THE POOLE TOWN CELLAR. 93 



wandered through Normandy for two years (Dugdale says two 

 months) until he found her, made himself known to her in minstrel 

 guise, and brought her to King Richard, who married her to 

 William Longespee, who, by this marriage, became possessed of 

 Canford. Shortly after his marriage William Longespee entered 

 on Ela's hereditary office of Sheriff of Wilts, and became Earl of 

 Salisbury. In 1220, at the foundation of the new Cathedral 

 Church of New Sarum, the first foundation stone was laid by the 

 Bishop for Pope Honorius : the second for Stephen, Archbishop 

 of Canterbury ; the third for himself ; the fourth by William, Earl 

 of Salisbury ; the fifth by his wife, the Countess Ela. William de 

 Longespee, Earl of Salisbury, died at his castle of Salisbury on his 

 return from a feast at Marlborough, where he was supposed to 

 have had secret poison administered to him by the Justiciary 

 Hubert de Burgh in 1226. Ela, his widow, retained the title and 

 estates, was Sheriff of Wiltshire, and exercised the office until 

 1237, when she founded the Abbey of Lacock (co. Wilts) and the 

 Priory of Hinton, and on Christmas Day, 1238, she, then being 51 

 years of age, became a nun in the Abbey of Lacock. In August, 

 1240, she was constituted Abbess of Lacock, and ruled over the 

 monastic society there for sixteen years. She relinquished her 

 office the last day of the year 1256, and spent the last five years of 

 her life in perfect retirement and seclusion. She died August 24th, 

 1261, aetat 74, and was buried in the choir of the monastery at 

 Lacock. Her son, William Longespee (the second of the name), 

 was signed with the Cross in 1226. He bore the title of Earl by 

 courtesy, but never obtained possession of the revenues, his mother 

 being alive; yet by favour of his sovereign in 1248 he became 

 possessed of part of Ela's possessions, and amongst them the Manor 

 of Canford and Poole. In July, 1 249, he took his second departure 

 for the Holy Land, and at Shrovetide (February 8th, 1249-50) he 

 was slain at Mansoura, in Egypt. His bones were afterwards 

 buried in the Church of the Holy Cross at Aeon. The night 

 before the battle of Mansoura, Matthew Paris states that " Ela, 

 Abbess of Lacock, had a vision of a knight armed at all points, 



