62 The New Forest : its History and its Scenery. 



court, who told him that God had been most merciful in thus 

 simply chastising him in this world, and revealing the secrets 

 of His will. He advised him at once to send for the abbots, 

 whom he had so ill-treated, and to implore their pardon.* 



Some truth, doubtless, underlies this story. Certain it is 

 that in the same year, or the next, John founded the Abbey at 

 Beaulieu, then Bellus Locus, so called from its beauty, placing 

 there thirty monks from St. Mary's, at Citeaux, endowing it 

 with land in the New Forest, and manors, and villages, and 

 churches in Berkshire ; exempting it from various services and 

 taxes and tolls ; giving further, out of his own treasury, a 

 hundred marks; and ordering all other Cistercian Houses to 

 assist in the work. Not only did he do this, but he revoked 

 his gift of the manor of Farendon, which, in the previous year, 

 he had conditionally bestowed on some other Cistercian monks, 

 and now transferred it to Beaulieu, making the House at Far- 

 ingdon a mere offshoot from the larger building.f And the 



* Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum. Ed 1825, vol. v., p. 682 Num.ii. 

 See Chromca de Kirkstall Brit. Mus. Cott. MSS. Doraitian. A xii., ft. 85 

 86. The cause of John's enmity against the Cistercian Order may be gathered 

 from Ralph Coggeshale, Chromcon Anglicanum, as before in Bouquet, 

 Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France, torn xviii pp. 90, 91. 



f Carta Fundatwnis per Begem Johannem, given in Dugdale (Ed 1825, 

 vol. v. p. 683) ; and Confirmacio Regis Edu-ardi tertii super cartas Regis 

 Johannis, Brit. Mus., Bib. Cott. Nero, A. xii., No. v, If. 8-15, quoted in 

 Warner (South- West Parts of Hampshire, vol ii., Appendix, pp 7-14). 

 There are, however, no less than three dates given for its foundation. The 

 Annals of Parcolude, according to Tanner (Notitw. Monastica, Ed Nasmyth, 

 Hampshire, No. vi. foot-note A), say 1201, which is manifestly wrong ; whilst 

 John of Oxnede, better known as the chronicler of St. Benet's Abbey at 

 Hulme (Chronica. Ed. Ellis, p. 107), with the Chronicon de Hayles et 

 Aberconwey (Brit. Mus., Harl. MS., No. 3725, f. 10), and Matthew Paris, 

 according to Dugdale, say respectively 1204 and 1205, though I have not 

 been able to verify the last reference. 



