A Legend of Reading Abbey

rting from the sinful and unhappy land of England), and Stephen of Blois, nephew of the deceased King Henry Bea

side now with one party and now with the other, and now change sides again, to the great perplexing of the understanding of honest and simple men, to the undoing of their

ht good limner, who painted such saints and Virgins upon gilded panels as had not before been seen in England, and who was now painting the chapel of our Ladie with rare and inappreciable art, as men who have eyes and understanding may see at this day. All the learned and periti do affirm that for limning and gilding our chapel of the Ladie doth excel whatever is seen in the churches of Westminster and Winchester in the south, or in the churches of York and Durham in the north, or in the churches of Wells and Exeter in the west, or in Ely and Lincoln in the east. [I speak not of the miracles performed by our relics: they are known to the world, and be at least as great as those performed by our Ladie of Walsingham.] Albeit our walls of stone and flint were not all finished in the inner part, our house was girded and guarded by ramparts of royal charters and papal bulls. Two charters had we from our founder, and one from King Stephen, confirmatory of those two. And great were the immunities and privileges contained in these charters. No scutage had we to pay; no stallage, no tolls, no tribute; no customs in fair or market, no tithing penny or two-penny, no amercements or fines or forfeitures of any kind! Our mills were free, and our fisheries and our woods and parks. No officer of the king was to exercise any right in the woods and chases of the lord abbat, albeit they were within the limits of the forests royal; but the lord abbat and the monks and their servitors were to hold and for ever enjoy the same powers and liberties in their woods and chases as the king had in his. Hence was the House of Reading ever well stocked with the succulent meat of the buck. Too long were it to tell all that our founder Henricus did for us. At the beginning of his reign, he abolished the ancient power of abbats to make knights; yet, in order to distinguish our house, he did, by a particular clause in our charter of foundation, give unto the l

d being much favoured and indulged by the lord abbat and several of the brotherhood, I heard and saw more than the other novices, and was more frequently employed upon embassages beyond the precincts of the abbey lands. It was a common saying in the house that Felix the Sunningite, though but little given to his books within doors, was the best of boys for out-door work. By the favour of our Ladie, the

mother) on the eve of St. John the Evangelist, in the year of our Redemption eleven hundred and twenty, being the twentieth year of the Beauclerc's re

t begrudgeth even his serfs and bondmen rest at such a tide; and eager as was our lord abbat Edward for the completion of our stately edifice, and speciliater for the finishing of our dormitory, he would not allow a man to chip a stone, or put one flint upon another, or hew or shape wood upon St. Edbert's day; and he was almost angered at the Italian limner for finishing part of a glory which he had begun in o

k of the Kennet, looking at the bright river as it glided by, and at the young moon and twinkling stars that were reflected in the water, or discoursing with one another upon sundry cheerful topics. Good cheer had made me cheerful, and it remembers me that I made little coronals and chains of the violets that grew by the river bank, and o

tall tower of our church, and the broa

and substantial house, and on

and learned Italian father who

the pits of Caversham are inexhaustible; and with our mortar, rubble, and flints, we have built walls three fathoms thick, and have made an abbey which will stand longer than your Italian temples, built of stone and marble; for time, that corrode

tiest battering-ram, will ever breach these walls; and therefore is the house safe against any a

we shall have no intestine trouble. We have no fig-trees, or I would quote to thee, Brother Torpietro, that passage which saith.... Felix, my son, leave off throwin

ound Humphrey, the old janitor, and none but he. Humphrey had opened the wicket, and had closed it again, before I came to the gate. "Felix, thou good boy of Sunning," said he unto me, "thou art as nimble as the buck of the forest, and art ever willing to make thy young limbs save the limbs of an old man, so prithee take t

t to the abbat, down at the Kennet banks. I was presently there, for albe

t, as he espied me and my b

tle donation from the faithful. Venison is not as y

e wicker, I think it is rather some sizeable pike,

moon as he did it), "bethinks me rather that it is a collation of simnels from our chaste sisters the nuns of Wargrave, who ever and anon do give a sig

and dignity, I cut the slight bindings, and undid the corbel; and then there lay,

he lord abbat, gazing

cy upon us! But what thing h

imner from Pisa, "and would do to paint for o

eighbours: "What have we celibatarians and Benedictines to do with little babies? I smell mischief here-mischief and irregularity. Felix, what knowest t

nothing;" and this being perfectly true, yet did I hold down my head, for that

o our presence," s

use, soon appeared, and was not a little amazed to see the amazement of the monks, and the high displeasure of the abbat; for as age had

thou hast sent us? Tell me, in the name

ms about, as if feeling for its nurse; and hereat our old janitor's wonderment being manif

; "my lord abbat would know who left this corb

nce to his superiors which he was bounden to do

" said t

o make the matter worse," sai

chcraft! What Christian man, or woman either, could e

the basket?" s

aid old Humphrey, st

t with thee?" as

ere out of breath when they came to the wicket, and who went away to the westward so soon as they had

nothing more?"

y there was delic

thou think it was?"

ething to e

hou art stolid, oh Humphrey, to take a corbel

hought I had seen them before bring gifts and offerings to our house; and it is not in my office to open anything that is

asked the abbat. "Bethink thee, oh H

e, and who had sent this present, one of them did m

somewhat conturbated. But when the head of our house had recovered from this sud

your lordship knew not who sent the gift, your lordship would soon know right well. But as the

thou what festival of mother church

dbert," responded Humphrey, with

these gates any donation or thing whatsoever from men that thou knowest not, and

the cellarer, "ought to have warned thee, oh Hu

they did place the basket in my hands, and vanish away all in a minute, and I could not throw

s clothes. The lord abbat, whose heart was always kind to man, woman, and child, nay, even unto the beasts in the stable and field, and the hounds of the chase, said that albeit it had been cast into a wrong place, it was assuredly a sweet innocent and most Christian-looking child, and that as the hour was waxing very late, it would be well to keep it in the house until the morrow morn. But the sub-prior bade his lordship bethi

gin, wouldst have us do with the

he brat afloat in its basket down the Kennet into Thamesis. It may gr

f our walls! I would not do that thing, or see it done, to escape all

lord abbat, it is not well that it should stay where it is, or that the townfolk of Reading should know that it hath been brought to our

ood in those veins; this is no churl's child. I never saw a more beautiful babe, and in my time I have baptized many an earl's daughter, ay, and more than one little princess. It must be a strange tale that which shall explain how the mother could ever part with such an infant. But it grows dark; so, Philip, take up

abbat had near to that place. He was a mirthful man, and so fond of talk, that when he had not me riding behind him he usually discoursed all the way with his horse. Now he took up the corbel with as much gentleness as a lady's nurse, and we began to go on our way, the dear child still piping and bewailing. The sub-prior followed us to the gate

t seen so fair a babe. "'Tis nine months old, at the very least," said he; "and ye may tell by its shrill piping that 'tis a strong and healthy child. Mayhap it cries for hu

that though very ingenious they had no foundation in truth. When we came to the long wooden bridge, we found, as we had expected, that part of it was raised, and that the old man that levied the toll for the baron was fast asleep. But our shouting soon roused the toll-man, and he soon challenged us and lowered the draw-bridge, though not without sundry expressions of astonishment that two monks should

han half asleep, or assuredly he would have asked what

and did not wake on the bridge! A pretty tale would gossip Ralpho have had t

ake ourselves heard by any one within; and when the warder awoke and looked forth he was in no good humour. But as we made ourselves known, and told him that we came from the lord abbat upon an occasion that brooked no delay, he altered his tone; and after telling us that though bedward, he believed his lord and ladie were not yet in bed, as he could

held all the country from Caversham to Maple-Durham, was the gentlest, truest ladie, and at this season one of the fairest that lived anywhere in Berkshire or Oxfordshire. Before hearing the short tale we had to tell, Sir Alain vowed that the little stranger was welcome, and that so sweet a foundling should never want home or nurture while he had a roof-tree to sit under; and the ladie took the child in her arms, and kissed it, and pacified it; and before I had gotten half through my narration, and the message from my lord abbat, the babe went to sleep on the ladie's bosom. Our limner from Pisa ought to have seen that sight; for the Madonna and Child h

lained that Sir Alain put him to much unnecessary trouble in a time of peace and tranquillity, when the bridge might very well be left open by night and by day without fear of the passage of foes. Alack! before the next morning dawned Ralpho was made to know that Sir Alain's caution was very needful. Scarcely had Philip and I gotten a rood from the bridge-end when that honest lay-brother shouted "Fire! Fire! a fire!" and looking to the west, t

there was no sign of conflagration at Sunning,

-gate the alarm-bell rung out from the tower, and a loud shouting and crying came from the t

rom the westward, or did go back in that direction, or so said old Humphrey. After twenty y

ssed over our heads, sending some of our brotherhood with sorrow to the grave, and making others old men before their time; for, to say nothing of our personal sufferings and h

happy peace which Henricus Primus had kept in the land, and our burghers had almost wholly lost the art military. Some of these men, who had been to the hills, said that the whole country was on fire from Inglesfield to Tilehurst, and from Tilehurst to Purley, which news destroyed the hope our good abbat had been entertaining that the fire might be accidental and confined to the thatch-covered houses of one village or township. And, in very deed, by this time the whole west seemed to be burning, and