AuthorfJtip. \ 3 



diftant. The rule of life among the inmates was very fevere, and 

 at the fir ft the nuns were enclofed under locks and bolts, made 

 additionally fure by the feal, on the door, of the Abbot for the 

 time being (Chauncy's Hiftory, p. 466). How long this lafted, 

 and how the nuns liked it, hiftory faith not; but, in 1338, a 

 re-organifation had become imperative, and the Abbot of St. 

 Albans, among other inftru6lions, ordered that no nun fhould lodge 

 out of the houfe, and no gueft within it (Newcome, p. 468). 

 There does not feem much fcope left here for the Priorefs to 

 take an adlive part in field fports, though a hundred and fifty years 

 later, which was about the period of our " Dame," many relaxations 

 of the flxidl rules may have become common. But, then, we have 

 apparently accurate lifts of all the Prioreffes of Sopwell in the 

 fifteenth century, and the name of Juliana Barnes does not appear 

 at all in them. The known dates are these: — In 1416, Matilda de 

 Flamftede was Priorefs. Four years before her death, which was in 

 1430, fhe was fucceeded by Letitia Wyttenham. The next whose 

 name is known was Joan Chapell ; the date of her appointment is 

 not recorded, but as fhe was fet afide in 1480 on account of her 

 , age, fhe had probably occupied the pofition for many years. In 

 1480, Elizabeth Webb fucceeded Joan Chapell. 



What is really known of the Dame is almoft nothing, and may 

 be fummed up in the following few words. She probably lived at 

 the beginning of the fifteenth century, and fhe poffibly compiled from 

 exifting MSS. fome rhymes on Hunting. 



There is ftill the authorfhip of the other parts of the book to 

 determine, and if fimilarity of wording and phrafeology may be taken 

 as evidence, they were all from one pen. 



At the end of the book on Heraldry the printer has put the 

 (bllowing — " Here endeth the book of Blafing of Arms tranflated and 

 compiled together at Seynt Albons." Here we have the printer's 

 own ftatement as to the origin of his text, and doubtlefs this, as well 

 as the treatife on Hawking, were made up or "compiled" from more 



