296 The Fall of the Wiltshire Monasteries. 



houses standeth by husbandrie and all that muste decaye or at the lestewlse worse 

 loked unto yf the heads may not goo and oversee it. The hedde is also chosen a 

 person expert in temporalibus, to thentent that he maye be as a proctor for all 

 the rest in outwarde busynes and they being provided for by his meanes maye 

 the quieter servo god, setting all their sollicitude for outwarde things on hym. 

 Also he ought to be a person mortified to the worlde that shulde be elect to that 

 office, and so he is supposed by the lawe to be, that no outwarde busynes shulde 

 corrupt hym. And all though divers of theym be founde to be otherwise, yet 

 thordinarie maye allweys remedie that by amocion of hym from thoffice. 



" Also the moonks of Charterhouse devysed all the weys they might to kepe 

 theym as ferre as they might from outwarde busynes And yet they were 

 compelled to have a proctor that shulde be as their martha. And their Prior too 

 for greter busynes to goo foorth. 



"And as touching thother poynt that nother noble women ne other shulde 

 comme to Thabbots Table, nor noble men and Counsaillors or Officers of the 

 house to thabbes table, let yo"^ M'ship consider whether it be acceptable to all 

 men or yet convenient. And yo' M'ship maye also consider with yo'self whether 

 ye thinke it better, to geve theym those iniunctions and you to release theym 

 as ye see cause and according to the qualities of the persons and places or els to 

 alter or qualifie the said iniunctions as to yo'' highe wisdom shall seme most 

 expedient. And thus almightie Jesu have yo' good M'ship in his blessed 

 keping. From Laycock the xx"" of August. In haste as ye see by my writing. 

 " Yo' humble and faithfuU servant, 



"John ap Rice." 



After leaving Lacock, Legh and his colleague visited Kington 

 and Edington, calling on the way at Bruton, in Somerset^ which 

 had been visited by Lay ton a few days previously. ^ The abbot 

 appears, not unnaturally, to have resented being visited again so 

 soon, and some high words seem to have passed on the occasion 

 which are referred to at a subsequent period. 



We then take up Ap Eice's letters again in one written from 



Edington, August 23rd or 24th, referring to Lacock, Kington, and 



Edington : — ^ 



"After my due and right humble commendacions. Please it yo' M'ship to be 

 advertised, that heretofor I have by my other lettres directed unto you and inclosed 

 in my lettres directed to Mr Raph Sadler which I delivered toThabbot of Malmes- 

 burie to be conveyed unto you, certified yo' M'ship of o' comperts at Malmesbury 

 Bradstock and Stanley. And nowe to advertise you of the rest that we have 

 ben at. Soo it is that we founde no notable compertes at Laycok ; the house 

 is very clene well repared and well ordered. And one thing I observed worthy 

 thadvertisement here. The Ladies have their rule, thinstitutes of their religion 



' Letters and Papers, ix., 159. 

 "■ Ih., 160. 



