to force or to over-persuade his faithful servant,-yet he did afterwards make one desperate effort to retain him: calling him one day into his private chamber, he fell at his feet, and implored him not to desert him in his distress. Turketul, however, though overcome by the unexpected proceeding of his sovereign, fell down also and besought him to spare him; nor could he be moved from his purpose. They rose, the king consented, and fixed a day for accompanying him to Croyland, in order to its execution.

In the meantime, the chancellor sent a crier round London to say, that if he was indebted to any one he would be ready at a certain time and place to pay him, or if he had wronged any man, to restore him threefold. He then gave his sixty manors to the king, reserving only one in ten for the monastery. He also ran down with all possible expedition to pay a hasty visit to his old friends, who were overjoyed to see him-" summa celeritate de Londiniis Croylandium advolans præfatos tres senes in dicta insula latitantes devotissime visitavit, et supra quam dici potest, aut excogitari, revelato suo sancto proposito, in immensum lætificavit." He put them in a carriage, and rode them about into every corner of the island, exploring by the help of their memories, and the charter of foundation, the boundary of the possessions of the monastery, which he marked out by stone crosses. The lands had, of course, got into other hands; but it seems as if in most cases he had little trouble in redeeming them. People were not unwilling to sell him (perhaps even at a moderate price) what they knew did not belong to them; and, in fact, he appears to have failed in only two cases. Duke Osbricht had got hold of the lands of Kyrketon, Kymerby, and Croxton; the original charters had perished; the lands were not specified in any royal confirmation; and his offer to re-purchase at a fair price having been twice refused, Turketul was obliged to give them up. The other case was more difficult and delicate-Beovred, king of Mercia, had given the manor of Depyng to his chief baker, Langfer. It had descended to his two daughters, and they now belonged to a class of ladies with whom it is not always easy to deal. They would yield to neither claim nor entreaty, and the chancellor seems to have been too polite to attempt their ejectment by any other means. He patiently hoped that they would change their minds, (for so I am resolved to understand his expectation of better times,) but he waited all his life in vain.*

The king went to Croyland on the eve of the Assumption in the year 948. Turketul accompanied, or had preceded him. Messengers were sent for the two absent monks, who joyfully returned, and were heartily welcomed, for they were "viri literatissimi, et moribus multum honesti ac religiosi."+ The chancellor laid aside his lay habit, and

"Quæ diu in cælibatu permanentes, neque cum Turketulo voluerunt componere, nec juri suo prece vel pretio renuntiare. Expectabat itaque diutius venerabilis pater Turketulus tempora meliora: sed quamdiu vixit, vixerunt et illæ in eadem pertinacia."

It is worth while, as it regards the possibilities of locomotion in those days, to observe that the king arrived at Croyland on Monday the 14th of August.. Messengers were (mox), I know not exactly how soon, despatched to Malmesbury and

received the pastoral staff from the king, and the benediction from the bishop of the diocese, and thus became Abbot of Croyland. The king took on himself the expense of building, and set about it in earnest. Leaving Egelric (a kinsman of Turketul) to act as clerk of the works, he took the new abbot, with two of his monks, Turgar and Aio, to London, where, in a public council before the archbishops, bishops, and nobles of the land, he confirmed to the monastery all its possessions. Many learned men followed Turketul, of whom ten became monks. 'I'he others had no notion of doing so, (rigorem religionis abhorrentes,) but only came because they did not know how to do without him, (quia præsentia ejus nullo modo carere poterant.) These, being numerous, he placed in a cell dedicated to St. Pega, on the east side of the monastery. He gave them the allowance of inonks, built them a chapel, and appointed for them the same religious services, by day and night, as the monks performed. Many became priests, and afterwards monks, and in the meantime he employed them in school-keeping, and made a point of going at least once every day to inspect the progress of each individual child; taking with him a servant who carried figs or raisins, or nuts or walnuts, or more frequently apples and pears, which he distributed as rewards.

But I am not writing the life of Turketul. He was succeeded in A. D. 975 by his relation Egelric, already mentioned. From being one of the clerici Pegelandenses, he had become a monk, and during the latter years of Turketul he had had the chief management of affairs, for which he was peculiarly qualified. One point which gained him credit was the management with which he provided a large stock of timber, of which a great part of the monastery was afterwards built. Of it, during the lifetime of Turketul, the nave of the church was built, and the tower was framed with very long beams; and after he became abbot he erected many very fine buildings-namely, the infirmary, of very good size, the beams and boards of which were put together with admirable art of carpentry. A chapel, of like workmanship, with baths and other requisites; and because they would not have borne a stone roof, they were covered with lead. Then he made the hall of the guests, and two large and very handsome chambers of the same workmanship. He made also a new brewhouse and bakehouse, all of very beautiful wood-work, (omnia de lignorum pulcherrimo tabulato) a great granary in the same style, and a large stable, the upper chambers for the servants of the abbey, and the under part for the horses; those of the abbot at one end, and those of the guests at the other. These three buildings, the stable,

Winchester, and the two monks got to Croyland on Wednesday the 23rd of the same month. We may, in the present day, consider that as ample time for such a journey; but we must remember that the messengers had not merely to go and return a distance of at least 120 or 150 miles, but that each had to bring with him a very aged companion. We know that Turgar was at this time eighty-eight years of age, and that these travellers were his seniors, for they were among the "fortiores et adolescentiores" who fled from the Danes, when he was left behind as a child. Yet we may reasonably hope that neither of the old gentlemen was over-fatigued, as we hear nothing of it, and find one of them setting out for London on the Monday after.

granary, and bakehouse, formed the west side of the court of the monastery; on the south was the hall of the guests, and its chambers; on the east the sutrinum, or place of sewing, or clothes-making, the hall of the converts, with the abbot's chamber, chapel, hall, and kitchen; and the north side contained the great entrance, and the apartment for receiving the poor. All, except the hall, chamber, and chapel of the abbot, and the apartment for the poor, (which had been built of stone by Turketul,) were built of wood, and roofed with stone. With Egelric's agricultural performances we are not at present engaged, and I write under a most wretched fear of being tedious; but I must say that they were such that the monastery was enriched beyond measure by the produce of its lands; population gathered round, and there was soon a town in the marshy desert. It is more to our purpose to observe that Abbot Egelric "caused to be made two great bells, which he named Bartholomew and Bettelmus, two of middle size, which he called Turketul and Tatwyn, and two lesser, Pega and Bega. His predecessor had before caused to be made a very large bell, which he named Guthlac, which was in tune with these bells, and with them made admirable harmony; nor was there such another peal of bells in England."*

His successor, though he bore the same name, was a man of different disposition-vir magis libris et literis sacris deditus, quam in temporalium provisione doctus. It was well that he followed, rather than preceded, his namesake; for books and sacred literature are most advantageously studied under cover, and with places and means for physical reflection; and so it is that God employs the various talents and dispositions of men, even so obviously that one would think the hand could never dream of saying to the foot, "I have no need of thee." I beg pardon for this reflection, when I am really studying brevity, but it has been repeatedly forced on my mind in reading the brief records of whole strings of abbots, priors, &c. Egelric the Second gave to the common library of the monastery (communi bibliothecæ claustralium monachorum-I do not know whether that phrase was used to exclude the scholastic "clerici Pegelandenses," already mentioned,) forty great original volumes of learned writers, and more than a hundred smaller volumes of miscellaneous treatises and histories; and besides these he made for the choir six graduals, four antiphonaries, and eight missals for the different altars.

I see that I must fairly skip over about a century, and say at once that Ingulph, to whom I am indebted for most of the foregoing par

• The reader is probably aware of the custom of naming bells, and I believe that the previous history sufficiently explains who all these persons were, except Bega, whom one would naturally suppose to be St. Bees, but I do not feel quite certain that it was so well known a personage, and the point is not worth discussing. It brings to my mind, however, a great bell of a certain cathedral which has a good deal puzzled antiquaries by its legend, ME FECIT FIERI MUNCUTUS NOMINE PETRI. Without disputing whether muncutus is an allowable poetical licence for montacutius-or whether, if we strain it to monchatus, we have got a word, and if we have, whether that word has any meaning-I beg to say that (however different they may look in Roman type) the tall, narrow black-letter word which some one has carelessly copied muncutus, is in fact conventus.

ticulars, was Abbot of Croyland in A. D. 1091. What I have hitherto said, though it seems to me to illustrate many parts of our subject, is given with immediate view to his account of what happened in his own time. Speaking of his beloved patron, Archbishop Lanfranc, who died in A. D. 1089, he says

"Two years after his death happened that which was my heaviest misfortune, which had been foreshewn by so many prodigies-the total destruction of so great a monastery, so often clearly foretold in very many visions, and other apparitionsthat most fierce conflagration which cruelly devoured so many and such dwelling places of the servants of God. For our plumber, being employed in the tower of the church about the repairs of the roof, and not extinguishing his fire in the evening, but fatally and most foolishly covering it with ashes, that he might the more readily set to work in the morning, went down to supper; and when, after supper, all our servants had gone to bed, and were every one of them fast asleep, a strong wind rising from the north, speedily brought on our great calamity. For, entering the tower through the lattice-work, which was open on every side, it first blew away the ashes, and then drove the live coals against the nearest wood work, where, quickly finding dry materials which were ready to catch, and thus gaining strength, the fire began to seize the more substantial parts. The peasants, who saw for a long while a great light in the belfry, supposed that the clerks of the church or the plumber were finishing some work; but, at length, perceiving the flames burst forth, they came knocking at the gates of the monastery with great clamour. It was just about the dead of the night, and we were all resting in our beds, taking our first and deepest sleep. At length, being awaked by the loud clamour of the people, and hastening to the nearest window, I saw as clearly as if it had been noon-day all the servants of the monastery running towards the church, crying and hallooing. Having put on my slippers, and waked my companions, I hastened down into the cloister, where everything was as brilliant as if it had been lighted up with a thousand tapers. I ran to the door of the church; and, attempting to enter, I was very nearly caught by the melted bell-metal and boiling lead, which were pouring down. I stepped back, however, in time; and, looking in, and seeing that the flames had everywhere got the upper hand, I took my course toward the dormitory. The lead from the church dropping on the cloister, and soon making its way through, I was severely burnt in the shoulder, and might have been burnt to death, if I had not quickly leaped into the open area of the cloister; where, seeing that the flames that issued from the tower of the church on every side had seized the nave also, and were pointed towards the dormitory of the monks, in which direction burning materials were continually carried, I cried out to those who were still in deep sleep; and, by raising my voice to the utmost, I was scarcely able, after a long while, to rouse them. They, recognising my voice, and leaping out of bed in great alarm when they heard that the cloister was on fire, rushed through all the windows of the dormitory in their slippers and half-naked, and fell miserably. Many, alas! were wounded, many bruised and fractured, by the hard fall.

"The flames, however, continuing to increase, and continually throwing flakes of fire from the church towards the refectory-first the chapter house, then the dormitory, then the refectory itself, and, at the same moment, the cloisters belonging to the infirmary, and the whole of the infirmary, with all the adjoining buildings, were swallowed up at one stroke. As all our brethren collected about me in the court, when I saw most of them half-naked, I tried to regain my own chamber that I might distribute the clothes I had there to those who were most in need. But every avenue to the hall was so exceedingly hot, and such a shower of melted lead was falling on every side, that even the boldest of the young men were obliged to keep their distance. Moreover, not yet knowing that our infirmary had been seized by the flames on the other side, I was going round by the north cemetery towards the east end of the church, when I perceived that our infirmary was on fire, and that the unconquerable flames were raging with the utmost violence among the green trees-— ash, oak, and willow-which were growing around. Returning, therefore, to the west side, I found my chamber like a furnace, vomiting forth incessant flames from all the windows; and, going forwards, I beheld, with tearful eyes, that all the contiguous buildings towards the south, (that is to say, the halls of the converts and of the guests,) and all the other buildings that were covered with lead, were on fire.

But the tower of the church falling on the south transept, I was so terrified by the crash, that I fell on the ground, half dead, in a fainting fit. I was picked up by my brethren, and carried into the porter's lodge; but I scarcely recovered the use of my faculties and my customary strength before morning.

"Day breaking at length, and I having recovered from my fit, the brethren weeping and languid, and some of them miserably wounded, and burnt in many parts of their bodies, performed divine service together with mournful voice, and lamentable wailing, in the hall of Grimketul, our corrodiary. Having performed all the hours of divine service, as well for the day as for the night, we went out to take a view of the state of things throughout the whole monastery, the flames being still unsubdued in many of the offices. It was then that I first perceived that our granary and stable were burned; the flames being not yet quenched, though their posts had been burned even below the level of the ground. About the third hour of the day, the fire being in great measure got under, we went into the church, and, extinguishing with water the fire which was already subsiding, we found in the incinerated choir that all the service books, both antiphonaries and graduals, had perished. On entering the vestry, however, we found all our sacred vestments, the relics of the saints, and some other valuables which were there reposited, untouched by the fire, because the building was covered with a double stone arch. Going up to our archives, we found that, although they were entirely covered by a stone arch,* nevertheless, the fire rushing through the wooden windows, all our deeds were stuck together, and burnt up by the extreme heat, as if they had been in a glowing furnace or oven; although the cases in which they were kept appeared to be safe and sound. Our most beautiful chirographs, written in the Roman character, and adorned with golden crosses, and most beautiful paintings, and precious materials, which were reposited in that place, were all destroyed. The privileges also of the kings of Mercia, the most ancient and best, in like manner beautifully executed, with golden illuminations, but written in the Saxon character, were all burned. All our documents of this kind, greater and less, were about four hundred in number; and, in one moment of a most dismal night, they were destroyed and lost to us by lamentable misfortune. A few years before, I had taken from our archives a good many chirographs, written in the Saxon character, because we had duplicates, and in some cases triplicates, of them; and had given them to our Cantor Master Fulmar, to be kept in the cloister, to help the juniors to learn the Saxon character, because that letter had for a long while been despised and neglected by reason of the Normans, and was now known only to a few of the more aged; that so the younger ones, being instructed to read this character, might be more competent to use the documents of their monastery against their adversaries in their old age. These chirographs, being kept in a certain old chest, which was enclosed by the wall of the church, were the only ones that were saved, and escaped the fire. These are now our chief and principal documents, which were formerly secondary, and put aside, having been long lightly esteemed and looked

Here is an instance of that which I have already noticed--the greater provision which was made for the security of the archives. I have said that when Mabillon was at Nonantula, he found only two MSS. of all its former riches; but he found "in archivo diplomata perantiqua Ludovici Lotharii et aliorum." (It. Ital. 202.) Of course they had a value far beyond that which an antiquary could discover in them, which would account for peculiar care being taken for their preservation, and for their being actually preserved when books were lost. To this their superior portability would often conduce. We have just seen that the documents of Croyland were carried into safety when it is probable that books were destroyed. Ruinart tells us that when he and Mabillon were at Morbach, something similar had occurred 'Magnam esse ibi diplomatum copiam acceperamus, sed quod ob bellorum tumultus alia asportata essent, ea videre non licuit," (It. Alsat. 468;) but he goes on to say-" Hane jacturam codicum MSS. bibliothecæ abundantia resarcivit quorum non pauci sub prima regum nostrorum stirpe litteris majusculis aut franco gallicis descripti sunt." He specifies a psalter that was 800, and a copy of St. Paul's Epistles 900 years old, and a New Testament of equal antiquity, "et alii codices optimæ notæ in quibus sacræ scripturæ libri," &c. ; but these were to take the chance

of war.