XXX. 



training the boys of the choir to pronounce the Latin Psalms. In front 

 of them all was the venerated plot of ground called the Cloister Garth, 

 made in some instances of soil from the Holy Land, in which some of 

 them might hope for the distinction of being laid to rest. 



This open air cloister life in common was the rule in most of the Orders 

 that flourished in England, for though the Carthusians endeavoured to 

 introduce the separate system of working in cells the custom did not 

 spread, and that Order did not meet with general support ; and their 

 rules seem to have been thought too rigid for the English temperament 

 or unsuitable to the English climate. 



The Cistercian Order, to which the Abbey of Beaulieu belonged, was a 

 reformed branch of the great Benedictine Order, and was founded by John 

 Harding, once a monk of Sherborne Abbey, and therefore probably a 

 native of Dorset, who migrated thence to Citeaux, in Normandy, where 

 he eventually became abbot and introduced reforms of such important 

 character as to constitute a new Orde-r, called the Cistercian from its 

 birthplace, Citeaux. The founder aimed at attaining to greater 

 simplicity of life and habits, and he instituted the practice of keeping 

 silence at meals while one of the brothers read aloud from the " Acts of 

 the Saints " or other devotional volumes in order to discourage frivolous 

 conversation and excess. Evidence of this custom is seen here in the 

 beautiful pulpit of the refectory, now used as the parish church, a perfect 

 specimen of Early English architecture. 



It was symbolical of the monastic attitude towards the world at large 

 that this entrance to the cloister lay only through the church 

 excepting one narrow and. tortuous passage between the south transept 

 and the chapter house called the slype ; this led usually only to the 

 orchard and outhouses of the monastery and not beyond the walls. The 

 slype was generally open to the sky as at Beaulieu, and served to isolate 

 the church in the event of an outbreak ot fire, but sometimes the 

 infirmary extended over the slype and abutted on the south transept so 

 as to permit a dying brother to be wheeled in his truckle (from truculi 

 castors) bed to the south window of the transept and witness from there 

 the elevation of the host. Southward of the slype stood the chapter 

 house, where on ordinary days after matins the prior or sub-prior 

 respectively the third and fourth dignitary of the abbey held his levee, 

 abating and hearing grievances, receiving reports of work done, noting 

 applications for fresh materials, and allotting these demands to the 

 proper functionaries. For it may be observed that as the prior himself 

 undertook the supply of vellum to the Scriptorium so every senior and 

 trustworthy brother had his special office assigned to him. The brewster, 



