The Plan of St. Gall :: :: University of Virginia Library

An interesting, and possibly common, variation of the
longhouse represented by the rere-dorter of the monastery
of Christchurch in Canterbury (figs. 502-503) was created
by moving the row of toilet seats away from the wall into
the center axis of the building and making each alternate
seat accessible from the opposite side. We have the good
fortune of being able to visualize the furnishings of such a
privy down to its minutest detail because of the survival,
in the Collection of Drawings of the British Museum, of a
set of meticulously measured drawings made by J. G.
Buckler in 1868, before the interior of the longhouse of
New College, Oxford, was gutted to make room for more
modern installations.[685] Although this type does not appear
on the Plan of St. Gall, the furnishings as such may well
reflect a very old tradition. In the annals of New College
the rere-dorter of New College, varyingly referred to as
domicilium necessarium and as "longhouse," was part of the
quadrangle complex built by Bishop Wykeham from 1380
to 1386. It is 16 feet, 2 inches wide and 82 feet long (clear
inner measurements; the external dimensions are 22 feet,
9 inches by 89 feet, 4 inches) and was built two stories
high with walls 3 feet thick. The lower story originally had
no openings and served as a cesspool, which was periodically
cleaned.[686] The upper story, approached by an external
stair, was lit by narrow slit windows with a wide internal
splay. In the axis of the room throughout its entire length

309

[ILLUSTRATION]

CANTERBURY, CHRISTCHURCH MONASTERY. MONKS' PRIVY

503.B TRANSVERSE SECTION

[after Willis, 1868, fig. 13]

503.C ARCHES SUPPORTING PRIVY SEATS

[after Willis, 1868, fig. 14]

A longitudinal wall separated the lower part of the privy into two portions of unequal width. The southern part, 14 feet wide, was filled with
earth and paved at the top. The northern part, 7 feet wide, formed a fosse bridged over by thin masonry arches, and carried wooden seats and
seat partitions.

there were wooden seats, boxed in by wall partitions at the
rear and to the side, making the seats accessible from
opposite sides in alternate sequence. Figure 504A-D shows
the plan, sections, and exterior view of this structure and a
detailed view of one of the original seats.

The rere-dorters of the monks and lay brothers of Kirkstall
Abbey, Yorkshire, as well as the Monks' privy of the
Abbey of Maubuisson (Seine-et-Oise), had this same axial
arrangement of seats (and there were unquestionably many
others), but unlike the longhouse of New College, Oxford,
these buildings were flushed by running water.[687]

[685]

London, British Museum, Collection of Drawings, Add. Ms.
36437. Buckler, Architectural Drawings, Miscellaneous, vol. VIII, fols.
271-86. The existence of these drawings seems to have escaped the
historiographers of Oxford. They are mentioned neither in the chapter
on New College of the Victoria History of the Counties of England,
Oxfordshire, III, 1954, 144-62, nor in A. H. Smith's New College and
its Buildings (Oxford Univ. Press, 1952).

[686]

VHC, op. cit., 149.

[687]

For Kirkstall and Maubuisson see the literature quoted above in
note 29.