The Dissolution of the Abbey. 65 



In 1537, the Abbey was dissolved, the last Abbot, Thomas 

 Stephens, with twenty out of the thirty monks, signing the deed 

 of surrender.* Stephens was pensioned off with a hundred 

 marks ; and some of the monks received various annuities and 

 compensations for their losses. So fell the monastery of 

 Beaulieu, and its stones went to build Henry VIII. 's martello 

 tower at Hurst, and its lead to repair Calshot,f to fight against 

 the very Power which had raised it to its glory. 



Few abbeys have known so lovely a site. Placed close to the 

 banks, it overlooked the Exe, formed by the tide more into a 

 lake than a river. On every side it was sheltered : on the north 

 by rising ground and the woods of the New Forest, and on 

 the east again by the Forest and more hills, from whence an 

 aqueduct brought down the water for the use of the monks ; 

 and on the south and west all was guarded by the river. 



To this day the outer walls are in places standing, with 

 the water-gate covered with ivy. And inside is the palace, 

 placed amongst its own grounds, surrounded by elms. Above 

 its doorway is cut a canopied niche, where stood the patron 



* The following list of books at Beaulieu, taken by Leland (Colled, de 

 Rebus Brit., vol. iv. p. 149), just before the dissolution, will show what 

 was in those days an average ecclesiastical library : " Eadmerus de Vita 

 Anselmi, et Vita Wilfridi Episcopi. Stephanus super Eeclesiasticum, Libros 

 Reg urn, et Parabolas Satomonis. Joannes Abbas de Fordd super Cantica 

 Canticorum. Damascerms de Gestis Barlaam eremitce, et Josaphat regis 

 Indies. Libellus Candidi Ariam " (most probably the De Generatione Dimna). 

 " Libellus Victorini, rhetoris, contra Candidnm " (the Cnnfutatorium Candidi 

 Ariani, written against the preceding work). " Tres libri Claudiani de 

 Statu AnimcR ad Sidonium Apollmarem. Gislebertus super Epistolas Pauli. 

 Prosper de Vita contemplativa et activa." 



f Ellis's Letters, second series, vol. ii. p. 87. For Henry VIII.'s 

 enforcement of Wolsey's levies on Beaulieu, see State Pnpers, vol. i., part ii., 

 p. 383. 



K 



