Adjoining this vault is a covered passage, having an entrance into the next building, which runs parallel with it. Its purpose cannot now be known. It may be that the vault or Calefactory had been converted in later times into a store-room for necessaries which were brought thence by this covered way into the Refectory, which is the next building. The Refectory measures 48 feet by 24. A few coarse flags remain in their original position, from which it may be inferred that the whole floor was once formed of them. In its western wall was the turnstile, through which the food was served from the kitchen that adjoined the Refectory on that side.
Now, we come to the great puzzle, the remains of the octagon building, which was commonly called the Baptistery. Sir William Wilde, who saw it as it was in 1848, calls it the oldest and by far the most interesting architectural remains in the whole place; and he goes on to describe it:[5] “This octagonal structure, of which only four sides remain, consists of a colonnade or series of circular-headed arches, of the Roman or Saxon character, enclosing a space of 29 feet in the clear, and supporting a wall which must have been, when perfect, about 30 feet high. Each external face measures 12 feet in length, and was plastered or covered with composition to the height of 10 feet, where a projecting band separates it from the less elaborate masonry above. The arches[6] are carved in sandstone, and spring from foliage-ornamented capitals, to the short supporting pillars, the shaft of each of which measures 3 feet 5 inches. The chord of each arch above the capitals is 4 feet 3 inches. Some slight difference is observable in the shape and arrangement of the foliage of the capitals, and upon one of the remaining half arches were beautifully carved two birds; but some Goth has lately succeeded in hammering away as much of the relieved part of each, as it was possible. The arches were evidently open, and some slight variety exists in their mouldings. Internally a stone finger-course encircled the wall, at about six inches higher than that on the outside. In the angles between the arches there are remains of fluted pilasters at the height of the string-course, from which spring groins of apparently the same curve as the external arches, and which, meeting in the centre, must have formed more or less of a pendant, which, no doubt, heightened the beauty and architectural effect. Like the pillars and stone carvings in the Chapter-house, this building was also painted red and blue, and the track of the paint is still visible in several places. The upper story, which was lighted by a window on each side of the octagon, bears no architectural embellishment which is now visible.” He then adds, how Archdall, in his Monasticon, asserted that a cistern was placed on the upper story, whence water was conveyed by pipes to the different parts of the monastery; but shows how such an arrangement would have been impossible, on account of the weakness of the walls, and the position of the windows.
This building was known, in monastic terminology, as the “Lavabo.” A fountain of water issued in jets from a central column, and fell into a basin, in which the monks washed their hands, before entering the Refectory for their meals. It is quite easy, from the construction of the roof, to imagine a number of branches springing from the capital of the column, and meeting the ribs of the groined roof, in the same manner, as the “Marble Tree,” in the Chapter-house of Graignamanagh. Drains in connection with this building were discovered when the excavations were made, and Sir Thomas Deane is of opinion, that it was surrounded on the outside by a wooden verandah, or shed. Certainly, in the plan of Clairvaux, a low building is shown, adjoining the Lavabo, at its east and west ends; but no use is assigned it. Very probably it was the Lavatory. Petrie thinks the Lavabo may have been built as far back as 1165, but that can hardly be held; for Clairvaux had not been remodelled till 1175, and it had no such ornamental structure in the time of St. Bernard. He remarks, too, that fragments of bricks were discovered in the building, and says they were never employed earlier in any other building in Ireland. It is now certain, that it was the monks of Mellifont who first manufactured bricks in this country. This Lavabo was not isolated or detached from the Cloister, but, as at Clairvaux, a door led from one into the other, opposite the entrance into the Refectory; and, since the excavations, portions of the door-way are visible. Some small shafts and their bases remain. Even at the present day, in one of the most recently constructed monasteries of the Order (near Tilburg, Holland), what might be termed a semi-octagonal Lavabo, having its fountain and basin, has been built. It answers the same purpose as those in ancient times.
By keeping the Lavabo before one’s mind, one can form an idea of the Cloister itself; which, consisting of arcades, closely resembled this in every detail, except that these were glazed, and in all probability its walks had a lean-to roof. The site of the east walk of the Cloister is easily traced, and the places occupied by the piers being now concreted, mark their positions. This eastern walk was 21 feet 6 inches wide. The opposite, or western one, was some 19 feet 6 inches; that on the south, 14 feet; and the north one, adjoining the church, and which was usually the Reading-Cloister, may also have been 14 feet. Thus, we would have an enclosed space or Garth, 100 feet square.
Beside the Refectory lay the Kitchen, which was a small building, and around it are the ruins of smaller structures, which may have been store-rooms in connection with it. Under the Kitchen ran a copious stream of water which carried off all the refuse. It is remarkable that at Clairvaux similar remains are found in exactly the same position relatively to the Kitchen there. With the Cistercians, the Kitchen was always square; with the Benedictines, it was round. To the rere of the Kitchen, and almost directly opposite the covered passage, is the old well which was covered over for a long time, but was discovered, and re-opened in 1832. Near it a portion of the old wall fell in, but the masonry, owing to the singularly cohesive character of the mortar, holds together despite the action of the elements.
Of the western walk of the Cloister no trace remains, and only a tottering wall of the Domus Conversorum, which once adjoined it, is standing. There is no trace either of the northern walk, though this was the most important of all. There the monks read and copied, in cells called “carrols,” which were placed near the windows. When not employed in chanting the Masses and Offices in the church, or busied with domestic concerns, or working in the fields, the monks passed all their intervals here occupied with study. The Abbot had a chair here also; and, from a raised pulpit opposite it, one of the monks read aloud every evening, the lecture before Compline, at which the whole community assisted.
Turning westward and approaching the River Mattock, we enter, at the left, an enclosed space, bounded by the river on one side, and by the remains of the outer wall of the Domus Conversorum on the other, we find ourselves in a potato garden, which, on close observation, appears strewn with pieces of bones. This was “God’s Acre” at Mellifont, the cemetery of the monks. Some forty or fifty years ago, a Scotchman, who then rented the mill and a farm adjoining it, perceiving that the clay of this old cemetery was particularly rich and loamy, dug a spit off it a foot deep or more, and carted it out on his fields for top-dressing. Amongst the stuff so carted were human bones of all kinds, skulls, etc.!!! This was done in a Christian land, and no protesting voice was raised against the horrid profanation!! The cemetery is shown in the general view at the extreme left, where the plot of ground appears laid out in ridges and surrounded by a wall.
The River Mattock flows peacefully still by the old abbey as it did over seven centuries ago, when its course being first arrested, it was harnessed and compelled to take its share in many useful and profitable industries. One old solitary yew tree casts its shadow on its water and bears it company amid the surrounding ruin and desolation—sad and sympathising witnesses of Mellifont’s fallen greatness. No bridge now spans the river here, though formerly it was probably arched over, and the slopes upon the Meath side were laid out in terraces and gardens. The present mill was built over one hundred years ago, together with some out-offices; the latter, being situated almost midway in the nave of the church, were removed when the excavations were made. The mill has not been worked during the last thirty years. When Mr. Armstrong wrote his interesting papers on Mellifont, in the Dublin Penny Journal, 1832-33, a few cabins nestled under the shadow of the old ruins.
The last building that deserves notice is the small ruined edifice on the hill, which, after the suppression of the monastery, was used as a Protestant place of worship. Sir William Wilde was of opinion that it dates from the fourteenth or fifteenth century. The western gable which rises in the centre into a double belfry contains a pointed door-way, and above, but not immediately over this, is a double round-arched window. One small narrow light occupies the eastern gable. At a few paces in front of this building there stood, at the time Sir William examined it, two very plain and very ancient crosses, one having a heart engraven on it encircled by a crown of thorns, and the other having a fleur de lis on the arm. The latter cross has disappeared, but the former can still be seen prostrate on the ground, in that half of the old cemetery beyond the road-way, that is, on the side to the south. After the suppression, this was used as a Protestant burial-ground, though the presence of Catholic emblems would go to prove that it was once Catholic. Of late years the interments here have been but few. We are nowhere told, nor does any tradition still linger to indicate the former use of this ancient building, but it is most probable, that it was the church in which the tenants and dependants of the Abbey assisted at Mass and other religious functions—in a word, that it was the parish church of Mellifont, which was served by the monks. This seems to be the most likely explanation; for the law of “Enclosure,” that law of the Church which debarred females from entering within the monastic enclosure, (“Septa monasterii” as it is called), was in full force at the Dissolution of monasteries, as appears from the Decrees of the General Chapters of the Order about that time, and also from the Episcopal Registers of some of the English dioceses which have lately been published. In these latter are found reports of the bishops, who, either officially or by delegation, visited some monasteries and adverted to the law of enclosure as an important point of monastic discipline. This old structure, then, would have been constructed purposely outside the wall for the use of the tenants. Such a chapel is still to be seen outside the enclosure at Bordesley Abbey, an old Cistercian monastery in Worcestershire, of which we are expressly told, that it was the place in which the monks, tenants, domestics, etc., attended Mass. Another purpose may be assigned to this old chapel at Mellifont, as that attached to the College, or Seminary, which once flourished there. The surrounding hill is locally and traditionally known as College-Hill, and the old road which passes over it and leads to Townley Hall, is called the College Road.
Little more remains to be said of the ruins or of the site itself. Standing on this hill and looking into the valley beneath, we are struck by its singular natural features. It would seem as if the waters of the Mattock had been suddenly dammed up, and that the pent-up waters, bursting their barriers, hollowed out this sheltered little valley, after the angry element had cleared away the rocks and other obstructions; and having swept it clear of the rubbish, made it a fit and proper place whereon to rear a temple to the true God, in which praise and sacrifice might for ever be offered to Him. No buildings seem to have been constructed on the Meath side, as no traces of them remain. In this, Mellifont differed from Clairvaux, whose buildings filled the valley and spread out wings high up the hills on either side of the River Aube.