ALC0BA9A. 87 



portions of the monastery are left untouched this has 

 indeed undergone a transformation which would have 

 astonished and perhaps horrified the good monks not a 

 little could they see the desecration ; for it is now occupied 

 as a small theatre, and the interior fittings completely 

 block up and hide its proportions. 



Other courts outside the main building contained the 

 ofifices and the stables, all on a very large scale ; and I 

 have said nothing of the many long corridors and quad- 

 rangles, which, indeed, comprise no small portion of the 

 existing monastery, though they have in great part been 

 consumed in the fire. Moreover, there are farms and 

 outbuildings of every description dotted about in various 

 positions in the landscape, and all connected with the 

 great Cistercian house — the centre of the district, which 

 for many miles round employed the labour of the people, 

 and supported those who required help. 



Perhaps we are scarcely in a position to appreciate the 

 tremendous blow which the suppression of such a monas- 

 tery as this must have dealt on the poorer classes of the 

 extensive circle to which the influence of that great com- 

 munity would have reached. We can scarcely realise the 

 amount of dependence upon it for their daily bread which 

 crowds of the more indigent habitually and openly ac- 

 knowledged. Such a dependence had grown with their 

 growth, and become engrained in their convictions as a 

 second nature ; and in the too common event of sickness 

 or trouble or want, the thoughts of the poor would at once 

 turn to the monastery for succour, which was seldom re- 

 fused. Then they were the best and most enlightened 

 landlords of the period, most considerate for their tenants, 

 most ready to expend capital on improvements : foremost, 

 too, in all works of public utility, they were the road- 

 makers, the bridge-builders of their time. Then they 

 were the only schoolmasters of their age ; to them alone 



