MYNCHIN 13UCKLAND PRIORY. 0< 



I possess two interesting rings, which may be supposed 

 to have decorated the fingers of more tlian one generatlon 

 of the Slsters, and may indeed have been employed at the" 

 solemn ceremony which separated them for ever from the 

 outer "World and introduced them to the seclusion in which 

 they songht and, we will believe, found repose. The 

 earlier of the two is a work of the thirteenth centuiy, and 

 may so fiir have belonged to the good Prioress Tina herseif. 

 It is of gokl, set with an unvvrought sapphire, the hoop very 

 thin and delicately engraved on the portions adjoining the 

 stone. It was found in " Coglett Field," by the site of the 

 Priory, in 1858, by a labourer employed on the place. (See 

 the ßgure.) The other, also of gold, but much stouter, 

 is of the fifteenth Century, and bears a heart on which is 

 engraved the monogram i!)Sf. It was found by another 

 labourer in a field called "Broadworthy," close to the site of 

 the Priory, in 1853. {See the figure.) Another, which was 

 described to me as of a cable pattern, was found In the 

 immediate neighbourhood, in 1851, and has since been 

 taken by its owner to one of our colonies. 



No list of the Prioresses has hitherto been constructed. In 

 the meagre accounts of the place already published, the 

 name of the last only is given, and that but in connexion 

 with the Dissolutlon and the events which almost im- 

 mediately preceded it. Their succession is not recorded in 

 the Episcopal Registers, and thus the best of all means 

 of obtalning Information of the names and dates of 

 Superlors of Religious Houses is unfortunately in this 

 instance of no avail. From all sources, however, I can at 

 Icngth supply the following series. 



1. Fina, the first Prioress, who began her conventual 

 reign in 1180, and died sixty years afterwards, in 1240. 



VOL. X., 1860, TART ir. H 



