year, dying without issue, February 8th, 1617, when the Shrewsbury title passed to a distant relative, George Talbot, of Grafton, in Worcestershire, Esquire.

We have now, by a brief and rapid detail, brought down the history of the Lords of Worksop, to the commencement of the seventeenth century; if, in this sketch, few local incidents have presented themselves when more might have been expected, the reader may be disappointed, and the writer may regret where he could not retrieve; with both parties self satisfaction may have been equally unattainable. With, however, the whole of the preceding period, the history of the monastery remains to be connected, and to a detailed account of that splendid religious foundation, and its noble survivor, the Church of Worksop, we shall now addresss our attention.

The Foundation, Endowment, and Dissolution of the Priory.

Ecce sibi quales isti retinere solebant

Blanditias! En, quas Pietas construxerat ades

Devia, quam subita jam devenére ruina!

WHATEVER may have been the means by which the valuable estate of Worksop came into the possession of the potent family of the De Lovetots, it is a circumstance, connecting honourably with the little that we know of their characters, that they seem to have been influenced by a powerful concern for the interests of religion, as then understood and exemplified. To the just

and humane regard, which they appear to have manifested for the welfare of those whom the arrangements of Providence had made more immediately dependent upon them, Mr. Hunter bears them ready testimony, in the brief, but satisfactory, notices of the family, which he has presented. "But," says he, "the most splendid act of piety performed by these ancient lords of Hallamshire, was the foundation and endowment of a monastery at Worksop, for canons regular, of the order of Saint Augustine, under the superintendence of a prior."* Of the justness of the foregoing remark, the magnificent fabric of Worksop Abbey, with its munificent endowments, must at one period have exhibited abundant proof; as even now, the remains of the structure, and the record of the donations, are convincing monuments of the zeal and liberality of early times.

It is impossible, at present, to recover the entire history of a building, the foundation of which is laid in times so remote from our own; partly from the mutation of centuries, but principally from the absence of written evidence on some obscure points. I may, indeed, be ignorant of the existence of some, or without the means of access to the whole of such documents, as may be presumed to be extant on this subject. Such notices as I have been able to collect, shall presently be laid before the reader.

It is an opinion pretty generally entertained, that the founders of monasteries, in the selection of sites for their respective establishments, have paid great attention to, and have been particularly successful in the appropriation of spots the most beautiful and picturesque. Dr. Pegge, in his history of Beauchief, dissents from this sentiment; and although his testimony ought to be allowed to have weight, yet, in this country, at least the present appearance of most of our conventual ruins, seems to favour the popular opinion.

The place chosen for the site of this monastery, was not, however, it is probable, selected so much for any peculiar local eligibility, as from its being on the soil, and near the residence, of the noble founder, who would, no doubt, contemplate the erection of this edifice, with equal complacency, as a temple of religion, and a place of sepulture. The situation, however, was not without many local advantages: it was in the centre of the cultivation of the district, and close upon the borders of Sherwood Forest, (a large tract of which, called Roomwood, was the property of the convent,) whence wood for building, firing, pannage for hogs and cattle, as well as other conveniences, might be secured. It was, moreover, sufficiently upon the line of road between Newark and Mansfield, and consequently of other parts of the country, to afford all the facilities of journeying and land carriage: to these, may be added, the approximate convenience of the river Royton, not only for supplying the canons with fish,† but especially for the maintenance of their mill, an appendage equally indispensable to the town and the monastery.

⚫ Hallamshire, p. 28.

↑ Fish were absolutely necessary in conventual discip

line; and where there was not a river adjacent, the monks generally bred them in stews, and a fish pond is mentioned as pertaining to this monastery.

Workesop Abbathia fundata fuit tertia idus Maii anno tertio Regis Henrici primi. With these words, Dugdale introduces the charters of this house, in the Monasticon; and they import, that the foundation of the abbey of Worksop was begun to be laid on the 13th day of May, in the third year of the reign of King Henry the First; and this date is followed by Thoroton, and others. As Dugdale has cited no authority, for assigning the above as the period of this foundation, it is alledged to rest upon the somewhat slender testimony of one Pigot, a canon of the house, who composed a rhyming chronicle of its founders, in the time of Edward IV. In the foundation charter, the first endowment of the lay-lord is stated to be made "concessione & consideratione Emmæ uxoris suæ & filiorum suorum." Mr. Hunter has questioned the accuracy of the above date, on the ground of this passage, by observing, that William and Emma Lovetot had no children, "of an age to give any consent to the deed of their parents, so early as 1103."* The imperfect state of the pedigree of this family, which leaves not only the period of marriage, but even the person of this Emma in mystery; and the absence of all positive evidence against the testimony of Pigot, still leaves the presumption of accuracy, as respects this date, in favour of the chronicler nor does it appear necessary to suppose that the children (which Mr. Hunter's phraseology implies to have been born) should have been of "an age" to understand the full import of a grant, in which their consent is asserted, especially in times when precision of phrase was not scrupulously attended to, or when, in conventional instruments like the present, the children might be presumed to fulfil the intentions of their parents; and to this opinion, the learned historian himself seems to incline, in another place, where an argument is founded on the deference which appears to be paid to the wife of this William, by observing, that "no stress" is to be laid upon this circumstance, but "that such clauses are usual in charters of that age and nature."+ Mr. Hunter, however, urges another objection, which, if valid, must be admitted to be insurmountable. He says-" Alexander, bishop of Lincoln, who witnessed the first endowment, did not enter on his see before the 25th of Henry I." This assertion is incorrect, and doubtlessly attributable to a slip of the pen or the memory of the historian, as there is not the name of any bishop of Lincoln among the signatures to this instrument. In the absence, therefore, of all positive evidence to the contrary, and from a consideration of the above objections, I would submit, whether we ought not to retain the year 1103 as the foundation date of the priory.

The charter of William de Lovetot, the founder, is given in the Monasticon in the original latin, the purport of which is as follows:-Be it known to T. archbishop of York, the archdeacon of Nottingham, and to all the gentry, clergy, and laity, French and English, in all England,

• Hallamshire, p. 28.

+ Ibid. p. 25.

‡ Ibid. p. 28.—Robert, bishop of Lincoln, was a witness to the first royal charter of privileges from Henry II. Such attestations, indeed, afterwards, became necessary; for, by a canon of the Lateran council, 1179, monasteries could not re

ceive churches and tythes, without the consent of their respective bishops.-Selden on Tythes.

§ It is entitled, Carta W. de Lovetot fundatoris primi istius monasterii de terris & tenementis, per ipsum tempore fundationis istius monasterii piè & devote collatis, ac per filius ejus.—“ Notum sit T. Archiepiscopo Ebori, &c." Mon. Ang. vol. ii. p. 50.

and Nottinghamshire, that William de Lovetot, by the concession and consideration of Emma, his wife, and their sons, (or children,) grants and confirms by his breve (or writing) the donation which he made to God, the holy church, and the canons of St. Cuthbert of Worksop, in perpetual alms. In the first place, the whole chapelry of his whole house, with the tythes and oblations: then, the church of Worksop, in which are the said canons, with the lands and tythes, and all things belonging to the said church: moreover, the fish pond, and the mill, which are near the said church of Worksop; and all that meadow, which is by the mill and fish pond: likewise, all the tythes of the pence of all his settled revenues, as well in Normandy as in England: at Inwara, in the field of Worksop, one carucate of land; and his meadow of Cratela :† and all his churches of his demesne of the honour of Blyth, viz. the churches of Gringley, of Misterton, of Walkeringham, of Normanton, of Coleston, of Willoughby, of Wishou, and his part of the church of Tyreswell, with all lands, tythes, and things belonging to the said churches: likewise, the tythe of his pannage, and of honey,‡ and of venison, of fish, and of fowl; of malt, and of all other things of which tythes are wont and ought to be given. And he wills, and firmly grants, that the aforesaid canons may, truly and peaceably, freely and honourably, hold all these things, with all the liberties and free customs with which he himself holds them. The witnesses to this grant, are, Egero Sacerdote, Wulveto Sacerdote, Ilberto Scriptore, Rogero de Lincolnia, Edone Dapifero, Erturo Præposito, Wigero de Sancto Albino, Cont de Shefeld, Gilberto de Gatef, [ord?] Rogero de Sayendale.§

Such is the first charter of endowment: of the progress and perfection of the buildings, we have no specific information. We are not, indeed, by any means, to suppose, that the whole monastery, according to the dimensions marked out by the remaining traces of the ruins, was finished, either previous to the charter, or during the life of the founder; but that he built, or devised, so much as was necessary to accommodate the canons, who added to the structure, as means increased and additional accommodations became necessary: this remark applies especially to the state of the edifice at the period of its glory, which must have been the result of the labour

• Of this fish pond, no traces at present remain; nor is this surprising, as the whole surface of the ground hereabouts, must have been materially altered in its appearance, by tillage, and other causes. There is a spring, now enclosed, called “Priorwell,” and a meadow, of four acres, denominated from the same; and from which, it might be presumed, that the canons would draw their supplies of water, was it not for the convenient proximity of the river, which they must have had to ford for that purpose. It was "formerly," says Parkyns, in his Monastic and Baronial Remains, “celebrated for miraculous cures; but since monastic deceptions have unveiled themselves, votaries no longer offer, and, consequently, cures are no longer performed." This may have been the case: more recently the well has been resorted to by persons having sore eyes, in the cure of which, it is said to be efficacious, and has probably the common virtue of fresh cool spring-water.

+ Cratela, a manor in the south-clay division of the Hundred of Bassetlaw.

The introduction of sugar, for the purposes of sweetening generally, has, in our times, transferred the chief consumption of honey from the confectioner to the apothecary: and the use of foreign wines, with the distillation of ardent spirits, has likewise superseded the melliferous beverage of our ancestorsmead, or metheglin: hence much less attention is paid to the management of bees at present, than formerly, in Nottinghamshire, as well as elsewhere, although some few apiaries are still to be seen in the neighbourhood of Worksop.

§ So printed in the Monasticon. It should be Saxendale, a name derived from a manor once held by them of the Lovetots. Thoroton calls this witness Malgerus.