By the Rev. Arthur Fane. 49 
confirmation of the good Bishop’s grant and establishment seems to 
haye been made in 1347; so that we may, without any stretch of 
credulity, believe that whilst the mighty and victorious Edward 
was haughtily demanding the lives of the patriotic citizens of Calais, 
the good Bishop was in the conqueror’s camp, pleading for the 
royal protection to his munificent endowment at the lowly village 
perched at the foot of Salisbury Plain; and the pious Bishop’s 
prayers may have been blended with Philippa’s, that the ignominious 
halters should be removed from the necks of the brave Eustace and 
his fellow-patriots. Subsequently to the first grant to the dean 
and ministers, at the request of the Black Prince the government 
of the new monastery was altered, and a body of Monks of the 
order of Bonhommes, a ramification from the Augustinian root, be- 
came the proprietors of the newly-founded church. Edington and 
Ashridge in Bucks, are the only two places in England, according 
to Tanner, where this order existed. Probably from that time to 
the dissolution, the monastery of Edington contained the usual 
amount of knowledge and ignorance—of true devotion to God, and 
hypocritical pretence—the same amount of zeal and apathy, of 
virtue and vice, which at this day is to be discovered in any com- 
munity of men. When the Reformation—that fiery tide of religious 
zeal and irreligious avarice—that mingled storm of godly refor- 
mation and ungodly destruction—fell upon the monasteries, Edington 
and its community of Bonhommes fared no better than the rest. 
The revenue of the monastery amounted to the sum of £442 9s. 7d., 
or, according to Speed, to £521 12s. 5d. The whole monastery 
buildings, lands, and tenements were granted to Seymour of Sudeley, 
the Protector’s brother. On his fall, the site was granted to William 
Powlett Lord St. John, from whom it passed to the Duke of Bolton, 
and finally became the property of the Taylor family, to whom it 
_ now belongs, in the person of the worthy High Sheriff of this 
county. 
I purpose giving this meeting a few details of the church, which 
rivals almost any sacred edifice in the diocese, both in size and 
_ beauty of detail. Placed at the foot of the great down ramparts of 
5 
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Salisbury Plain, this beautiful building stands out in bold relief 
H 
