i*74-75] IX 9 



Comber, founded in 1199 by an Anglo-Norman family, the 

 "Whites. Also in 



Down (or Downpatrick) was founded one of the two Cistercian 

 nunneries of Ireland, but all information as to its site, date of foun- 

 dation, name of founder, or its ultimate fate, is lost to us. 



Of the Cistercian abbeys of Newry and Comber we have little to 

 say, as they have been completely swept away ; and there are no 

 architectural remains, unless the font belonging to Newry Abbey, 

 mentioned by the Rev. Dr. Reeves, is still in existence. We there- 

 fore have only to treat of Inch Abbey and Grey Abbey, both of 

 which are characteristic specimens of early English architecture at 

 the period when it had worked out its transition in the mother 

 country from the Anglo-Romanesque. Fortunately for our re- 

 searches, we have sufficient of these two abbeys left to illustrate the 

 subject, which is rendered the more particularly interesting from the 

 fact that we have the means (though scanty), without travelling fur- 

 ther than Downpatrick Abbey, of identifying the puritanical indi- 

 viduality (architecturally speaking) of this monastic order, as com- 

 pared with the more lavish splendour of detail which characterised 

 the buildings of therelaxed Benedictine order, of which the Cistercian 

 was the reformed offshoot. 



Before undertaking the investigation of the Cistercian abbeys of 

 Down, I will direct your attention to the model of a monastery be- 

 longing to this order, prepared and published by Mr. E. Sharpe, 

 M.A., of Lancaster, who has made Cistercian architecture his pe- 

 culiar study, and who has, happily for us, enthusiastically focussed 

 his vast researches and profound knowledge on this branch of 

 archaeological enquiry. In his model plan you will see how the 

 conventual buildings all group around the cloister quadrangle. Now 

 glance from that plan to this of Grey Abbey, or the less complete 

 plan of Inch, and you will perceive a striking coincidence. If we 

 search every one of the sixteen Irish Cistercian abbeys whose re- 

 mains we yet have (some of the plans of which you have on the 

 wall), we will find in no case any extensive departure from the 

 general grouping of this model plan, — except such as more recent 



