The Abbey of Westminster is a well preserved example of the typical Benedictine plan.
One walk of the Benedictine cloister, usually that on the west, was used as the school-room where the novices repeated their "Donats" and other lessons. Hence in many cloisters one sees the stone benches cut with marks for numerous "go-bang" boards—a favourite monastic game.
No monk could borrow a book to read without the express permission of his superiors given in the Chapter House.
The word carrel is probably a corruption of the French carré, from the square form of these little rooms.
When the great Benedictine Abbey of Gloucester was suppressed, Henry VIII. made the Church into a Cathedral by creating a new See; and so, happily, the very beautiful cloister was saved from destruction.