All there pewes or carrells was
all fynely wainscotted and verie close, all but the forepart,
which had carved wourke that gave light in at ther carrell
doures of wainscott. And in every carrell was a deske to
lye there books on. And the carrells was no greater
then from one stanchell of the wyndowe to another."[1]
There were carrells at Evesham in the fourteenth century.[2]
In 1485 Prior Selling constructed in the south walk at
Christ Church, Canterbury, "the new framed contrivances
called carrells" for the comfort of the monks at
study.[3] Such recesses are to be found at Worcester and
Gloucester; remains of some exist at the south end of the
west walk of the cloisters at Chester, and others were in
the destroyed south walk.[4] At Gloucester Cathedral,
which was formerly the Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter,
are twenty beautiful carrells in the south cloister. They
project below the ten main windows, two in each, and are
arched, with battlemented tops or cornices. Except for
the small double window which lights them, they look like
recesses for statuary.
[1] Surtees Soc., xv., Durham Rites, 70-71.
[2] Chron.
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