The Xeir Forest : its Hiatory 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. Xum. ii. 

 See Chronica de Kirkstall. Brit. Mus. Cott. MSS. Domitian. A. xii., ff. 85, 

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

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

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



f Carta Fundationis per Regem Johannem, given in Dugdale (Ed. 1825, 

 vol. v. p. 683) ; and Confirmacio Regis Edwardi tertii super carttis Regis 

 Johannis, Brit. Mus., Bib. Cott. Xero, A. xii., Xo. v, ff. 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 

 Annah of Parcolude, according to Tanner (Xotitia Monastica, Ed. Xasruyth, 

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

 John de Oxenedes, better known as St. Benet of Hulme (Chronica, Brit. 

 Mus., Bib. Cott., Xero, D. ii., f. 223 K), with the Chronicon de Hayles 

 and Abercomcey (Brit. Mus., Harl. MS., Xo. 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. 

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