viii PREFACE. 



abstract, with the earnest recommendation to all who 

 would enjoy a delicious treat that they hasten to the 

 fountain head, the volume itself. " Robbery, pillage, 

 murder, and every crime were considered far less 

 derogatory to the dignity of free Frank or Burgundian 

 than the slightest touch of the mattock or spade. 

 How surprised then were the haughty countrymen 

 and descendants of Clovis or Alboin to see the revered 

 hands, from which they believed the highest bless- 

 ings of heaven to flow, employed in the daily work of 

 digging, planting, sowing, reaping, thrashing, grind- 

 ing, and baking ! 



" * No person,' wrote the founder of their institution 

 to the monks themselves, ' is ever more usefully em- 

 ployed than when working with his hands, or fol- 

 lowing the plough, providing food for the use of man.' 

 And the effects of these exhortations were rapidly 

 seen. Wherever a monastery was placed there were 

 soon fertile fields all round it, and innumerable stacks 

 of corn. Generally chosen with a view to agricultural 

 pursuits, we find sites of abbeys at the present day 

 which are the perfect ideal of a working farm : for 

 long after the outburst of agricultural energy had 

 expired among the monks of St. Benedict, the choice 

 of situation and knowledge of different soils descended 

 to the other ecclesiastical establishments, and skill in 

 agriculture continued at all times a characteristic of 

 the religious orders. 



"At last, something venerable was thought to 

 reside in the act of farming itself. It was so uni- 



