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MALLOCK W.
In an enchanted island
page 220 View PDF version of this page AN EMBOWERED ABBEY
217
abbey with a considerable fortified enclosure ; but of these there remained only a few fragments, and their place was taken by the walls of neighbouring orchards.
Before inspecting the- abbey itself in detail I hastily walked round it to arrive at its general plan. This was simple and can be described easily. It consists, or consisted, of a quadrangle, with the buildings ranged round it thus : The church occu-pied one side, the abbot's lodging another, the refectory a third, and the kitchen and the dormi-tories a fourth. Of these the abbot's lodging has entirely disappeared ; but the church is perfect, the refectory is perfect, and so are the kitchen and dormitories, excepting the roof and floors. Bound all these ran an internal cloister, and this on three sides is absolutely perfect also. As for the church, it has now been appropriated by the Greeks, and is served by the parish priest ; and Greek screens and galleries and second-rate garish gilding mar the solemn effect of the old Catholic columns. But in front of the west door is a beautiful arcade or portico like that which so much struck me before the cathedral at Nicosia ; and there the only gold is the gold of the shining oranges, seen in the sunlight through arches of slender shadow. I sat down there on a crumbling seat of stone and ate a frugal luncheon, at which no monk need have been scandalised.
Then I explored carefully all the rest of the
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