134 CROXDEN ABBEY. 
in the following year it was re-built in timber. The annals 
for the succeeding five years mention various other disasters 
from’ storm and pestilence, and some of the entries seem to 
show that the Abbey, like many others at the same period, 
was, to use a modern expression, in rather low water. 
The Chronicle of William de Schepished ends in 1374, the 
venerable annalist having died in Advent of that year, at the 
age, it is said, of one hundred and three. According to “ the 
Month” of September, 1894, his concluding words are as 
follows : 
“To be, to have been, to be about to be, are three vain 
periods of existence. For everything perishes which has been, 
which is, and which shall be. That which has been, which 
is, and which shall be, perishes in the space of a short hour. 
Therefore of little profit is it to be, to have been, and to be 
about to be.” 
The poor old monk seems to have become pessimistic in his 
old age. For my part I feel sure, speaking of such institu- 
tions as the Abbeys of which Croxden was a sample, that 
work was done there which was of great profit to mankind at 
the time, and to subsequent ages even down to our own. 
From the date of the death of William de Schepisched, the 
details regarding the Abbey are comparatively meagre. The 
last Abbot was Thomas Chawner. The name of Chawner is, 
to this day, that of several families in the neighbourhood. 
The house was not suppressed with the other smaller abbeys 
in 1536 and 1537, and it is stated that this was the result of 
good report, and also of interest through the patrons with 
the Earl of Essex and the King. It was, however, sur- 
rendered to the King in 1539, and the property was in 1545 
granted to Jeffrey Foljambe, and it is now owned by the Earl 
of Macclesfield. 
The general plan follows the usual Cistercian arrangement. 
The chief architectural peculiarity is the extreme simplicity of 
the windows and detail. In the elaborations there is much of 
