FORD ABBEY. 145 



instances, through greater or more grievous disasters, the receivers 

 of the plunder of the Church have rarely retained it in possession 

 for any lengthened period." 



Having now sketched the history of the abbey and of the 

 families who have held it since the dissolution of the monasteries 

 to the present time, I would refer those of our readers who desire 

 further information and fuller details as to the present condition of 

 the abbey, both inside and out, and of its beautiful surroundings, 

 to the later pages of Mrs. Allen's most interesting little book ; for 

 being, as she was, a connection of the late Mr. Fraunceis Gwyn, 

 and, moreover, one who had lived for some years in the abbey 

 itself, no one could have known better than she did the details of 

 everything comprised within its walls, and no one, as we may 

 judge from her History, could have been better able than herself to 

 give an account of it. 



KB. It has been suggested that Thomas Chard, the abbot of 

 Ford Abbey, and Thomas Chard, the Suffragan Bishop, were two 

 different persons, but I think that an inspection of a remarkable 

 panel in the frieze over the cloisters (beautifully engraved in Dr. 

 Pring's Memoirs of Thomas CJiard) conclusively prove that Dr. 

 Chard united in his own person the two offices. The letters T. C., 

 with the abbot's and bishop's crosiers, will be observed in the small 

 corner shields ; whilst in the larger one, which occupies the centre, 

 occurs the stag's head (cabossed) and crosier ; the name " Tho. 

 Chard " on a scroll entwined round a crosier ; and above these as a 

 crowning feature of the whole the abbot's cap, surmounted by the 

 bishop's mitre. It is certainly somewhat strange, as Mrs. Allen 

 observes, that neither the arms of the abbey nor of Dr. Chard 

 appear on any part of the building. The common seal of the 

 abbey (which is engraved on p. 26 of Dr. Pring's book) bore on it 

 the Virgin Mary seated with the infant Jesus on her knee ; below 

 her stands the abbot holding his crosier, and on each side of him 

 monks on their knees in adoration. Two shields are charged with 

 the arms of Courtenay, and either Beaucliampe (as Mrs. Allen says) 



