52 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



existing show that there was one large Garden, 

 then the Prior's Garden, the Canon's Garden, the 

 Sacristy Garden, as well as the Infirmary and 

 Kitchen Gardens. Bede early testifies to the 

 English climate being suitable for the Vine, and 

 there is little doubt that at Abbotsbury there must 

 have been a Vineyard, as few monasteries were 

 without them, the monks being especially clever 

 in cultivating the Vine. Long before the monastery 

 was built or the village existed, the swans had 

 made themselves a home here; down past the church, 

 the barn, and the mill, at the end of a steep-banked 

 Dorset lane overhung with Elms, lies the celebrated 

 swannery, granted by King Canute to the monastery 

 by a Royal Saxon Charter, which the present 

 owner, Lord Ilchester, still possesses. Seen in 

 the spring the swannery is a wonderful sight, with 

 all the swans nesting close together on the low 

 ground bordering the Fleet inlet, and sheltered by 

 the curious high bank of shingle, called Chesil Beach. 

 There are as many as four or five hundred nests to 

 be seen, the hen bird sitting while the cock mounts 

 guard beside her. Swans are among the few birds 

 that take it in turns to sit on the eggs, and fre- 

 quent fights occur between the cock birds of the 

 adjoining nests when they go off to feed ; in this 

 way many young cygnets are killed. The swans 

 fly for many miles down the coast, and have some- 

 times been found as far distant as Milford Haven ; 



