^{page 161 note a} The stone has perished much during the last fifteen years and the loop is much larger than it was. An attempt to get in that way now would probably bring the wall down.

^{page 163 note a} The break passes through the holes and the piece broken off was found by Mr. Wright, the clerk of the works, in clearing out the cesspool at the bottom of the stair.

^{page 164 note a} Mr. John Richmond was my companion in the search.

^{page 165 note a} This was done before the suppression of the abbey, for the king's letters patent, dated 20th January, 32 Henry VIII, which grant the late abbot's house to the newly appointed bishop of Westminster, include in the grant “quartam partem totius magni claustri dicti nuper monasterii cum edificiis scituatis et existentibus super eadem.; quaedam quarta pars contigue et proximo adjacet eidem domui mansioni et habitacioni.”

The Benedictine rule seems to have been only nominally observed at Westminster in the sixteenth century; and, although the monks then had perhaps not quite advanced to the state reached in some French abbeys a little later, where each man lived in a suit of rooms of his own, receiving a pension from the common fund, yet they seem to have been not far from it; and their life was more like that of secular canons or the fellows of a college than that of real Benedictine monks. I think, therefore, that the privacy of the cloister so necessary to the true monastic life may have been given up, and with it the use of the parlour, and that even before the suppression both of them had, to a great extent, become the mere passages which they are now. And so the darkening of the parlour was a matter of little importance.

^{page 166 note a} The holes in the iron and lead objects which were found were filled with sharp sand such as could not have got into them from the drain, and I have no doubt it was part of the filtering substance with which they got mixed up when the cistern was destroyed. In Venice, which till lately depended for fresh water on collected rain-water, it used to be passed through a bed of sand before entering the cistern or “well ” in which it was stored.

^{page 166 note b} It may be objected that the passing of the pipe twice through the bench is unnecessary, as it might have been taken directly into the cistern or over the top. But the old plumber was accnstomed to make his supply pipes rise up directly from the bottom of his cisterns; and, if he had been asked why he did so here, he might have answered, as his modern brother often will in like case, “That is the way it is always done.”

^{page 167 note a} This was probably done by Guy Gasken, “servant unto the dean and chapter,” who on the 5th November, 1544, received orders from them to take down the frater house. Only the roof was taken off, as the sole object was to get money, and lead and timber could be sold, but stone walls would not pay for the pulling down. Our conduit, too, must have been destroyed for the sake of the lead.

^{page 167 note b} This has not had anything to do with the filtering cistern, and its presence in the drain was accidental. But I think the thing is ancient. It seems to be a bit of waste produced in casting by the wax process, and it may be a scrap from the workshop of Torrigiano, or of one of them to whom we owe the figures of Richard II. and his queen and Edward III. For several reasons I think it did not belong to Torel.

^{page 169 note a} It is mentioned by Mr. W. H. St. John Hope in his excellent description of the abbey buildings in the Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, vol. x., p. 150Google Scholar, and his section of the Gellarium, passes through it.

^{page 169 note b} Dr. Andrew Boorde, a physician who wrote in Henry VIII.'s time, advises that water for drinking be boiled as well as strained. But he did not recommend the free use of it even so. Speaking for himself he says plainly, “I can not away with water … wherefore I do leve al water and do take myself to good ale.” Nevertheless he gives his professional opinion, part of which is this:

“Water is not holsome sole by it selfe for an Englysshe man, consyderynge the contrary vsage, whiche is not conrarraunt with nature: water is colde, slowe, and slacke of digestyon. The best water is rayne-water, so be it that it be clene and purely taken. Nexte to it is ronnyng water, the whiche doth swyftly ronne from the east in to the west upon stones or pybles. The thyrde water to be praysed is ryver or broke water, the which is clere, ronnyng on pibles and grauayl. Standynge waters, the whiche be refresshed with a fresshe spryng, is commendable; but standyng waters, and well-waters, to the which the Sonne hath no reflyxon, althoughe they be lyghter than other ronnyng waters be, yet they be not so commendable. And let euery man be ware of all waters the whiche be standynge, and be putryfyed with froth, duckemet, and mudde; for yf they bake, or brewe, or dresse meate with it, it shall ingender many infyrmytes. The water the which euery man ought to dress his meat withall, or shall use bakynge or bruyng, let it be ronnyng; and put it in vesselles that it may stande there ij or iij houres or it be occupyde; than strayne the vpper parte throughe a thyeke lynnyn cloth, and cast the inferyall parte awaye.” A Compendyous Regyment or a dyetary of Helth, by Andrew Boorde, of Physicke Doctour, 1542. Early English Text Soc.: Reprint, p. 252.

^{page 169 note c} De Aquaeductibus Urbis Romae, Art. xv. See also Art. xix.

^{page 169 note d} Lib. viii. cap. vi.

^{page 169 note e} H. N. lib. xxxvi. cap. 52 (28).