STUDLEY PRIORY. 



seek another abode, and their religious hospitality 

 was put a stop to for ever. Whether any good 

 was done by the suppression of such conventual 

 establishments is very doubtful. To them the 

 widow and the orphan, the poor and the aged, and 

 the way-faring traveller resorted with confidence 

 of receiving that relief which was never refused 

 them. When the doors of the Priory were closed 

 against them, the poor had no place to apply to 

 for assistance, and they were consequently involved 

 in the greatest distress. The poor laws were sub- 

 sequently instituted for their relief, and a heavy 

 burthen was thus thrown upon the country. Had 

 the lay possessors of church property been com- 

 pelled to maintain the poor from lands, which in 

 many cases had been rapaciously seized, or unfairly 

 obtained, much of this evil would have been 

 avoided. 



The Priory was founded in the reign of Henry 

 the 1 1 ml., and in 1203, amongst other bequests 

 to the convent, the free pannage, or mast feeding 

 of hogs at StudJey, was bestowed upon it, and in 

 1 207 land held by Alan the hunter was given to 

 the nunnery, and also a cart-load of dead fuel for 

 their hearths. In 1 220, one hundred white loaves, 

 of the sort in Oxford called Blanpeyn were given 

 to the nuns of Studley, and a horse- load of wood 

 was granted to them by Henry the Hlrd. once 

 in every day from his wood of Panshall. There 



