Z TAVISTOCK ABBEY. 



tors, for the preservation and advancement of the 

 treasures of learning, and the productions of science 

 and art ; especially during the inauspicious sway of 

 ignorance and illiberality, of frantic terror, and war's 

 alarms, in the middle ages. Seldom, however, as we find 

 ourselves induced to speak in praise of this description 

 of the clergy of other times, it should be remembered 

 that by monks have been preserved all the classic 

 treasures of antiquity ; by monks, husbandry and agri- 

 culture have been improved, the most barren wastes 

 having been fertilized by the labour of their hands, and 

 converted into terrestrial paradises ; architecture, 

 painting, and many other arts, found in monks the 

 most liberal patrons : in the darker periods, they alone 

 preserved literature from being completely extinguished 

 in the western world ; and from monks our Saxon pre- 

 decessors received the inestimable gift of Christianity. 

 The hospitality of monasteries was unbounded ; the 

 sick, the indigent, and the weary traveller being sure 

 to meet there with relief and refreshment. The first 

 efforts of typography, that dispenser of knowledge and 

 guardian of liberty, were fostered in their precincts. 

 Nor must the encouragement which they gave to the 

 elegant style of architecture, that arose in the twelfth 

 century, be forgotten ; and that, employed in our 

 national edifices, civil, military, or ecclesiastical, pre- 

 sents, even in its most shattered and inconsiderable 

 relics, illustrative evidence of ancient foundations. 

 Dispelling the doubtful veil, which the mist of years 

 has spread over many traits of history, it recalls them 

 with double force to the fancy by the very scenes in 

 which the affairs it records were transacted. 



Great, indeed, was the glory of our English pointed 

 style of architecture ; which was beautifully variega- 

 ted, during the reign of the third Edward, by numerous 

 decorations. Again, in the fifteenth century, it essay- 

 ed to imitate, in the florid exuberance of its ornaments, 

 the minutiae of lace work ; minarets, battlements, and 

 intersecting arches were fretted in a style, which gave 

 to stone something of the resemblance of a rich and 



