CROXDEN ABBEY. 121 



" To be, to have been, to be about to be are three vain 

 periods of existence. For everything perishes which has 

 been, which is, or which shall be. That which has been, 

 which is, and which shall be perishes in the space of a 

 short hour : therefore of little profit it is to be, to have 

 been, to be about to be." 



This monk's labours were carried on by another hand 

 w T hose list gives the following names, after that of William 

 de Gunston : Philip Ludlow, Roger Preston, John de 

 Brownefield, William Burton, Ralph Layland, John Walton, 

 and John Shipton, at first abbot of Hulton, elected at 

 Croxden in 1519. Thomas Chawner was the last abbot, 

 whose government terminated in 1539, when this house 

 was suppressed and became tenantless. 



To turn from the Chronicle to the remains of the build- 

 ings. I produce a plan enlarged from one published in the 

 Archa3ological Journal for 1863, on which is shown in black 

 the parts now remaining, and also the complete form of the 

 buildings as made out by my friend Mr. Gordon Hills, of 

 London. They follow the Cistercian arrangement, but 

 present several peculiarities ; the most striking is the ex- 

 treme simplicity of the windows, and of much of the 

 detail : the more elaborate parts have much of a foreign 

 aspect, due no doubt to the connection and dependence of 

 this Abbey on that of Alnet. 



The architecture of the remains is with little exception 

 of the 13th century, and there can be no doubt that in 

 what still exists of the church we see the work which was 

 consecrated under Walter de London in 1241 ; and in the 

 sacristy, chapter house, and two passages south of it, in the 

 common room of the monks which forms the substructure 



