it was done about the days of Henry 
 VII. The boss that shows Castel's token, the sword piercing the heart, 
 proves that it was done in the time of Prior Castel (a.d. 1424-1519). 
 
 One is tempted to think that one of the splendid workmen of Somerset 
 or Devon had found his way to the north, though indeed it may be older 
 than much of the superb and lavish ornamentation of those south-western 
 rood-screens. The room was certainly attached to the " parva Prioris 
 camera," which had been built before the middle of the fifteenth century. 
 For it has a doorway through the south wall of it, leading into that camera. 
 
 The following items probably refer to the carving of the ceiling of the 
 King James' room. " In stipendio Johannis Power, Kervour, operantis 
 ibidem (i.e., in cameris Domini Prioris) per xix septimanas ad diversa pretia, 
 super le sylyng de le Parlour et Camera Domini Prioris, 37s. If we 
 may assume that this reference to the Camera and the Parlour indicates 
 the combination of the two rooms, we shall find here an earlier date for 
 this fine carved work ; this Roll is of the minerals (chiefly coal) dated 
 1431, 1432. 
 
 The story of this room must conclude with the one historic event which 
 tradition tells us, and in this case truly, took place in this fine chamber. In 
 1603, King James VI of Scotland " receiving intelligence of the most 
 plausible passages to the enlargement of his Stile and Dominion, prepared 
 himself thitherward, and upon the sixth of April came to Barwick, thence to 
 Newcastle, Durham, Yorke, Doncaster, Newarke, Burleigh, Roiston, 
 Theobald's, and thence to London upon the seventh of May. In all which 
 places he was most royally and joyfully received with all demonstrations of 
 truest loyalty, love, and obedience, which was no lesse benignly accepted 
 of his Majesty. " 6 3 At Durham the coming King slept for one night at the 
 Deanery ; and this chamber was his bedroom. We have no other 
 historical facts to state as to this sojourn of the King. The archives of the 
 Cathedral do not appear to contain any notice of his fleeting visit ; it 
 is plain that King James did not wish to present himself to his people 
 before accepting the English crown in London. 
 
 « Speed's "History of Great Britain, 1615," p. 1240. 
 
64 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 The roofs of this chamber, of the Solarium, of the Refectory, and even 
 of the Library (parva camera) deserve a special study. There was also a 
 similar roof or ceiling to the great chamber of the retainers, above the 
 Library and King James' room. The springs of the greater joists still 
 show on either side ; the room must have run from the Chapel north wall 
 to the end of the house northwards. None of this roof is now visible ; 
 for that beloved plaster ceiling in white covers all. The subject demands 
 more time than I can give, and more knowledge and skill than I 
 possess ; something might be made out of it, from the way in which the 
 chamfered sides of the main joists are stopped when they reach the 
 wooden corbels on which they -rest. 
 
 The most interesting chamber in the present Deanery is perhaps the 
 inner hall, which was made, after the Reformation changes, out of the 
 southern part of the ancient Dormitory of the brethren. It took the present 
 shape and dimensions towards the end of the seventeenth century, when 
 Dean Sudbury, who was appointed directly after the restoration (1681-1684), 
 set himself to restore and appoint these parts of the buildings. When he 
 undertook to deal with the Prior's Refectory (which was the earlier 
 Dormitory of the monks) he also restored the chamber by the side of it, 
 to be used as a part of the Cathedral Library. This was then in a 
 ruinous state : it had been the Frater-house of the monks, and when 
 they had to depart in 1542, all seem to have regarded it as a useless 
 structure to be left to fall to pieces as it would. 6 4 In the Restoration 
 Sudbury undertook it ; rebuilt the walls, placed in them seventeenth 
 century windows on both sides, north and south, and covered all 
 
 0J There was a dangerous tendency in the sixteenth century to allow all old things to slip 
 into decay. We can see this also in Hegge's " Legend of St. Cuthbert," said to have been 
 written in 1625 : " If this be true, he says, then sure am I that St. Cuthbert's books had twice 
 better fortune in the sea, then they have now in his librarie at Durham, which once was a little 
 Vatican of choyce MSS. but now rather a Bibliotaphion than a librarie, rather a sepulcher of 
 books than a place to conserve them. For since the arte of printing was invented, whereby 
 men could attaine, after a more cheap and easie way, to some superficial learning, old MSS. 
 were straight bequeathed to the moths ; and pigeons and jackdaws became the only students 
 in Church libraries ; the books wounded for their pictures with as great crueltie as Cassian or 
 Johannes Scotus Erigena martyred by their scholars." 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 65 
 
 with a plain flat roof. He then furnished it with some fine bookcases, 
 with convenience for students to read and write. At this time he 
 doubtless also cleared the lower part of the walls of all that very 
 beautiful and varied panelling in oak, the glory of the present hall. It is 
 of a good, rather late, perpendicular type, and may have been done for Prior 
 Castell, whose badge and symbol, the winged heart pierced through with the 
 sword, can be seen in one of the little coats of arms which break the monotony 
 of the large south window of the hall. On the north side of this fine chamber 
 is a thin lath and plaster wall, which separates the dining-room from the 
 hall ; here the panel is in three tiers. It was a strange device for covering 
 these walls, but singularly successful, as may be seen from the adjoining 
 photograph. Either in Dean Sudbury's day or later, a spirit of church- 
 wardenship must have entered into some Dean ; for he allowed broken 
 parts, or missing ornaments, to be " made up," sometimes with plaster or 
 sometimes with putty, coloured with paint, so as to deceive the 
 eye. This has now been replaced, as has before been said. In the 
 "Rites of Durham" the writer, describing the Frater-house, speaks of 
 the wainscoting of it with carved wood ; " two yards and a half in 
 height, this wainscot hath engraved on the top of it ' Thomas Castel, 
 Prior, a.d. 1518, mensis Juki." So, as he adds, " it is plain that Castel 
 did wainscot the old Frater roundabout." The Rolls give us some 
 small facts about the Hall. In 1440 16s. were laid out in buying two 
 rolls of say or serge ; these were then dipped and stained in colour, 
 then 6s. 3^. were paid for making up this material into draperies or 
 hangings, as well as for repair of tapestries or cloths which were already 
 hung round the Hall ; also they paid for comfortable cushions for my 
 Lord the Prior. " In emendatione dorsoriorum et le qwisshyng Aulae 
 Domini Prioris." These draperies are described in one of the Rolls 
 thus : " One of such dorsoria (dossals), was in six pieces, on which 
 were worked in pattern St. Cuthbert's birds, and the armorial bearings 
 of the Church : there were also three pieces of ' blodium,' blue stuff, 
 embroidered with " Deo Gratias," as if Bishop Fox had had a hand 
 in putting them there. Besides all this, and apparently distinct from 
 
66 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 the furnishing of the Guest House, there were for the use of the 
 ' Hospitium Prioris ' silver vessels, jars, smaller pieces of silver, large 
 goblets, candelabras, salt-cellars, spoons, to the value of 186/i, us. 8d." 
 
 One of the windows belonging to the fifteenth century in the Hall can 
 still be traced above the Cloisters ; another, quite blocked up, remains 
 in the present Hall, just above the doorway leading to the east of the house. 
 This window must have been blocked up early, as the buildings have 
 covered it completely. We know also that the south window was made 
 in 1341 by Prior Fossor. It now has in it, or rather, on it fastened by 
 wires only, ten little coats of arms, or tokens, partly of personages connected 
 with this house or Diocese. 6 5 Of these the most interesting is the token of 
 Prior Castel, for the Hall owes much to him : it is a winged heart pierced 
 through with a sword. 
 
 The Hall had also a buttery attached to it, in all probability on the 
 south west side. In 1430 we find that R. Wryght was paid 2s. yd. for making 
 lockers in " Butria 66 Domini Prioris." It was, no doubt, a kind of Butler's 
 Pantry ; the word is also written " Butellaria." 
 
 There are a few entries which seem to belong to this great Refectory. 
 Thus, in 1432, 1433, the expenses include work at .the Prior's chambers ; 
 making a Gargola or Gurgoyle, a spout, and mending the roof of lead over 
 them ; it came to 12s. 2d. William the Glazier was occupied in the next 
 year making a bay-window ; there is no such window now in existence. 
 The entry is " Willelmo Glasyer pro factura de le bay-wyndowe." 
 
 There was also attached to the Prior's Refectory, or to his kitchen, a 
 room for making pastry ; thus, in 1474 to 1478, " pro nova constructione 
 unius Pastehouse juxta ostium coquinae ; " 6 7 and certain other small 
 
 65 These ten glass emblazonments are arranged in three groups, four in the first, four in 
 the second, and two in the lowest line ; they contain (reckoning from east to west) : Top row 
 1, St. Oswald ; 2, Bishop Hatfield ; 3, The Dean and Chapter ; 4, Prior Castel. Middle, 
 5, St. Edmund, King of England ; 6, Ella, King ; 7, Wulphere, King of Mercia ; 8, Cerdic, 
 King of Wessex. Lowest : 9, unknown ; 10, Edwin, King of Northumbria. 
 
 66 A Butria was a place for butts or bottles, cups and goblets ; bulla or bytta is L. Lat. for a 
 Cup. The Butler is the Cup-bearer. 
 
 6 ? " Durham Account Rolls," p. 94. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 67 
 
 things were done. Thus, four trellis windows were bought for the kitchen 
 at the small cost of 8d. It is probable that the cooks found the 
 open louvre-windows in the octagon above too windy for their work. 
 Two door-posts for the slaughter-house, which must have been quite 
 close, were set up ; and rather later on comes the addition of two 
 troughs in the same for the oxen ; then comes the shaping and flagging 
 of 29 'fother' (cart-load) of flat stones for the "pigs-garth," "in orto 
 porcorum " ; for a wall between the wright-garth and the swyn-garth, 
 plainly two outside buildings of the Abbey ; then, for two men who 
 "trilled out," (that is, drilled) openings for the making of windows; 
 for mending and raking out the joints of the kitchen walls ; for flagging 
 the goose-house, and the seething-house ; for making one le spoute 
 between the Pandoxatorium {i.e., the Brew-house) and the pigs' garth. 
 They also had made for i6d. a " molitorium," probably a quern or 
 handmill for the cook ; they also paid i2d. for lez Soteltez to be made for 
 Christmas Day ; these were cunning devices in pastry and confectionery, 
 representing divers subjects, historical or allegorical, and often carrying an 
 inscription on them. And, happily, they laid out 3d. " pro purgatione 
 coquinae." These little matters may sometimes have been for the whole 
 convent, rather than for the Prior's comfort. Still, they help towards our 
 knowledge of the way of life in the fifteenth century. 
 
 We still have to go through the remaining features of the Deanery ; 
 they will not take us long. At the back of the Solarium, or Upper Camera, 
 there now runs a long high and narrow passage, leading from the inner hall 
 to the eastern parts of the house. The creation of this curious and narrow 
 passage (only three feet three inches broad) indicates to us that the time 
 had come when it had grown inconvenient or unpleasant to make all the 
 main rooms of a house passage-ways towards the chambers beyond them. 
 For by this narrow way the servants and the visitors can reach all the eastern 
 parts of the house, its main living and sleeping rooms, without disturbing 
 any one who might be in the larger drawing-room. This passage was 
 made over or through the original latrines of the Convent ; for these began 
 hereabouts, and were therefore most handy for the first Dormitory of 
 
68 
 
 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 the brethren. There was a considerable amount of work done carefully in 
 this respect in the Norman days. There were sensible vent-ways upwards, 
 which still give some light to the passage ; and the drains ran from west to 
 east underneath the house till they reached a square chamber, underneath 
 what is now the coal cellar under King James' room. This Norman reservoir 
 was a chamber some seven to eight feet square, built of stones worked 
 Norman fashion, placed against the eastern wall of the house, and 
 approached by a trap door. From this place everything apparently ran 
 outside the house. It has a semi-circular arched roof, clearly Norman, with 
 
 (North) 
 
 GROUND PLAN. 
 
 a rebec) ' ' , Trap 
 roof ', 1 1 door 
 ■i i i ' 
 
 BASEMENT PLAN 
 
 SECTION A. A 
 ( looking North) 
 
 ^TTnr 
 
 »)/»»>r»n////tf'!i 
 
 ^r 
 
 SECTION E.E. 
 ( looking £ast) 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 69 
 
 one arch running from North to South, this is flanked by two smaller 
 semi-circular arches at right angles. It is all built in Norman work in 
 stone ; on the eastern side of it was a doorway now blocked up ; and 
 there was also a semi-circular arch above, over the main part of it. 
 
 Mr. Hills, in his valuable paper on the different parts of the Deanery, 
 describes this passage, and adopts the view that it was made at some time, 
 probably in the seventeenth century, by partly quarrying through the 
 broad wall which forms the back bone of the whole edifice, and partly through 
 the ancient latrines which lay along this line. The wall of the Solarium must 
 have been nearly, if not quite nine feet thick. " On the upper floor," Mr. 
 Hills writes, " it has been hollowed out to form a passage way down its 
 whole length, a work which, whenever it was done, was, I have no doubt, 
 facilitated by the previous existence in it of the narrow recesses and shafts 
 of the latrines, which would descend unto the principal sewer of the Prior's 
 house." If this is so, and it seems not unlikely, the main part of the house 
 is really supported on the south and the north by the remainder of that 
 massive wall standing firmly on either side of the passage. Even now we can 
 trace underneath the habitable rooms, the existence of one such latrine, with 
 an eastern window blocked up. On the south wall of the approach to this 
 little " secreta camera Prioris " there still remains an interesting feature, being 
 about the size and shape of a church piscina, save that it has no escape 
 hole for water, after the manner of a piscina. It has a ledge of three facets 
 of a little octagon, standing out into the passage before the little chamber 
 is entered. This " secreta camera " apparently had two approaches, 
 one from the dark stairs which descend from the lobby above to the 
 place where coals are kept ; and the other approach is through a doorway 
 in the coal-room itself. It is a dark and deep place, and the mystery 
 of it has naturally created the common tradition that here was the 
 entry to that secret passage, which tradition boldly says passed under the 
 Cathedral, and after that under the Wear, and so made its obscure way, 
 in all quite four miles, to Finchale cell. This legend, common to many 
 monasteries, has surely originated out of the modern notion that every active 
 monk was always longing for adventures, and fashioning for himself some 
 
70 
 
 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 secret way of escaping from the monotony and strictness of the Benedictine 
 rule. One can dismiss the matter by saying that it is a late tradition, 
 entirely devoid of foundation. 
 
 Mr. Hills appears to have thought that the " minor camera " was built 
 by Prior Fossor, and that he had attached two latrines to it. Yet it is 
 perfectly clear that this chamber was used as a sort of justice room before 
 Prior Fossor's day, as we have already shown. 
 
 To the north of this long and narrow passage lie two rooms, a small one 
 to the east, which now serves as a dressing room for visitors who use the fine 
 King James' room as a bedroom, and a larger chamber looking out upon the 
 rebuilt Chapter House, a quiet sitting room for friends, whether they smoke 
 or not. It has in it an interesting made-up chimney piece. In this chamber 
 in 1891 the bones of St. Cuthbert with the head of St. Oswald were solemnly 
 kept for ten days, till a suitable oaken coffin for them could be made ; they 
 were then restored to their due resting place in the platform to the east of 
 the Neville Screen in the Cathedral. 
 
 It now remains for us to look at the upper rooms over this chamber of 
 King James I, and over the Dean's Library. Mr. Hills tells us that the upper 
 rooms have "no claim to antiquity." Yet there is a 
 good ground for holding that he is here mistaken. 
 For the footings of the elbows for the joists of a 
 broad ancient roof remain on both sides ; shewing 
 that originally the two rooms and their two dressing- 
 rooms were all one spacious chamber. In the 
 eighteenth century this was rearranged by running 
 a passage way along the western wall of it, in which 
 the footings of the oak roof still can be seen ; by this 
 passage the three upper rooms of the chapel-building 
 can be reached. It seems that this large chamber 
 must have been the quarters of the retinue and 
 servants of the Priors. There is the same work on 
 the mouldings of the support of the main joists here 
 as there is in some of the downstairs chambers. 
 They are stopped in the same way, for example, 
 
 Spring of Ceiling of 
 Retainers' Hall. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 7i 
 
 as are those of the " camera minor," the Library underneath, and 
 this seems to show plainly that the same builders and masons worked 
 at both these parts — as indeed it is but natural that they should 
 have done. The wooden roof of the Hall is not so worked ; that part 
 of the Prior's quarters is of an older date. 
 
 Dean Spencer Cowper, a vigorous man of means, with a quite modern 
 taste for eighteenth century notions about building and decoration, in 1748 
 or 1749, " pulled down an old part of the Deanery, next the garden facing the 
 south, and rebuilt the same in a handsome manner ; he also altered and 
 improved (as such "things were then called) some of the appartements behind 
 the great room." This description of his work clearly refers to the staircase 
 leading from the front door to the outer hall. No other modern work exists 
 on the south front of the house, and even 
 here the changes were small ; there still 
 remains a little fifteenth century window in 
 the old eastern wall of this part of the place. 
 It is now blocked up, yet it still shews that 
 it had been well cusped in the arch of 
 it. So that it is plain that Dean Cowper's 
 modern things meant only a better staircase, ■ 
 with a circular window in the wall of it, and 
 probably also the outer part of the hall 
 above, with late sashed windows. 
 
 The rooms at the back of the " Great 
 Room " are in their present state quite 
 modern ; though there were clearly some 
 rooms in old times here also. They were at 
 least recast, as to windows, doorways, etc., 
 in the eighteenth century. They now form 
 a dressing room for King James' room ; a 
 smoking-room, and a little lavatory. All 
 these lie along the northern side of the long 
 narrow passage. 
 
72 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 Here we reach the end of this long description of the history of this 
 interesting house. It remains for us simply to draw out, as can be done 
 from our ancient records, a picture of the chief of the ancient convent, the 
 Prior, with Abbatial privileges, head of this fine monastery of the Benedictine 
 order. Here, as elsewhere, this group of men, devoted to their true lord at 
 Rome, came in with the Norman lords ; they seized the strategic point of 
 every city they made or occupied ; they drove out the easy-going canons 
 with their wives and families, replacing them with the celebate company of 
 determined monks. By this they made many Cathedral churches to be in 
 spirit and in form ecclesiastical fortresses, garrisoned by a grim force of 
 militant churchmen, well-ordered, and ready to be led to victory by some 
 strong abbot or Prior. Compact they dwelt under the shelter of these noble 
 churches, " half church of God, half fortress 'gainst the Scot," in which 
 they wielded the two-edged sword of temporal and spiritual authority. 
 
 Most, however, of the changes that befel this old house of Durham were 
 due to the general changes in life. No longer was the House the lodging of 
 some fine celibate prince of men, with his many officers and retainers at 
 call, and in command of a body of monkish warriors, fighting sometimes with 
 prayers, sometimes with curses ; it was now to become the house of 
 successive married men, who with their wives lacked many conveniences 
 not dreamt of before. For they had children and servants to lodge, and 
 the stately conventual house bowed to these modern needs. The old 
 dormitory, which had become the Prior's Refectory, was cut in two by a lath 
 and plaster wall ; over the northern part of it was thrown a floor, so making 
 bedroom above ; and it was now thought indecorous to pass through the 
 living rooms to the bedrooms ; so that smaller changes followed, by which 
 an ingenious passage made a way to the eastern chambers of the Deanery. 
 The old Prior's chapel was turned into rooms ; the large western door 
 was left inaccessible, and fresh approaches made to it. This went also with 
 the deplorable modernising of the great Solarium ; more than ten feet of it 
 was cut off to make a passage outside ; and in this gangway fortunately it 
 was not thought necessary to conceal the noble roof. The triumphant rule 
 of modern plaster and whitewash was not pressed on so far. The same period 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 73 
 
 that saw these sad " improvements " also saw the creation of a nearly 
 square pantry, built against the ancient wall of the Hall, and over the 
 entrance to the cloisters. There is a record that " the Deanery was very 
 much improved by Dr. Comber, the late Dean, who built a new apartment 
 to it. 68 This pantry however bears not his coat of arms, but the shield of 
 Dean Waddington, who was a large builder, both here and at the east 
 end of the house. 
 
 It is now time that we should turn our attention to the occupants 
 of this ancient house. One cannot attempt any sketch of the sequence 
 of the Priors, who for five centuries were in command here ; still less 
 would we give a description of the Deans during the last three hundred 
 and sixty years. 
 
 It must be enough for us to work out from our plentiful Rolls the 
 picture of a great and dignified Prior, very powerful as a feudal noble 
 or gentleman who was also (in theory at least) a humble monk. To 
 attempt this has now become possible for us, by the valuable help of that 
 singularly accurate and painstaking editor of the " Durham Account 
 Rolls," our dear friend, Canon Fowler. Without his large work and 
 labours of many years what could have been done ? He has made it 
 easier for us with his work in three volumes issued by the Surtees 
 Society, the pagination of which runs up to 1056 pages, with also 
 an index and introduction, placed of necessity at the end of the whole 
 work. With this in hand, the work has been made fairly easy. For 
 the Rolls are a mine of curious inconsequent interesting facts, all brought 
 into our eyesight by the loving work of the faithful editor. Out of 
 the loose diggings from this mine let us endeavour to create a living 
 Prior of olden days ; to pourtray his condition and estate at the 
 days of his highest lordliness. We shall clearly see that we are dealing 
 with one who was a man of a dignified religious standing, for he was 
 the head and ruler of an ancient corporation, always firmly bound to the 
 
 68 At the end of the book I have printed also a Receivers' Roll for 1432, because it 
 shows how many things were being done, even at so early a date, to make the house more 
 comfortable. 
 
74 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 Benedictine rule ; while, at the same time, thanks to the territorial extent 
 of his lands and those of the Convent, he was also a country gentleman of 
 wealth and high authority. He wielded those autocratic powers which in 
 the feudal world pertained to the head of a large and active community. 
 
 Supported by a well-chosen band of obedientiaries, he and his lieu- 
 tenants took charge of the various sides of Convent life ; he had to see to 
 all things that related to the conduct of divine service, to care of the fabric, 
 to education of the Convent school ; then he had to keep a sharp eye on 
 the home affairs of the community ; and lastly, he had the charge of visiting 
 the estates, a duty full of practical business, which was repaid by the 
 consideration and amusements as well as by the anxieties of a country 
 gentleman. In the Cathedral he might be only the second in command 
 under the Bishop ; even then, when presiding in the Monastic Chapter he 
 was a dignified ecclesiastic, to whom all paid reverence ; when he made 
 progress through the estates he was the equal of neighbouring lay lords, 
 receiving a like homage, accepting the benefits and courtesies of feudal use, 
 enjoying to the full the special and well protected amusements of the chase. 
 
 The organisation of officers under him was in these early days quite 
 unique. Where in the half-civilised world around him was there a system 
 of general polity so well ordered and so active as that of a great Benedictine 
 house ? Certainly not in the feudal castle, with fierce warrior lords and a 
 turbulent horde of "devils not men," as the "English Chronicle" calls 
 them ; not in the medieval city, whose powers and privileges were still 
 uncertain and precarious ; not in King's courts, which came and went, 
 simply ignorant of ministers and divisions of labour. Nowhere was the 
 society so clearly in the hands of responsible officers. We can see in a well 
 ordered Convent the germ of all modern transference of work and 
 authority to special ministers, in a wholesome division of labour. 
 
 As was but natural, the manner of election of a new Prior was somewhat 
 complicated. The electing body included all the monks living in the Convent 
 or in any of the Cells. Therefore when a Prior died, or resigned his office, 
 (and things in Durham were often so burdened and so difficult that a 
 man of peace was tempted to abandon the struggle against those partisan 
 annoyances that disappointed ambition, or the interference of a haughty 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 75 
 
 bishop often inflicted on the Prior) the first thing was to send out quick 
 messengers to the various Cells, summoning their Priors and members to 
 Durham for the election. At the same time the Convent sent other members 
 to obtain the necessary permission of the Bishop of the Diocese for this 
 solemn election. This was a very costly preliminary. We have in the 
 "Account Rolls" (p. 614), an example of it: "For the expenses of Thomas 
 Ryhale, for going to Calais, sojourning there, and returning thence, to meet 
 the Bishop of Durham there, in order to obtain from him a licence for the 
 election of the new Prior, 66s. 8d." So that it cost, apart from fees, quite 
 £40 of our money to get this permission to elect. This was after the death of 
 Prior Hemyngburgh, and before the election of John Wessyngton in 1416. 
 Then, when leave had been obtained, and the distant brethren called in, 
 the Convent proceeded to an election ; after which, the new Prior had to 
 meet the charge of heavy fees ; as we see from another entry (p. 631). ' To 
 the Rector of Ryton, and other witnesses examined, at the election of the 
 Prior, 2s. 3^. ; and in presents to the servants of the Lord Bishop at 
 Auckland, on the first visit of the Prior to the Bishop after his election and 
 his confirmation, 66s. 8d." On William Ebchester's election in 1446, also, 
 " the expenses of John Gatesheved, the Terrar, having gone towards Howden 
 for the confirmation of the Prior, 6s. 8d." In 1417 two monks had to travel 
 to London for this confirmation. Also there was a charge for sending 
 information to the Bishop as to the resignation of John Wessyngton (in 1446) 
 " tribus vicibus," 33s. \d. ; they paid to Master Richard Wetwang and William 
 Bispham, lawyers, both for their expenses and also as a present from the 
 Lord Prior for their work done at the time of his election, 115s. ; also to 
 Robert Bartram, Notary, for the signing of an instrument as to the 
 resignation of Wessyngton, 3s. 4^. ; and to the same for an instrument 
 drawn up by him as to the election of a new Prior, and for the whole legal 
 process of the same, 26s. 8d. On one occasion, when the Bishopric of 
 Durham was vacant, the monks had to go to York for confirmation : " paid 
 for the expenses of Rob. Wardall and Th. Pikryng, who rode to the Lord 
 Archbishop of York, for the confirmation (in 1483) of the election of the 
 prior (John of Auckland)." And sometimes in one of these changes there 
 was even an exchange made of stuff, as on the death of a Prior, in 1446, 
 
76 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 " For two pairs of cloths (three sheets), one pair of blankets, with a quilt 
 or counterpane, delivered to J. Wessyngton, at that time Prior, for the 
 furnishing of the Prior's house, in exchange for a bed with a rug of blue stuff 
 with the figure of a king seated in his throne, worked into the bed, with also 
 one dorsal (or hanging-cloth) of blue cloth hanging in the chamber called the 
 Knyght chambre, 21s. 8d." At a Prior's installation there was also 
 a great dinner, for we read that " There was paid for his expenses to R. 
 Patonson, who rode into Howdenshire, then a marshy district, for the 
 purchase of birds (avium ferarum) towards the Installation, 4s." 
 
 And when the Prior had happily gone through all this preliminary 
 work of election and installation, he was at once surrounded by a large 
 number of officials or servants. In the most interesting " Rites of Durham " 
 we are told that the Prior " did keppe a moste honourable house, and 
 verey noble intertaynement, being attended upon both with gentlemen and 
 yeomen of the best in the countrie, as the honorable service of his house 
 deserved no less ; the benevolence therof with the releefe and almess of the 
 hole Covent was alwaies oppen and fre, not onely to the poore of the citie of 
 Durham, but to all the poore people of the countrie besides (' Rites,' p. 90).'' 
 The author of the "Rites" adds also that the Prior's hospitality was " soch as 
 that there neaded no Geist Haule, but that they weare desyrouse to abound 
 in all lyberall and fre almesse-geving," which shows that the visitors to 
 the Guest-hall were welcome to the Priory. We may conclude that Pius II, 
 when he was still but Pius Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, on his return from 
 his mischief-making in Scotland, was entertained in the Prior's lodgings, as 
 well as in the Guest Hall. There is on record a curious quarrel in the matter 
 of hospitality at the Prior's rooms. The Lord of the Neville's house, 
 Ralph, in 1290,69 made a great difficulty with the Prior, Richard of Hoton. 
 It arose out of the customary offering of a stag or doe in September, on the 
 Feast of St. Cuthbert (the day of his Translation was September 14) ; 
 " Ralph claimed, contrary to the custom of his ancestors, that he and 
 his suite should be feasted on that day by the Prior, that the Prior's 
 servants should be set aside, with Neville's men to replace them, and thus 
 the honour due to the Saint was turned into a burden and a loss." The 
 69 "Tres Scriptores," p. 74. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 77 
 
 Prior, learning this, refused to accept the stag thus tendered ; and when 
 Ralph and his men tried to carry the animal down into the kitchen, there 
 began a quarrel between them and the Prior's men, until presently they 
 passed from words to blows. Ralph's men with hands of violence attacked 
 the monks who were serving at the altar ; and the brethren answered by 
 driving the Neville servants back with the great waxen candles they were 
 bearing. The repulsed laymen left the stag with the monks, and Ralph 
 with his men beat a retreat. Neville had invited many to come over with 
 him, among them he had asked John of Balliol at Barnard Castle to join, 
 but John replied that he had for a long period been a boy in the Durham 
 Schools, and had never heard of such a claim made by the Nevilles, and 
 therefore would not come. Meanwhile the Prior appealed to the Roman 
 Curia, for an enquiry as to the names of those who had hindered the divine 
 offices, and had laid hands of violence on the monks at St. Cuthbert's feast, 
 and the Prior claimed justice. On the other side Ralph brought an action 
 against the Prior before the Bishop's Justiciaries ; one of whom, and the 
 chief man of them, William of Brompton, publicly and in a crowd confessed 
 that he was the very man who had first started this insolence, for, " being 
 but a youth, he loved blowing the horn and coming in with the Lord of 
 Neville, cum domino de Nova Villa," at the offering of the stag, he had said 
 to his comrades, " Come into the Abbey, and let us there sound our horn," 
 and so they did. Yet before Ralph none of his predecessors had exacted 
 this ; they only brought the stag and broke their fast in the Hall ; the 
 Nevilles, however, never stayed to the breakfast unless they were specially 
 invited to it. However, by some mediate friends the parties abandoned 
 their suits ; and after that, so long as Ralph Neville lived, he sent in no 
 stag, though before this it had been yearly offered ; for " Raby with eight 
 adjacent villages is held by the yearly payment of four pounds and one 
 stag." 
 
 Thus, for a bit, the matter stayed. But after the death of this Ralph 
 Neville, in 1331, his son, also Ralph, seneschal of the King, made homage 
 to William Cowton the Prior, at Bewley, on St. Peter ad Vincula, 
 (Lammas-day, which is otherwise called Gula Augusti, being August 1st) 
 for his manor of Raby, and the appertinances thereof. He then said 
 
7 8 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 that he wished to offer the Prior a stag, as his ancestors had been 
 wont to do, but that while his father had asked to remove the Prior's men 
 and to substitute his own, he for his part asked only that his men should 
 minister for the day with the Prior's servants ; and whereas his father 
 asked to be admitted with his men only to breakfast, he for his part, 
 asked to be admitted himself alone, for the whole of that Saint's day, 
 and also for breakfast on the next morning. To this the Prior replied that 
 none of Neville's ancestors had so been admitted, and that he would never 
 reduce his church to such a servitude, nay, that he would ever refuse to 
 receive any stag on such terms. To this Neville replied that " he would 
 pay all or none " ; and that he would willingly call in the " patria " and 
 lay it before them. But the Prior was afraid of this appeal to the " patria," 
 because Ralph " was so powerful in the district that the jury of neighbours 
 would not dare to speak the truth." The wrangle went on long ; nor was 
 it ended in Graystane's days. It was also at this time that Robert Neville 
 had the fancy to blow his horn in the Convent, when he offered his stag 
 on Holy Rood Day (September 14). When he died, after having been a 
 valiant horn-blower all his days, men sang, as they missed him, 
 " Wei qwa sal thir homes blau, 
 
 Haly Rod, this day ? 
 Nou is he ded and lies law 
 
 Was wont to blaw theim ay ! " 
 
 The last occasion of this presentation of the stag mentioned in the Rolls 
 appears to have been in 1350 ; for in that year we find it recorded among 
 the Prior's gifts that he made the handsome present of twelve pence to a 
 groom in the service of Ralph Neville, who had brought him venison as a 
 present.70 This is the last reference to the Neville stag. 
 
 The assistant Officiarii of the Prior were the following, their titles 
 being given in one of the Rolls. They were the Sub-prior, the Prior's 
 " Terrarius " (at first agent for his lands) ; the Bursar (who looked after his 
 money), his Seneschal (with care of his household and home expenses), 
 his Chaplain (for the chapel and other friendly duties), his Chancellor (who 
 
 7° "Account Rolls," p. 552. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 79 
 
 did his law and also his shopping), and his Confessor, to which should be 
 added his " Cantor," and the man in charge of his granaries. And, 
 indeed, this long list does not exhaust the number. To each of the above the 
 Prior paid a fee of 10s. There were also his Marshal, his Carver (at meals), 
 his Cupbearer or butler, his chapel clerk, his valets and grooms. Of these 
 some were high enough to have servants of their own. He also kept three 
 pages, the usher-page, the cook-page, and the palfrey-page, young fellows 
 who did the rough work for his finer servants. In the days of Prior Castel 
 (1494-1519) we find a complete list of them, twenty of them at least, with 
 their personal names.7 1 Lionel Elmeden, the marshal ; Thomas Whitehed, 
 the carver ; Roger Claxton, the sewer (set on table and tasted dishes) ; 
 Philip Gower, cupbearer ; George Conyers, clerk of the chapel ; Robert 
 Whitehed, valet of the wine cellar ; M. Huchynson, valet of the store 
 room ; Richard Todd, valet of the stables ; Lionel Smyth, valet or 
 usher ; Robert Thomson, cook ; William Dalton, groom of the Prior's 
 chamber ; John Brak, groom of the stable ; William Thomson, groom 
 of the store room ; Robert Smyth, groom of the hall ; Robert Syme, 
 caterer of the Seneschal ; James Robynson, groom of the cook ; James 
 Duckett, chaplain of the chantry of the B.V.M. in the chapel of St. 
 Margaret ; Robert Rodd and Agnes Rodd, singers ; and the three pages. 
 The " Rites of Durham " tell us that the " Master of the children," the 
 schoolmaster of the choir, had his meat and drink with the Prior's 
 gentlemen in the Prior's Hall ; and that he was found in all his 
 necessaries by the Prior, " with his house-coste besyde." 
 
 At the Dissolution time there is another enumeration as to the chief 
 ministrants of the Prior's service ; in this are named the bursar, cellarer, 
 terrar, keeper of the granaries, chamberlain and chaplain. These were 
 independent of the Convent. We are informed that Dominus Robert 
 Bennett, the " bowser " (bursar) had a house of his own ; it was " a little 
 stone house, joyninge to the cole-garth, perteyning to the great ketchinge, 
 a little distance frome the Deanes Haule staires." Then there was Dominus 
 
 7 1 This is in the "Account Rolls," p. 704, where it is prefaced by a protest, " Stipendia 
 ex nova. Et in pensione et stipendio ex impositione Magistri T. Castell, nuper Prioris, in aug- 
 mentis et sustentatione famulorum praescriptorum pro supplemento eorum reparalium et 
 aliorum. 
 
80 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 Roger Wright the cellarer ; his chequer abutted on the west end of the 
 great kitchen, which was afterwards Dr. Todd's chamber ; Dominus Roger 
 Watson, terrer ; his chequer was as you go into the Guest Hall, on your 
 left hand. Dominus William Foster, keeper of the garners, his chequer 
 was over Mr. Pilkington's hall door; all his house and Mr. Bunny's house, 
 was garners. Dominus Thomas Sparke, the chamberlain, his chequer 
 was where Mr. Swifte has his lodging, near the Abbey gates. Dominus 
 Henry Browne, the master of the common hall, his chequer or office was in 
 the common house. Dominus William Watson, the Prior's chaplain, his 
 chequer was over the stairs as you go up to the Deanes Hall, (his 
 chamber was the next to the Prior's). All these were in office at the 
 suppression of the Abbey in Kinge Henry the 8ths time. "72 
 
 With all this splendid suite, and helped specially by his chaplain, who 
 acted as his secretary and treasurer also,73 the Prior, if fairly intelligent and 
 well-meaning, could carry forward the needful business of the House. 
 Sometimes his seneschal had charge of the money, as we see by the Cellerer's 
 roll of 1438, 1439, in which it is stated that John Oil, seneschal of the 
 Prior's Hall, did lay out a considerable sum of money " for the solace and 
 amusement of the Prior and his brethren," and he also received 65s. id. for 
 money laid out for their " playing and taking holiday at Beurepayr for 
 eleven weeks and four days." The holidays at Beaurepair were plainly 
 very merry and popular for both Prior and his friends among the monks. 
 Thus in 1440 the Convent had " 37 lambs bought for the expenses of the 
 Prior at Beaurepair for the Easter holidays." In fact the Prior in the 
 fourteenth and fifteenth century was often away from Durham. He 
 seems to have had a house, or at any rate suitable quarters, at nine 
 or ten different places in the Palatinate and elsewhere. In 1310-1311, 
 a record is kept of his visits for a period of thirteen months ; he was 
 at Pittington for 43 days, where he had a fine house ; at Dalton-le-Dale, 
 
 ? 2 "Rites of Durham," p. 101. 
 
 '3 Thus in 1447 there runs an item which shows how the Chaplain acted as the Prior's 
 treasurer, " In denariis liberatis Johanni Eden, Capellano, pro expensis Johannis Wessyngton, 
 protunc Prioris, viz., a festo Pentecostes usque ad diem resignationis ejusdem, 5*. 3d," 
 A. R., p. 631. The chaplain's rooms and chequer seem to have been where the butler's 
 pantry now stands, over the entrance to the cloisters. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 81 
 
 a sweet village near the sea, for 5 days ; at Beaurepair, his favourite 
 home, where the ruins of his good house are still to be seen, and 
 where he kept his large stud of horses, for 129 days ; at Ketton, 20 days ; 
 at Bewley,74 19 days ; Merrington, 5 days ; at York, including going and 
 returning, 8 days; at Muggleswick (where there was good hunting), 15 
 days ; at Wardley, 2 ; and at Westoe, 3. So that in these thirteen 
 months he was absent from Durham for 249 days out of 39575 The 
 Prior also stayed for some time at " the Heugh," that is, at the Sacrist's 
 large house of Sacriston-heugh, where remains of this ancient building 
 still exist. 76 
 
 For all these outgoings a large income was necessary, and we find that 
 the Prior's sources of income were very large and prolific. All through 
 these two centuries there were many coal pits winning a large amount of 
 coal ; he had also great sums in tithes. In 1294 there is a catalogue 
 of these sources ; and with it goes an account of fisheries and mills let to 
 divers persons. The total receipt in 1295 was nearly four thousands pounds ; 
 which in the modern value comes to about fifty thousand pounds of income. 
 That is for the Prior's share, apparently, though it may be more probably 
 the income of the whole house ; the Roll is headed, " The Sales of the 
 Tithes of the Priory of Durham, 1294-1295." These, however, might well 
 mean the general income of the Convent from tithes alone. The outgoings 
 of that same year are given as £1244 ; and the Bursar rejoices in being able 
 to say that in that year the receipts were (nett) £1500 more than the 
 payments. 
 
 The Prior's estates must have been very valuable ; and sometimes his 
 officers claimed even more than their rights ; for we read in 1435 that a 
 carpenter was paid for making a long fence between the lands of the Prior 
 
 f* It is interesting to notice that in 1446-1447 the Prior had a clock at Bewley, " Et 
 Johanni Stele pro emendatione horologii apud Beaulieu, 3s. Ad." (Account Rolls, p. 631) ; and 
 " unum horologium fixum in pariete cum duobus campanis, una majore et una minore." 
 
 75 •' Account Rolls," p. 507. 
 
 ? 6 In the " Account Rolls," pp. 702, 703, we have the payments, apparently annual 
 charges, for these and other officers amounting to the large sum of 100/j. 3s. 
 
82 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 and those of the bursar for twenty-two weeks, 44S.77 and in the year 1440, 
 he was engaged for the same job during 37 weeks, when the Convent bursar 
 paid 114s. for it. The carpenter we find received 2 shillings a week — or in 
 modern money about twenty-four shillings a week. In a like way we find 
 that in 1337 it was necessary to set up rough crosses to form the " limitation " 
 or boundary between the Bishop and the Prior on the Heworth moor. One 
 of these plain crosses is preserved still in the Library of the Cathedral. 78 
 
 Nothing is more striking than the changes in the condition of the 
 office of Prior. There were days when the burden of duties was too heavy 
 to be borne ; and others when the Convent was so well endowed that it 
 cleared off all the debts with ease. The truth is that the estates and other 
 sources of income were always large ; but incompetence at home sometimes, 
 sometimes the ravagings of the Scots, at other times the heavy judgment 
 of famine and sickness, brought the Convent into a low state of debt 
 and difficulty. 
 
 Thus in Bishop Antony Bek's days (1283-1311) we are told that " The 
 Priory also was deteriorated in many ways, first, by huge borrowings, about 
 legal proceedings contracted and never paid, then by St. Peter's Pence, 
 collected from the Clergy and also apparently from some of the creditors(?) ; 
 secondly, by the thousand marks paid into the hungry Roman Curia, for the 
 restitution of Prior Richard ; thirdly, by three thousand marks paid to the 
 Pope ; and fourthly, by one thousand to the College of Cardinals, for the 
 collation of the office of Prior to William of Tanfield." All this money 
 had to be found in one year ; so that on this occasion we find the Convent 
 contracting debts ; the House was burdened, as the Chronicler tells us, 
 beyond its strength by the shameless usury of certain merchants. 
 
 Then, unfortunately, there came in a new Prior who, we are told, " would 
 neither acknowledge nor consider " this financial strait ; nay, rather by 
 extravagant expenditure this new Prior aggravated rather than lessened the 
 
 w " Account Rolls," p. 624. 
 
 78 Et Petro Austyn et sociis suis cementariis pro factura crucium super Marchiam inter 
 Episcopum et Priorem in mora de Heworth, 30s. 4d. A. R., p. 536. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 83 
 
 burden of debt. For years they did not win their way back to solvency ; 
 the heavy evil of Scottish hostility added to the difficulty, and so did a run 
 of mishaps, a murrain of animals, and a succession of poor harvests.79 
 
 In fact these were very bad times for Prior and Convent. Coldingham, 
 over the border in Scotland, and one of the most important of Durham's 
 cells, had a rebellious Prior who refused his obedience to the mother 
 Convent. " The Prior of Coldingham, when the Prior of Durham had 
 journeyed to the Cell, at first swore that he would obey the mother House, 
 and then afterwards secretly refused obedience. William of Tanfield, the 
 Prior of Durham, then deposed him, and named another in his stead ; William 
 took sharp action, for he came himself and received the homage of the 
 Coldinghamshire tenants, he also prosecuted the flying disobedient 
 Prior at the Parliament of Stamford in 1308, at great expense and cost of 
 time and labour. Out of this trouble sprang another ; for the Bishop and 
 the Prior formed two parties within the Convent at Durham ; so that there 
 arose a violent quarrel, so that it never was settled while these two lived." 80 
 The whole affair is treated at length in the local Chronicles. We find there this 
 remarkable account of Bishop Antony Bek and his dealings with the Priorate. 
 "The Prior (Richard of Hoton), in 1303 complained that, after an agreement 
 had been come to, the Bishop had seized into his own hand the Prior's 
 manors, had also collected the rents and produce of the farms, and had 
 ravaged and destroyed the parks of the Priorate. In addition to all this, 
 Peter Darcy had come over to Durham with a strong force of men, armed 
 with bows and swords. They had besieged the Abbey, trying also to starve 
 it by holding back all provisions. Darcy, the Chronicler complains, did all 
 the mischief he could, and ended by proclaiming that unless in three days' 
 time the Prior's servants left the Priory, he would behead them, 
 or at any rate would imprison them for a long time. They, frightened and 
 helpless, withdrew, leaving only six monks to cook their own food. Then 
 the attacking party burst into the Convent, they broke open the servants' 
 chests, carried off what they would from them ; now, in defiance of 
 
 r> "Tres Scriptores," p. 89. 
 
 *> "Tres Scriptores," pp. 89, 90. 
 
84 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 custom and the liberties of the Priory, the Bishop himself intervened, and 
 summoned to him the monks of his own party to elect a new Prior. When 
 they could not agree on a man, he bade them take Henry of Luceby as Prior. 
 He, being backed by Peter Darcy and other scoundrels, forced his way 
 into the Prior's house, broke down the gates of the Cloister, battered in the 
 door of the Refectory, and carried away with him the silver cups and 
 wooden mazers, and many other goods of the Prior and of the Convent. 
 On the following Sunday these rascals brought into the Chapter House their 
 headman, Henry of Luceby, and by threats made certain of the monks 
 regard and treat him as their Prior. Then they shut up the other party, 
 being the true Prior and forty-six monks, in the Cathedral, where they 
 had nothing but their stalls for living and sleeping. So closely were they 
 confined that for three days these monks had nothing to eat, save six 
 loaves and sixteen herrings. They could not get out of the Church for 
 any need, nor had they and the Prior any sleeping-place save their stalls. 
 Finally, Luceby's men dragged the Prior from his stall, and clapped him 
 into prison. There he stayed awhile, and afterwards they removed him, 
 dragging him through the very market of the people to the Castle." It is 
 interesting that we learn by this that in those days the Palace Green was 
 used as a public market for the city. They then locked up the Prior in 
 one of the chambers of the Castle. Finally, however, these bad days 
 changed. Bek had to give in, and was compelled to pay a large sum of 
 money to the real Prior ; Luceby was cast out, and Richard of Hoton 
 continued as Prior to his death in 1308. 
 
 This odd picture of the dissensions in the Monastery is drawn by a 
 Monk who was eye-witness of it all. Here were a strong-willed Bishop, 
 Antony Bek, and a determined Prior, at variance. The Bishop held that 
 the Convent was divided into two parties, and intervened, apparently not 
 as arbiter, but as partisan of the weaker side. For the existing Prior had 
 at any rate a large majority of the monks on his side. The bogus Prior set 
 going by Darcy seems to have been a mere adventurer. The Bishop, using 
 his rights, and acting under the famous Constitution of Pope Boniface, 
 entitled " Debent," held a visitation on the factions in the Convent. In the 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 85 
 
 House itself, as we learn from the Chronicler, " There went on unlawful 
 conferences, " adulterinae confabulationes ", he says — gossip and scandal, no 
 doubt ; there were uncontrolled wanderings and strollings, there was a 
 dissolution of the Benedictine rule, and people transgressed all the more 
 cheerfully, as there was no one to rebuke them and to point out their mis- 
 conduct ; or, he goes on to say, " the higher officers perhaps either did 
 not know who was going wrong, or, if they knew it, dissembled and seemed 
 not to see it ; because they were alarmed lest if they interfered they might 
 themselves be attacked. 81 
 
 Then, with good reason, Bek intervened ; he did so, says the Chronicler, 
 " not because these monks were breaking the Benedictine rule, but because 
 the most of them belonged openly to the Prior's party, and were against him." 
 He began by suspending for a period of ten years the leaders of the Prior's 
 men, the Sub Prior, that is, the Almoner, and the Prior of Finchal. But 
 long before the ten years had elapsed Bek himself retired by dying ; and 
 then Archbishop Greenfield stepped in during the vacancy, annulled Bek's 
 sentences, and brought back peace to the troubled monastery. 
 
 It is plain that here and elsewhere this bad quarrelling had " two sides 
 to it." Tanfield, the Prior, had been careless and extravagant. " He did 
 not understand the state of Conventual affairs ; he did nothing to reduce 
 the debt, indeed he rather, with an open hand, enlarged the burden." The 
 excellent Graystanes tells us that in these days the Convent was over- 
 whelmed by debt, by interest due, by raids from Scotland, and other woes. 
 In fact in the end, Tanfield made such a mess of it all that in 1313 he threw 
 up the struggle and resigned. 82 In the next year he was succeeded by 
 Galfrid of Burdon. Let us hear what Graystanes says of the woes of the 
 House. " He had in his time a war with Scotland, and the constant comings 
 and goings of the King and his magnates helped the ruin ; the bad harvests 
 ran up the price of food : a quarter of wheat fetched 40s., a quarter of- peas 
 or beans, even of barley, rose to 24s. ; the hunger was so fierce that women 
 ate their little ones." 8 3 In 1315 the Scots burst philibustering on Durham ; 
 
 81 "Tres Scriptores," p. 90. 
 
 82 "Tres Scriptores," p. 95, a.d. 1313. 
 
 8 ^ "Tres Scriptores," p. 96. Mulieres parvulos prae famis n.agnitudine comedebant. 
 
86 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 " they plundered, one may say, almost the whole stores of the House " ; 
 the Prior, unconscious of the danger, was then at Bearpark, and though a 
 warning reached his ears, he still refused to move, till he had completely 
 said his morning Mass — by the time this was done Bearpark was 
 surrounded by hungry Scots who chased him on horseback all the way 
 to the very gates of Durham. The Scots seized on such of the Prior's 
 household they could lay hands on ; they took the " long-cart of the Prior 
 with the horses and furnishings ; they looted the whole ' chapel ' of the 
 Prior, his costly vessels with which he had been saying Mass, the other 
 silver articles, the table linen, the bed furniture, and every utensil of 
 the Bearpark house." 8 -* From the fields there they swept off sixty mares 
 out of the Prior's Marshalsea, and a hundred and twenty cows. And, as 
 if this was not enough, in the July of this year, came tremendous 
 rains, the rivers burst bound, swept off crops, flooded houses, drowned 
 families with all their little ones. The heavy series of mishaps was 
 enhanced by the death of Bishop Kellawe in 1316. Like all England, 
 Durham Palatinate was famished, and consequent pestilence ensued. And 
 lastly, as if the anger of heaven was quite insatiable, the King Edward, 
 " moved by the enchantments of Queen Philippa," ordered the Prior 
 and Chapter to elect as their bishop that worst of prelates, Lewis of 
 Beaumont, the Queen's cousin. A miserable story, all of it, told honestly 
 and sincerely by Robert of Graystanes, whose later mishaps never ruffled 
 his Christian temper, nor coloured his facts with prejudice. 
 
 These evil days ended when, in 1342, John Fossor was elected by the 
 brethren. He brought peace and prosperity to the harassed house ; his 
 Bursar paid off a huge amount of debt ; he erected new edifices at the Priory 
 and in the Convent. We have full details of his wise expenditure, on 
 buildings, on Church ornaments, and the bettering of the convent farms 
 and dwellings. 8 s 
 
 At his installation Fossor had much furniture to pay for ; or rather, 
 the Convent paid it for him. " For curtains for the bed of the Prior and 
 
 64 " Tres Scriptores," p. 96. 
 
 8 s "Tres Scriptores," p. 131. and also cxli of the Appendix. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 87 
 
 other necessaries bought for him, 75s. r\d. ob. ; also for one quilt for 
 his bed, 12s." His needs often appear in the Rolls ; thus, in 1362, 
 " For a cofyn bought at York to keep and carry the Prior's letters, id. ob." 
 At the same time there are items as to six silver spoons in bad condition to 
 be recast, pitchers and dishes in tin to be bought, some "pairs (sets) of 
 knives " also, and 3J dozen knives, 3 dozen gloves, and other various 
 things, such as saddles, boots, spices, rice, etc. The Prior was also liberal 
 in gifts. 86 
 
 There is also a touching item under 1373, 1374, to the effect that a litter 
 was then made and fitted out for carrying my Lord the Prior, then in his 
 ninetieth year, so that he might still move about and see with his own eyes the 
 work being done for him and the Convent. The cost of it for seats, bridles, 
 and other furnishing came to 55s. Fossor died in 1374, and the Bursar's 
 Roll of that date shows how he was buried. 8 7 He left behind him many 
 evidences of a noble capacity, especially in the great kitchen he built for 
 the use of the community. At the end he left a poor unstocked wine 
 cellar. This, however, was soon remedied by the Convent, for in 1375, 
 1376, we find that 57s. was paid for " Rynis wyne " ; and a cask was bought 
 of red wine for 12/2. ; and for the Prior specially, " in wine bought at 
 Newcastle for my Lord Prior, at home and abroad, for there was a lack of 
 wine in his cellar, 44s. 6d." Also a pipe of " Rinischewyne " was bought 
 from Adam Bulkham, against Christmas, for yli. 16s. ; finally, " for five 
 gallons of white wine bought by the Bursar's servant for my Lord the Prior 
 at his entertainments (spatiante) at Beaurepaire after Christmas, 5s. iod." 88 
 
 It was in Fossor 's days that wild boars were still roving at their will 
 in the Durham woods ; for in 1368, 1369, there is this entry : " For a 
 man driving away one boar from Billingham, and for another bringing 
 in venison, 2s." 8 9 
 
 86 His bounties were large in each successive Roll. 
 
 87 "Account Rolls," p. 581. "In uno coreo in quo involvebatur corpus Domini Johannis 
 Fossour Prioris, et in solutione facta cuidam artifici pro labore suo circa eandem involutionem, 
 5s." Raine tells that " he was buried at the north end of the middle transept, not in a coffin, 
 but in the hide of an ox." This was seen in 1729, and is reported to have then appeared to be 
 " tolerably fresh." 
 
 88 "Account Rolls," p. 582. 
 * " Account Rolls,; p. 574. 
 
88 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 There are also many entries which bear on the way in which the Prior 
 enjoyed his holidays; he had plenty of music, some acting, some dancing; 
 he had also from time to time players who presented doubtless some medieval 
 half-religious and merry miracle plays ; possibly also some of the Latin 
 worldly comedies. In 1362 he entertained a certain " ystrio," or actor, 
 who was a Frenchman and blind, who had his brother, a lad, with him, for 
 this he paid 2s. When the King returned from Newcastle he gave the 
 King's players the handsome fee of 40s. Musicians also arrived, minstrels 
 who played on instruments, recited ballads and other poems, and sometimes 
 even condescended to play tricks after the manner of jugglers. Thus there 
 is an entry, " For the Minstrel of my Lord the Duke, with a youth dancing 
 in my Lord Prior's room, 6s. 8^." ; and in 1395, for a player on the rote (a 
 kind of fiddle) being a Scot,9° also 6s. 8d. ; again, " for a man who played on a 
 loyt (lute) and his wife who sang with him at Beaurepayr, 2s." ; for a Welsh 
 harper, belonging to William of Dalton, 3s. 4^. In 1360 the accounts tell us 
 of no less than 26 minstrels ; one group of them being a band of twelve ; 
 and in 1362, " a Player and Jester Jawdewyne at Christmas, 3s. ^d.9 1 ; and 
 at this time also there was " William the Kake-harper, 2s." So that there 
 was a continual stream of these entertainers, who now had taken the place 
 of the more ancient reciters of the great poems. Such men went to and fro 
 playing on their instruments and selling cakes and wafers. The " Account 
 Rolls " of the time of Prior Fossor are full of quaint entries, bearing both on 
 these amusements and the food-luxuries of that great man relaxing himself 
 in his old age. He had also many out-of-door entertainments. We hear 
 that he had ferrets, " For two ferrets, bought for taking rabbits, ^s. <\d." 
 and dogs, also, for hare-coursing. In his increasing infirmities Prior Fossor 
 had a carriage with four horses to draw it. These had gay harness and 
 trappings, for the Prior would still show himself as a mighty lord. The horses 
 had " four headstalls, with a head-stall of red leather, bought for the 
 Prior's carriage, 4s. 9 2 He also had a " long cart," for which and other horse- 
 
 90 "Account Rolls," p. 599, uni Rotour de Scocia, 6s. Bd. 
 
 91 This man must have played the part of what was called in those days a Jawdewyne, 
 that is, a sort of wrangler, or professional merry quarreller. 
 
 92 In quattuor capistris cum head-stall de rubro coreo emptis pro equis carectae Prioris, 4s. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 89 
 
 carriages he bought a huge lot of harness in 1343.9 2 * The entry is worth 
 recording here : " Marescalcia. For buying of saddles for the long-cart, 
 and for the sumpter horses of the Prior, 6s. id. ; For 64 head stalls, 45 pairs 
 of traces ('trahiciorum') and 11 cart-ropes, with six collars, one pair of 
 Bates (? pack saddles), 4 rear-cords, 3 reins, 3 pair of pastern fetters, three 
 shackles and one crupper for the long-cart, 26s. gd. ; for flock bought to 
 stuff saddles, i6d. ; and for 14 stone-weights of dripping from the kitchen to 
 grease the wheels, 8s. 2d." 
 
 Perhaps the strangest of the entries at this time (1342, p. 542) is the 
 payment of 10s. " Pro tribus aliis ministris iniquitatis." This comes 
 with other payments on behalf of the King's company at the time. 
 Was it an unexpected piece of natural indignation in the monastic 
 record ? It meant no doubt, a payment for some of the suite whose 
 business was far from seemly. 
 
 Finally, the Prior had other out-of-door relaxations ; first, there was 
 his Fool, poor Thomas, whose clothing makes an item in the Roll of 1350 : 
 " To Adam Blount, for the dressing of Thomas the fool, four " houces " or 
 saddle cloths, and four sarplers, or coarse canvas sacks, which were sewn 
 together for 22d."93 The poor creature did not live long ; he is recorded as 
 dying in 1356.94 The Prior also had an ape, bought for him in 1360 in York 
 for 31s. ; he also received, as a present, a Goshawk ; these with his dogs and 
 ferrets gave him fine chances for out-of-doors amusement. He had also 
 certain " Heronceaus," Hern-shaws, or young Herons, brought to him from 
 Acley. In some Houses, that is of the Cistercian order, the Statutes forbid 
 the keeping of " Grues, ursi, pavones, et caetera animalia ad levitatem 
 moventia," but the Benedictines were not so strict : thus we have a curious 
 example of this in the time of Bishop Robert de Insula, who, " as an occasional 
 relief," kept a pair of monkeys, and used after dinner to tempt them to fight 
 over almonds and nuts, " with great screeching," to the delight of his noble 
 visitors. The Prior had also much interest in his horse-rearing at 
 Bearpark ; he had many of them, with special grooms in charge of them. 
 
 !>'* "Account Rolls," p. 543. »3 "A. R.," p. 552. * "A. R.," p. 558. 
 
90 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 Thus in 1349, 1350, " To R. Coteour, for breaking in three colts for the Prior, 
 10s. ; and to Roger Couhird, for selling horses from Beaupark at the Durham 
 Market and elsewhere, 3s. ^d." (p. 550). Thus we learn many things as to a 
 Prior's life and work. We learn also what befell him, if he chose to 
 withdraw from active service. When Ebchester resigned in 1456 many 
 allowances were granted to him ; he should have chambers in the House, 
 a chaplain, an esquire, a clerk, a valet, a horse-boy, with other needful 
 support and clothing. One flagon of new beer he might have, linen and 
 woollen clothes, and a yearly pension of £40, a large sum for a man with 
 small necessities and few calls. If he wished for a change, he might have 
 the chief chamber at Finchale, with access to the chapel there, and 
 another room of the name of " Dowglastower," with a chamber and 
 cellars under it ; with four servants also, as mentioned above, candles, 
 fuel, and other things for his room, with all his reasonable requests. 
 This was all granted him in a deed of the 13th Oct., 1456.95 
 
 The changes at Durham, due to the final break up of the monastic body 
 in 1541, (the whole convent was surrendered into the hands of the Crown on 
 the last day of 1540, and the subsequent changes went on throughout 1541), 
 led to much destruction of ancient work ; and Dean Whittingham, and his 
 determined wife continued this ill-omened task. They broke up or defaced 
 all such stones as had " any pictures of brass or other imagerie worke or 
 challices wrought upon them." Unfortunately, the historic banner of St. 
 Cuthbert, which in Pudsey's days had helped to put out the great fire in the 
 Castle ; and had witnessed most of the battles between the Scots and the 
 English, was removed from the shrine of the Saint, and carried into the 
 Deanery. The book of the " Rites of Durham " describes it minutely, 
 though it says little of the antiquity of it. The writer thinks that it sprang 
 from a vision which Prior Fossor saw the night before the battle since 
 called the battle of Neville's Cross (17 October, 1346). The writer goes on, 
 " Shortelie after the said Prior caused a goodly and sumptuous baner to 
 be maid, and with pippes of silver to be put on a staff e . . . and to 
 be keapt in a chyste in the ferretorie . . which banner was shewed and 
 
 95 " Tres Scriptores," Appendix, cccxxxvij — cccxxxviij. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 91 
 
 caried in the said abbey on festivall and principall daies ; on the highte 
 of the overmoste pipe was a faire pretie crosse of silver and a wand of 
 silver having a fyne wroughte knopp of silver at either end .... and 
 at either end of the said wande there was a fyne silver bell . . . the baner 
 cloth was a yerd brode . . . and five quarters deape, and the nether part 
 of it was indented in five partes and frenged and maid fast with all 
 about with read silke and gold. And also the said baner cloth was 
 maid of read velvett of both sydes most sumptuously imbrodered and 
 wrought with flowres of grene silke and gold, and in the mydes of 
 the said baner cloth was the sayde holie relique and corporax cloth 
 inclosed and placed ther in, which corporax cloth was covered over 
 with white velvett half a yerd square every way, having a red crosse 
 of read velvett on both sydes over the same holie relique most 
 artificiallie and cunyngly compiled and framed, being fynely fringed about 
 the edge and scirtes with frenge of read silke and gold and three litle fyne 
 silver belles . . . like unto sackring belles, and so sumptuouslie finished and 
 absolutelye perfitted, was dedicated to holie St. Cuthbert . . . which 
 banercloth after the dissolution of the Abbey fell into the possession 
 of one Deane Whittingham, whose wife called Katherin, being a 
 freanche woman, did most injuriously burne and consume the same in 
 hir fire in the notable contempt and disgrace of all auncyent and 
 goodly reliques."9 6 
 
 After the Reformation, when Deans followed Priors, we have but little 
 to add. The twelve Canons kept residence by the practical rule that they 
 should keep their close residence of three weeks by giving daily dinners to 
 all they could gather. If any strangers were seen in Cathedral, the verger 
 was sent to them with a message that the Canon would be glad to have their 
 company that evening at dinner, and the Dean, when in residence, followed the 
 same course. Of these later hospitalities at the Deanery we have a pleasant 
 description found in the memoir of a northern journey made in 1634 by 
 three friends, officers making holiday.97 They rode northward to see the 
 
 — — p — ' " 
 
 * " Rites of Durham," Surtees Society, No. 107, pp. 23-27. 
 
 97 " A Relation of a Short Survey of 26 Counties, observed in a seven-weeks' Journey, 
 begun on August 11, 1634, by a Captain, a Lieutenant, and an Ancient, all three of the Military 
 Company in Norwich ; " edited by L. G. Wickham Legge, New Coll., Oxford. 
 
92 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 land, travelling up by the Great Northern Road, then from Newcastle-on- 
 Tyne to Carlisle, and homewards as far south as Somerset, whence they 
 crossed England, back to Norwich. Their description of the scenery is 
 not at all complimentary, " Skirting the hideous hanging hills and great 
 pooles .... those high mountanous tumbling rocky hills, a man would 
 think he were in another world," and along such roads ! " through such 
 wayes as we hope wee never shall againe, being no other but climing and 
 stoney, nothing but Bogs and Myres, or the tops of those high Hills, so as we 
 were enforced to keepe these narrow, loose, stony, base wayes, though never 
 so troublesome and dangerous ... for the space of 8 miles travelling, a slow 
 marching pace, wee pass'd over nothing but a most confus'd mixture of 
 Rocks and Boggs." No wonder the traveller cries with a sigh of relief, " We 
 veyle our Bonnets to all those wild Northern parts." So they took their 
 travels ; and in the second week of them, still labouring northwards they 
 came nigh unto Durham, though still they were " in great danger amongst 
 those deep Hell Coal-pitts ; for which way soever wee tooke, we were still 
 led to those Tartarean Cells, which our Horses discovered sooner then wee 
 could, and by their snuffing made us take heed of them ; surely some of the 
 Inf email Spiritts have their residence in them." At Durham they at once, 
 after putting up their steeds at the Lion, found their way to the Cathedral, 
 " plac'd on the top and hart of the citty, which stands all on a Rooke on a 
 Hill, in a Dale, for enter the same which way you will you must descend, 
 and that very steepily, neare upon a mile togeather, yet the Minstre, the 
 Bishop's Castle, and the hart of the citty stands on a Hill. She is inviron'd 
 and nigh girt round by the River Were, which was made to build the Castle, 
 Minster, and other fayre structures that were erected about 600 yeeres since, 
 and she hath some streets that run out long wayes, which makes her like a 
 Crab."9 8 Here they " were call'd To Prayers, where wee were rapt with the 
 sweet sound and richnesse of a fayre organ, which cost loooli, and the 
 orderly devout and melodious Harmony of the Quiristers ; There were wee 
 discovered by that worthy grave generous Deane (Dr. Hunt), and no sooner 
 was prayers done but wee were summon'd by one of his gentile ambassadors 
 
 98 Survey, p. 25. 
 
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THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 93 
 
 to take part of a Resident Dinner with him, which had wee not freely and 
 cheerfully accepted off, wee had lost our Selves and that noble entertainment, 
 such as was fit for neat palated courtiers and not for such dusty travelling 
 soldiers as wee were. 
 
 " The first salute and welcome from the worthy Gentleman was exprest 
 with a double reflect upon us ; first, as we were strangers, but more especially 
 as we were his countrymen ; it pleas'd him to leave all his guests, doctors, 
 prebends, and citizens of both sexes and of both kinds, spiritual and layitie, 
 and to condiscend to walke with us in his garden about halfe an houre, till 
 his Gentleman-usher, the harbinger of dinner, came and told him his meat 
 was on the table ; we wish'd the cooke had not beene so hasty, or that he 
 had layen longer in bed ; for his grave discourse was so mild, sweet, and 
 eloquent, as would make a man goe in a trance as never to be weary of 
 hearing him. The same courteous usage wee had in his garden, the same 
 wee had at his board, which neither wanted good dishes nor company, for 
 there were of both choice and plenty." 
 
 " After half an houres sitting there came a young scholar, and read a 
 chapter, during which time all discourse ceas'd : no sooner was itt ended 
 but the grave master of the house begins a cup of wine to all his guests, with 
 a hearty welcome, which his gentile servitors were carefull to see every man 
 pledge, to wash downe the fat venison, sweet salmon, and other great cheere 
 this large and sumptuous table was furnished with." 
 
 "Thus we spent an houre to refresh our travelling corps, with as good 
 mate and drinke, and from as good as free and as generous a gentleman 
 as England affoords. Soone after dinner we bethought our selves of our 
 journey and so agreed to take our leaves of him ; but his reply to our request 
 was to stay still with him a weeke longer, our cheare and welcome should 
 be the same we had found ; we mildly press'd for his licence to depart, 
 telling him how we had resolv'd and order'd our journey." 
 
 More than a century after this charming description of a mid-day dinner 
 at the Deanery, we find in the " Newcastle Courant " of the 6th October, 1751, 
 a note which gives us another result of the Dean's hospitality. It may be 
 
94 
 
 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 I 
 
 that Dean Spencer Cowper gave his guests less talk and more food than 
 Dean Hunt had dispensed. For on the 29th September, 1751, " Mr. Thomas 
 Norris, who kept the Red Lion inn, in Durham, died suddenly of an 
 epoplectick (sic) fit after dining with the Dean at his residence." Mr. 
 Norris had formerly been " gentleman to the Duke of Cleveland ; " and so 
 perished at last through the proverbial hospitality of the Deanery. 
 
 One more trivial reminiscence of these later days may be added, 
 though it refers more to the Deanery garden than to the house ; an incident 
 that has fixed itself permanently on the Cathedral building ; a kind of 
 personal incongruity which lends itself to an ancient building ; we feel that 
 new work may have in it a touch of humour, sometimes. 
 
 55 "North Country Diaries," Surtees Soc, 189. The " Red Lion " is now a part of Bishop 
 Hatfield Han. 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 95 
 
 Dean Waddington (who died in 1869), a fine looking man with a 
 haughty somewhat pompous way of walking, was one day walking, with 
 head erect, and a fine swagger in his legs, when he became aware that 
 his movements were being copied and exaggerated by a little lad of five 
 years old, one of the Douglas boys ; who was marching after him in 
 merry mimicry. The Dean suddenly turned round, and caught the 
 urchin ; and with a serious voice declared he would teach the youngster 
 to mock him — he would hang him up on the Church front. And at 
 once he sent the child, perhaps somewhat frightened by the threat, to 
 the mason's yard, in which the sculptor was at that time carving the 
 heads which ornament the cornices of the Cathedral walls ; and he 
 ordered the craftsman to take the boy's head, just as it was, and so to 
 make him one of these corbel-like faces. And there the youngster stands, 
 a small boy's face with an old-fashioned straw hat on his head, as he 
 may be seen from the northern part of the Dean's Garden. 
 
 In describing the fortunes of these fine rooms, as they were in the 
 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, one is apt to be ashamed of the treatment 
 given to them, because they came to be wanted for the convenience of the 
 modern families of Deans. We ask, why should they not be re-fashioned — 
 it could be done — into their original state ? There stands the ancient 
 loving work, still perfectly sound and good, with five ancient oak 
 roofs, sheltering handsome chambers. Two of these roofs are still in 
 sight, the one in the King James' room, the other in the Dean's Library, 
 the ancient " Camera Prioris minor " ; the other roofs just show 
 themselves in part, tantalising their lovers. The Solarium's magnificent 
 roof can still be seen in the lobby to the east of the drawing-room ; 
 the rest is under the alcove ; the roof of the Prior's Refectory (or as it 
 was in still earlier times, the Monk's Dormitory) has about one-third of 
 it visible in the main hall ; and the third roof, that of the Prior's retainers 
 chamber, on the north side of the Chapel, was indeed a less handsome 
 structure : it is hidden by the ceilings of the bedrooms, except for the 
 corbels and springs of the main joists on either side. 
 
96 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 To clear away all the modern walls and ceilings, and so to make 
 restoration possible, would be not only costly, but would be fatal to the 
 house as the dwelling-place of the Dean with his family. It could only 
 be done were the Church to dislodge the Dean, and take the house 
 into her own hands. We are sometimes informed that Deans are 
 useless — a weak relic of the past — that we represent a past phase of 
 Anglican Church life ; a state of things seen in no other part of 
 Christendom — that we are quite an expensive ornament, of no practical 
 use ; — that a commission of Canons, or the bustling energy of some 
 active young man, would do more work for half the pay ; — and that 
 the fine Deaneries might then fall into the hands of the Diocese. This, 
 say our reformers, would give the Diocese a chance of having a fine 
 Club-house, a centre of activities at the heart of all things ; every 
 Deanery might act as, and perhaps better than, the handsome Wolsey 
 House at Winchester, where is a library for the Clergy, with rooms and 
 a garden for the clergy who are ready to undertake work in any trouble 
 or difficulty throughout the Diocese. Here would be a library, and 
 rooms for meetings, and a centre for all episcopal gatherings. 
 
 This sounds well ; and may yet come. For me the fortunate thing is 
 that it has not yet arrived. It might have already reduced this fine old 
 edifice to be as dull as a Diocesan Calendar ; the mirror of a monotonous 
 equality of Church life. 
 
 One may safely claim that our Deans are not dull people ; they 
 happily show no sign of being ground down into a modern smooth 
 evenness. There are those among us who are doing fine work in great 
 cities ; they have made the office a real power ; and a lively expression 
 of the better part of Church work in various ways. For Deans are 
 still free to think and act : they sometimes know a good deal more than 
 their neighbours ; they are not scared away from modern thought by 
 the envious inspection of timid or narrow Churchmen. It is but a 
 corner of this busy world, in which we shelter ourselves ; independence 
 of opinion, and leisure for study are still our blessing : our Modernists 
 are not yet placed on the Index ; some of the Deans are even 
 suspected of being Radicals ! 
 
THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 97 
 
 Meanwhile, let us be content to have a sort of open house for those 
 around us ; we have the delightful task of protecting the ancient 
 buildings in which we live ; neglect is bad, but far more terrible is 
 virtuous improvement. 
 
 Our lives and duties may be the calm pursuit of negative virtues ; the 
 havoc done by amiable and well-meaning enthusiasts will be no longer 
 our snare : we are old folk who know how " to leave well alone," and 
 in truth one Dean, at any rate, knows how to be thankful for a happy 
 home unspoilt. 
 
 Springs of Ceiling of the " Camera Inferior.' 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Reman : 
 
 Arreragia. 
 
 Recepta . 
 denariorum 
 
 About the best time of Prior Wessington (1416-1446) we find a continual 
 activity in construction, and also in repairs of the Prior's quarters. He was 
 an active Prior, and in his thirty years of office probably introduced much 
 of the woodwork that still beautifies the Deanery. The following Roll, 
 dated 1432, 1433, shows what was the income from winning coal in the two 
 neighbouring districts of the Raintons and Ferry Hill. An annual income 
 of £21 16s. 8|d. from these two places enabled the Prior to do much for his 
 house, with a good sum left when all had been paid for the year. This Roll 
 had not been found when Canon Fowler's "Account Rolls" were copied; 
 so that, as it throws light on the Deanery, I have ventured to place it here. 
 It will be seen that the names of the workmen are intimately connected 
 with their handy work. — A. Wright was a Carpenter, and we find him 
 making planks out of the timber (meremium) ; William Sawer was a Sawyer 
 of boards for floors, &c, and W. Glasyer was the glasier working at the 
 glass in the windows of the Prior's House ; lastly, W. Plummer was the 
 worker in lead, who made for the house a certain gargoyle, a throat of lead 
 through which the roof spewed out the falling rain. 
 
 Compotus Domini Thomae Nesbit Receptoris denariorum pro mineris 
 carbo[nae] villarum de Rayntone et de Fery, de -festo Inventionis Sanctae 
 Crucis a.d. 1432... usque idem festum proxime sequens anno revoluto. 
 
 Et remanet ultimi compotis anni proxime praecedentis nihil, ut patet 
 in pede ejusdem. 
 
 Summa — Nulla. 
 
 Set remanet de vili vjs. ni]d. de arreragiis ultimi compoti anni proxime 
 praecedentis, ut patet in pede ejusdem in titulo respecto. 
 
 Summa — vili vjs. ii])d. 
 
 Et de xxvij/z vjs. \\d. receptis de minera carbonum vendita apud 
 Rayntone hoc anno. Et de x]li xs. xd. ob. receptis pro carbonibus venditis 
 apud mineram de Fery hoc anno. 
 
 Summa — xxxviijfo'. xvijs. ob. 
 
Varii 
 Recept. 
 
 Varia 
 Recepta. 
 
 Surplus- 
 agium. 
 
 Expensae 
 
 Domini 
 
 Prioris. 
 
 THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 De variis receptis hoc anno Nihil, quid nulli accidebant. 
 
 99 
 
 Summa — Nulla. 
 
 praeter ) 
 
 f xxxviij/t xiijs. ob. (sic). 
 bumma totalis Receptus-[ Arreragium ; K ' 
 
 cum arreragio — xlvli iijs. iiij^. ob. 
 
 E quibus computat in surplusagiis ultimi compoti, ut patet in pede 
 ejusdem compoti — xxili. xvjs. viijd. 
 
 Summa — xxili xvjs. viijrf. 
 
 Et in stipendio Johannis Knayth latami operantis super factura camerae 
 Domini Prioris per tempus compoti, ut patet per papirum computantis — 
 vijli iijs. ni]d. 
 
 Et in stipendio Johannis Pikryng, mason, ibidem operantis per xl 
 septimanas infra tempus computi, ut patet per dictum papirum — cviijs. ii]d. 
 
 Et in stipendio Johannis Kay, laborer, operantis ibidem per xvi 
 septimanas infra tempus computi — xxvijs. x]d. 
 
 Et in stipendio Johannis Fayrharii, qwerrioris 10 -* et laborer, operantis 
 ibidem per tempus compoti — lxxixs. 
 
 Et in stipendio Thomae Watson laborer, ibidem operantis per xij septi- 
 manas infra tempus computi — xvijs. xd. 
 
 Et in stipendio Thomae Curwen operantis infra cameram Domini Prioris 
 per vj septimanas infra tempus compoti — xs. i]d. 
 
 Et in stipendio Roberti Wryght et aliorum operantium super dolatione 
 meremii pro parva camera Domini Prioris— xs. i)d. 
 
 Et in stipendio Willelmi Sawer pro serratione unius rode et dimidii 
 bordarum et meremii pro dicta camera ad iijs. vid., minus per ij^. in toto — 
 vs. ]d. 
 
 Et in stipendio Willelmi Glasyer operantis super refectione et 
 emendatione diversarum fenestrarum vitrearum infra cameras Domini 
 Prioris infra tempus computi — iijs. viijd. 
 
 104 Qwerrior, i.e., a quarry-man. 
 
ioo THE DEANERY, DURHAM. 
 
 Et solutum Johanni Henrysone pro cariagio xxxiiij plaustratarum 
 petrarum a quarrera usque dictam cameram ad i]d. ob. — vijs. \d. 
 
 Et solutum Roberto Jakson pro cariagio vj plaustratarum meremii a 
 Beuerpark usque dictam cameram Domini Prioris ad viij^ — iiijs. 
 
 Et solutum Willelmo Plummer operanti super factura unius gargolae ac 
 super emendatione tecturae plumbiae super cameras Domini Prioris infra 
 tempus compoti — xijs. \\d. 
 
 Et solutum pro panno lineo empto pro factura de ij matres ad usum 
 Domini Prioris, una cum factura earundem — xxiijs. m\d. 
 
 Et solutum Rectori de Houghtone pro decima carbonum de Rayntone 
 hoc anno — liijs. iiiji. 
 
 Et solutum Elemosinario pro Wayleiff hoc anno — vis. v\\]d. 
 
 Et solutum Thomae Aleynsone pro calce ex eo empto infra tempus 
 compoti — xiiijs. 
 
 Et solutum Johanni Aleynsone pro calce ex eo empto infra tempus 
 compoti — xs. x\d. 
 
 Et solutum pro j sera empta per Ricardum Wright— xd. 
 
 Et solutum pro una equa empta de Roberto Havelok — xvjs. 
 
 Et solutum Willelmo Eure militi pro carbonibus ex conventione — xls. 
 
 Et solutum pro supervisione minerarum ex praecepto Domini Prioris 
 hoc anno — xxvjs. viijrf. 
 
 Et solutum pro pergamine, scriptura, et araiatione hujus compoti ac 
 compoti anni proxime praecedentis ibidem omissis ad xvj^. — ijs. viij^. 
 
 Summa — xxxili iijs. id. 
 
 THOS. CALDCLEUGH & SON, PRINTERS, DURHAM. 
 

 
 
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