SITUATION, SOIL, 



tiful spot was given away by the ruthless tyrant, Henry 

 the Eighth, to one of the basest and greediest of his 

 cormorant courtiers, SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAMS ; it 

 became afterwards, according to Grose, the property of 

 the family of ORBY HUNTER ; from that family it passed 

 into the hands of a SIR ROBERT RICH, much about fifty 

 years ago. The monastery had been founded by GIFFARD, 

 Bishop of Winchester, who brought to inhabit it the 

 first community of Cistercian monks that were settled in 

 England. He endowed the convent at his own expense j 

 gave it the manor and estate, and gave it also the great 

 tythes of the parish of Farnham, in which it lies. A 

 lofty sand-hill sheltered it to the north ; others, in the 

 form of a crescent sheltered it to the east. It was well 

 sheltered to the west j open only to the south, and a 

 little to the south-west. A valley let in the river Wey at 

 one end of this secluded spot, and let it out at the other 

 end. Close under the high hill on the north side, a good 

 mansion-house had been built by the proprietors who 

 succeeded the monks ; and these proprietors, though they 

 had embellished the place with serpentine walks and 

 shrubberies, had had the good taste to leave the ancient 

 gardens, the grange, and as much of the old walls of the 

 convent as was standing ; and, upon the whole, it was 

 one of the most beautiful and interesting spots in the 

 world. SIR ROBERT RICH tore every thing to atoms, 

 except the remaining walls of the convent itself. He 

 even removed the high hill at the back of the valley j 

 actually carried it away in carts and wheel-barrows ; 

 built up a new-fashioned mansion-house with grey bricks, 

 made the place look as bare as possible ; and, in defiance 



