Contents of the fikst volume
Yüklə 4,81 Mb.
|
|
though probably in small quantities, some centuries before his time. But it was rather considered as a balsamic or pectoral medicine than an article of food. Not. ib.
appear very great ; but this is far beneath the establishment of many of the greater houses. The abbey of Tewkesbury, at the Dissolution, had 144 servants. Burnet's Hist. Reform, vol. i. App.
132
HISTORY OF WHALLEY.
[BOOK II. CHAP. II. respects, was equally pernicious in others. If, for instance, in an age of poverty, and when no legal provision for the poor existed, these foundations liberally supplied the wants of age and sickness, they dealt out with undistinguishing hands an equal measure of bounty to "valiant and idle beggars, drove beasts, and michers." 1 If again they aiforded a gratuitous and comfortable resting-place to the traveller of every description, the power of exercising this liberality was extorted froin the laborious parish priest, who had an ante- cedent right to those tithes, which the monks with unfeeling rapacity appropriated to themselves. The same cause, together with the magnificence of their buildings, rendered them importunate and never-satisfied beggars, who found an easy access to the beds of the great at seasons when guilt and fear precluded a refusal ; and the necessary magnitude of their general expenses made them jealous of the most trivial rights, querulous, irritable, and contentious."
stated in round numbers, on the authority of the two preceding accounts, at wheat 200 quarters, malt 150 quarters, wine 8 pipes.
For the Abbot's table. Oxen and cows 81 loop .... Calves Lambs
Porkors 7 a
80 40
20 4
And for the Refectory and inferior tables within the house. Oxen and cows . . .57 Sheep . . . .40 Calves . . . .20 Lambs 10 From this statement may be inferred a great disproportion in the quantity of animal food, when compared with the other necessaries of life, to modern habits ; for in this table of expenses it may be made clearly to appear, that the value of shambles-meat consumed was, to that of wheat and of malt, in a much higher ratio than at present. 3 The latter circumstance leaves a very favourable impression with respect to the sobriety of a religious house. The quantity of wine accounted for would indeed have allowed a bottle of wine per day to every monk ; but it is to be suspected that great part of this luxury was intercepted 1 General injunctions to the monasteries. Burnet's Hist. Reform, vol. i. App. 2 See the " Annales Prioratus de Dunstable," published by Hearne; which is little better than an history of pettv squabbles. * This computation supposes that the first article, provisori conventus, was a charge for shambles-meat on the general account of the house, which is no where else provided for ; and the two sums charged under this head are nearly one-half of that which is placed to the account of the abbot's table.
Old Vicarage house at Wiswell, on which the monks salted down half-carcases, or flitches, of beef, in autumn : when beasts were driven down to the Abbey from the Grange above Slaidburn in Bowland, from Merland near Rochdale, from the forest of Rossendale, and other places. Not having sufficient buildings to house the stock in, they drove them down to be slaughtered before they lost their condition, and before the snow and storms commenced in the upper valleys. R. N. W.] BOOK II. CHAP. II.]
THE ABBEY. 133
by the abbot and liis guests before it reached the refectory ; and who can forbear lamenting that these poor men had scarcely a vegetable to eat ' or a garden to cultivate ! On the whole, to men who fed so grossly and had so little exercise or labour to correct the effects of repletion, how wise and salutary, even in a medical view, was the institution of fasting ! Yet, after all the benefits resulting from temporary inanition, how peculiar must then have been the state of the human body, and consequently the practice of medi- cine, in monasteries ! When men, born in times, and bred in habits, which almost exempted them from the evil, shall I say, or the privilege, of weak constitutions, were often swept away in the midst of their days by inflammatory disorders, or, if they survived to a later period, were knocked down at a stroke by apoplexies, the supcradded laziness and plenty of a convent, without such systematic checks, must have been doubly pernicious. But another circumstance in the habits of monks must have exposed them to putrid and cutaneous disorders ; 2 I mean a total inattention to cleanliness, which is to be imputed to the absurdity of their rule : for they had no sheets to their beds, or shirts to their backs : they slept in their ordinary dresses of woollen, and never availed themselves of a practice from which they do not appear to have been prohibited, and which alone rendered the same habits tolerable in the ancients, namely, a constant use of warm baths, which would have removed all impurities from the skin. In us it would produce a strange mix- ture of feelings, to be repelled from the person of a man of learning or elegant manners by stench and vermin.
and in this state it subsisted till the attainder of Abbot Paslcw. 3 After that melancholy event, nothing more is recorded of it during a period of two years; after which, on
1 [The present Vicar of Whalley lias found reason to report differently. " Attached to the abbey was a garden abounding with fruit-trees and herbs proper for making salves. Apples, pears, bean?, and pot-herbs grew in them, and the sick walked in them that they might enjoy the pure smell of the flowers of the herbs. In the old hedges great numbers of b;#berry trees were grown which were used for confections.'' (Lecture by the Rev. 1J. N. Whitaker, 2nd Feb. 1869.) It also appears from the Coucher Book that there were several gardens and orchards about the abbey.] 2 The jaw-bone of one of the abbots, turned up in digging within the choir, had been honeycomed by a scrofulous complaint. [Chap. xxv. of Distinctio quarta of the Exordium mac/num Ordinis Cist, is entitled De monacho qui sine caligis dormire praesumpsit et propterca per divinam revelationem vetitus est abbas fieri. Chapter xxiv. is Qualiter conversus, qui sine licentia caligas suas lavit, divinitus punitus est.] 3 It was committed to Braddyll from the day of the Dissolution. I have since met with his first half-year's account, ending at Michaelmas 1537. [In the Public Kecord Office, Exchequer, Augmentation, Ministers' Accounts 28 and 29 Hen. VIII. No. 89, is the Computus Joli'is Bradyll, Ballivi dn'i Regis pro Whalley nuper Monaster', a large roll, and several other rolls for succeeding years.] I find that Pedley was Vicar of Whalley at this time; so that he could not have been presented by Archbishop Cranmer. It does not appear that he was a monk : it is therefore not improbable that he was presented by the Crown immediately after the Dissolution. There is no account of the precise time when Vicar Seller died.
Pollard, esq. one of the King's Surveyors General, came down and let the desmesnes from that time to Michaelmas. 134 HISTORY OF WHALLEY. [BOOK II. CHAP. IL April 12th, 1539, the bailiwick of the demesnes was committed, by letters patent of Henry VIII. to John Braddyll, gent, of the neighbouring house of Braddyll and Brock- hole, the said demesnes being then seized into the King's hands " ratione attincturoe Johannis nuper abb. ibm." In the beginning of July, this year, 1 died Christopher Smith, who had been 30 years Prior, before the forfeiture of the house. He was interred near the font of the parish church, where the initials X S, and the paten and chalice, expressive of his order, still remain upon a large gravestone, adorned with a cross fleury. (Engraved in the same plate with the crosses in the churchyard.) In this state everything remained during an interval of somewhat more than 14 years, in which time Braddyll had so profited of the rich deposit committed to his hands, as to be able to convert a trust into property ; and accordingly, at a most dangerous period for such an adventure, that is, exactly 20 days before the death of Edward VI., he, in conjunc- tion with Hichard Assheton, a younger son of the house of Lever, purchased from the Crown, for the sum of 2132. 3*. 9cl. the whole manor of Whalley and site of the dissolved or attainted monastery thereof, which arc particularised in terms extremely interesting, as they perpetuate several names allusive to its former state, which they who love the place and the subject would not wish to be forgotten. 2
the two grantees, in which Assheton obtained exclusive possession of the house ; but Hence it appears, that all the live stock must have been disposed of immediately. Under this letting, the laud, upon an average, produced about 2.?. per acre, and cottage-houses from Is. to 6d. and even 4d. The tenants at will, who appear to have been all the inhabitants of the town of Whalley, occupying, for the most part, five, six, or eight acres each, paid in all 181. 2f. 9rA ; works silver, 12s. lid ; demesne lauds, G22. 11s. 2(7. Of these, one close, called Portfield, containing 18 acres, was let for 3 Is. The herbage of the park and wood, two miles in circuit, was demised to Alex- ander Osbaldeston for 12/. ; and the folds, containing GO acres, and Stauden Hey, containing 120 acres, to , for 19'- The Court Grange is mentioned, as is Le Castell. The dove-house was let for Is. 8d. ; the tan-house to Simon llaydock and John Woodroof (both I suppose of Burnley), for 47. ; an enormous rent, when the skins of the cattle slaughtered at the abbey were gone. Abbey Mill, 11.
prior maintained, after the Dissolution, a considerable interest in the possessions of the abbey, of which he was then called the Proctor, as appears by the following (among other) entries in the Coucher Hook :
yeare, that is to say, at Michaelmas and Easter, 61. 14s. 4rf. to Chris. Smith clearke, procter of the late monestery of Whaley. now chantery priest in the parish church of Whaley, for his stipend by the yeare, so appointed by the Earle of Sussex, (p. 1190.) Christ. Smith, 2 acres arable land and 2 roods meadow, 5s. (p. 1195.) a messuage, a garden, 3 acres arable land, 7 acres of pasture, and one acre and a half of meadow, 15. (p. 1201.) 2 [This important document will be found in a subsequent page.] BOOK II. CHAP. II.] THE ABBEY. 135
Braddyll retained so much larger a portion of the demesnes, that he paid a compensation to his partner of 467/. 16s. 8d. Henceforward the site and demesnes of Whalley are to be considered merely as a lay- fee, and will he noticed once more, in their proper place, under the families of Assheton and Braddyll.
improper to premise a few observations on the peculiar construction of monasteries in general, and of the Cistercian houses in particular. These may be considered as a short rationale of monastic architecture ; and, besides their general use, may assist the reader in understanding the grounds upon which the different apartments in the annexed ichno- graphy have been assigned to their respective uses. First, then, the quadrangular mode of building, with apartments opening inward, was, of all others, best adapted both to security and to sequestration ; and, for one or other of these reasons, it was common to the villas of the Greeks and Homans ; l perhaps to temples, with their appendages, 2 to the Oriental kanes, 3 to the castles and greater manor- houses of our English ancestors, to colleges, 4 hospitals, and monasteries.
the first hint, not indeed of the general form, but of that peculiar disposition of apartments Avhich prevails so generally in this species of building among ourselves, was ultimately brought from thence, yet varied in such particulars as difference of climate, and the conse- quent necessity of a change of habits, seemed to indicate.
nature of monastic rules, and partly from attention to general convenience. For the very nature of their rule required, in monks, seclusion from the world ; yet a necessary regard to health and cheerfulness, even in those who professed to pay little attention to the one, 1 These were certainly quadrangular; and, besides an impluvium, or, as it is called by Suetonius, Aug. c. 92, a compluvium, in the centre, had frequently noble colonnades, resembling cloisters, which surrounded them within. Such appears to have been the house of Byrrhscna, described in Apuleius, Metamorph. 1. 2, c. 22. " Atria longe pul- cherrima columnis quadrifariam per singulos angulos stantibus." See also Vitruvius, 1. (>, c. 4. 2 A temple discovered at Pompeii, with its dependent offices and apartments, is said to bear a striking resemblance to an ancient convent. 3 The kanes are built in fashion of a cloister, encompassing a court of 30 or 40 yards square, more or less, according to the measure of the founder's ability or charity. Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 4. 4 It may be amusing to trace the features which colleges and monasteries had in common, and those which cacli possessed apart. Both, then, were quadrangular ; both had cloisters, refectories, common rooms, libraries, and a distinct lodging for the head of the house ; both, too, had magnificent gateways, but the gateway of a monastery entered a close, and that of a college the quadrangle. The college had no common dormitory, no chapter-honse, and no church but a chapel : this is remarkably true, even in the most splendid collegiate foundations ; for that of King's College itself, though equalling many cathedrals in extent, and perhaps surpassing them all in magnificence, in order tc- preserve the collegiate character as distinct from the monastic, was constructed without tower, columns, side aisles, or transept. We are to remember that Jesus' College, in the same university, which has a regular church, is an entire nunnery. It may perhaps be said that Merton College at Oxford, which never was a monastery, is an exception to this rule; and Magdalen College, with respect to its tower ; but I recollect no other. 136 HISTORY OF WH ALLEY. [BOOK II. CHAP. II. and affected to mortify the other, imperiously demanded that the votaries of religion should sometimes behold a more expanded horizon, and sometimes breathe a freer air, than that of the cloister.
often of 50, or even 90, 1 acres, surrounded by an high and sometimes embattled 2 wall, and entered by one or two magnificent gateways. Beyond this inclosure the religious were not regularly permitted to walk or ride, but on the necessary business of the house. Within the close were included all the appendages of a large domain, occupied by the owners ; as, a grange 3 or farm-house, barns, stables, mill, &c. The reason of this arrange- ment, at least in the northern parts of England, was obvious, as the live-stock and out- buildings of the monastery were thus completely protected, not only against ordinary depredations, but against the more formidable and periodical plunder and conflagrations of the Scots. Next was the house itself, situated in the lowest and warmest part of the inclosure ; consisting usually of one large quadrangular court, into which the various offices and apartments opened ; 4 and to all these a warm and sheltered access in every season was provided, by means of a penthouse cloister, surrounding the whole. The northern side of this quadrangle was formed by the nave of the conventual church, so placed with great judgment, 011 account of its height and bulk, as in that posi- tion it afforded the best shelter against northern blasts, and in any other Avould have excluded more or less of sunshine from the cloister, where the aged monks, who could no longer wander far beyond their cells, would naturally wish, with the poet,
side of the quadrangle, was the Sacristy, and next the Chapter-house, of which the doors and windows are generally observed to be adorned with peculiar care. 5
on purpose to comprehend it. [The conventual buildings arranged round this cloister court or quadrangle were placed in a variety of positions by different orders of monks ; but it has been shown by Edmund Sharpe, M.A., F.S.A., a distinguished architect and archaeologist, that the Cistercians not only had fixed rules concerning the nature of sites for their buildings, and the style and amount of ornament to be employed in their construction, but that they followed, with very slight variations, one uniform plan. These laws, it is also proved, were most strictly observed for two centuries at least, not only in this country, but on the continent of Europe. The first house of the Cistercians in this country was founded A.D. 1128, :it Waverley, in Surrey. {Communicated by Mr. W. A. Wad(lingtonJ)~]
houses of York, Worcester, Wells, Lincoln, &c. They were, however, generally small in houses of the Cistercian order on account of their position, but sometimes underwent a subsequent enlargement, as at Kirkstall. [This note, and others of Dr. Whitaker in this place, together with portions of the text, are also corrected by Mr. Waddington, assisted by the great experience of Mr. Sharpe.]
BOOK II. CHAP. IL] THE ABBEY. 137
The chapter-house was always considered as a part of the church, received the same peculiar consecration, and was honoured with the interment of patrons and other great persons. Here, too, all elections were made; hence, all processions commenced after elections ; and here, lastly, all acts of discipline 1 were performed. All these, hut the last, were reasons for its contiguity to the former edifice.
penitentiary where offending monks were incarcerated after sentence passed on them. A slype, or passage, generally divided this room from a long apartment used as the common refectory and day-room of the monks, stretching in a southerly direction far beyond the line of cloister court.
common refectory, was the dormitory. A flight of steps is generally found in the south transept of the church, communicating with these apartments for the use of the monks during nocturnal services. Again, opposite to the church, and forming the south side of the quadrangle, were situated the kitchens, principal refectory, butteries, sculleries, &c., a range of apartments necessarily connected with each other, and in the Cistercian houses usually placed on the north bank of a stream, so that all the offal and filth from the offices passed immediately into the current without annoying any other part of the house.
higher story. 2 ] In all this arrangement there appears a great deal of good sense and rational con- trivance. A very dignified part of the monastery is yet unnoticed, namely, the Abbot's Lodging, which was usually attached to or a little removed from the south-cast corner of the qua- drangle, and so placed as to afford an easy communication with the cloister, chapter -house, and church. This was a distinct residence, pretty much in the style of a large manor- house, and calculated for a splendid establishment, having a hall, kitchen, and sometimes a chapel within itself. The remains of this building are very conspicuous at Kirkstall, 1 jf or tfiere ten manse fdle ftefces . tng fern's to asptr, fcutfjr prtour anft supprtour . anil oure pater abfias ; anft if Idle anj> talrs . tfie i tafeen Jjcm togifteres, antr ftoon me fast frgftajifs . to treeft anft to Inatrr, a nft am cljalangeft in tdr rfjapttre flons . as 1 a rfitltr toerc anft baleiseft on tfle tare ers . anft no nreef) fiittoene. Such is the complaint of the merry and mischievous Friar Wrath in Piers Plowman. [Wright's edit. 1856, vol. ii. p. 87. J 2 [The lower story at Fountains Abbey is a magnificent apartment groined in stone ; the vaulting ribs springing from a long range of columns continued down its centre. This portion is still in a good state, of preservation ; indeed, Yüklə 4,81 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
|