a rather unusual arrangement, but in this case there is no doorway from the cloister to the sacristy. The chapter house is about 59 ft. by 32 ft., placed with its long axis. east and west. It has two pillars, dividing it into two aisles. Nothing remains of the walls of this apartment above the level of the base-court, the mouldings of which are of early thirteenth-century date. To the south of the chapter-house is the locutorium, or parlour, having

doorways at its east and west ends. Next to this, and completing the range of buildings on the east side of the court, is the day room. This is entered from the cloister by a doorway, with another one opposite to it on the east side of the room. Further south on this side are traces of another doorway, but the presence of a large tree has prevented the complete excavation of this part of the building. Next to this, and on the south side of the court is the calefactory, or warming-house, the two large fireplaces on the west side of which are plainly to be

distinguished. Adjoining this on the west is the refectory, and beyond again to the west is the kitchen. The outer walls of these apartments can be traced, but they have not been entirely cleared of earth. The west side of the court was no doubt occupied by store-rooms and the apartments of the conversi, but here again trees have prevented the excavation of any part except the south wall, in the lower part of which there is an arch, perhaps that over the drain from the Rere-clorter of the conversi.

Portions of masonry exist to the south of the buildings already described, but the diversion of the stream and other alterations made by "Capability Brown" render their exact shape and use a matter of conjecture. To the northwest of the church is the fine thirteenth-century gatehouse, of which mention has been previously made. Attached to the south side of the gateway is still a fragment of the chapel used for the first devotions or strangers arriving.

These are the sole surviving remains of the once magnificent heritage of Roche Abbey, which now forms. part of the domain of the Earl of Scarborough. For nearly four hundred years the inmates pursued in peace "the noiseless tenour of their way," "along the cool sequestered vale of life," in this equally sequestered spot, where they had made a garden out of a wilderness: when, at length, in 1538, the crash came which overwhelmed them, together with the rest of the religious houses. They had no history, and are therefore, it may be, to be accounted the more happy. No doubt, as time went on and possessions increased, the primitive simplicity was somewhat relaxed, and their lives were marked by greater comfort, not to say luxury.

The charters confirming the grants of these possessions often contain references which enable us to fix the dates of certain events with accuracy. For instance, with reference to the dedication of the church, I have already said that the architectural character of the buildings shows that the date of their erection was the latter part of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth centuries. Now the charter of Idonea de Veteri Ponte, or de Vipont, who was to be buried in the monastery, gives to the

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monks the manor of Sandbec in dotem ad dedicationem ecclesiæ suæ de rupe. This lady was at the time a widow, her husband, Robert de Veteri Ponte, having died in 1228; after which, and before her death in 1241, the church must have been consecrated.

In 1878 Mr. S. O. Addy published a little volume containing sixteen Charters of Roche Abbey, the first fourteen of which were taken from a bundle of MSS. in the possession of a Mr. Hoyle of Rotherham, and then first printed. The muniments of Roche Abbey found their way, at the Dissolution, to the Tower of St. Mary's, York, a building which was destroyed, with its precious contents, during the Civil Wars in the seventeenth century. Fortunately, Mr. Hoyle's transcripts from the originals were made some time previously.

The last two Charters have also been published by Dr. A veling.

From these Charters we derive some interesting information as to the lives and occupations of the Religious at Roche, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, of which the following brief notice must suffice. For fuller details I would refer the reader to Mr. Addy's booklet. Charter VIII shows that the distant Abbey of Netley -or Lettelegh, as the Charter names it had some extensive possessions in Laughton-en-la-Morthen, which the monks of Roche, in 1319, purchased for the large sum of 380 marks: this goes to prove the prosperity of the House before the calamity of the Black Death, mentioned below, overtook the land.

Charter XIII, dated 1361, threatens excommunication against such of the monks as play at dice or other unlawful games (including probably even chess, against which Archbishop Peckham thundered during his visitation of certain religious houses in 1270), frequenting taverns, gardens, vineyards, and other forbidden places, leaving off their proper habit, etc.; this affords evidence of the demoralizing effects produced on the inmates by that same Black Death: for evidently their morale had been shaken, or a lower class of men had joined the Order.

Charter XIV, however, gives us a more pleasing picture of their lives at a later time, for in it Alan, parson of

Maltby, about 1440, grants tithes to the monks, issuing out of lands in the Parish of Maltby, which they cultivate with their own hands (quas colunt propriis manibus). As a rule, the conversi performed the manual labour, but here the monks themselves seem to have taken their share; and, as Mr. Addy remarks, here, as elsewhere, they have "left the impress of their refinement on the places where they dwelt."

When Adam de Giggleswick was Abbot-1330-1349 -the house passed through a period of depression, for, as a complaint made at that time to the Pope expresses it, "the alms and devotion of all men were diminished;" but in 1346 this was dispelled by a munificent donation from John de Warren, Earl of Surrey, of the church of Hatfield, with seventy marks per annum, the charter conferring it being preserved among the Dodsworth MSS. in the Bodleian Library, intituled as follows: "Carta Joannis de Warren, comitis Surr. admirantis magnificentiam operis lapidei hujus abbatiæ, necnon paucitatem monachorum, quapropter dedit abbatiæ eccl. de Haytfield Ebor. dioc. post cujus appropriationem XIII viri honesti et idonei competentis literaturae capientur in religionem ultra numerum assign. a funda

tore.

Adam died in 1349, probably of the Black Death, which, according to Stowe, "decimated the realm" in that year.

Matilda of York, Countess of Cambridge, who died in 1440, directed in her will that her "body be buried in the Monastery of Roche, in the chapel of the Blessed Mary, before her image, situated in the southern part of the church of the said monastery.' This probably referred to one of the chapels opening from the south transept.

At the Dissolution Roche Abbey was worth, according to Dugdale, £224 2s. 5d., and according to Speed, £271 19s. 4d. per annum, but according to the Visitors it was only worth £170, and hence came under the Act which gave to Henry all the lesser monasteries of under £200 per annum.

Of its destruction an interesting account survives in a letter written by one Cuthbert Shirebrook, who was

born near Roche Abbey, and educated at the free school of Rotherham. He became in after-life a "dignified ecclesiastic." The letter was written about 1591, and describes what the writer's uncle, who was present at the suppression, was witness of This letter is given by Dr. Aveling, and quoted by Father Gasquet in his Henry the Eighth and the English Monasteries; it is also mentioned in passing by Mr. Hills. I refer to it because it gives a unique account of the proceedings at this monastery, derived from contemporary sources: proceedings which are typical of what was going on all over England at that terrible time; and, further, because it throws considerable light on the internal arrangements of a Cistercian house.

Thus was Roche Abbey despoiled of its possessions, its buildings destroyed, its beautiful church desecrated and ruined, and its inmates turned out into the world. The Deed of Surrender is signed by Henry (Cundal), Abbot, Thomas Twell, Sub-prior, and sixteen monks; and, having given up their house with a good grace, they were all dealt well by. The Abbot's pension amounted to £33 6s. 8d., the Sub-prior's to £6 138.4d., and the monks' priests to £5, while the novices had £3 6s. 8d. each. În 1558, twelve of the eighteen who signed the surrender still enjoyed their pensions.

Down to 1776 the ruins remained in much the same condition as when Cuthbert Shirebrook wrote; but in that year Lancelot Brown, better known as "Capability" Brown, described in the Dictionary of National Biography as "the reviver of the natural style of landscape gardening," and best remembered as having laid out the gardens at Kew and Blenheim, was let loose upon Roche, and it is the havoc which his hands wrought that makes it so difficult to discover the plan of the buildings. Among other things, he carried the stream right over some portions of them! Dr. Aveling quotes the description of his proceedings from the account of a Mr. Gilpin,' who lived at the time; and remarks that, as Mr. Gilpin

1 William Gilpin (1724-1804), Author, Schoolmaster, Vicar of Boldre, Artist. Descendant of Bernard Gilpin (1517-1583), and brother of Sawrey Gilpin (1733-1807).-v. D. N. B.