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the Blessed Virgin, A.D. 1240, she assumed the government of 
the Nunnery as Abbess, in which office she remained for 18 years, 
after which time she lived in retirement for five years, “and at 
length (says the Book of Lacock) yielding up her soul in peace, 
she rested in the Lord, and was most honourably buried in the 
Choir of the Monastery.” The stone that covered her remains, 
removed from the altar of the Choir now destroyed, is placed in 
the Cloister of Lacock, and the inscription, in Monkish Latin, 
runs thus : 
“Infra sunt defossa Ela venerabilis ossa, 
Qua dedit hac sedes, sacras monialibus edes. 
Abbatissa quidem que sancté vixit ibidem. 
Et Comitissa Sarum, virtutum plena bonarum.” 
She died in the 74th year of her age, and on the 24th August, 
A.D. 1261. 
We now take leave of the pious Foundress, and return to her 
foundation of Carthusian Monks at Hinton. This Carthusian 
House was the second in date of foundation in England, the first 
settlement of the Order having been made at Witham, also in this 
County, in 1181, about 48 years before, by Henry II., who, as a 
penance for the murder of Becket, was commanded by the Pope 
to found a religious house, and in consequence sent over to La 
Chartreuse, near Grenoble, which had then been in existence 
about 100 years, and procured the sending over of Hugo (after- 
wards Bishop of Lincoln) and a few monks to start the first 
Carthusian establishment in his kingdom. It, was therefore, to 
use a cant phrase, the “last new thing in Monasteries.” The 
dedication of Hinton was copied from that of Witham. The site 
chosen differed materially from that of the older Priory. Witham 
was founded in an “‘eremus,” that is, a wild uncultivated tract, 
which was given to the Brethren to bring into cultivation, in 
accordance with the early custom of the Order. This tradition 
appears to have been departed from in the case of Hinton, where 
the land was comparatively fertile, and to have been equally 
