flower's barkow. 105 



was then always open, and ready: when one of the Order died, 

 the long opened grave received its expected tenant, and another 

 was immediately prepared by its side; a warning to the Brethren 

 of the insecurity of life, when, perhaps the very hand which had 

 been engaged in digging it, was that which was to be afterwards 

 laid unconsciously within it. 



The history of the Order is too generally known to need any 

 beyond a passing notice here. Founded by Count La Trappe, 

 in a season of the deepest mental agony, and remorse, the rules 

 of the Order are those of the strictest abstinence and self-denial ; 

 converting life into a constant scene of penance and mortification. 

 Perpetual silence is enforced on the members. They sleep on 

 boards, with a pillow of straw to support the head. From this 

 comfortless couch, they are called to rise one hour after midnight, 

 with the awful warning " Memento mori. " One meal in the 

 twenty-four hours, and that, composed only of the coarsest brown 

 bread, and vegetables, eaten wth salt, find with a cup of cold 

 water, forms their only diet. The day itself is spent between the 

 labours of the field, and the religious services in their chapel, to 

 which latter, they devote seven hours in every day, and more 

 than eleven on Sundays. To these austerities is to be added, the 

 endurance of cold in winter, when the use of fire is permitted 

 only for a few moments at a time ; and heat in summer, when 

 the drops of sweat gathered by toil, must not be dried by a 

 handkerchief, but only wiped from the brow by the hand. Last- 

 ly, they, are taught to reckon all this nothing ; to welcome blame, 

 and even calumny, without an attempt at defence, or even ex- 

 planation; whilst the head is to be constantly bowed, and the 

 eyes cast down in token of contrition. But it will be interesting, 

 I am sure, to let the Prior of La Trappe speak for himself, 

 respecting his Monastery, and its inmates, and I have in my 

 possession a letter, ^vritten by him, during the sojourn of the 

 Order at Lul worth, which has an especial interest on these 

 grounds, which I trust I shall need no apology in now reading 

 to you, merely prefacing it, by mentioning, that it was written 

 to the Magistrates' Clerk at Warcham, intended to defend the 

 Order from the charge of concealing French Spies in the 

 Monastery, of which it appears, they were most unreasonably 

 suspected. 



