46 EfK cfo=Em0 of 



as a garden, and built a wooden chapel. Thus they 

 passed the first winter, and their piety was noised abroad. 

 Many repaired to them from distant parts, some for in- 

 struction, others to join the fraternity ; and as their num- 

 bers increased, their privations increased also. They 

 were often reduced to the necessity of eating the leaves 

 of trees and wild herbs ; but their fortitude did not fail 

 them, and one day when their stock of provisions con- 

 sisted of merely two loaves and a half, a passing stranger 

 asked for a morsel of bread. " Give him a loaf," said 

 the abbot ; " the Lord will provide." The hope thus 

 piously expressed, was soon fulfilled, and a cart piled 

 with bread was seen coming down the rocky pathway, a 

 present from Eustace Fitz-John, owner of the neigh- 

 bouring castle of Knaresborough. 



Time passed on, and none who witnessed the privations 

 which the monks of Skelldale endured, could have pictured 

 to themselves the future greatness of their monastery. 

 Meanwhile, the garden flourished, and fields were added to 

 those which they began to cultivate, till at length, wrote one 

 of the secluses, " We have bread and cheese, butter and 

 ale, and in time we shall have beef and mutton." He 

 lamented that the soil was too poor for the growth of 

 vines ; but he added, " that the garden was well supplied 

 with pot-herbs." Of these he gave no particular descrip- 

 tion, but we may presume that they consisted of colewort 

 and onions, of peas and beans, of spinach, and radishes 

 with a vegetable called feret, most probably carrot, or 



