MONASTIC GARDENING. 1 



moment, in a more gentle light than perhaps any other incident 

 during his turbulent reign. Eadgyth, or Matilda, afterwards 

 the wife of Henry I., was being educated at the convent of 

 Romsey, where her Aunt Christina was Abbess. When the 

 child was twelve years old, the Red King wished to see her, 

 and one day the Abbess was distressed to hear him and his 

 knights demanding admission at the convent gate. The good 

 lady, fearing some evil purpose towards the child, made her 

 wear a nun's veil ; then she opened to the king, who entered, 

 " as if to look at the roses and other flowering herbs." While 

 the rough king thus inspected her flowers, the Abbess made 

 the nuns pass through the garden. Eadgyth appearing veiled 

 among the rest the king suffered her to go by, and quietly 

 took his leave.* The story was told by the Abbess to 

 Anselm, who narrated it to Eadmer, in whose history this most 

 picturesque scene is recorded. 



While the Abbess Christina was adorning her cloister gardens 

 with roses and flowering herbs, other monasteries were being 

 beautified in like manner. The first Abbot of Ely, Brithnodus, 

 was famed for his skill in planting and grafting, and improved 

 the Abbey by making orchards and gardens around it.t 



It seems as if there were gardens at Ely earlier than his 

 time (twelfth century), as the following quaint story implies 

 the existence of some sort of garden in the neighbourhood of 

 Ely. It is related among various miracles wrought at the tomb 

 of St. Etheldreda J how the hand of a girl was cured. She was 

 servant to a certain priest, and " was gathering herbs in the 

 garden on the Lord's Day, when the wood which she held 

 in her hand, and with which she desired to pluck the herbs 

 unlawfully, so firmly adhered (to her hand) that no man could 

 pluck it out for the space of five years, by the merits of St. 

 Etheldreda [she] was cured." The Saint died in 679, and, 



* Migne, Patrologice cursus completus, torn. 159-160, sec. xii. " Eadmer," 

 p. 427. Also D'Achery, Spicilegium (Paris, 1723), Vol. II., p. 893. Freeman, 

 Wm. Rufus, Vol. II., p. 32. 



" Rex siquidem propter inspiciendas rosas et alias florentes herbas, 

 claustrum nostrum ingressus." 



f Gale, Histories Britannicce, 1691. " Hist. Eliensis," Liber II., chap. ii. 



+ Dugdale, Monasticon, Vol. I.," p. 473 (new ed.). 



