126 CROXDEN ABBEY. 



infirm of the house, was about in the place indicated on 

 the plan. Nothing now remains of this. 



We have now traced the monks and their doings through 

 many years, but before we leave them allow me one 

 reflection. These men builded a house of God, and this 

 without bazaar or tea meetings. They cultivated their 

 land in quiet industry, grateful to their founder, patrons, 

 and benefactors, and above all, were ever mindful of Him 

 who blessed their toil and prayers (as this Chronicle of 

 the aged monk clearly indicates), and yet their house was 

 destroyed, their lands confiscated, and their church dese- 

 crated, and now a common highway passes through the 

 temple they reared for the worship of God, and beasts 

 tread the site of their very altars. No doubt by Act of 

 Parliament ! Yet whilst all this may be right in law, 

 and our faith, as it may seem to us, purer than theirs, 

 let us ever remember them as doers in what they 

 believed, and, of our charity, so far, think well of them. 



