BUILDINGS 23

door, entrance through which was a rare privilege
granted only to the highest. The Choir was the
scene of the daily services of the seven offices of the
day. All around, in the aisles and transepts, were
altars in side-chapels, chantry-chapels,1 where
throughout the early part of the day priests were
saying masses for the souls of the departed. There
were thirty chantries in the Minster.

The Minster has from its foundation been a
cathedral. The Chapter of canons with the Dean at
their head has alwa}Ts been its Governing Body. As
a church it was served by prebendaries or canons
who had definite periods of duty annually, and two
residential bodies of priests, of whom some, the
chantry priests, lived at St. William's College. This
College was erected shortly after the middle of the
fifteenth century: on the site there had been
Salton House, the prebendal residence of the Prior
of Hexham, who was canon of Salton. This
picturesque building of stone, wood, half-timber
work, and tiled roofs is a little to the east of the
Minster. It consists of a series of rooms ranged
round a central courtyard. It is of much historical
interest, and since it was restored recently to be
the home of the Convocation of the Northern
Province, it has returned to the service of the
church. The minor-canons, or vicars-choral, who
were employed by the canons as their deputies,
also lived in communit}T. They had their' hall,

1 The Leschman Chantry Chapel in Hexham Abbey is a
typical example in excellent preservation. A small erection of
stone and wood, it stands between two of the piers of the north
Choir arcade. In small compass there are a stone altar with
five crosses, an aumbry beneath the altar, and the tomb with re-
cumbent emgy of the founder. A priest would have just sufficient
room to move about in the performance of his service. Part of
Archbishop Bowet's tomb in York Minster was a chantry chapel.