daily on week-days, and
the nave, which is used for the Sunday services. There is at present no
high altar in place under the great screen, but one will probably be
placed there as soon as the final touches are put by Mr. Gilbert to the
carved work of the reredos. The choir proper is not, however, capable of
holding a large congregation. It was, of course, originally intended to
hold the monks only. The part eastward of the stalls might on special
occasions, such as the enthronement of a bishop, the installation of a
dean, be temporarily fitted with chairs, but it is not likely that any
permanent seats will be placed here, since as a matter of fact the nave
and Lady Chapel answer all ordinary requirements.

[Illustration: OLD FLOOR TILE.]

[Illustration: THE GREAT GATE.]

CHAPTER V.

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD.

#The Great Gatehouse.#--In the days of its prosperity the Abbey was
surrounded by a wall within which, as was usually the case, were placed
all the buildings that were necessary for monastic life: cloister,
dormitory, refectory, kitchen, chapter-house, infirmary, guest-house,
stables, dovecote, granary, garden, orchard, vineyard, lodgings for the
abbot, prior, cellarer, cook, and servants, fish-house, fish-ponds, as
well as cemeteries for dead brethren. A number of gatehouses gave access
to this inclosure: the Great Gate, which alone remains standing; the
Waxhouse Gate, where the tapers used for burning before the shrines were
made; the Water-gate, St. Germain's gate, and others. The chief of these
was the Great Gate to the west of the Abbey Church. It was built in the
time of Thomas de la Mare about 1365, on the site of a previously
existing gatehouse which had been destroyed by a violent gale a few
years earlier. It was not only a gateway, but a prison wherein offending
monks, and also laymen of the town, over which the Abbot had civic
jurisdiction, were imprisoned. The Gatehouse was stormed by rioters in
the time of Wat Tyler's rebellion, the monks in their terror giving wine
and beer to their assailants, but news arriving of Wat Tyler's death,
the rioters dispersed; the ringleaders were tried and condemned to
death, among them John Ball, who, with his seventeen condemned
companions, passed the time between their trial and execution in the
dungeons beneath the Gatehouse. In 1480 a printing press was set up in
this gatehouse; after the dissolution it was used as the borough gaol.
During the Napoleonic war