I am grateful for the various suggestions by reviewers: slight corrections have been made accordingly. Mr G. G. Coulton believes that the famous plan found at St Gall was a fancy drawing of an ideal monastery, which was never carried out at St Gall or elsewhere. This seems to me very possible, but there is good evidence that the actual plan dates from the early part of the ninth century.

Mr Coulton is no doubt right in saying that The Kites of Durham should not be quoted without a caution, for it is an ex parte statement written perhaps half a century after the monastery was dissolved. Surely, however, it will always be a primary authority for the disposition and use of the buildings, and it is for this purpose almost entirely that I have quoted it.