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uses to which they were put by the Brethren who inhabited them 
some 350 years ago. Let me attempt to give you shortly the 
history of this foundation. As far as I know, there is no Cartulary 
or Chronicle of the Priory extant. What is known is found in 
what remains of the ‘‘ Book of Lacock” (a sister foundation), and 
in a Chronicle in the Library of Lincoln College, Oxford, quoted 
by Leland in his Collectanea ii. 341. 
This Priory owes its foundation to a noble lady, Ela, only 
daughter of William de Eureux, Earl of Salisbury, a descendant 
of Edward de Sarisbui, on whom William the Conqueror bestowed 
the Manors of Hinton and Norton, in addition to large posses- 
sions in the County of Wilts.* At her father’s death Ela was 
secretly conveyed to Normandy and romantically rescued by an 
English knight, William Talbot, who, in the guise of a troubadour, 
gained admittance to the castle where she was detained and 
finally carried her back to England and presented her to King 
Richard I., who gave her in marriage to William Longespé, the 
natural son of Henry II. and Fair Rosamond, whom he created 
Earl of Salisbury. Longespé, in addition to his military achieve- 
ments, was inclined to works of piety and religion, and in the 
year 1226 laid the fourth stone of the present Cathedral of 
Salisbury, his wife, Ela, laying the fifth stone of the edifice. 
Longespé died a few years later (in the year 1227) it is said from 
the effects of poison at the table of the Justiciary Hubert de 
Burgh, and was the first person buried in the new Cathedral, 
where his tomb is still to be seen. His widow, Ela, 
determined to remain such, and was permitted to exercise 
in her own person the office of Sheriff of Wilts and Castellan 
of old Sarum. At the end of six years from the death 
of her husband she resolved on carrying out an intention she had 
~* This William de Eureux was evidently high in favour with 
Richard I;, for he carried the Rod at his first Coronation, and at the 
second Coronation, after Richard’s return from captivity, he was one of 
four Earls who bore the Royal Canopy. 
