Ys. +. 
REPTON PRIORY. 87 
the news that Queen Mary had set up the abbeys again (and _fear- 
ing how large a reach such a precedent might have), upon a 
Sunday (belike the better day, the better deed) cailed together the 
carpenters and masons of that county, and plucked down in one 
day (church-work is a cripple in going up, but rides post in coming 
down) a most beautiful church belonging thereto, saying ‘he 
would destroy the nest, for fear the birds should build therein 
2 223k 
again. That the church was a beautiful structure anyone 
can judge for himself from the remains now uncovered, but how 
far Fuller’s account be true is not evident, for there are no traces 
of such dislocation of walls and shattering of easily broken stones 
like molded bases, etc., as would have resulted if the building had 
been hastily and violently demolished. 
In choosing the site of a monastery the first consideration of 
the old men was the water supply. The domestic needs of the 
house, the mill, and the sanitary arrangements all depended on 
this, and the whole disposition of the buildings was regulated by 
the relative positions of water and site. 
The parish church at Repton stands at the extremity of a 
lofty ridge or spur, which once overlooked and formed the right 
bank of the river Trent. The stream has, however, been diverted 
since the suppression of the Priory, and the ‘Old Trent,” as it is 
now called, is reduced to a mere sedgy pool. On the same 
ridge, but a few yards east of the parish church, the monastery 
was placed. The site was in every way an admirable one, for 
its height above the alluvial flat through which the Trent flows 
rendered it secure from floods, and the immediate proximity of 
the river supplied the necessary water course for sanitary and 
domestic purposes. Eastward of the Priory the ground slopes 
down to the level of the plain. 
The usual plan of a monastery consisted of a square cloister 
enclosed on all sides by buildings, the church always forming 
one side and the fratry (or refectory) the opposite one. The 
east side was bounded by the dormitory, and the west by the 
* Fuller's Church History, Bk vi. p. 358. 
