SIGN 



were sixty Sisters, and twenty-five professed Brothers ; thirteen 

 of whom were priests. 



The monks and nuns lived entirely apart, but the chapels were 

 under one roof, with twin choirs, and were connected by a grille 

 in which was a gate allowing of the entrance and departure of the 

 priests >who said Mass in the chapel of the Sisters, and who carried 

 on the order of divine service almost unceasingly, so that the 

 sound of prayer and praise arising from the choirs, was rarely, if 

 ever, silent. 



Henry V. presented to the Community the whole of his manor 

 of Isle worth, and Henry VI. still further enriched it by valuable 

 gifts of lands lying in many English counties. Its members, 

 finding themselves cramped for room in the original buildings at 

 Twickenham, soon after obtained leave of the King to remove. 

 They chose a beautiful situation on the Middlesex bank of the 

 xiver on the exact site of the present Sion House. 



For a century and a quarter the monastery prospered exceed- 

 ingly ; and we are told that the nunnery " abode at the head of 

 all the Convents for women in England, in learning, riches and 

 piety." It had been by the advice of Chicherley, Archbishop of 

 Canterbury, builder of the so-called " Lollard Tower " at Lambeth, 

 that the Victor of Agincourt founded it ; and it seems always to 

 have had some connection with All Souls College, Oxford, of 

 which Chicherley himself was founder, and which he had dedicated 

 to the memory of the Lancastrian Princes who had fallen in the 

 war with France. 



In 1539, under Henry VIII., the "Daughters of Sion," as they 

 were called, were turned out of their peaceful river-side home, 

 and cast adrift on the world. The convent and estates reverted 

 to the King, and the nuns then began a weary quest for another 

 home in foreign lands. 



The story of the wanderings of these unfortunate ladies, all, 

 it would appear, of gentle birth, is touching. Like the dove of 

 the ark they could find no rest for the soles of their feet either in 

 the Low Countries, or in France, and they finally settled at Lisbon, 

 where, in the seventeenth century, their nunnery was destroyed 

 by fire. By the aid of the charitable, however, they ultimately 

 rebuilt it, but the new building was again destroyed in 1755, this 

 time by the great earthquake of Lisbon. Once more it was rebuilt ; 



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