, like those still in
the transept end, made this evident until 1825, when they were hidden
beneath the smooth modern surface. The southern wall of the presbytery
is almost entirely concealed by the eighteenth century chapter room,
with its plain, square-headed, sashed windows. The clerestory, however,
which is like that on the north side, appears over the red-tiled roof of
that modern structure. In the basement on this side some windows have
quite recently been inserted, to light the new vestries in the crypt,
and a door opens into the cellar beneath the chapter room.

#The Monastic Buildings and Cloisters# originally stood in the usual
position on the south side of the nave, and were apparently of wood, but
these first structures having soon perished, their successors were
erected in an uncommon position, said to be unique in this country, on
the same side of the choir. At Lincoln, also, the cloister is indeed
beside the the choir, but to the north of it. The earliest monastic
buildings at Rochester were of Gundulf's time; the next, in the new
situation, were the work of Ernulf, who built the chapter house,
dormitory, and refectory. Of these fine specimens of later Norman
architecture, ruins still exist. The chapter house and dormitory formed
the east side of the cloisters. Of the western wall of the chapter house
three arches remain, with a recess, having zigzag mouldings continued
down to its base, and not merely round the head, on each side of the
central arch, between it and the others. The chapter house was an oblong
room, as some remains of it within the deanery prove, and must have been
fine and of ample size. It was raised above the ground level, and the
space beneath, into which the three lower archways (now walled up)
opened, was looked upon as an honourable place of burial; it was entered
by the middle arch, the side shafts of which have fine and elaborate
capitals, while the arch itself is richly sculptured and has elaborate
zigzag and other mouldings. The panels round it are said to contain
representations of the twelve signs of the zodiac, but all the carved
work here (general in Caen stone) is so worn and decayed that it is
impossible, in most cases, to feel sure of what was intended. The
damaged state of all the carved work is possibly to some extent a result
of the great fires of the twelfth century. Ernulf's diaper occurs in the
spandrels on either side of this central arch; and each of the outer
arc