THE TOWN CELLARS AT POOLE. I I 



such before the date (1534) of the Valor Ecclesiaslicus of 

 Hcnr)' VIIL At one time the present writer thought that 

 perhaps the old building might have been used as a hall for the 

 Guild of St. George, which held some property in Poole, but this 

 property Avas taken by Edward VI. and afterwards bought for the 

 Corporation ; and there is no mention of the Woolhouse as part 

 of the properties conveyed, nor was the Woolhouse ever in the 

 possession of the Corporation as freehold, which it would have 

 been had it formed part of the property of the Guild. The idea 

 of a monastery here certainly arose at one time from a misunder- 

 standing of the transfer of the Guild property, as may be seen 

 from Abbot Gasquet's note in the list of monasteries at the end 

 of Volume I. of his Henry VIIl. and the English Monasleries. 

 The entr}' runs thus : — 



Poole. "A friar)%" No friary : the grant 3rd Edward VI. 

 seems to have been of gild-property. 



There can hardly be a greater authority than Abbot Gasquet on 

 such a matter. 



It is of importance, too, to see what Leland has to say. 



Leland, first and last King's antiquary, travelled through 

 England by the royal instructions with special reference to all 

 antiquities relating to the monasteries and their relics, and in the 

 course of his tour he came to Poole. He noted what antiquities 

 there were — the town wall and so on — gave such account as he 

 could obtain of the town, noted " a fair town-house of stone on 

 the Kay," but has no whisper of any monastery. Would there 

 not have been something at least of tradition to lead him to 

 examine a building so noteworthy had it really been monastic ? 

 Leland's silence is almost conclusive to the present writer. The 

 paper referred to, however, tries to evade the difficulty by 

 supposing a monastery, founded by the Countess Ela, mother of 

 the famous Longsword the Second, who granted Poole its charter. 

 The writer suggests that she gave up her position of Abbess of 

 Lacock Abbey, which she had founded, and retired to Poole. 



