Plan of the Chapter-House, as shown—A.D. 1727—in Willis' "Survey of Cathedrals." A good general idea of the fittings formerly in the Chapter-House may be seen in Bonnor's work, published in 1709, but on his plan they occupy the two bays eastward, instead of west, as here delineated. They appear to have been excellent Renaissance work.

Walter de Lacy was (Hart. i. 73) buried in the chapter-house with great pomp in 1085, and the room must have been ready or nearly ready for use in that year. As Fosbroke naïvely says of the distinguished dead who are buried here, "They could not have been buried in this room before it existed."

In Leland's time the names were painted on the walls near their gravestones in Black Letter. As he says, "These inscriptions be written on the walles of the chapter-house in the cloyster of Gloucester: Hic jacet Rogerus, Comes de Hereford; Ricds Strongbowe, filius Gilberti, Comitis de Pembroke; Gualterus de Lacy; Philipus de Foye Miles; Bernardus de Novo Mercatu; Paganus de Cadurcis; Adam de Cadurcis; Robertus Curtus."

Of the names given by Leland it may be noted that Roger, Earl of Hereford, Bernard de Newmarch ("Novo Mercatu"), and Walter de Lacy, were all contemporaries of the Conqueror, and "much about his person." They, therefore, when money was being collected for the abbey buildings, subscribed, adding some reservation as to the places in which they wished to be interred.

In spite of the wires stretched across the building, there is a remarkable echo.

The Cloisters are entered from the church by a door near the organ screen in the north aisle of the nave. They were begun by Abbot Horton (1351-1377), who built as far as the door of the chapter-house, and finished by Abbot Froucester, 1381-1412. It will be noticed how the mouldings, the tracery of the windows, and the character of the work generally differ. It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that "the cloisters are some of the finest and most perfect in the kingdom. They form a quadrangle, and are divided into ten compartments in each walk. The vaulting is of the kind known as fan-tracery, and is considered to have originated in Gloucester. It is found also at Peterborough, at Ely, and in the chapel of King's College, Cambridge, the latter being one of the last examples of the method.

"The outer walls are substantially of Norman date, but now overlaid and refaced by Perpendicular panelling." (Hope.)

Though the cloisters are quadrangular, the length (147 feet) of each of the four walks is not quite the same, but the width is 12½ feet and the height 18½ feet.